*Bows* Sorry for not updating in such a long time. School deadlines and assignments have been cracking the whip upon me. Any who, that leaves a lot of news to catch up on for April, so this week will be a series of “Ketchup” articles with themes such as this one, which is about the intelligent decisions people make.
Soccer Star gets charged for stealing woman’s panties from seven years ago
A member of the J-League soccer team Kashiwa Reysol was arrested this week for sneaking into a 21-year old woman's home and stealing her panties seven years ago, after DNA from another incident matched him to the crime.
On September 11, 2001, he snuck into the woman's house in Kobe and stole her panties and cell phone. He was 19 at the time—a minor in Japan—so his name hasn't been disclosed to the press.
In March 2006, while the player was at Kawasaki Frontale, he was arrested for breaking into a Kawasaki home, but later released without charges. DNA he left behind at the scene of this incident matched DNA found at the scene of the Kobe case and led to his arrest.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080426p2a00m0sp012000c.html & http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/soccer-star-arr.html
RAWR! Man Angry, Man Beats Tulips!!
"Police on Thursday released images from a security camera showing a man chopping down tulips with his umbrella alongside a road here, following a spate of similar attacks in the city.
Police have launched a search for the man, who appears to be aged between his 40s and 50s.
The suspect, dressed in a suit and tie, was captured swinging his umbrella violently to lop the tops off tulips in planters near the Gunma Prefectural Government headquarters in Maebashi late on April 18.
At about 12 a.m. the following day, about 65 tulips from 18 planters were found to have been chopped down.
Altogether, roughly 1,900 tulips were cut down in attacks in Maebashi on April 9, 14 and 19."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080424p2a00m0na017000c.html & http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/caught-on-tape.html
Bleach Fetish?
Nope, I’m not taking about the series but about a man who has a fetish of throwing bleach onto inspecting woman’s crotches.
“In Sapporo, a mystery man has been spraying liquid bleach onto women's crotch areas in subways and shopping centers, leaving them befuddled with embarrassed in public. In the last month, there have been 15 attacks--last year around this time, there were several dozen which came to an abrupt halt when the media started reporting on it.
One woman noticed a strange guy putting a spray can into his pocket at the train station, then discovered a white stain on her pants minutes later”
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/odd-fetishist-s.html
Weirdo Arrested
"A man has been arrested in Hokkaido for putting on some make-up and a blouse and hanging out in a women’s public toilet:
Tsukasa Okazaki, 45, the banker from Monbetsu, Hokkaido, was arrested for trespassing. He admits to the allegations.
“I wanted people to see me as some sort of weirdo,” he told the police.
......Nuff said...there are too many puns that I could use for this statement....."
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4443
Thanks for stopping by! Tune in for Bootleg Ketchup!-Maid Cafés.
There's a new, shiny kid on the entertainment block. A new video streaming website, hulu.com, has recently popped up offering free online streams of television shows and films. There's no software to download, no bit to torrent and it's simple enough that my mother (and probably techno-prone-grandmother) can use it. I've looked though the site and found that there is a fairly decent collection of clips, episodes and films available for the inner geek in us all. These include (but are not limited to):
- Astro Boy
- Heroes
- clips from Ninja Warrior on G4
- Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa
The only real problem: there's still commercials. Ew. Last night, as I was watching New Amsterdam, I had to watch the same Sudafed commercial five times. It was slightly frustrating, but worth it. Some television shows are completely on the archive, while others have only seasons and partial seasons. Some of the films are full-length features, while others are partially there. The films are also in a wide variety of genre and quality as well, from the incredible Some Like It Hot to the dreadful Eragon (I've watched both; don't judge me).
One of the television shows that I reccommend for a good, geeky giggle is Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, which is corny, classic sixties dubbed silliness. Think Get Smart meets a child's version of Gundam that was built by a gaijin. (Hey, it impressed my source and me.) There's nine episodes so far, all almost equally eye-rolling.
The film I reccommend: October Sky, to fit in with the theme Johnny Sokko sets down. (If you've watched it too much in high school math/science classes, then watch Kagemusha... because it's Kuro, freakin', sawa, man.)
Even if you aren't into watching the nerdly shows, there's still a good selection of programs to pick from. There's shows like Cops, McHale's Navy and Arrested Development. I even found a couple of my beloved Detroit Red Wings games floating around, along with a few Bowl games and the ever-infamous SuperBowl XLII commercials.
Wanna know the best part though? It's still under development. All the shows and films that are up, are not all that will ever be. We're going to hopefully have many more television series and films pop up in the future. Yeah, there's going to be the annoying commericals, but that's when you go and refill the milk glass and get more Oreos. There's one anime, but give the site credit: it's only been public since the twelfth of this month. Plus, the screen's larger than YouTube, at much higher image quality.
Intense.
Sources
Entertainment Weekly, March 28, 2008 "A Site for Sore Eyes" by Tim Stack (additional reporting by Tanner Stransky and review sidebar by Ken Tucker)
hulu.com
Hello and welcome to the second Bootleg report
!
First before I start, I would like to thank 2short, Ryosuke Forever, and Nehszriah for all of their informative and dedicated work. Really, all of your work has turned out wonderful and truly makes this world! When I first made this world I would have never had thought it would turn out this great! Thank you
!
Feature News
Akihabanana News site
The new bilingual otaku culture media site “Akibanana.com” was launched by G.I. Jane Inc. in February. The site provides news updates, information, maps, blogs, and forums about Akihabara, to provide what the alley ways of Akihabara is really like.
I originally heard of this site from this article on http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/akibanana-launched-for-growing-global-otaku/and was intrigued, so I went to check out the site.
http://akibanana.com/
The site is still in its beta stage and very young, but the site is fantastic! It is very informative, with the articles giving a lot of detail. It once again makes you wish you had the opportunity to visit Japan.
It made me foam at the mouth when I read about the preview of the second season of xxxHolic (which is called xxxHolic: Connections which premieres in Japan this April Hazzah :D) with Clamp being there for the preview. Here’s the link to the small article http://akibanana.com/?q=node/175
Akihabanana is a definite must see site!
Anime
Otaku Pilgrimages to Lucky Star Shrine Draw Criticism
This is old news about otakus making a pilgrimage to the oldest Shinto shrine in eastern Japan, Washinomiya Jinja, but they aren’t visiting it for the shrine historical notoriety. They are visiting it because it was featured in the anime “Lucky Star”. Hordes of otakus are flocking to the shrine, but the locals aren’t happy about it. Interviews of the locals, state that they do not like the “strange men” coming to town and “scaring the children”. The article is greatly detailed, from going over a brief history of the shrine, the anime Lucky Star, and detail accounts of the testimonies of the locals. I greatly recommend that you read the article.
http://akibanana.com/?q=node/131
Random Fun News
Elementary School Breaks Guinness Record with a 118-Person Walk
“An elementary school in Shinjuku ward hosted a Guinness World Record-breaking 118-legged on march 8th.” The picture on the site, shows 117 people tied together around the ankles as they are about to start the race. The 118 person walk was consisted of students, teacher and parents celebrating the centennial of Ushigome-Nakano Elementary School. “The previous record was set by a group of consultants in the UK last September, which included 77 people.”
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/03/elementary-scho.html
Menu's now can now have pop-up 3D feature
“TEC Japan has created the Tobidasu Menu (pop-up menu) to embed into restaurant tables. Customers can browse the digital menu by touch and then view individual items in 3D.”
This is really an article you have to see for yourself. Not so much for the written content, but for the pictures. Which I found to be confusing at first, till I realized it was just an odd camera angle. What caught my attention, was the “novelty function of placing a hamburger bun on the menu and removing it to reveal a delicious beef patty with all the trimmings.”. I thought that to be spiffy :D.
http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/tobidasu-3d-table-menu-from-tec/
Fashion Week in Japan
For those who love fashion, here is an article about fashion week in Japan. Once again there are pictures accompanying the article. One of the articles of clothing that caught my eye was the hat that looked like a sea urchin was attacking the models heads.
http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/fashion-week-lands-in-tokyo/
Wasabi is being made into a smoke alarm for the deaf
Prototypes of the smoke alarm that release wasabi into the air to alert deaf people of a fire.
http://inventorspot.com/articles/wasabi_silent_fire_alarm_alerts__11514
Sorry that I have not figured out what to do with this world's design. I'll have more time to, next week after finals.
Once again thank you reporters for all of your news and thank you (the viewer) for stopping by and reading our bootleg news.
-TrigunCat4
