Recently, I’ve been exposed to Japanese children’s television subculture which up until a few months ago I paid no attention to. See, one of my best friends who lives 5 minutes from my house had a baby and I go visit them at least once a week to play with the kid and brainwash him to become a bad boy by whispering evil ideas into his ear when his mother is looking the other way. Well, it doesn’t seem to be working cause he’s absolutely a great kid. On the other hand, when I’m over there I’m constantly being bombarded with children’s tv shows for hours. As a result, I find myself humming some of these songs while I’m in the shower or on the train. I’ve even looked them up on youtube while at work!! Help me! One of them is Algorithm Taiso (Algorithm Exercise) which is a regular segment from NHK’s 15 minute children’s show Pitagora Switch (Pythagora Switch), a show mixing animation, contraptions and music to stimulate children’s minds. You might have seen this before doing the rounds on the Japan blogs. Two guys do the same exercise routine and every time they have different guests doing it with them. Policemen, firemen, construction workers, various people in society that are easily recognizable by children. The one above though is with the Sony QRIO robots. And they’re really good!!

Even better is with Tokyo Bus Guides. Can’t wait for the Akiba Maids one. I’m guessing there must be an adult version out there somewhere, you know, for the dads. ;-)

There’s also a different version which is the Algorithm March. Here they are doing it with a bunch of Ninjas. For some reason I can’t stop watching this video. Japanese people grow up watching these kinds of complex dance routines, that’s why they’re good at the Haruhi Dance.

Many more versions on youtube.

If I had a daughter I might be tempted to spoil her by bringing her to the Hello Kitty Studio WONDER beauty salon in Lalaport Yokohama. As you can see the salon is completely pink and decorated with Hello Kitty stuff. Even the chairs are shaped like Kitty-chan. Kids can watch anime while they get their hair cut and blow dried. I took this pictures very quickly because I didn’t want to be mistaken for a pedophile.

1) Out in front there’s a grossly human looking Kitty 2) And as you can see the prices are not cheap. ¥26,050 for the works including straightening natural perm! If you can’t make it out to Lalaport there’s another one in the Yokohama Sogo Department store.

After seeing my post about Dr. Zaius (or should I say the Lawmaker) a regular reader of this blog was quick to send me these photos of Caesar, another character from the Planet of the Apes series. Thanks Erik! Caesar was spotted in front of a restaurant close to Takadanobaba station. I’ll have to go look for it next time I’m in the area. Now I’m thinking there must be a set of these statues, if anyone spots other characters please send photos. Caesar was the talking ape son of Cornelius and Zira after they traveled back in time to earth in 1973. Caesar lead the revolution against the humans in the fourth movie and became the leader of Ape city in the fifth.

This afternoon I dropped by Soshigaya-Okura, otherwise known as Ultraman Town, to shake hands with the man himself. Since the last time I was in the Ultraman Shopping Street there seems to be more Ultraman stuff. Now they play the Ultraman theme on the train platform. It’s the only station on the Odakyu line that plays a platform theme song. JR Stations have different tunes at each station but the private train lines don’t usually have them. These large posters were all over the station welcoming people to the area.

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Everyone knows that Darth Vader’s helmet design was inspired by the Samurai’s Kabuto (helmet). Now you can buy the Darth Vader variation of the samurai armour and helmet from Yoshitoku. On boy’s day (May 5) some families will display the kabuto in their homes in the same way as displaying the hinaningyo on girl’s day. Personally, I think it looks like a dead monkey skull but I supposed some die hard Star Wars fans will want one. Unfortunately, it is only sold in Japan. They will be taking orders from 10am Friday March 16th, the webpage doesn’t say how much it costs (please don’t send me a mail asking me to buy you one) You can see it on display at the Toy Show this coming sunday, March 18th.

Can you believe they’re going to keep us in suspense for 12 weeks until the next episode of LOST airs on Feb.7? What the heck do they expect us to watch until then?

I ordered the region 2 Lost Season One DVD Box Set even though I already got all of them on file. Season One just came out on DVD here. As usual, Japan’s a year behind the rest of the world. They’re showing season one on one of the BS channels in Hi Definition which is still better than the quality on DVD. I guess that’s because DVD is just 480 compared to 1080 on HDTV. Not really sure. Some friends who haven’t seen the show are coming over this obon weekend and we’ll be watching it while drinking lemonade. It’ll be my LOST Weekend ;-)

In other news, the master cleanse is going well and I’m feeling pretty good after a brutal morning, today day #2. I will post the entire experience once I finish in case you’re wondering.

Well, just finished watching Fast and Furious 3 Tokyo Drift and the conclusion is that it ain’t as bad as I thought it would be although it’s still bad. It’s full of the cliches you’d expect in the gaijin in Japan genre and the story completely sucks. None of the people in the film are people you would ever actually see in Japan (I’m refering to all the asian bimbos dressed like madonna) and you have to suspend belief that these high school kids can buy super expensive cars AND own their own underground garages that can store 20 cars AND has a night club filled with models AND capsule hotels AND in the middle of Shinjuku!! Very dumb indeed. They got all the cars wrong too. Most drift cars in Japan aren’t as flashy as the ones in this film.

But they did a pretty good job of capturing the atmosphere of Tokyo streets. There are small attentions to details like everyone uses REAL Japanese cell phones and most of the non car chase locations are filmed in REAL places in Tokyo. Good editing of scenes filmed in LA with CG on streets in Shibuya and Shinjuku make it seem like they are really doing this in Tokyo. And the driving seems more realistic than in the previous 2 films except for the scene where (SPOILER) he does a drift thru Hachiko crossing in Shibuya thru a crowd of people. Silly.

At the former Yurakucho Sofmap turned Bic 別館. They had a space invaders game and a display of all the nostalgic famicons. The store was packed with people half of which were Bic store clerks yelling thru megaphones and creating a hell of a noise.

The nostalgic video games display. All mint condition.

The trailer for the 3rd Fast and Furious Movie: Tokyo Drift was released a few days ago. Watch it and tell me if you can spot one asian that looks or dresses remotely like any Japanese you have ever seen. I watched the trailer a couple times now and I could not spot one. It’s as if they imported all these asian chicks from other places and dressed them up like madonna sluts cuz that how Japanese girls are supposed to be like in the eyes of hollywood. And the guys look totally Chinese, although I think in the story one of them is supposed to be. Whatever. Besides the obvious establishing shots of Shinjuku and Shibuya and what looks like the Toyoko line platform in Shibuya station, I couldn’t recognize any of the other places. They probably filmed the racing scenes in some other remote city in Saitama or wherever. According to Wikipedia, some scenes were filmed in LA. The story is about, Surprise! An American guy coming to Japan and challenging the local drift king. Yes, they pay people to write stuff like this. I bet you there’ll be a line like “You are gaijin, which in Japanese means outsider” Oh boy if I hear that I’ll just have to kill myself.

Oh yeah, and there ain’t even a roadster in the film, pass!

Kitty themed Hato-bus was parked in front of Shinjuku Station. They let people go in for a tour. I didn’t go in so I have no idea how decked out the interior was with Kitty-chan stuff.

Two old dudes take a break with Ultraman. Spotted in Asakusa. I still mix up Asakusa and Akasaka. Oddly enough there’s the same Ultraman statue in Akasaka. I’ll go there and take a picture of it next week.