笑う犬の冒険 Warau Inu no Bōken

Hilarious show.. Funniest thing I've seen on Japanese Tv ever!

Halloween in Tokyo..

..happens but once a year but they manage to stretch it out for longer than they do Christmas! This was taken at LUNCHTIME on Sunday, and this guy's actual day job is being spiderman..

Park Life: Dog Bloke

The dachshund bloke was wandering around in the park on Sunday, him and his 9 little friends.

いきものがかり and Tak!

Ikimono Gakari is a bit of a shooting star here at the moment, she's on a massive nation wide tour and has a lucrative tie in with AU for her new single. I probably wouldn't know her from a bar of soap but for the fact that my buddy (and sometime Shirts drummer) Tak is drumming for her on her tour. Tak had a break between TV show tapings yesterday and came over and programmed some drums for the upcoming Shirts shows, and at some stage showed me this youtube vid that they had taped for some music TV show last Monday.

Nova RIP

Nova has officially filed for bankrupcy. Needless to say there are many disgruntled students that forked out thousands for lessons that will not be taught. As teachers many years ago, we used to hate how the staff were trained to sell people dreams that weren't generally attainable ie. english conversation proficiency, they would easily slip into sociopath sales mode and put some unemployed dilbert into debt to get their precious branch numbers up. Not all staff were that blatantly heartless, just most... Around 4,400 english teachers have also found themselves unemployed and unpaid. There's a great (unfortunately unembeddable) NHK news item from yesterday here, and of all the crappy anti-Nova blog art being posted on Let's Japan etc. the only mildly humourous (and barely postworthy) were these:

Cool Buildings #3

Some new building under construction in Nishi Shinjuku, interesting enough..

Tenori-on

Wow! Uum, if anyone needs me, I'll be down at the Yamaha store.. >_<

If the youtube clip aint enough, check out what Jim O'rourke does with it..

Nova

Like so many others, I came to Japan to work as an english conversation instructor for what was then the biggest employer of foreign nationals in Japan, Nova. There were evident dodgy business practices, and daily frustrations with administration, but for my 2.5 years that I worked there, I learned a lot and had a great time. Seems that the bubble has really burst for them now, even my old school has closed.. :(

This video was from a month or two ago but the most recent rumblings have included: sudden school closures nationwide, the co-founder and highest level foreigner resigning, the losing of ALT dispatch contracts, teachers salaries being withheld and in some cases, rent not being paid on their apartments to the point where they are being evicted etc etc..

It's a girl!

Baby Molly was born into this world yesterday morning, and what a cute little baby girl she is! Congratulations to Craig and Tanya..

かわいいねー！

Round 2.. (亀田 大毅 Kameda Daiki)

'Daiki drama' continued yesterday when the disgraced boxer appeared at a press conference, supposedly held to enable his public apology. With his head shaved and missing his trademark dark glasses, he didn't actually say anything, but merely sat with head bowed for the short time he was in attendance. All of a sudden he appeared to have passed out, and was quickly helped to his feet (by his a couple of his minions) and led away to the kind of paparazzi flash explosions that only a Britney or a Lindsay could truly love.

亀田 大毅 Kameda Daiki

Daiki Kameda is a Japanese professional boxer in the flyweight division. On October 11 2007, Kameda lost to Daisuke Naito, the reigning WBC flyweight champion. Despite making comments before the match that he will commit seppuku if he lost, his manager has confirmed that he will not. Towards the end of the bout, much to everyones surprise, he suddenly picked up opponent. This unusual act earnt him a suspension by the Japan Boxing Commission for one year and has fuelled a media frenzy which has seen virtually every major Japanese network constantly both replaying the act, and discussing it at length. Kameda has made it his custom to sing a song for the audience after each of his victories, needless to say, he didn't sing after this one..



This photo is by my buddy Andrew McGovern, who was shooting the fight. Check out more of his work here.



This is officially the most time consuming post I have ever made.. >_<

qualia: debut live video

Qualia performed their first show last Sunday evening at Shimokitazawa Garage. Also featured: Dan, Super Samir, Deguchi-san, The Shirts, Richard (the French) and the crazy toy piano guy..

ドンキホーテ

This is a picture of Donkihote in Shibuya, kinda..

Blowin snow..

Basak had some fun at the Hokkaido festival, blowin da snow!

Shooting shiny shoes..

There was a shoe store opening party in Harajuku on Friday night. Paparazzi everywhere!



It was the SHIRTS.. >_<

白バイ action..

Am I obsessed?

Oombahweed

Once upon a time, there was a little band called Oombahweed...

沢尻エリカ Sawajiri Erika

Sawajiri is regarded as a notorious actress in Japan. At the press conference for her new film Closed Note, she looked pretty darn unhappy. When reporters asked her questions, she barely responded. She is called "the Queen" and "Erika-sama" because she is infamous for her selfish behavior. Most of the Japanese media treated her impolite and arrogant manner as top news!

Rubbish!

The garbos in Shibuya wear hazmat suits, kinda..