Obama-City, Japan Celebrates for some reason

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I’m not sure why, but the city of Obama (Japan) is celebrating for some reason…did something happen recently that I’m not aware of? Who the heck is this guy in the picture anyways?

I kid, I kid. It’s no secret that Japan loves Obama (not to mention most of the modern world), but if the name of your city is Obama, then that means you’ve got to jump on this opportunity to make your city a little famous, and possibly get a few tourist dollars out of it as well (er…maybe not dollars. Nobody wants those anymore).

Our friends over at TokyoMango dug up this video of the Obama-city folks celebrating the President Elect.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4hX23r3Dpo']

Here’s another one from the same Youtube Channel of a guy handing out Obama-Burgers. Then, an interview with him.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dG_POQ-pE0']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ18RsxqytA']

After Obama had won the election, they partied in Obama City like it was 1979 (just made that date up). According to RNW…

The locals in Obama followed election night on television screens in a special centre set up in a museum. It was a festive atmosphere with women performing Hawaiian dances, in reference to the years Barack Obama’s spent in Hawaii as a child.

Anyways, I know myself and the Tofugu staff look forward to a brighter future (yep, we’re all hippies and liberals here). Oh, and this is my 100th post! What a good way to kick off the future.

  • http://www.myspace.com/poznanman TicTaek

    Nothing like being in Obama, eating an Obama burger while dancing the Obama dance depicting the celebration of the Obama win. So Rad!!!

  • Chris_paros

    Hahaha, you said it!! Obama FTW!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    damn, us Americans just don't know how to celebrate Obama's victory :P

  • http://sexy-kawaii.blogspot.com Lisa

    That's not the only Obama in Japan, either! There's one on Kyushu too. :)

  • QuinsY

    Wow, That is pretty cool!!

  • Zaywex

    Obama's Hawaiin, that's reason enough for the Japanese to go crazy over him.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    To be precise, he's not actually part Hawaiian (to my knowledge). People who grew up or live in Hawaii don't call themselves “Hawaiian” because it's misleading. Just kind of had to point that out. But I know what you mean. Obama city even sent their Obama girls over to see him when he was there! I'm sad I missed them.

  • emiko

    hmm . . . i heard about this on the radio . . . i think that is pretty cool . . . kinda strange that they are more festive about our politics than some americans are . . . nice article!

  • WOTDsctoo

    Hahaha, I'm in love with the Obama dance. XD
    Thank you SO much for bringing this to my attention.

  • Ryan

    This was the first election I was old enough to participate in and I was happy to help give him Oregon's electoral votes with my ballot! :D

  • http://myspace.com/805x Sam watashi wa

    wahaha “o-b-a-ma o-bama”

    and then burgers
    very very wonderful
    lol. nice 100th post

  • http://thedanielrichard.com Daniel Richard

    Haha. That's cos the city's has the same name as the new president of America now. They sure know how to have fun along with the victory.

  • Michael

    Man, if I weren't sick enough of hearing about Obama up until now, I have 8 more years to put up with it. Frankly, I didn't want a socialist like Obama to win, and I didn't want a religious nut like McCain to win. Corrupt two party political systems for… the… lose.

  • St

    Michael a socialist is by definition someone who wants to nationalize all the means of production, thereby ushering in the dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. If by socialist you mean what it means in continental Europe, i.e. “social-democrat”, then I don't see what's wrong with that. But it makes you feel better Obama isn't even nearly as left-wing as most continental European social-democrats. As a matter of fact he already picked Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff, a solid rightwinger on many issues.

    Also, McCain isn't a religious nut, he just picked one as his VP candidate to placate that part of the base.

  • http://www.luiyuming.com astrorainfall

    LOL at Obama burgers….kawaii ne.

    Love it that Obama won! Yippeeeeeeeee!!

  • http://www.edufire.com/arky Arky

    That's pretty awesome.

    Unfortunately over here there hasn't been that big of a deal made over the elections which is a little bit sad :/

  • Momiji_Hunny_Bunny

    To everyone saying that the americans didnt party hard like the japanese, you guys obviously didnt party @ the right place. I live inbetween 2 hbcu's and I thought the world was gonna explode because they were so loud. lol Yaaaay 4 Obama!

  • JapaneseLivingInTheUS

    As Japanese, I am embarrassed about these ppl. They have no clue what Obama's policy is. They have no clue about American politics. They were cheering for Obama for the name sake, for their own PR. That's sad.

  • mmnessa

    give 'em a break! it's a small town right
    for some reason I keep thinking of Tama the Cat…

  • http://www.erisabetsu.blogspot.com Erisabetsu

    Come on give them a break, they just wanted to find an excuse for party.

  • Eevee

    Hey, how 'bout that Stephen Harper?

    xD Sorry, as a Canadian I felt I should put my own country out there. Just for the sake of my Socials class, how about we test some of those stereotypes about Americans? Any of you hear about the Canadian election? Even knew we were having one? What our leader is called? (and I don't mean his name).

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    Please.. We Americans aren't the only ones that don't care about the Canadian elections :P

    The nation of Quebec is the only nation that really cares. (I kid, I kid. Hopefully that gives me some Canadian street cred).

  • JetGo

    What they don't know is:

    Republican = Pro-Japan
    Democrat = Pro-China

    They should have cheered McCain.

    Historically the relationship between Japan and the US were better with republican. Not to forget, it was the democrat who bombed Hiroshima while republicans were against it.

    Also don't forget, it was the republicans who freed the slaves. Democrat wanted to keep them.

    How sad very little history people know.

  • MidgarZolom

    JetGo: If you think you can identify historical figures policies by the name of their party only, you are wrong. In fact, the further back you go, the less the party name has any resemblance to today.

    Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on some of Lincoln's policies:

    “Thus, he signed the Homestead Act in 1862, making millions of acres of government-held land in the West available for purchase at very low cost. The Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, also signed in 1862, provided government grants for agricultural universities in each state. The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 and 1864 granted federal support for the construction of the United States' First Transcontinental Railroad, which was completed in 1869. Other important legislation involved economic matters, including the first income tax and higher tariffs. Also included was the creation of the system of national banks by the National Banking Acts of 1863, 1864, and 1865, which allowed the creation of a strong national financial system. Congress created and Lincoln approved the Department of Agriculture in 1862, although that institution would not become a Cabinet-level department until 1889.”

    I would laugh if anyone thinks this is the kind of policy that matches today's Republican (the part about income tax should be enough to settle that). If anything, Lincoln would be a Democrat by today's standard. And if we use common sense, it's pretty safe to say that the tree-hugger hippie liberals would be the ones freeing the slaves, not the rednecks shouting “kill the terrorist” at McCain rallies.

  • http://nekonomanga.blogspot.com Jomann

    in a way yeah, but also japanese people love black Americans for whatever reason too. And they pretty much avoid white Americans. or at least thats what I've noticed a lot. Go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong.

  • Eevee

    ahaha. True, but as our neighbours you'd think Americans would be the first to hear. Plus, that would give us a little more publicity, being such a small, never-heard-of country.

    Ah yes, Quebec gets quite riled up about Canadian elections, being mistakenly associated with us and all…

  • Michael

    You are looking at it from an absolutist viewpoint. Your definition of socialism is a bit skewed too. Socialism, in a general sense just means the means of production is owned by a group, be it a group of people within a larger group, or nationalizing it. It also means, to spread it all around “fairly”, even if the individual isn't inputting their fair share of work or resources. This is my problem with it.

    IF people could be trusted to do what they could, and trusted to work to better themselves, that would be fine. However, I am sure you have heard the saying “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy”, and this is so with socialism. When you tell people that we are implementing a system that will allow them to mooch off of their neighbors hard work, a disgusting number of them were “yanked up” in such a criminally irresponsible manner that they will do just that. This is my problem with socialism. Socialist policies are a resounding theme in the democratic party. Obama is very, very leftist (no matter what you say), and he IS a socialist at heart. Obama is a socialist, and he spoke right to the souls of the people who want to mooch off of other people. They responded in droves, and elected him president. If it weren't for his mobilization of the “no loads” in this country, he would NOT have won.

    As for McCain, I may have been a little hasty on the religious nut comment, but he did choose Palin to run alongside him. The republicans are known for their religious zealotry, how many democrats do you see putting yard signs up pushing for the banning of gay marriage? Why is it any of their business what 2 consenting adults do with their life? I tell you why, because they want to legislate from their bible. This generally also includes banning abortion, because the bible says a person is born at conception and has a soul, and this same thing applies to embryonic stem cell research. There are more examples of republicans being unable to legislate from a secular position due to their brainwashing at the pulpit.

    Who would I want to have won in the last election? Both sides are corrupt and morally bankrupt, but I would rather take my chance with McCain than Obama. Obama is going to tax my employer into the ground, and cause me to lose my job. All so he can prop up the lazy people who won't even try to better themselves. Hell, I guess if you can't beat them, join them. I'm not sure my pride can take the hit, but its worth a try.

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    QQ

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    Republican Party that freed the slaves =/= GOP

  • missy

    Oddly enough, I've experienced the exact opposite… : /

  • altonet

    Awsome Obama burgers! ^___^

  • Mary

    I want an Obama burger too.

  • St

    Michael I'm not really interested in your rather unnuanced analysis of poverty, but you can't twist definitions any way you like. Calling anyone left of the GOP base (“Some call you the elite, I call you my base.”) socialist is like calling everybody who is not a member of the CPUSA a libertarian. Obama is not a cultural or an economic leftist, point. Why else do you think the American left (The Nation, Daily Kos, etc. etc…) is already disappointed with his picks for his administration?

  • Erly

    I don't know about everyone else, but I got like 4 free coffees from Starbucks(and a free silver bullet from Babeland-haha) – so I could stay up and watch the election. Except that he won around 8:30 PST… so it was helpful later when thousands of people were throwing a dance party on Capitol Hill, provided with music from Nieghbors… who had moved all of their speakers to the roof. Definitely a night I will remember for a long time.

  • Jamar

    Actually, there are some 20-odd political parties in America. If everybody decided to search out the party that suited them instead of relying on the media to bring them to the spotlight there'd be less to complain about.
    And if you think Obama's socialist, there's actually still a Communist party in America. They never really get any votes, but…

  • Warsun99

    OK for starters I'm going to say i am an African American and i was going to vote for the other guy but because the government offices refused to give me my voters registration card due to me being Afr.Amer i voted for Obama online using my Social Security Number because the government was being a butthole towards me.

    They figured just because I'm a Afr.Amer i was going to automatically vote for him. Like when i voted for R.Reagan as a joke an was shocked that he won! But to be frank. Obama is not the idea of what we call a Black American and his administration team is full of people who have made BIG mistakes in there lives.

    As for Japan favoritism his election i can say this. I believe they now honestly think Anyone born in American can be a president. Where as before they would have never believed it. Also they see it as No more dealing with the white men! And for those of you who don't know what i mean. They mean being ripped off by white business men. This has happened for years. Constantly being threatened and having there judgements questioned or interrupted by the presidents intentions. Or His staffs intentions.

    Believe it or not there are racist people still in politics. Obama i would not say is a racist. However hes not a member of the what you say Black community. He is more of the Cuban culture. Which is NOT Black. Already on TV you are seeing a change in programing.

    Where african americans are showing up more often on TV where as in normaly they would only show a poster of a news paper image for about 11 seconds of a African American. Now there being representitives on television all of a suddent. Pretty pathetic huh?

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    Stem cells in an organism of the adult person are developed by a bone brain. It is their basic source, but it is far not the unique. Also stem cells are found out and in a fatty fabric, a skin, muscles, a liver, lungs, an eye retina, practically in all bodies and organism fabrics. They provide restoration of the damaged sites of bodies and fabrics.

  • Grant

    he is a nice man but his ideas in office bother my so fare

    P.s
    Post som videos they are more interisting and eaier for the visually impered.

    thank you for your time

  • joemama

    Obama is a bad president ,OBAMANATION!

  • cheru

    Political idealogy have changed since then. Welcome to the modern world.

  • cheru

    The Republican party freed the slave, but think of today. Today the Democrat Party is the one more willing to help those in poverty, hence, a lot of slave decendents.

  • cheru

    Political idealogy have changed since then. Welcome to the modern world.

  • cheru

    The Republican party freed the slave, but think of today. Today the Democrat Party is the one more willing to help those in poverty, hence, a lot of slave decendents.

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