SHELBURNE, Vt., Jan. 20 –
The Vermont Teddy Bear Company believed it had a winner of a Valentine gift: its “Crazy for You” teddy bear, a cuddly bundle of fur – with paws restrained by a straitjacket and the outfit accompanied by commitment papers.
While the straightjacket bear may be tacky, it could be worse- they could be selling this Bae Yong Jun (Yong-Sama) bear.
March 12 2004
I passed this old Opera House in Beijing side street. I love the old painted posters on the wall outside the door, but sadly with the way Beijing is being developed I have a feeling that they will soon be gone, replaced by another vacant office building.
21世紀スタンピードさんが、さまざまなヨン様グッズ（ハンドクリーム、かつら、ペンなどなど）がヤフオクで掘り出したのを転載します。
Check out 21st Century Stampede and click the Yahoo! Auctions links to see crazy Yong-sama merchandise (hand moisturizer, wigs, pens, etc).
Here’s what the “Korean X-File” has to say about him: “Yon Sama : Big difference in looks between his pictures and reality? Thinks to hard and makes decisions slowly? Young females find him disgustingly greasy looking???”
Bae Yong Jun for example is known to have assulted 30 of his managers and coordinators. That’s a lot of people to slap around – and kinda goes against his image.
和訳：韓国の芸能報道がヨン様についてこう書いてるらしい－ナマで見ると顔が写真とぜんぜん違う。物事を難しく考えすぎて行動が遅い性格。若い女性に「顔が脂っこくていや」と嫌われている。
ぺ･ヨンジュン氏は自分のマネージャーやコーディネーターを３０人ほど殴ったことあるという。
Danwei has some photos of the descendants of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek.
I hope that uniform Mao Xinyu is stretching out isn’t a historical artifact from his family closet.
He spoke to a Reuters reporter about his book about his grandfather.
Xinyu, for his part, did a rare run of interviews and book signings to promote his new anecdotal history, Grandpa Mao Zedong.
The paperback has sold several tens of thousands of copies, the Ph.D. replied modestly when asked. Later he suggested, “I’ll give you the rights. You can translate it!”
Alas, the reporter does not seem to have taken him up on that offer.
Before I went to Kazkhstan last year I knew almost nothing about the country besides it’s general location. When I bring it up in conversation many people have never heard of it, few know anything about it, and of course virtually noone would ever actually consider going there.
While not exactly an introduction to the country, this article makes a good case for why one should know Kazakhstan.
Ten Reasons for loving Kazakhstan
4. Oily
. . . what is thought to be the world’s biggest oil field was discovered there in 2002. Specialists believe the offshore Kashagan field, in the Caspian Sea, contains about 40 billion barrels of the black stuff. Western governments, keen to reduce their dependency on the Middle East, have snuggled up to the Kazakhs ever since. There are also plans to construct an oil pipeline to China later this year. The upshot is . . .
The Japan that Can Beat China
I decided to print this from the Shukan Post (Weekly Post) because it seems like the English-language media only print what he says out of context. While I don’t agree with the man, he does have some provocative things to say that make it obvious why he’s so popular. Take a look:
Foreign Relations, The Economy, Territories — How long can Japan stand being the country that everyone dumps on? Continue reading A Very Special New Year Interview with Your Friend Ishihara Shintaro
Hi, I’m Adamu, and I’ll be one of the contributors to this site. Whereas Roy focuses more on technology and photography, my interests are more abstract: the domburi. Most of my posts will be translations of Japanese news articles that don’t make it to press on other sites or news publications. I call and categorize these Jappanica, named after my old website of the same name. From time to time I will also be posting old articles from the site.
Adamu is just my online handle. No, really. I lived in Japan for two years, learning the Japanese language and irreparably damaging my psyche in the process. Right now I live in DC, working on various projects with high-profile clientele (Again, don’t ask). Otherwise not a whole lot to tell about me. I like video games, hip hop, politics (I’m a radical liberal but also a pragmatist), North Korea and dreaming of one day making it big in Tokyo. The rest I hope you’ll figure out as we go along.
So, dear readers, I hope that gives you an idea of who I am and what I’ll be doing here. Thanks to Roy for all the hard work involved in setting this thing up.
March 10 2004
Taken on a dust clouded day in the port city of Dalian, China while I was visiting my friend Li Jin.
I’ve been asked if the white balance on the camera was off when I took these photos and no, the dust storms actually do make the sky this opressive color.
Various photos of urban Hong Kong. The HSBC photo was discovered on my previous blog by a Hong Kong based PR firm that offered to buy it from me for use on some kind of promotional postcard, possibly for HSBC themselves.
Fortune Teller’s Tools
Taken February 28th 2004.
Temple Street is one of the main market areas in HK, with everything from fake name brand clothing to old fashioned Chinese fortune tellers like this. There are maybe a dozen fortune tellers clustered together where Temple Street passes by a small public park. Most of them have a sign advertising their services in six different languages.
In this picture, the sign in the background is written in Japanese – clearly for the benefit of tourists. Translated it says “Can speak Japanese. Palm-reading, Face Physiognomy{Divination by form, I’ve never heard of that before}, Fortune-telling, House Physiognomy {according to my dictionary, determining whether a house is lucky or unlucky based on it’s location, position and architectural plan using methods derived from the five classical Chinese elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water}.
Tian Tan Buddha
February 29th 2004
The world’s largest outdoor bronze Buddha statue. Part of the Po Lin Monastery on top of Ngong Ping plateau on the western part of Lantau Island in Hong Kong. The misty valley was taken from the window of the bus on the way to the plateau.
