“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” — The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 have been interpreted and re-interpreted, acting over the years as a starting point for debates on privacy and online anonymity. In Japan, a country wit...

What happens when a cute geeky girl plays a cute little Pokemon? You get a cuteness overload. That’s what happens as Japanese otaku queen Shoko Nakagawa voices a female Pichuu with a quirky left ear in the upcoming Pokemon: Arceus ni Semaru E movie. Apparently, her character gets friendly with...

If on one hand libraries and newspaper kiosks overflow with books and magazines that examine, analyze and comment on the current economic recession hitting Japan, then on the other hand, many people have begun to think that, if there are losers (layoffs and companies in the red), there must also be ...

Japanese people have many prejudices, both good and bad, about 外人　(gaijin foreigners), in general, and アメリカ人　(amerika-jin Americans) in particular. Here are some adjectives that are often used to describe Americans. You might notice a common thread running through them. 大らã�‹ã€...

I will add more to this post later. Maybe.What you need to know is that Kwang-Hyun Kim -- the 20-year-old who pitched Korea to a gold medal in the Olympics last year -- apparently couldn't repeat the feat at the WBC, and was roughed up for 8 runs in only an inning and a half of work, culminating in ...

By Dennis D. McDonald This movie is 1000% better than it should be. Credit the director (Takeshi Yamakazi) and his top-notch crew and cast. They shamelessly steal elements from numerous previous movies (Terminator, Independence Day, ET, Webmaster, Predator, Matrix, Timecop, Transformers, etc. etc.) ...

A Japanese astronaut is set to perform a number of worthless experiments this month while aboard the International Space Station in an attempt to piss off taxpayers and win over schoolchildren. Koichi Wakata will perform 16 tasks chosen from 1,597 suggested by hundreds of people, from nursery school...

Out of all the fucking glorious mountains in the world, why is Mt. Fuji so universally beloved? I can't believe nobody's ever written this before. So I reiterate: FUCK FUJIYAMA* Some people like mountain climbing; I like mountain hating. FUCK YOU FUJISAN, YOU STUPID DORMANT VOLCANO! Also, just to co...

Baseball season has officially started for me once again, and I hope with it the writer's block I've felt all winter goes away. I went to the first game of the WBC last night with my friend Pau and his friend Alfredo. I brought a brand-new fresh scorecard book with me and kept score, and that's what...

Oh what a night!?! I met a friend for dinner at Hachi. It was a birthday treat for him. The first time I met Adrian Loh was some years back. But we did not hang out again until now. Dinner was a five hours affair. Started with champagne, complimented with several lovely dishes by Chef Watanabe and e...