Far East Cynic

Olympic diversions

The S.O. was watching the Ski aerials tonight. And bitching about how many Chinese competitors there were were. I have to admit I was more than a little annoyed when the Chinese women won the short track-on a technicality and the Americans were forced to finish third. Of course the

Continue reading

Anyone can be a singing star…

Even a Sumo grand champion like Akebono: Actually, he is pretty good, if you ask me. What’s next? Dancing with the Stars? The chicks in the background are not too shabby either………

Continue reading

Futenma Follies

I am surprised to see how little play, the election of Susumu Inamine has gotten here in the United States. I realize that the election of Scott Brown is the greatest event short of the second coming-but folks ought to maybe pay some attention. Because the whole apple-cart of the

Continue reading

Looking for a date?

You know its pretty grim when even these types of companions start talking back: According to Fucked Gaijin-this was ranked the worst Japanese movie of 2009.

Continue reading

Speaking of dead dreams…..

Another great deal goes down the drain: Japan Airlines Corp. filed for bankruptcy Tuesday under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law in the biggest nonfinancial corporate failure in the postwar period. The country’s flagship carrier is expected to continue flying and honor tickets with government assurances for lifeline funds, while undergoing a

Continue reading

I did not know this……

Brittany Murphy died a couple of days ago. Only 32-its so very sad. What I did not know, was that she made a movie with a famous Japanese actor. A long time back, I did a post about Toshiyuki Nishida, the Japanese actor who played in the Tsuri-baka Nisshi movies. 

Continue reading

Here we go again……

The usual suspects get freaked out over an act of protocol. As with much of the punditry in Tea Bag land, the columns above lack one thing as they lavish their criticism-context. Bowing is an accepted social custom when first meeting someone in Japan-and is especially expected when meeting Tenno-sama.

Continue reading

Ways to know you are a gaijin

 Repeated from Invisible Gaijin. Ones that apply to me-or that I have done (or used to before I was exiled to the land of fat women) are in bold: You call yourself gaijin because you know it pisses off the newbie gaikokujin. You bow repeatedly when talking on the phone.

Continue reading

Waking up and smelling the coffee….

In Japan, that is. Earlier this week, Phibian went high order because the new leadership in Japan had threatened to cancel Japan’s support of re-fueling ships in the Indian Ocean in support of the war on (Terror, The Taliban, Islamic Extremists, Fill in the blank). As I noted to him

Continue reading

What was the number of that truck that hit us?

For only the second time in half a century-Japan has a Prime Minister who is not from LDP: TOKYO, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Japanese voters swept the opposition to a historic victory in an election on Sunday, ousting the long-ruling conservative party and handing the novice Democrats the job of

Continue reading