If you follow any other Japan related blogs I’m sure you’ve heard that Billy Blanks was in Japan to promote his exercise DVD set Billy’s Bootcamp. They’ve been around on ShopJapan for quite a while but the phenomena has reached the proverbial tipping point and become a full blown craze. Perfect timing for his arrival. This week, I’ve overheard four different conversations about Billy’s Bootcamp in the office and several more while passing people in the street. Tonight, while I walked 300 metres from the convenience store to my house, I heard the DVDs being played from the windows of a couple homes. I’m not exaggerating! Absolutely insane. This means that I’ll just have to do get those DVDs and see for myself.
Another item that’s been popping up on them “Isn’t Japan wacky” RSS feeds last week was the Cucumber flavor Pepsi drink. Now, I’ve looked in practically every conbini in Tokyo for this drink and have not been able to find it. Does it actually exist? I’ve asked all my friends about it and no one has heard of it. This is another good example of how Japan related blogs tend to over exaggerate the popularity of something in Japan. There’s weird stuff in Japan, that’s true, but for the most part these things are relatively obscure and you have to go out of your way to find them.
Finally, only slightly Japan related is that Dramatic Look Prairie Dog clip on YouTube. It was originally from a Japanese variety show with Mini Morning Musume. I don’t regularly browse Youtube and only found out about it from Sean’s post. But he’s right, for some reason I can’t stop watching this video. And I wasted an hour the other day watching all the different versions of it. In particular, I like this one and this one and this Kill Bill Remix one and finally this utterly silly one.
Oh dude!! How can a simple expression on a face make me laugh that much, i can resist to watch it more than once. ^^
And about that Pepsi thing, yeah i’ve also seen a lot of pictures at blogs…so i was curious if that drink is the number one in Japan right now…but thanks to you i know it’s “only” kinda good marketing for pepsi…
I should be “CAN’T resist..” , i’m sorry for double post *ugahh*
Actually, the Cumcumber drink WAS a big hit, my students were all talking about and were pretty amazed when I brought it to class; but it was withdrawn nearly a week ago now. Presumably, it was just a week long trial run, thats why you cant find it anymore. I bought it a total of 3 times! It was actually pretty tasty, but nothing like Cucumber. More like a strange minty Melon.
I hope they decide to make it permanent, as Im sure the trial run was a success. As for good pepsi marketing, I can only speak for myself, but I thought it was Coca Cola that made it , not Pepsi, so so much for that ^_^
Oh, and billys bootcamp also rocks. I downloaded it after seeing the billions of commercials. Honestly, I cant get through 30 minutes of the first DVD, but Im sure Ill get better. It is a bootcamp after all ;)
It wasn’t half bad, to tell the truth. I wrote about it briefly a few weeks ago:
http://philsaninjapan.blogspot.com/2007/06/refreshing-in-face-wash-kinda-way.html
Curses Roy, I was about to do a post of the remixes:-p I probably will anyway.
Oh… I am giving thought to going to an early Transformers showing Monday night. Part of me hates myself for it, part of me feels “If you’re going to bitch about it, you should at least see it.”
I wonder if there’s any major differences between Bootcamp and the Tae-bo series?
Rick, in Billy’s bootcamp they all wear camoflage
Cucumber Pepsi is still available in your local 7/11 Roy. Like I said previously …..I believe we are neighbors. They still had it tonight in anycase
Really? Can you tell me which 7/11 and I’ll go there to check it out?
wow.. that prairie dog is absolutely amazing… can’t believe that it happened so spontaneously… absolute gold!
Japanese peoples need more exercises becuase their diet is more westernised and they are drinking so many soft drinks like cucumber pepsi.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/okinawa-crisis-more-obese-japanese-japanese-diet-under-threat/