Month: February 2003

Well, it wasn’t the smoothest of visits, but the good news is that my visa was renewed for 3 years, which makes me really happy. I got a big shock getting there as I took my number and saw that there were 67 people waiting ahead of me! Never go to an immigration office on…

Today I have the day off, and it’s off again to Shibuya to pick up my new visa. I have my fingers crossed, hoping that it’s going to be for more than a year this time. It’s a nice sunny day today, so it’s also a good excuse to go out and take come pics.…

I am totally in love with the character designs and animated shorts that can be found at the Vooz website. Very nicely done. You can find all sorts of fun goodies at the Pucca Club website.

This has been an excellent week for music releases in Japan, with 3 albums that are now in constant rotation on my iPod and iMac. Fantastic Plastic Machine – TOO – A new album by Tanaka-san, which continues in the same style he’s been using since the release of BEAUTIFUL. I still prefer the FPM…

My good friend Jesper wrote an article on Groovisions (creators of Chappie) for the very cool Swedish magazine SUPERLOUNGE, and he also made this cool little movie.

Well, the skirts were fake, but these t-shirts are real.

Bob Sapp is a fighter who has taken Japan by storm. An ex-football player (I think he played in the NFL, as well as the NFL’s European league), he came to Japan and started fighting in various disciplines, like the incredibly popular K-1 and PRIDE tournaments, and has become the most recognized face in Japan…

A bunch of pics have been doing the rounds lately, you’ve probably seen them, of Japanese women supposedly wearing skirts that have prints of their behinds in underwear. The following site debunks the whole thing. Also of interest in the blog entry is a link to a page with examples of all the wacky vending…

The new Kahimi Karie album that was released last week, TRAPEZISTE, is absolutely terrific. It has a very crazy and cool jazz feel to it. I haven’t been too fond of the last few things she has released (her stuff done with Momus being my favorite), especially the MY SUITOR EP, but this new album…

Kanji are the Chinese characters that the Japanese use in their written language. They’re a bitch to learn. I spent close to 4 hours today studying them. I will be able to read manga by this Summer. I will. Goddamn it.