This blog offers selected features of alternative Asian TV segments, news stories, editorials, photos and more from Japan, Korea, India, China and many other Asian countries. This blog also includes some WTF Japanese, North Korean online videos, entertainment news, beautiful Chinese and Japanese models, and much more.
Today Medama Sensei aka. "Miki Dezaki" released a follow up video to his controversial "Racism in Japan" clip of his classroom lesson about Japanese discrimination. After that class, his students were enlightened, there were no complaints from anyone and the vice principal of his school even said that he wished more students could have attended Dezaki's lesson.
“The reaction was so positive,” he said. "These kids have heard the stories of their parents being discriminated against by the mainland Japanese. They know this stuff. But the funny thing is that they weren’t making the connection that that was discrimination.”
But when he uploaded that lesson as a video to Youtube last week, it turned more than a few heads and generated a very negative backlash from some right-wing, racist Japanese netizens known as the "netouyu" or "nettouyoku" (ネット右翼) who even sent him death threats:
“I recently made a video about Racism in Japan, and am currently getting bombarded with some pretty harsh, irrational comments from Japanese people who think I am purposefully attacking Japan,” [snip]
"If I should have anticipated something, I should have anticipated the netouyu,” said Dezaki.
Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images XXX Large Size
Via boston.com Here is a beautiful photo from the recent 2013 Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. The above shot of Beijing illuminated by so many fireworks is quite spectacular. But in order to fully appreciate the full effect, check out this short video of this year's amazing night sky spectacle in the capital city:
Meanwhile on a train from Beijing to Cangzhou:
Photo by Stringer/AFP/Getty Images XXX Large Size
What can we say? For New Year's celebrations, some Chinese people like traditional pyrotechnic displays and others enjoy long train rides home while dressed up as a panda. See more beautiful photos of this year's world wide celebration here.
See also:
Li Ying Zhi Chinese New Year Photos
Via Daily Mail February 7, 2013
A horrifying story with a happy ending took place when twenty year old art student Xiao Li was posing for 'artistic pictures' with photographer friend Xiao Qing in Shaodong County, Hunan province, southern China. When Li attempted to strike a pose near on oncoming train, she slipped and fell in front of it and was launched backwards when the train hit her left shoulder. The below photo is the moment just after impact:
The driver immediately stopped the train, but, miraculously, Li escaped with just a bruised shoulder. "I felt this sudden bump and I was flying sideways. The train stopped and the driver thought he must have killed me," said Li.
Continued...
See also:
Ascending Mt Hua in China = NOPE!
January 28, 2013 By Jimmy Rustling Tokyo, Japan – A bank robber was apprehended today in Tokyo after stopping to talk with none other than Bill Murray. “The man robbed the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, ran out, saw Bill Murray walking on the street and stopped to talk to him. That’s when authorities were able to apprehend him,” Tokyo Police Chief Yakuza Mori told reporters.
Bill Murray who is in Tokyo promoting a new movie told reporters about the incident. “I saw this man in the street running towards me with a bag in his hand. Then he suddenly stopped when he saw me. He asked me if I was Bob Harris, the character I played in Lost in Translation. I told him, ‘sure, why not’.
Then he started telling me how much he loved me and how great he thought I was.
“I was polite, I told him that was very nice of him to say. Then kind of out of nowhere, police showed up and tackled the man,” Murray said.
Popular Youtuber Mike Diva recently went to Japan and saw this very OMFG WTF new Furby Japanese TV commercial! It begins as a 'normal' cute and KAWAII "Space Furby" ad. But then about halfway through, suddenly the TV screen starts going fuzzy, and we then see little Furby burning on fire!!!
Then, suddenly, Furby is on a demonic sacrificial altar!!!
Is this the end of Furby? How did Japanese TV become so evil and exciting? This has to be seen to be believed:
See more of Mike Diva's very entertaining videos here.
See also:
mishmash*Julie Watai Release "Go Furby Go"Julie Watai's Furby Toy Video
Via The Atlantic January 30, 2013
Here is a photo of a bright color video screen in Tiananmen Square, Beijing on a recent dangerous day of very high pollution levels. Today the Beijing government announced emergency measures to reduce the heavy smog that has overwhelmed the city. The measures include the temporary shutdown of 100 factories and halting one third of the government vehicles from driving on the streets. Estimates now state that there are some 5 million automobiles in Beijing. There were approximately 3 million autos in the capital in 2008. China's Communist Party has praised Beijing as a showcase capital, but until now has never addressed the city's pollution problems.
See also:
The Truth on China's Dangerous HolesWhy, China Why? Because China
XXX Large Size
Here is a beautiful photo of the Wakakusayama Mountain Burning in Nara, Japan during the festival known as Yamayaki (山焼き literally "mountain roast" or "prescribed burn"). This festival is held on the fourth Saturday of every January. It begins with a fireworks display and then the dead grass of the mountain is burned. Folklore has it that this tradition is done as a territorial dispute and to kill all of the wild boars or pests in the mountains. Photo taken with a Sony RX100 by deepfriday.
See also:
Japanese Cherry Blossoms Near Mt. FujiArashiyama Bamboo Forest Kyoto, Japan
Via Energy News January 23rd 2013
In a chilling testimony, the wife of a Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant worker, Takumi Takano, tells us about the meltdown, the hardships her family had to go through and the many Japanese government failures that followed. Knowing beforehand about the impending disaster, her husband evacuated their family from their Tomioka home just nine kilometers from the power plants on March 11, 2011. They all escaped to southerly Saitama Prefecture and then later on moved back to Koriyama, Fukushima.
"The day of the quake he told us right away that we should evacuate. My 80 y/o father lived close by. So we escaped together to the south. My husband said the wind was blowing north. He knew even before the government announced. When we were on the run he said the plant would melt down."
Last year we thought that Tommy Lee Jones had done his final Japanese TV commercial for Suntory's Boss Coffee. But, now, SURPRISE! We were wrong and Tommy Lee "Net Alien" Jones has returned to Japan to star in this new funny WTF Japan Boss coffee commercial!
In this chapter of the ongoing seven-year saga, TLJ is working as a pizza delivery guy slowly flying through the neighborhood. He finds the apartment for the pizza delivery with his super human night-vision eyesight. Then suddenly Tommy Lee gets spotted by a guy (comedian Hiroki Konno) with a digital camera who just took a video of him in action. Then that video of TLJ as the flying "Space Alien Pizza Delivery Guy" gets uploaded to Youtube. The video goes viral and becomes very popular in Japan and then the rest of the world.
A few days later, Tommy Lee is going on another delivery and he's followed by a crowd of netizens with smartphones and cameras ready! The "Space Alien Pizza Delivery Guy" then tries to frighten the crowd but it doesn't work and they say "ooooh" and "aaaah". The rest of the commercial features a popular "Handstand Cat" so check it out!
Related:
Tommy Lee Jones Acts Like a Boss for SuntoryTommy Lee "Space Alien" Jones in Outer Space
Produced by Liberty in North Korea here is the trailer from a new documentary movie about a cool North Korean guy named "Danny". In 2005 Danny escaped to China and then to the USA:
He escaped a life of indoctrination, routine public executions, and starvation.
This is a documentary about Danny's story-- from his challenging life in North Korea, to his brave escape to China, and his resettlement journey in the United States.
Via The Washington Post January 15, 2013
Not wasting any time, Ichiro Suzuki has started this new year off with early spring training in Kobe, Japan. Last year he was traded to the New York Yankees and batted .322 with five homers, 27 RBIs and 14 steals. Prior to being traded he was batting .261 with the Seattle Mariners. This jump in performance helped earn him a new $13 million, two-year contract with the Yankees.
“Signing with the Yankees has given me a new sense of determination,” the 39-year-old outfielder said Tuesday after a workout in Kobe. “This is a unique team, a team that can have a player like Alex Rodriguez as a pinch hitter is special and to be part of that is exciting.”