Although it is non-news* and only a Japanese-American flight of fancy, this “urban jewelry” by Emiko Oye is an amazing bit of recycled magic in that the Japanese model’s privates seem to be M.I.A..
For more information read the report on The San Francisco Chronicle | August 11, 2010:
…Popluation Control 2.0 by Emiko Oye of San Francisco, who creates urban jewelry and sculptures from recycled materials like Legos and circuit boards, in combination with precious metals and gemstones…more…
According the Japan Meteorological Agency, Tokyo’s tepid typhoon today, No. 9 (R) is just a whippy windbag, but it is still blowing out umbrellas all over town right now.
However, I saw on the lunchtime news on TBS (Goggle Translate) this badass (BLUNT) brolly that can withstand winds of more than 117 km/h (73 mph) and also prevents gouging out the eyes of passersby with the tips. Watch the video below.
Throughout the TV news report they did not make any mention about the fact that the product was of alien origin!
All the product information provided by the TBS TV (shown on the left) was in Japanese, as was the price, 6,300 yen.
This theme of umbrellas in today’s Tokyo rains reminds me of the kinky poster campaign of the Tokyo Metro* warning folks not to “PISTON” in the station (3Yen.com | 2009-06-15).
In the crush of Tokyo’s crowded trains that run at 150-250% of standing room capacity, oddly somehow there’s always an empty seat next to a gaijin/alien. While having that extra space is pleasant, the implication of The Empty Seat can be grating as my fellow blogger, “Loco” explains…
…. just relax and ignore it, I’ve told myself
umpteen hundred times since my arrival here
and today was no different. It was just too
blatant! The empty seat beside me, on the
crowded train, exclaimed what the people and
the culture would find unseemly to say
verbally: : we don’t trust you, we don’t like
you and we don’t want you here.…more…
Find many more examples of the gaijin seat phenomenon in the Comments section…
Convenience store robber wearing disposable diapers on his head takes 140,000 yen — South Korean man arrested *machine-translatedJiji3Yen News | September 5, 2010
Nerima Ward, Tokyo– Last week a robber burst into a convenience store and escaped with 140,000 yen the according to the Shakujii-district police. The robbery suspect was a 55 year old South Korean[1] creatively named “Kim.”
According to the police, Kim burst into the store wearing disposable diapers over his head with holes for his eyes. Kim was said to be using adult diapers on a daily basis because he was suffering from a urinary stones[2] .
At around 5:02 am on August 25, at a Nerima convenience store the suspect theatened the store’s male clerk with a knife by chasing, stabbing at him and yelling in English[3], “Money, Money!” before being caught while escaping with all the store’s cash of 140,000 yen [about $1,660 USD].
The rest-of-the-story subtext of this Diaper-Man news report makes this more interesting…
[1] Most likely Diaper-Man was a 2nd generation Korean born and raised in Japan as as member of a despised Korean underclass (Wiki).[2]The Tokyo heat wave (3Yen | 2010-09-02) of the past months would have wildly increased the number and agony of Diaper-Man’s urinary stones (Wiki), which I have heard some mothers describe as more painful than their childbirth.[3] Japanese robbers in Japan often use English in their crimes to throw the police off their trail and give the foreigner-hating Japanese police an excuse to round up foreigners as suspects. In this case, the robber used English because the Japanese store clerk would otherwise immediately recognize that the robber spoke native Japanese and was born and raised in Japan.
* Fair use — Parody —
This extract from the Japanese
vernacular press has been
loosely translated/summarized
under the principle of “fair use”
and so is the Japanese Captain
Underpants picture composite.
Since the 3Yen blog software is broken, I thought I would repost stuff from my friend’s blogs, such as the Jersey Shore look has hit Japan….
Tokyo Damage Report | 2010/09/04:soul japan magazine, …Japanese men have tried to adopt American rap apparel, with mixed results.
Now the purveyors of manly clothes are back, and they've found a much better American look: