Here’s some flat-out weirdness courtesy of Marty Friedman of Megadeth and Andrew W.K. They’ve apparently recorded a song called Kiba. In an interview, Friedman described the collaboration, saying, The song is called “Kiba”, which means “fang.” It came about when I was offered the opportunity to write the song that you will hear if you win the highest award on the most anticipated new Pachinko machine in Japan,...

GameNews.org posted an article discussing how the success or failure of Final Fantasy XIII could be the ‘last chance’ for Playstation 3 to catch on completely. The game, which was released in Japan last week, has done well so far, but Playstation is hoping that the game itself inspires consumers to rush out and buy a system as well as the game, thus boosting sales of the console too. Check out the article itself, it’s a rather...

Found this funny video that apparently was out a year or so ago….made by a bunch of different bloggers, it’s a cute little music video about, well, Christmas in Japan. I’m particularly interested in how Kentucky Fried Chicken is so popular in the country around Christmas time…it seems like people generally don’t prefer KFC anymore here in the States, even though it is delicious, but for whatever reason it seems to b...

The Daily Mail posted about a crazy opportunity going on in Japan right now. Interested parties can buy a functional android replica of themselves or a loved one…. The mechanical doppelgangers will be on offer at Sogo, Seibu, and Robinson retailers for the princely sum of 20.1million yen or £139,000. They will be built by Japanese robotics firm Kokoro, which is best known for its line of attractive Actroid receptionist humanoids. The comp...

A park in Matsue City in Japan has started treating its visitors to a cute surprise this Christmas season…five penguins dressed in Santa Claus outfits walk are led through the park each day, to the delight of anyone at the park. The penguins’ outfits are red hooded capes with a little bell on them. Precious. There’s a video of this fun event over at the BBC News website. Check it out so you can see for yourself how cute it is. ...

Still looking for a gift for yourself or a friend/loved one who just so happens to be a fan of Hayao Miyazaki and his film Ponyo? Look no further. The Art of Ponyo was released a while ago, and looks to be a great addition to any fan’s library. Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog put up some pictures of the book, and it looks really cool. Check ‘em out: Pretty awesome, if you like Ponyo. And the book isn’t crazy expen...

Long before Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped acting to become the Governor of California, he was a cultural icon, and shot a ton of Japanese commercials for all kinds of products. Just as he was a huge star here, for the Terminator movies and his other films, he was a larger-than-life person in Japan. Just check out these commercials for yourself. They particularly amuse me since Arnold has always had a rough time speaking English, so hearing him s...

Final Fantasy XIII, the latest edition in the long-running series of role-playing video games, was released in Japan this week. The picture above was the scene at a store in the Shibuya district at midnight, as large groups of customers lined up to buy the game. As this article from the Guardian describes, The game’s Japanese creator, Square Enix, said it hoped to sell at least 2m copies of Final Fantasy XIII domestically, which would make...

Last night my girlfriend and I ventured into the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles with some friends. We met up at Haru Ulala for dinner and it was great. I hadn’t been there before, to the restaurant or the district, so I was in for a treat. I won’t attempt to remember the names of some of the food we ate, but I did take some pictures: The menus were all written in crayon, which was pretty cool and helped give the place a super-...

the new store in Ginza I received an e-mail tip about this a few days ago, and want to pass on the word to anybody who might be interested. Last week Tory Burch opened opened her first free-standing boutique in Japan, located in the Ginza district of Tokyo. In celebration of the store opening, Tory Burch has lots of exciting events and promotions planned in their new store, including an exclusive Limited Edition Ginza Tote and a special “Golde...

I say “kind of” because there are some pretty drastic differences between the new version and the 1984 classic starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita, highlighting Daniel’s adventure with karate and his battles with the Cobra Kai. This time around, the kid isn’t named Daniel, he’s Dre. And his mentor isn’t named Mr. Miyagi, he’s named Mr. Han. What’s more, Dre is played by Jaden Smith, son of megast...

This is pretty amusing, no matter your opinion on acclaimed and criticized director Michael Moore. Japan Probe posted about his visit to the Akihabara district in Japan, in which he stomps around town usually amid a crowd of onlookers with cameras and cell phones at the ready. Shinichi Karube of Mezamashi TV gave Moore a tour around the district, and drew a crowd of onlookers eager to catch a glimpse of Moore (which honestly isn’t very dif...

The Los Angeles Times just posted an article today about the Tokidoki boutique store opening tomorrow on Melrose Ave. As the article says, Tokidoki, a cosmopolitan collaboration built on Japanese, Italian and Angeleno inspiration, is opening its first Los Angeles boutique five years after it was conceived of here in the City of Angels. The collection of accessories and collectibles (in the vein of Japan’s Hello Kitty) had its beginning whe...

As mentioned previously on this blog, the expansive DVD box set of legendary Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa‘s movies was released this week. The Los Angeles Times published an article about the release, saying, To mark the centenary of Kurosawa’s birth, the Criterion Collection is this week issuing a lavish boxed set, “AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa,” which includes four mid-’40s films never before releas...

Some Buddhist monks in Japan are resorting to new means of spreading the word about their faith…as this article states, They rap sutras, use manga characters and serve beers — some of Japan’s Buddhist monks are turning to decidedly unorthodox means to boost the appeal of their ancient faith. Girls sporting frilly maid uniforms and sets of fluffy cat-ears — the latest in comic-inspired costuming and usually a more common s...