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.

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

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.tofugu.com/2008/11/06/obama-city-japan-celebrates-for-some-reason/feed/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/10/18/price-of-gasoline-in-japan/ http://www.tofugu.com/2008/10/18/price-of-gasoline-in-japan/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 06:59:09 +0000 koichi http://www.tofugu.com/?p=935

Today when driving around my local area (in Oregon, USA), I saw a gas station that was selling gas for $2.99 a gallon. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it under $3, which is great in some resepcts, but not so great in others (I’m not going to get into politics right now).

Then, when I got home, I found an article on Treehugger that talked about a website which shows the price of gas all around the world. I was surprised to see that Japan wasn’t one of the most expensive places in the world (though don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty darn expensive!). There were places that cost almost $10 a gallon. Can you imagine that? I can’t.

So as you can see there, as of July 2008, gas in japan was around $6.44 a gallon (though I’m guessing it went down a bit, if trends are the same here as they are there). Another thing to note is that Japan is the world’s second largest importer of gas, which probably also adds to some of the price (not to mentiont they’re an island, so everything’s a bit more expensive).

So, next time you try to complain about gasoline, just think about Japan, and how much they have to pay (unless you live somewhere like Norway, Finland, or the Gaza Strip). Gaza Strip hits $25+ a gallon. Insane, yeah? I think you’ll find in Japan that there’s a good enough train system to get you almost anywhere you want. Thank goodness they built this up before the oil prices went up. If only America thought of this on a more national scale twenty years ago :(

Want to see more gas prices? Click here.

I came across this story on Flickr while looking for something completely different, which forced me to do some more searching on my own. Of course, the curse is in Wikipedia, as well as in Shane’s atypicallife, but you can read it right here as well. Possibly with a little more snarkiness. Maybe.

What/Who does the Colonel curse?

The Curse of Colonel Sanders is a curse brought down on the Japanese baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. Starting in 1985 until now, the Hanshin Tigers have never won the Japanese baseball equivalent of the World Series (The Japan Series). Supposedly, evil Mr. Sanders is the one preventing it.

How did they get Cursed?

In 1985, Hanshin Tigers beat the Seibu Lions and won their first Japan Series. A lot of the work was done by their gaijin star, Randy Bass (who was their MVP). After the Tigers won, fans were celebrating wildly in the streets. They gathered at the Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori, Osaka. For some reason (who knows why), they decided that they’d yell out the name of one of the Tigers’ players, and someone who resembles that player would jump off the bridge and into the canal. When they got to Randy Bass’ name, they didn’t have any white, bearded dude to jump into the river for them, so they took the local KFC’s Colonel Sanders statue (which can be found in front of most KFCs in Japan…don’t ask), and chucked it into the river. Because, yeah, all gaijin look alike (kind of like how all Asians look alike, right?). Look at the resemblance!

From here, the Hanshin Tigers had 18 years of bad seasons. There were a few seasons with rays of hope, but they were quickly smashed, letting the legend live on.

So, Are they still cursed?

Technically, yes. They got to the Japan Series in 2003, but then lost to the Fukuoka Hawks (Go Hawks! Ra Ra!). When they got to the Japan Series, 5300 people jumped into the canal (you see, the KFC statue was bolted down, this time), and actually one person died (sounds very cursey to me). There have been diving expeditions into the deep to recover the Colonel, but he was never found. Sounds like the Twilight Zone, to me.

What do YOU Think?

Psshh, hecks yes, I think they have a curse, though it could be my love for baseball that’s blinding all remaining bits of common sense. Maybe that’s why I still follow every Mariners game I can. How about you?

Vocab for This Article:

★野球　(yakyuu)
Baseball

★ケンタッキー　(Kentakkii)
KFC / Kentucky Fried Chicken

★ケンチキ　(Kenchiki)
KFC / Kentucky Fried Chicken

★呪い　(noroi)
Curse

★カーネルサンダースの呪い　(Kaaneru Sandaasu no noroi)
Curse of Colonel Sanders

If you’ve been around a while, you’ll notice that the word “week” is missing from “Japan News week in review.” If you’ve been around a while, you’ll also know that these never come out once a week. So, in order to put a little less pressure on writing these too often (and thus becoming a Japanese news blog, which is something I don’t want to do), I’ll just write them as I gather enough news that I want to write about. That way, they’ll come when they come, and hopefully slightly more often. “Japan News in Review” doesn’t cover all the important news, just the stuff I like. So, here we go! And, down at the bottom is some Tofugu news, even, so if you’re interested in that kind of thing it’ll be down there somewhere.

Japan News August 1 - August 12:

“WhatJapanThinks” of Dinosaurs: WhatJapanThinks translated a survey for us done by the MyVoice internet community. They asked 13,867 of their members via a private questionnaire everything you’d ever want to know about dinosaurs. Questions ranged from simple things, like, “Are you interested in dinosaurs” to more useless information (though, not much less useful, honestly), such as “If you were reborn as a dinosaur, what kind of dinosaur would you like to be” (I would be Earl from the TV show Dinosaurs). Of course, if you head over to WhatJapanThinks, you can find out the answers to all your burning dinosaur questions. [source]

McDonalds Japan Raises Prices Again: You know the economy is having trouble when McDonalds has to raise prices. You know that we’re having trouble with obesity when people actually care. McDonalds cronies say that prices will rise by less than five percent (dollar menu becomes dollar five cent menu?) Apparently, “costs of meat, bread, potatoes, and other ingredients are expected to increase by about 10 billion yen during the current business year.” That’s approximately 90 million dollars of increase for poor McDonalds. Wow. [source]

Japan is Home to the Oldest Women in the World: Maybe this explains why Japan has been getting into old people porn lately (link is safe for work, surprisingly). Japanese ladies born in 2007 are expected, on average, to live until they are 86 years of age. Men on the other hand, are going to be living until they’re 79 (which is third in the world behind Iceland and Hong Kong). People who know what they’re talking about say this is because of good diets and social ties (not sure how that makes a huge difference, but I suppose that’s why they know what they’re talking about). This will only contribute to Japan’s aging problem, where a larger and larger percentage of the Japanese population are old, and nobody’s having babies. Robots for the future win, I say. [source]

Rare Texas Star Fungus Appears in Nara: So now, if you don’t like friendly deer or beautiful temples, Nara has become home to a very rare fungus, only found in Central Texas, as well as two remote areas of Japan. It gets its star shape from when it releases its spores. It starts out like a cigar, then it splits open (and makes an audible hiss, aparently). Think explosive Looney Tunes cigar, Road Runner era (beep beep). If you want to have a chance to find one of these things, they seem to grow on dead oaks near streams. If you want to learn more about these things, check out the [source].

Murasaki Robot Regales the Tale of Genji: Now, I suppose I don’t claim to be the biggest reader of important novels (possibly the first novel ever, actually), but this is a little too much. I had to read this book a while back, and I don’t think having a small robot reading it to me will make it any more enjoyable. The robot is modeled after Lady Murasaki, supposed author of the novel, and will do robotic movements to add emphasis to Genji’s pimpedness. [source]

Takeru Kobayashi FINALLY Beats Joey Chestnut: If you’ve followed Tofugu for a little bit, you’ll know our extreme passion when it comes to Takeru Kobayashi and his lack of winning as of late. This guy broke all the records. He put competitive eating into the public eye. Then, he breaks our heart with multiple losses against Joey Chestnut. In his last contest, Kobayashi actually beat Chestnut by eating 385 sticks of satay, which, according to Wikipedia consists of chunks or slices of dice-sized meat. According to the picture, it’s covered in funky yellow stuff. Good job Kobayashi, you’ve finally got us to write a non-seppuku-worthy story about you. [source]

Tofugu News

New Fan Art Section: We recently got a nice email from a nice artist named Priscilla, who drew us a bit of fan art. Now, we promised ourselves we wouldn’t be so self centered to add a fan art section before getting any fan art, so we patiently waited, and it finally happened! Thank you Priscilla! Go check out our fan art section. You’ll also find images from the (failed) postcard contest from a while back. If you’ve got the inkling to break out some MS Paint and doodle yourself something for this page, we’ll put it up, then we’ll give you some electronic email high fives.

What? Newsletter? Actually Coming? A looonnggg lonnnggg time ago I wrote the first Tofugu newsletter. Now, a lonnng time sine then, another one is coming, and this time, with more regularity…As in, once a month at the most regularity. It finally has a vision. It finally has a purpose. If you’re interested in it, as well as some special Newsletter-only content, then you should go sign up for it before it’s too late. You never know when it will suddenly appear in your inbox! You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Last Chance to Get some Candy, not last chance to Follow us on Twitter: You’ve got around 24 hours to have a chance to win some awesomely tasty Gumi candy from us by following us on Twitter. All you have to do is sign up for Twitter (if you haven’t already) and hit the follow button on our page. You’ll get updates mostly on things relating to Japan, but maybe a few other things as well. Contest ends at the end of August 12, so that leaves you, not too much time left…or no time left, depending on when you read this. Either way, check it out!

It’s been a year since the last “Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest” at Coney Island, when reigning king (at the time) of eating food “really really fast” lost his title, and his world record, to San Jose’s Joey Chestnut. This makes me sad. I thought for sure he would come back with a victory, regaining his honor.

Still, Kobayashi did actually manage to tie Joey Chestnut with 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (it was 12 minutes in years previous), but lost it in overtime, where they had to eat 5 hot dogs faster than each other. It seems that now, though, both of them hold the record for most hot dogs eaten in 10 minutes, so that’s something I suppose.

I remember seeing a little blurb about Kobayashi on TV when I was in Japan. They wanted to find out how such a skinny guy was able to eat so many hot dogs. They followed him to a ramen shop where he at a ridiculous amount of ramen. They then did a cat scan, or something, where they found out his stomach was much larger than a normal human’s. If I remember correctly (and let me know if I’m wrong), it’s 3 times as large as a normal stomach. Not sure where there’s room for that, but apparently it’s there.

He also uses a special technique when eating hot dogs - they call it the “Solomon Method.” Basically, he breaks the hot dogs in half and stuffs both sides into his mouth and swallows it that way. Whatever works, I suppose. Not surprisingly, though, hot dogs aren’t his favorite food. His five favorite things to eat are cold tofu, Yogurt, Plain Bagels with Cream Cheese and Lox, Royal Milk Tea, and Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

Here is a list of his matches. It’s really interesting to see his improvement. You would expect a professional eater to just be able to eat until his stomach is all full, but apparently there is a lot of training that goes into it.

-2001: Ate 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes (shattering the previous record of a mere 25). He gained 8 pounds during this contest.
-2002: Ate 50 and one half hot dogs.
-2003: Ate 44 and one half hot dogs.
-2004: Ate 53 and one half hot dogs, getting a new record
-2005: Ate 49 hot dogs
-2006: Ate 53 and three quarters hot dogs, getting another world record. He also became world champion at eating bratwurst (I imagine this contest was a bit tastier) by eating 58 sausages in 10 minutes.
-2007: World record was broken by Joey Chestnut, who ate 59 and one half hot dogs in 12 minutes. Later that year they went head to head, and even though Kobayashi ate a ridiculous 63 hot dogs, Chestnut bested him by eating 66.
-2008: Kobayashi loses a tie-breaker to Chestnut in a “who can eat 5 hot dogs the fastest contest.” Both of them ate 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes (that’s really fast).

It’s obvious he’s not “losing it,” he has improved in the last few years. It’s just that there’s finally someone better than him eating lots of hot dogs. So, the question is, can Kobayashi keep improving and eventually beat Chestnut? I suppose it all depends on where their limits are, and I’m not sure if they’ve reached them yet.

[image source]
[information source]

Remember back in the day when Nara’s new mascot was supposed to be the creepy baby deer man (sounds similar to manbearpig, yeah?) shown crossed out above? Well, it seems as though the public outcry was strong enough, and Nara will be getting a much more attractive mascot called “Manto-Kun.” Definitely an improvement, though, you could put poop on a stick and it would still be better.

Apparently there was a contest that decided this (our contest was first, though!), and although the creepy baby mascot will still be the “official” mascot, the one chosen on this site will be used by everyone anyways. Here’s all the ex-potentials. Obviously the one above was the one that was chosen.

#3: Really reminding me of Kirby. You know how he does that pose on Super Smash? Isn’t that the same pose??
#5: Looks like the dog is about to pee on that temple
#6: Everyone loves plaid
#7: Pretty diggin’. Looks kind of like our tofugu, actually.
#10: I didn’t even know there was a Red Robin restaurant in Japan…
#16: What’s up with the green rock?
#17: Creepy backwards head turtle?
#22: Super Mario Deer?
#27: “I’m gonna beat you up, kid”
#20 & 21: Look awfully similar…

So there you have it, number 8, as you know, was chosen as the new “unofficial” Nara 1300th anniversary mascot. I like that one a lot, though I suppose #7 was pretty sweet as well. Really, all of these are a vast improvement over creepy baby dude.

Thanks to the rockin’ folks at Rocking in Hakata for bringing it to my attention. Check it out!