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.
ミュータントフロッグトラベロッグは、日本やアジア諸国の文化・政治情勢・技術を英語で紹介するためのブログとして誕生しました。タイトルを日本語に訳すと「変異体蛙の旅行日記」になりますが、意味はないので気にしないでください（詳しくはミュータントフロッグ君に聞いてください）。旅行中で撮った写真や、日本語のニュースから選ばれたオモシロ記事の英訳を主に掲載しています。
編集者は私（アダム）とミュータントフロッグ君、アメリカ人二人です。二人とも日本に２年住んだこともあり、日本やアジアに興味深いです。このブログは、あくまで暇つぶしに過ぎないかもしれませんが、基本的にアジアに対する理解を深めるのが私たちの目的です。
そこで、このブログに日本語コーナーを設けることにしました。 Continue reading ミュータントフロッグ日本語版へようこそ（ミッションステートメント（使命声明）
That’s the title of my new song, as yet unwritten. It harks back to the days when long, parenthetical song titles dotted the top 10. I like to think it’s something Jello Biafra would come up with.
OK, so what is this concept? This is something that the President has been touting, especially in reference to Social Security. But here are some key areas: Continue reading The Ownership Society (Makes me want to puke)
Today was quite the day. The gf had her bag stolen today so we spent the afternoon trying to track down the culprit. She was in the basement of the library and left her bag unattended for two seconds when some crackhead-looking guy made off with it. She lost $200, her license, a nice wallet, her bag that went to India and Canada with her, her Social Security card, and the guy used her credit cards to buy dog food and a tank of gas of all things.
When we cancelled her credit cards it showed what he bought and where, and it looked like the cops werent gonna do shit so we went and checked it out. The guy left an authentic looking signature on the receipt at the pet store in addition to showing up on camera, and the gas station manager was very cooperative and said he’d help us out in the morning.
Our hope is that the gas station caught his car, so we can get a model and make and maybe the plates. Then we can submit the signature and the car info to the cops and ask them to run it for people with records in the area. At first i didnt even take a photocopy of the receipt at the pet store because i assumed the cops would come check things out. But then i tried calling them with the info and the woman who answered was a BITCH. We asked to talk to the officer we were speaking with before and she was like ‘he’s gone try back tomorrow at 7am’ and then took down our info really curtly.
All in all it was kind of fun playing detective, although not quite $200 worth of fun. I’ll let you know what kind of dogs the guy has if we catch him.
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 . . .
Osaka Prefecture to Enact New Law
On Jan. 18th, Osaka Prefecture affirmed its intention to preserve local mass culture from Noh theater to Rakugo, Manzai, and Takoyaki with the “Osaka Culture Law.” After submitting it to the local legislature in February they expect to enact it by April. According to prefectural authorities, 8 other prefectures already have similar laws, such as Hokkaido, Tokyo, and Kumamoto, but this is a first for the Kansai region. Continue reading Protecting Manzai and Takoyaki
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
