Now that makes sense why he keeps coming and preaching in Akiba!

I had the feeling that gray was the new blue, but maybe that’s a Kansai thing. I thought enough about it to write a post last year, though, if you’re interested:

http://www.cosmicbuddha.com/blog/archives/002118.html

Suit color in the movies/on TV, however, is a completely different thing. Black looks a lot better on screen.

“In our history of 2,000 years,” says Taro Aso, a member of the Japanese parliament, “this is the first time that the Japanese have not had to worry about poverty. We are nouveau riche, a nation of farmers a short tune ago. It is difficult to accept international responsibilities when you have an inferiority complex.”

(link)

Dude, chill. I was pointing out the dubious nature of the reportage. I assume we probably agree here.

Not an exact science, but I’ve seen a lot of Japanese films and TV and I get the impression that the blue suit went out with Ishihara Yujiro after his virtual exodus from prime time around 1980. I get the feeling that black suits were pretty mainstream by 1970, however.

Westerners accustomed to the atmosphere of improvisation at U.S. or French demonstrations are apt to find the Japanese protest scene quite different. Clashes between helmeted students and shield-carrying riot cops seem as stylized—and puzzling—as a No play. Moreover, the rioters, often led by members of the radical Zengakuren (a student federation), are usually higher on doctrine than drugs (pot has yet to spread far in Japan). Before long, however, Japanese dissent may be taking on a Western character.

This could have been written in 2003. Nothing has changed. (Except that there are no more shield-carrying riot cops at political demonstrations—the violence of the 1950s-70s has long gone.)

Google results for “slurb” consist of: definitions of slurb, journalistic articles from the 1960’s which use the term, and uses of slurb as a funny sounding nonsense word unrelated to this definition.