Samurai Racing

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Personally, if I were promoting a racing team I wouldn’t use the name “Samurai” (the guys just don’t fit the part), and I wouldn’t drive around in a minivan with portraits of a bunch of pretty boys smeared on the windows and panels.
I have to mention something that I have found very ironic. In Asian American Studies classes, the professor always lectures about the feminization of Asians in Hollywood, and I agreed completely with them. It’s complete bullshit that Asians haven’t gotten many roles where they have balls or where women find them attractive.
But over here, as well as other Asian countries from what I have read, the younger generation plucks their eyebrows, dye their hair whimpy colors and get haircuts that should have stayed in the 80’s, wear berets and hair clips, and sometimes even use cosmetics. It’s not subtly effeminate, it’s straight up flamin’.
And no, I don’t think that all men can pull off a pink shirt (or most for that matter). It’s OK to wear, but it should also be fair game for those around to poke fun.
I wonder if the effeminate proto-Asian character appeals to the testosterone-challenged generation over here.

Takahashi

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This mom and pop market is a few steps away from my apartment in Juso. Surprisingly, there are no snack bars, porn theatres, soapland related businesses, or negiyaki restaraunts nearby!
The price signs are all drawn in marker on standard A4 paper, and they sell really cheap produce that looks like it was grown in someone’s back yard.
A Lawson convenience store and the Rice Grocery are equidistant from my apartment, but in the end, the Takahashi Rice Market will end up with the larger share of my money because it’s ghetto in a cool sort of way. It’s like a store you might encounter in Gardena or Torrance, back in California.

Fishing Log

Here I will post what we, as a collective, have caught on Awaji up until now, and maybe it will turn into its own updated page.
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A baby kawahagi (trigger fish). Caught on gokai (bloodworms). Sumoto port.
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Torafugu (pufferfish), caught on squid. Yura.
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Small bass, caught on squid. Fugu point.
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Small snapper, caught on gokai. Takenokuchi.
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A bera (wrasse), on squid. Yura.
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Gashira (aka kasago, I suspect, or rockfish in English), caught on squid. Sumoto port.
Not pictured: Sea bass (suzuki), aji (jack mackerel), trout, largemouth bass, small jack, and a marine eel (or poisonous sea snake, according to the locals).
This gallery will expand over time, and hopefully better pictures will replace the fuzzy ones currently on display.