out of sight

Expect a lot of pointing fingers at the Japanese over the next few months for their fishing practises as exposed in the “The Cove”. Here’s a three second synopsis: “The Cove” is a documentary film documenting the annual killing of more than 2,500 dolphins in a cove at Taiji, Wakayama in Japan.” And here, to my mind anyway, is a decent critique of the film from IMDb:

In the end, the filmmakers undermines their own credibility and the validity of any point of view they might hold. I watched this movie with an open mind as I do everything. They have really blown it with this stinker. They have shown how a bias movie should be made. That is about all this show is worth. A lesson in untruths and treason. They have belittled the Fishermen of Japan so they can spill this form of trash movie that Micheal Moore so frequently makes. They are endowed with these tasks by brave harpoonists that fight to keep a meal on the table… Thank you Mr. Film-maker for the comedy clown show you made in this film!!!!! Nevertheless, all that has not stopped them from getting rich on an amusingly bundled package of half-truths and some outright lies.

Right so if you don’t like what appears to be a string of sausages being ripped out from your insides, then look away because this is “Grotesque.” No really it is. That’s the name of the film. It’s just been banned in the UK. The censor said: “The chief pleasure on offer seems to be in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake.” Well, here’s the trailer.

golf, rugby or roller sports

On Thurday the chiefs at the International Olympic Committee will decide which two sports will be added to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The money is on golf (super yawn) and rugby (ambivalent) to make the cut. The other sports tabled are: karate, squash, baseball, roller sports and softball. Still no love for Irish dancing.

The venue for the 2016 games will be announced on October 2 and awarded to either Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid or Rio de Janiero. Seeing as I’ll probably be east by far-east I hope Tokyo gets it.

Paddy field art from Japan, although I don’r really remember people calling them paddy fields in Japan. Hokusai’s great wave is my favourite. More over at the Telegraph.co.uk

Bores, Japan and conversation

Stellar advice if you find yourself running out of things to say round white people. From “Stuff White People Like”.

If you find yourself in an awkward silence with white people, just mention how you want to go to Japan. They will immediately begin talking about how their trip to Japan, or their favorite stuff from Japan, but it will be entirely about them. This is useful as you no longer have to talk, and they will like you for letting them talk about themselves.

But like with anime, you have to be careful about how much you like Japan. If you know how to speak Japanese, you kind of ruin it for everyone else.

Knives aren’t just for killing people. They’re also for cutting up cucumbers.

Run, robot, run. Toyota’s running humanoid proves it can run, like a girl. [thanks, Anthony]

Definitely one of the funniest interviews I have seen in a while. Unlike Kana Matsuda, a Japanese high school student, I am not a fan of Harry Potter. Matsuda won a competition to come and visit the movie set and interview some of the stars. Her reaction and subsequent actions upon meeting Rupert Grint are hilarious.

I have always dreamed of being a foreign corespondent. Off somewhere exotic informing the masses somewhere else of the goings on about you while eating foreign food. The food part is the real draw. To be honest though the role of a foreign corespondent is hardly different than any other type of journalism, especially when you see examples like this from the BBC.

A few weeks ago CNN ran a video about how love hotels in Japan were booming despite the recession. I watched it, nothing special. Then today the BBC’s correspondent in Tokyo files a story about how love hotels in Japan are booming. Coincidence, hardly. More like lazy. What’s more the BBC interviewed the same love hotel owner who a few weeks ago featured in the CNN report. This in a country with 25,000 love hotels.

If the BBC correspondent was looking for a new angle, which he sould have been, he should have taken us inside one of the love hotels and given a first hand account. Okay, that’s hardly likely to happen, but rehashing an entire CNN article? Boring.

Photo: Kimie Shima on Flickr

Japanese journalist and photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki is back in London with a joint show at the Wapping Project. I’ve been reading up about his last exhibition in London on “happy victims” - Japanese people hooked on designer labels and the excesses they would go to fill their apartments with expenisve clothes. The quote below is from an interview in Theme Magazine in which he draws a comparision between collecting books and deisgner clothing.

“I don’t want to say it’s stupid, but imagine it: A very small room, the person doesn’t have a lot of money but they spend all their money on books, and they fill their small room with books, you wouldn’t say they’re stupid. Right? But a small room filled with Comme des Garçons, looks really stupid, no? That is our prejudice—that the person who spends all their money on books looks better than the person with Comme des Garçons. There’s a hierarchy: Books have the highest position, then records, and fashion is kind of on the bottom. But it’s all the same. It’s how your passion flows”

Tsuzuki’s most famous book is called Tokyo Style and I would be happy for anyone to get it for me.

I’m a mad fan of trains having first developed a crush on them through my friend Thomas (the tank engine) and then on trips to Dublin out of Kent Station, a beautiful curving Victorian train station. The first few kilometres heading north out of Cork are through one long tunnel and it feels like you are entering another world, only accessible by train travel.

Anyway I am digressing, this video demonstrates maglev - magnetic levitation - a technology which is being tinkered with in Japan. When/if maglev happens on a grand scale, travel times will decrease gigantically as trains ‘float’ along at mad speeds. It’s worth looking at until the end where the video demos other applications for maglev travel.

Haven’t had a video from Japan on OoS, oh, in maybe two weeks. This one is from Lotte and features the incredibley catchy jingle that goes something like: “Nan-an-nan-an, hya, hya, hya.” And a human dog.

I came across the crying baby sumo competition on some BBC programme recently. Seeing as my Japanese class was cancelled tonight, I’ll talk you through this.

As you can see, two screaming babies are lined up opposite each other. They’re not meant to be crying yet. The job of the referee is to scare the shit out of the little warriors and the first to cry, or cry loudest, wins. Legend has it that the event brings good health to the little brats. More pictures from Japan Probe here.

The moon in HD. Footage recorded by Japan’s Kaguya probe. It’s due to hit the sufarce of the moon tomorrow and break up. [via Kottke]

As part of my ongoing process to turn Japanese, which includes growing smaller - kidding - I cooked up a Japanese curry (pictured above) yesterday evening while William was meeting potential Out of Sight investors on the Mediterranean. Sabine, one of the finest jam makers in all of Islington, sampled some. Her one word deliberation; “Great.”

I’m available to give talks on what goes into making a Japanese Japanese curry. Contact my publishers.