@#4 & #15

Exactly what I thought of too. Jesus. Or should I say, "Jesus wept"? I wonder seriously if Clive Barker saw these things and then thought up the Chatterer Cenobite. I wouldn't be surprised.

That said, I wanna dress up with one of these for Halloween. Talk about scaring children!

That dog in the ad is the Softbank "Dad" dog. Softbank is one of the big 3 mobile carriers here, they used to be called Vodaphone.

The dog is part of an ongoing sketch, where he TALKS, and is the father of a family of a Japanese middle-aged wife, a younger daughter, and a mid-30s african-american in a suit.

It's an odd plan to sell phones here.

You think this is bad? Meh. I see a connection, but..

A very popular show here (it's awesome, but I don't know the name, sorry!) where, basically, a bunch of random 1 liner celebrities play hide and go seek with money strapped to their heads. It involves traps, things like giant pitfalls and grown men dressed as kings. The idea is to stay hidden till time runs out and you win.

I almost recorded it this week at one point, because I couldn't believe what I saw. My camera was out of room so I couldn't.

It was a popular Japanese themed episode, "mujintou", or deserted island in English, with everyone hiding on one. One of the comedians was dressed as Obama, not with actual blackface, but the same heavy makeup you always see on Yamamba girls. He kept saying "Yes We Can!" while motioning to eat flies like a frog.

Here's the best part- guess where they hid him?

In a cave.

Out of 15 or so people, and the huge island, they picked only him to hide in a cave.

Then they kept making comments to the effect that "Oh, I'm sure someone's in here.... It's gotta be Obama- yes, this place is definitely where Obama would be". I just stood there with my mouth gaping. They hid the imaginary black man where? In a damn cave, and kept saying that he would be best suited to hiding there.

I wish I had the video to back it up, but I have to ask you to o on my word. Racism exists in Japan, but much like nannyism, nosiness, and safety here, it is always a very fine line crossed in doing so- it can be very subtle, so that no one thinks anything is wrong with it. That just keeps happening here.

Let me be the first to say how awesome I find this.

I imagined the legos as a sort of paralell world effect, melting into our world through cracks in the space time continum, or something. To see such fragmented color next to centuries old stone is a great effect!

Another thought was that buildings were actually made by legos, and plastered over with stone and brick facades to look respectable, now crumbling away. Either way, it's quite beautiful.

But just how did he/she fill the cracks? Did they use glue of some kind to hold them there? It didn't say.

Wow. How did this get past anyone in quality control?

The emo "guy"'s voice not only ruined that, it invokes a level of cheesiness, that, acting as a black hole, eviscerated anything cool about the game with infintite gravitational, whiney suckage. I mean, I wanted to immolate him after hearing him 3 times! Drop the cheezy catchlines!

Also, on the note of announcing, why is every commercial & movie pitched by the same monotone, boring, FBI thug-like voice actor? Does someone, somewhere actually think that makes something "edgy"?

I hate that smug voice. They use it for everything to the point where you don't even pay attention to what they are pitching anymore. If they really wanted your attention, they'd use the voice of someone who actually sounds like they'd play the game.

Oh, god, another Boing Boing post about Japan, and loads of offended people.

Ok, here's the deal (& forgive me if I sound a bit like an ass)- realize that the MAJORITY OF YOU have not been to Japan or are not in Japan now, living there, working there, like I am. I understand stuff like this upsets you. Sometimes I freak out at this shit too, and I GET IT!

An earlier comment about this is not real blackface is appropriate. ALSO- don't confuse GANGURO Japanese with blackface. That's the work of TANNING, not makeup. Even the super-tanned Yamamba chicks use tanning, and tan creams.

I hate PC language, but it just doesn't apply HERE, in this instance, to say racist. They don't have the daily context here that we do in America, living with people of all kinds. That's not an excuse, mind you, for when they ARE racist (and they are occasionally, with the NO FOREIGNERS signs, and constant hype of foreign crimes...)

ETHNOCENTRIC applies here. The Japanese don't have constant exposure to other races in daily life as much as western countries like the US and Brittain. They only have so much material to work with on their own, so that's where this stuff comes from. We amuse them because many of them don't deeply understand foreign cultures. Just like we don't understand why this is ok for them in Japan.

True racism exists here- see the post from a few days ago about the "burakumin". THAT IS RACISM. An entirely different kind than you will see in the west, and worse.

PEOPLE, get a damn grip on yourselves, stop seeing the world through rose-colored witch-hunting, PC lenses, realize that cultural differences inspire people to act in ways strange to the original culture, and CALM THE HELL DOWN. I swear, too many people on BB seem to just look for reasons to jump on Japan. Sometimes I THINK THAT'S RACISM. Read about Japan. Study someone other than yourselves, and you'll get it eventually, OK?

This kind of impersonation is normal on TV. It is harmless.

Simonetta,

The leather thing speach... interesting idea, that might actually work! Those sambo dolls are around, usually on old nostalgic signs and whatnot.

I can't say for sure though, that the Japanese do such things ON PURPOSE. Most of it is... really close. Sometimes I wonder- ala the classic Tokyo Breakfast sketch "Good morning, my n*gga!". Surely, using the black delivery man at the end meant SOMEONE understood exactly what they were doing, but I often wonder if the people who watch the show or acted in it got what was going on.

Peterson would be the man to listen to on this. The Burakumin have been around nearly as long as Buddhism has been in Japan (a long time), and it was really Buddhist views on the value of life, combined with strong Shinto views on the impurity factor of death/working with dead items, spreading death, as it were, a "pollutant", through such trades that really created the Burakumin, unfortunately. It's quite like the "Pariah" caste of India in that same regard, dealing with corpse removal.

You will NOT EVER hear this word spoken by ANYONE in public in Japan, not even cultural historians- and if you chance to utter it, it can be like a terrible swear word depending on the company- you are likely to alienate others from you, or kill any good atmosphere by mentioning the word "Burakumin". I know there are some people that want to do just that, but I've posted the warning for a damn good reason- don't ask people casually about this. It's still much more taboo than even irezumi (hand tattooing), unfortunately.

It is sad that this discrimation still exists, but it has its roots in an old caste system, and religion in Japan really created it. I have friends that are gravediggers here, which must mean that they're in that class, but I don't dare ask. There's really no western equivalent for such an insult, even being "black" in the US to some people doesn't quite come close.

Racism is wrong in all forms. I think this will die though with the new generations of Japanese.

Ok, that's it. I understand all the benefits of E-ink displays, and I love the idea that you can cut the power and it holds the image indefinitely, like real paper. I like that you can actually read it in daylight, like real paper.

HERE IS WHAT I DON'T LIKE, nor understand- why, why, why are e-ink readers always TINY? Is this shit worth it's weight in tellurium-doped platinum or something?
You pay 300$+ for a tiny little display.

Am I missing something here? Is there an A4 sized e-book reader? Even the highly touted Kindle has a screen only 3.6"x4.8" big. Is e-ink so expensive/rare/labor-intensive to make that every reader has to have such a damn small screen??? Or is it people WANT a small size factor?

I read lots of books. Most of those are speciallized industry/technical books, or old books with lots of illustrations. Especially books on watchmaking, with highly detailed, size scaled parts diagrams. I NEED SOMETHING to read them at normal size just to understand parts labels. Why can't someone make an e-reader for those of us who want to read these kinds of B&W books at full size?

At #11, that's it exactly, well, at least in the news. Ask anyone on the street in Osaka if there are Yakuza in Osaka and they will tell you they are everywhere. It's only the national faces of Japan, like the news and the NHK, that tip-toe around using words like Yakuza and such.

At #1, I understand Japan is still quite mysterious to many in the world, but, seriously? You've never heard of Japanese Yakuza before? I thought everyone knew those guys. They've always been around, in different forms, over the centuries. Finger cutting ceremonies, sunglasses, the out of date slicked hair and pompadors..

Of COURSE Japan has crime! If anything, it has a lot more than we know of, simply because the clean, safe facade everyone loves to throw around when talking about Japan is used ad nauseum. Drugs are everywhere in major cities if you go to the right clubs, or make friends with the right people. Discrete hookers are so common even middle school girls are pimping out their peers, in some recent extreme cases. Corporate theft above 100,000$ dollars somewhere is a DAILY news staple. For christ sake, my BICYCLE was even stolen. Crime is everywhere here, mostly regarding embezzlement and other easily hidden crimes.

As long as you are content to read the FOREIGN news (who often take the view Japan is so much safer, thus equated crime free), you will never get most of the stories here. The mainichi newspaper waiwai section online is a good start though.

The only thing "safer" about Japan is that as a man, you are much less likely to be involved in direct violent crime/robbery. That's it. There's plenty of folk dissapearing behind the scenes thanks to these VERY REAL Yakuza. You just need to piss them off ENOUGH. This guy is probably not bullshitting his story.

Ok, this is long, but I gotta set shit straight on
this ZOMG! JAPANESE HATE FOREIGNERS! shit, once and for all. I see a lot of strange shit on Japan on BB enough that this article, the 2nd time it's run on the Debito site, to register and comment.

Fact is- these signs are very rare. I have lived in Sapporo, Hokkaido now for over 7 months, and have never seen one. I have traveled all over Japan, and I have seen many signs with directions for foreigners in various languages, about all kinds of strange things, but never an outright "no foreigners" sign, or anything that could be construed as such.

I speak and read Japanese, and I work here, so I'd know right fairly quick if these were around. Sapporo is actually a great city for foreigners, there's plenty of bars that CATER to them here! Hell, I myself have partied in clubs most Japanese can't find, BECAUSE I am a foreigner, with incredible Japanese friends.

It really is the lone assholes that come here to drink and pick up call girls, while not even trying to use Japanese, or ALWAYS DEMANDING an English menu, etc., that ruin it for the rest of us. Nice, and even plain dumb foreigners are treated fairly well here.

Several people have commented on the recent events here- yes, recently, there have been schoolgirls raped down in Okinawa, and the shit has hit the fan there for Americans, and spread to all over Japan. People just last night in Tokyo were commenting on the news about that, saying they were concerned about the foreign presence there, and want the bases closed. I can't say I blame them.

The other BIG thing is a mentally ill guy from America has brutally stabbed to death a cab driver down there too, the news here says he claimed to be "hearing voices, telling him anyone would do, he just had to stab someone". This has GREATLY exascerbated matters.

Honestly, with the Japanese, it's tattoos. There is a long social and religious history shunning them here, despite once rich tattooing tradtion, because of the recent Yakuza influence. I HAVE seen a sign before banning anyone with tattoos from entering a major onsen (hot spring) resort in Hakone, an awesome place called Yunesun, with coffee, wine, and sake baths.

Visible tattoos can keep you out of the more popular, public bathing spots. That's about it.
That was, of course, written in English, as well as Japanese, if I remember correctly, as a warning to foreign guests. You could still wear a bathing shirt inside the resort to hide them if you had them though. It was more of a courtesy.
I did know a girl once, an American, who had her Japanese gym membership revoked for having a visible tattoo down near Kobe, and that was quite a shock, but EXPECTED. I also know you can get away with tattoos the more remote the place you go- they need the business! Ask American tattoo artists studying in Osaka, down in Shinsaibashi's America Mura (huge counterculture spot) for a good idea of what you can get away with. Specifically one famous place, Chopstick Tattoo.

Xenophobia, racism, call it what you will, yes, it exists here, but not how you imagine. I am sure there are some remote places still left up here in Hokkaido that still have "no foreigners" signs, but I haven't seen them yet. You will sense Xenophobia more in general comments about you here, like people are utterly surprised you can do simple things any Japanese can that they don't expect you to, like use chopsticks well, carry business cards, know polite language, speak at ALL for that matter, and know, basically, anything of detail about social or religious customs.

It will come across as such blatent shock so often so as to seem xenophobic framed as condiscendingly suprised towards your ability, if anything. You get used to it. You learn to make it your secret weapon for conversation. You become a small god when you start speaking good Japanese, and even more when you can drop some classical Japanese into your speech. Friends will find YOU!

REMEMBER- Japan has nationalistic biases just like anywhere else, if not less. Can you name any country in the world that has all road signs in English besides the national language?? I don't know any. The fingerprinting scheme is a fucking joke though. Thank some dude in the government for that shit, on the advice of his terrorist friend!

Most Japanese would like you without knowing you, and would just be secretly wondering where you are from and if you are indeed another English teacher here! OVERWHELMINGLY, MOST JAPANESE love foreign culture, and meeting foreigners who show interest in them.

LAST- Debito's site needs updated, most of those signs have been removed or fixed amid the uproar, I believe. His site WORKS for what it is- an information source. He merely shows what was there. In fact, he openly promotes the other side, where they welcome foreigners! I might meet him someday here in Sapporo, but I can't say whether he is one of those creepy folk who genuinely WISHES he could BECOME Japanese, down to the DNA. His site is like a public service announcement, and a social wake up call. THAT IS ALL.

-C.