Tigers and Cranes

what ho! you there, you with the pudgy face! you’re not going to go out with that face are you? now, you don’t have to! slip on this jason from friday the 13th-esque doodad on your corpulent mug, and lo! next runner up in miss universe!

not only useful in saunas and during your beauty rest, but doubles as a ski mask or instant bank-robber get up.

i believe the actual product is called “small face sauna mask”.

found at tech e blog

up to 70 percent of japanese polled would like to see “further punishment” for north korea. japan is mulling such actions as barring money transfers from japan to n.korea, on top of restrictions already in place such as banning chartered flgihts to and from north korea, as well as keeping the north korean ferry from docking in japanese harbors.

north korean ferry “man gyong bon”

After the missile tests in early July, the government banned the North Korean ship Man Gyong Bon from making port in Japan for a six-month period, and is planning to decide whether to take further measures, such as banning money transfers to the country, after carefully observing Pyongyang’s stance on the issue.

from mainichi daily

terrible news… yamamoto keiichi has been questioned in a rape case of a 17 yr old girl in hakodate, hokkaidou. i love this guy for his role as yama-sama on popular mecha mecha iketeru’s “buta no ran” skit in which he tries to make his court laugh, and if anyone dares, he has his little girls who follow along to slap them soundly. comedy does not get better than this. man, i hope he didn’t do it.

yamamoto keiichi

for those of you not familiar with buta no ran, here is a clip…

i’d get very depressed when surveying the landscape of american cell phone. in japan, 3G is becoming passe, and korea, well, i think in korea they have cell phones that make your oatmeals. what do people have in america?

yep, the ubiquitos razr, which according to many people suffer from broken hinges and keypads that get stuck, as well as the mysterious “incompatible battery error”.

or, millions of anonymous looking samsungs and LGs that sport, get this, a vga camera. come on, man.

look at some phones available in korea…

pretty snazzy, i think. let’s look at some of my favorite phones from japan…

sharp 903 sh

sharp 905 sh

luckily for americans, you can get some cell phones to work in america, but only if you subscribe to either t-mobile or cingular(or at&t, i heard), and that’s because they come with ever-so useful simcards. buy yourself an unlocked japanese phone, pop in your sim, choose your carrier from the menu, voila, you can tell motorola to go suck it.

howard forums is an excellent place to find out about these high end phones, and you can also unlock your phones as well as get some good advices from the forum. i urge you to check it out if you live in america and you are tired of razr, rokr, slvr, sukr, or what have you.

came across this fan(?) made doraemon comic. anyone who can read this strange moon language care to translate?

i knew there was something kind of suspicious about this that made me think it wasn’t the original author’s. i mean, nobita’s wearing shoes indoors? come on.

from le stalker

these are what’s called “freeline skates”. get on em like you would a skateboard, but the wheels can steer whichever direction.

i just don’t see how these can work, let alone be fun. but, i’m sure there are many more people who are much coordinated than i am that can do amzaing things with these.

this dude in the photo, on the other hand, i’m sure isn’t one of them.

from aving usa

summer is in full swing in japan, and to those who are embroiled in a “gift giving war”, the cube watermelons are being shipped.

they make sense… when you have to put them on top of your car’s roof while you load grocery, they stay put, and they certainly maximize your refrigerator space.

there is some static in korea right now about a singer named “ayumi”. she’s korean, and she used to belong to a poppy sugary group called, well, sugar. now she’s doing her solo thing, and there are many koreans who are unhappy with her becuase her name is blatantly japanese. and so is her song, which is a remake of koda kumi’s “cutie honey”. and her outfit(which they claim is too japanese… huh?) in this concert.

i mean, come on, she was raised and educated in japan… what do you expect? they say that her korean accent isn’t perfect… although i can’t say… my headphone is broken, and it’s in the shop.

holy smokes, that’s one ugly suv. what are you thinking ssang yong?

ssang yong “actyon”

this one is better, and i saw a metric buttload of them in seoul.

ssang yong “rexton 2″
from ssang yong

here is something i’ve wondered about a long time… why do so many koreans drive an suv? and conversely, why don’t the japanese? instead, they seem to be all about micro and minivans like the upcoming honda stream.

i rarely see an suv roaming the streets of japan. yet korea is filthy with them…

used to be that in korea your ass was yours, and no one elses. no longer. the constitutional courts have declared (i hate typing this) anal search to be constitutional.

“Narcotics can clearly be hidden in the anus, and as a minute physical search protects the life and body of the accused and maintains safety and order within the prison, it is not unconstitutional provided the search is conducted in a way that minimizes indignity for the detainee,” the court said in its ruling.

“minimize the indignity for the detainee”? how do you keep a person’s dignity(for the searcher and the searchee) when one’s poking around someone’s ass looking for stuff?

from chosunilbo