The Capybara (カピバラ) has received a lot of media attention in Japan. I’ve seen this animal on at least two different variety shows this past week. Walk into most any Japanese bookstore and you’ll see Capybara children’s books and stuffed animals.
As the new year moves forward, in the back of my mind I had the urge to add something complementary to Apple Otaku. Well, last weekend I decided to play around with some open source software and as a result, I’d like to introduce you to Japan Scoop.
Friends who have spent time in Japan always tell me how the Japanese restaurants here in the US are just horrible. I’ve never able to have them pin down their negative comments to a particular attribute. All they say is “It’s much better in Japan.”
In the November 2007 issue of Wired, they look into self-published, fan created manga. The term for this is dojinshi. Markets for dojinshi started in the 1970s and have grown ever since. One of the largest dojinshi conventions is Tokyo Big Sight. Blatant copyright infringement goes on left and right. Most of the material is [...]
September 8th was Matsumoto Hitoshi’s 44th birthday. In an episode of Rinkan that aired in early October, the staff and crew put on a special episode dedicated to this important occasion. So on this episode, they put Matsumoto in a secluded room and special guest after special guest paid him a visit (44 in total).
The Japanese word “dondake” has truly reached the mainstream media. Here we see a Japanese McDonald’s TV commercial where the word is used.
Lately, I’ve often heard this word used on Japanese TV. Most of the time, it would be uttered by a Japanese okama. I don’t know what it means exactly. I’ve asked Japanese people and they tell me that it has no meaning.
