Far East Cynic

Takyuu

Is the word for Ping Pong in Japanese. The S.O. and I have been talking about getting a Ping Pong table ever since we went to Tapoco Lodge last summer. We had looked through catalogs and at the local sports stores and also at Sears. For the kind of table

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Why I watch Bloomberg TV…..

Because its the only glimpse of Singapore I’m going to get any time soon. Its the same reason I watch CNBC when it covers Asian Markets. It’s also a chance to see this fine little slice of tuna:

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Uru run

You never know how good you have something till its gone. I’ve posted before about the Sunday night TV show in Japan called Uru run. Which is a show where someone who is generally a young actor goes to a homestay abroad and learns all kind of things. The name

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Why I feel strongly…..

About what a huge mistake it was to invade Iraq. Because this is the future-and its not worth the price we paid, and are continuing to pay: I don’t think Americans yet recognize that we’re not going to like the long-term result in Iraq. The best-case scenario is probably the

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The land of no smiles…….

There is an interesting photo essay at Foreign Policy about life inside Kita Chosen ( North Korea). It is worth going to see.  Renowned documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite 24-hour surveillance by North Korean minders,

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This ought to be fun to watch….

You are popular with most of the country, but 30% thinks you are the spawn of Satan himself. You are trying to drag an economy out of recession-but the economy and Wall Street in particular just don’t want to cooperate. You’ve got two wars underway-and some very noisy people among

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Swine flu hits home…..

As I drove to work this morning, something seemed out of place. Glasses? -Got 'em. Whew! School crossing lady? Missing in action as I came round the bend expecting to have to slam on the brakes. HMMMM. That's odd. Oh well-lets see what the BMW can do………….(Six cylinders of German

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Worth repeating….

Because it makes so much sense: The iron-girder he-men of the conservative blogosphere have greeted former Republican Senator from Pennsylvania Arlen Specter’s defection to the Democrats with whiskery hoots of “good riddance/get lost/don’t let the door hit your withered buttocks on the way out” and similar pleasantries. Many of them

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The digital mascot…….

A couple of weeks ago, SMAP band member  Tsuyoshi Kusanagi was arrested for being drunk and naked in a Tokyo park. As a result he as dropped as the spokesman for Digital TV in Japan and replaced by a deer: This is Chidejika. Over at Japan Probe they have been

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Houston-we have a problem.

Requesting reader feedback: Are you having problems viewing this site under IE? Under Firefox and Chrome it seems to be working. Under IE the browser seems to be truncating the page. Anybody got any ideas what causes that? UPDATE!: I think I fixed it! It still does not look 100%

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