America Oudan Ultra Quiz, Super Famicom.
Well, crap. Now I’m sad the Statue of Liberty wasn’t actually designed by Akira Toriyama.
No spoilers, but anyone who is able to play Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 3 on 3DS (minimal Japanese needed) will be in for a treat when you reach the America-proxy, “Gun Valley”
(the whole game is a treat, of course. SQUEENIX Y U NO LOCALIZE?)
Source: vgjunk
Shakey’s Pizza! It’s not that great, but it’s all-you-can-eat, which makes it awesome. Being a buffet, I thought it was a curious choice for a numbers-driven program like Otameshika which covers the most popular items on a restaurant’s menu. Apparently these are the most popular pizzas eaten at Shakey’s buffets, measured by the “number of people served in one month” which was not fully explained. For items lower than 10th place, no numbers were given.
All items are pizzas unless noted with an asterisk*
1. Pepperoni 61,000 servings in one month
2. Fried Potatoes* (Sliced, not like French Fries) 40,000
3. Chocolate Banana 31,000
4. Corn 30,000
5. Roast Chicken & Pineapple 29,000
6. Double Cheese 28,000
7. Salami 26,000
8. Shrimp & Mayonnaise 25,500
9. Meatsauce Spaghetti* 25,000
10. Tuna & Onion 24,000
11. Shrimp
14. Mayonnaise & Corn
17. Tuna & Corn
18. Vegetable
19. Curry*
20. Squid, Tuna & Seaweed (Nori)
23. Mentaiko Spaghetti*
26. Custard & Pineapple
29 (out of 30!). Tomato & Fresh Basil
A few thoughts:
My school year is about to end. I’ll be teaching again in a few weeks at these same schools without too many changes, but one thing has me concerned: the Tiny School (not its real name).
Tiny School is in the running for smallest nationwide. Starting in April, the entire student body will be just four kids: two 5th-graders, one 4th-grader, and one brand-new 1st-grader. While this school has always been ridiculously small, this is the first year where teaching a student alone seems likely. The older pair have mandated weekly English lessons, but the younger kids have no set pattern. Typically, I teach grades 1-4 once a month.
Here are the options I see at Tiny School:
Two of these three options involve teaching entire English lessons to a single student. While I have done that before, it was only due to absences and I have no private lesson experience. The decision may or may not be left up to me, but if they do choose the one-on-one option they’re certainly not going to help me come up with lesson plans. Tiny School has been one of the worst at working with me on lessons; over the years I’ve just been expected to wing it.
How do you teach a foreign language to a single student, particularly in a system where communication is emphasized over reading and writing?
Wendy’s! Have I told you how good Wendy’s is in Japan? They charge an arm and a leg for it because they’re pushing a “premium” angle, but goddamn I ate there in September and it was delicious.
Tonight’s Otameshika stuck a group of celebs in a Wendy’s (I think it was the Omotesando restaurant) and had them eat food until they found the ten most popular items on the menu. Here’s the rank of every item they ordered:
1. Wendy’s Burger (aka The Single)
2. French Fries
3. French Fries w/ Chili & Cheese
4. Mushroom Melt
5. Wendy’s Chili
6. Mushroom Melt Chicken
7. The Chili Burger
8. Baconator
9. Spicy Chicken Filet
10. Avocado & Tartar Shrimp
11. Smart Burger (smaller patty)
12. French Fries w/ Bacon & Cheese
15. Teriyaki Wasabi Burger
17. Bacon Deluxe
19. Wendy’s Chili & Cheese
25. The Chili Iberico Bacon
29. Baked Potato w/ Chili Cheese
As always, take every Japanese TV program with a grain of salt because they have no obligation to tell the truth.
One of the perils of working in multiple schools is that no matter what may be written on the menu, I never truly know what will be served for lunch until I see it for myself. I have been in Baker’s place - promised curry but served something else - and I know his pain.
There was this one time, though, that I managed to eat curry at school twice in one week. That’s a special kind of joy few people get to experience.
Super Mario Kimono
And a Blooper scarf! Hiyoko-G has a neat round-up collecting snapshots of people in Japan wearing video game apparel.
BUY New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. U
Wearing a kimono is hella uncomfortable, but I wish I could wear this one.
Source: repisanintendo.cl
A Japanese tabloid caught Minegishi Minami, who is a member of the country’s most popular music group AKB48, leaving the house of a male pop group earlier in January. Today, Minami posted the above video to AKB48’s official YouTube channel in which she apologizes for what she’s done. She also reveals that she’s been demoted within the group and…to punish herself, she has shaved her head.
So this is blowing up on Japanese Twitter right now, as it should be because this is about as terrible as the Japanese music industry gets. For idols like Minami, dating is a humongous red flag as it supposedly ruins the fantasy element at play (many male fans form “connections” with specific members of these groups, so having said member dating/hanging out with other men kills that). Other AKB48 members have been fired for doing the same thing Minami did, but she is popular so she has been spared…though I think what she has had to do is way worse. Shaving your head and then delivering a teary-eyed apology on YouTube while still being demoted?
(Also, if you believe the “she did this on her own free will” line, you should understand nothing about a group like AKB48 operates in such a loose way. This appearing on their official YouTube channel indicates this is endorsed by the people running the show. I also am guessing they told her to shave her head - they’ve had other shamed members of the group do things like run in charity marathons to “redeem” themselves, so this seems like something they’d cook up).
Here’s the dark side of the Japanese-music industry…and to some degree Japan itself, a country ranked 101 in the Global Gender Gap rankings…where young women who want to become pop stars have to do ridiculous shit like this for the terrible crime of…acting like regular human beings. This is some Scarlet Letter type stuff, but sadly common in an entertainment industry that needs major changes.
Only somewhat redeeming thing coming out of this? People on Twitter seem shocked by this, which means AKB48’s management will notice and (maybe? please?) think about not doing stunts like this anymore. If nothing else, they’ll probably remove the video.
EDIT: To get a sense of how fans are reacting to this…including people who really believe she chose to do this…click here. A lot of comments on it now.
Reblogging this because it’s true, and to remind myself to write a few thoughts about this issue later.
(via devilrei)
Source: mbmelodies
This flagged my attention.
This also works for Bangladesh (if you swap white for green)
Source: georgetakei
For years, Super Drama TV has aired Star Trek reruns in Japan. It’s been a real godsend for me, as most of the time the episodes aired at 6PM - prime dinner viewing. For a time there were two Trek episodes back-to-back, an embarrassment of televised riches for a nerd like me.
Super Drama recently finished airing Enterprise and, for the time being, has no Star Trek shows on the schedule. This made me sad, so I went searching through their website in the hopes of finding an indication of when Trek would return to the air. Imagine my surprise when I found a list of the supposed “best episodes” along with other rankings chosen by fans.
Long story short: Japanese fans love pilots and finales NO MATTER WHAT.
