AltJapan

Showa-Era Gag Gifts

I stumbled across this great Japanese site cataloging Japanese novelty toys from the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. Some favorites: 

-Who needs "Love Plus" when you've got the Nintendo "Love Tester"?

-The "Tomboy" Slinky knock-off that suggests using it as a cigarette holder.

-Mini Robot... IT WALKS LIKE A HUMANBEING

-Nude Spider, which spews forth a naked woman when squeezed.

The same site also includes an exhaustive list of plastic kaiju, yokai and ninja tchotchkes (I can't believe I spelled that right on the first try) sold at candy stores back in the day.

The Sword and the Chrysanthemum and Apple Pie

What sorts of things are Japanese and American people interested in about each other, as people and as nations? The bestselling books in Amazon.co.jp's America category and Amazon.com's Japanese History category (the closest equivalent) might shed a little light on the subject. Let's take a look at the current top ranked books in each country, as of today.

Amazon.co.jp's top-selling books in the "America" category (11/29/2010)

1. Special Report: Poverty Nation America

2. Wow! I Never Knew That About America

3. Special Report: Poverty Nation America 2

4. Special Report: The Paradox of American Democracy

5. Half of Americans Can't Place New York on a Map

6. Special Report: Poverty Nation America (Manga Version)

7. American Urban Theory

8. America's Disappearing Freedoms

9. Captain America's Dead: The American Dream and Nightmare

10. Why Are Americans So Fat?

So the Japanese are reading about economic, education, liberty, and health problems facing Americans today. Fair enough. Now, what are Americans studying about Japan?

Amazon.com's top-selling books in the "Japanese History" category (11/29/2010)

1. Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan

2. Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan

3. Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan (Kindle version)

4. The Book of Five Rings

5. Katana: The Samurai Sword 950-1877

6. The Rape of Nanking: Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

7. Ninja Attack! True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws (woot!)

8. One Square Mile of Hell: The Battle for Tarawa

9. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

10. Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan

So what do we have? Rampaging Imperial Japanese soldiers, yakuza, samurai, swords, and ninja. Nothing about topics or issues facing Japanese for, oh, the last sixty-five years or so, let alone US-Japan relations. Admittedly this is the history category, but it seems to be the closest to a catch-all for books about Japanese culture on Amazon. So much for that whole "Japan Cool" campaign, huh?

Smokin' Clean

Aruki tabako

Yokunai ne!

SELFISH!

----

Walking while smoking

Is bad, you know!

SELFISH!

(Spotted in Yutenji) 

Mmm... Moé?

It really is true what they say. In Japan, manga are everywhere -- even your "hamburg." Meet Creamy Demi... as in demi-glace. Any relation to that proto-moé paragon Creamy Mami is purely coincidental, of course. Spotted (where else?) in Kichijoji.

I.N.K.ling

So I wussed out on my threat/promise to take a swim in Zushi's chilly waters yesterday. But with things like this inhabiting the nearby storm drains, can you really blame me?

Anime Today

Right Stuf's Anime Today podcast put together a really nice interview with Hiroko and I about "Ninja Attack! True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws." Check it out on their website!

Ninja vs Ninja

The good news: San Francisco's New People Center (the same fine folks who brought you the Yokai 101 lecture last year) are sponsoring a Ninja Attack night on this Saturday, the 20th. Hosted by Patrick Macias, you'll thrill to clips and commentary about fictional ninja from classics like Shinobi no Mono, Red Mask, Shogun Assassin, Dagger of Kamui, and Alien vs. Ninja.

The bad news: I won't be attending, though I'll be there in "ninja spirit." Turn on, tune in, and sign up for tickets either on the Viz website or at the door! And it goes without saying that copies of Ninja Attack will be on sale, too. 

This is Tokyo

Shibuya, 3:15pm. I am standing at the center of a three-way crossing in front of OI CITY. On one corner, a pop 'n lockin' exhibition is playing out to thumping bass. On the adjacent street approaches a right-wing protest march, Imperial Japanese flags hoisted, chanted pro-Emperor slogans playing a demented counterpoint to the hip-hop. And on the third street races in a convoy of three "Hoppy"-festooned semis.

This could be the battle of the century. This should be the battle of the century.

But then the Hoppy convoy breezes by, the Imperialists turn right towards the station, and the breakdancers dance on. 

Just another Friday afternoon in Shibuya.

Hell, Circa 1960

I stumbled across this poster during an otaku shopping spree with Patrick (do you know?) last month. It's a vintage, regional variation of the official poster for the 1960 Nobuo Nakagawa classic "Jigoku." Sadists can enjoy closeups of the various torments below. Welcome to hell! And don't worry, this isn't what it's really like down there anymore. They have cellphones and stuff now.

Love, Live, Alive

What does it say about the mental state of modern otaku that a book entitled The Manga Guide to Psychosomatic Illnesses" is climbing the bestseller lists? Created in association with a Tokyo mental clinic, the description reads, "laugh as you learn about all sorts of psychosomatic issues, from depression and erectile dysfunction to hallucinations and pedophilia!"

Intriguingly, the latter chapter (which is available online), builds its case not on Japanese but rather on Western psychology, specifically the DSM IV diagnostic manual. And that case seems to be, "as long as she's over thirteen, it's okay!" It ends with an image of unjustly accused lolicon lovers being led off to re-education camps. Make of that what you will...