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A Hairy Encounter
My day started at home on monster island (Awajishima). Woke up at nine. Picked up my new cellphone at the nearby AU shop with Nam (will write review later – it’s a Sony/Ericsson A1402S, an upgrade from my trusty old Hitachi). Went to the high-speed boat terminal down the street and caught the hydrofoil to KIX. Met up with none other than deep thinking shitblogger extraordinaire, Kevin Kim, on a day trip from Big Hominid’s Hairy Chasms in the “sea of Korean tourists lugging many tape-patched boxes around” scenario alluded to in my previous post (link). Hopped on the very Nemo-esque Nankai rapi:t train to downtown Osaka. Feeling hungry, we…
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Quick Airport Tip
If you are picking up someone with the last name “Lee” whose flight from Korea disembarks at the exact same time as three others, it might not be terribly helpful to hold up a sign with only “Mr. Lee” written on it. I’m partly saying this for the benefit of the tour guide who did so and got bumrushed by fifty different Lees today, although he eventually learned from his mistake and scribbled in a first name and flight number as well.
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Supplication
Kevin praying for a horny stewardess on his return flight at the Aoinari Okami shrine.
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Mustard Art
Kevin’s rendition of “dragon” with squeeze-bottle mustard; edible okonomiyaki canvas.
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Nam@okonomiyaki
Okonokiyaki at Namba Parks.
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The Big Hominid
Owner and proprietor of Anger Poultry House.
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Boat at Sumoto Port
Small wooden fishing boat with motor tied up inside, probably in preparation for coming typhoon.
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Further Lessons in Branding
GOO.N – I never really found out what this product was because this display was next to a shelf full of mysterious products at a drug store that I pass by everyday but never bother to look at. Just background noise, you know. But GOO.N caught my eye. The small Japanese subtext says, “goon.” This photo is significant in that is the last photo I took with my first camera-equipped phone. I bought a new phone today, the Sony A1402S. I’ll write up a review for it on my main blog soon.
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Sayonara, Right Wing News
Fox News Channel To Sign Off In Japan This was inevitable I think. When they changed to paid subscription in the aftermath of the their first announcement of quitting in 2001, I was happy because the option was there to add the channel to my SkyPerfect TV (satellite broadcaster) plan. The thing is, I half think that they must have wanted an excuse (low subscription numbers) to bail entirely, because the monthly fee was set at 1,000 yen. Not a reasonable amount when you consider that CNN and BBC international editions (in English and Japanese) are free with most basic plans. So I bookmarked channel 740 as a favorite and…
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Balloon Bombs
Until today, I had always been under the impression that there were no civilian casualties as a result of Japanese attack on the US mainland during WWII. Wrong: http://slate.msn.com/id/2102499/ Sure, I’d heard of the largely ineffective shelling of oil fields in Santa Barbara, a telegraph station in Vancouver (Canada), and Fort Stevens in Oregon by Japanese submarines, as well as forest fires caused by incendiary bombing done by a sub-launched plane (which were fought by the predecessor of modern smoke jumper batallions, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion). I’d also read about the balloon bomb project fugo launched on the emperor’s birthday in 1944. However, most of the reports I had…
