Often mistaken* for baby Buddha, 
Osaka has a full-blown shrine built for its faux-Kwepie god, a commercial, copyrighted, Kewpie-like Billiken© doll and the locals have been seriously praying to it since 1912.
Since Billiken© was created and copyrighted in 1908, the Tsutenkaku Tower Corporation who owns the Billiken© Shrine put on a birthday party complete with a mega-creapy mascot god as you can see below in the screenshot from NHK public TV: Billiken’s 100th birthday celebrated at landmark tower in Osaka (Mainichi News, March 31, 2008).
Comparative religion—additional notes
Holy Action Figures
–via the WFMU blog
Kachina Spirits top
Holy Action Figures bottom
The idea for juxtaposition of Hopi Kachina Dolls in Phoenix, Arizona and Japanese Action Toys in a museum in Tokyo came from Benjamen Walker in the WFMU blog. However, I doubt if the original author, Mr. Walker, knows how close these “Holy Action Figures” are to the “truth” in Japan.
For example, at the Godzilla statue in Ginza there are always Shinto-eque offerings of sake, called “omiki.” left for the Godzilla spirit…Yeah! A drunk Godzilla Spirit–that’s what Tokyo needs!
Japan’s Gov’t to Evaluate Safety of Nanomaterials
Nikkei Business Online, Mar 5, 2008 21:03
…”study group on nanomaterial safety” will discuss how to assess safety and what safety measures should be implemented amid the rapid advancement of nanotechnology applications and development, which has resulted in the possible health effects of nanomaterials uncertain…Labour Standards Bureau under the ministry issued to the director of the labour department in every prefecture on Feb 7, 2008.
In this notice, the bureau required efforts to seal manufacturing facilities, manage processes so workers are not exposed to nanomaterials and require that workers wear dust masks and other items to protect their breathing…more…
The potential dangers are not obvious–on the nanoscale, nature itself creates all kinds of nano objects. However, nanoparticles can pass the blood-brain barrier, which could make benign, seemingly non-toxic materials potentially harmful when inhaled or ingested (as well as beneficial as delivery vehicle of medications).
And then there is the “Grey goo” end-of-the-world scenario that replicating nanomachines run amok and consume everything. Fun hey?
Mo’ betta’ that Obey Kitty is…
OBEY OBAMA!
This “Hope” poster in the style of the “Obey Giant” of
Shepard Fairey has even showed up here on the streets of uber-trendy Daikanyama-Shibuya, Tokyo. As far the Japanese are concerned, Barack Obama represents hope for the otherwise wacked-out America as you can watch in this CNN Tokyo report,
Obama boom in Japan.
In addition, the
AP reports that, “Germans are gaga over Barack Obama. He’s got Japan pretty jazzed, too”.
Directly above is the Japanese cover of Obama’s current best seller in Japan.
UPDATE:
STLtoday.com - 01/18/2008 8:01 am
The passing of eccentric chess genius Bobby Fischer in Iceland this week didn’t trigger widespread mourning.
“People would feel a lot worse about him croaking if he wasn’t such a creep,” Dom Imus observed on his WABC radio show.
Chess legend Garry Kasparov was a bit more tactful after learning of Fischer%u2019s death. %u201CThe tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess,%u201D he told the Associated Press.
Condolences to his concurrent widows Miyoko Watai, Justine Ong, et al and his unclaimed children.
AP Radio news at 9pm Japan Tine, featured a 2005 sound bite of Fischer leaving Japan and calling Prime Minister Koizumi a ‘stooge‘ but they cut the part about “Koizumi the cunt”.
USHIKU, Japan - Chess legend Bobby Fischer waves as he prepares to leave Japan at New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, near Tokyo, after being freed Thursday, March 24, 2005, after nearly nine months in detention. …more…
Damn. All that Bobby really wanted was a stiff drink.
According to Bobby’s Live Radio Interview #30 , he whined about “the fact that alcoholic beverages which are so vitally important to a person’s health are strictly banned” for prisoners at the East Japan Immigration Detention Center, in Ushiku, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. On the other hand he observed that:
“Cigarettes, which of course are pure poison, are freely available in unlimited quantities in the prison and tax free at that!…There are only 2 possibilities we can think of: Either the Japanese government is composed of ignorant fools or else they’re deliberately trying to debilitate and kill their prisoners. We think the latter is much more likely”¦…more… ”
Also read the old 3Yen posts…
–Chess Legend, Bobby Fischer, Now Hates Japan Too
–BOBBY FISCHER HELD BY JAPANESE CANNIBALS!
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–Iceland offers chess legend and genocide supporter Bobby Fischer ASSylum
–Boxing for Bobby Fischer
Today is Coming-of-Age Day [Seijin no hi], when everyone who turns the age 20 during the year celebrates official adulthood by dressing up in kimono, listening to dull ceremonies and getting silly drunk.
Coming on second Monday in January, this makes a 3-day holiday weekend here in Japan as I said in my previous 3Yen post, Yoga dog holiday. Local Japanese right-wing crazies—the Uyoku—use this day to harangue the tipsy kimono girls and oblivious-n-goofy guys stumbling wooden geta clogs with their Black Vans’ loudspeakers blaring ultra-nationalist right-wing tripe as you can see the video below by my buddy, “GuyJean.”
via tokyodv.com
Coming of Age Day!–Babes and Big Black Busses…
Click to watch video.
UPDATE!
Other than my somewhat scary photo above of a Coming-of-Age-Day kimono girl, be sure to see the much better photos photos at NeilDuckett.com.
The Coming Of Age Festival - Seijin no hi, NeilDuckett.com, Jan. 14, 2008
Read more on about Japanese Coming of Age Day seijin no hi (成人の日) at Wikipedia.org.
Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, skipped out of his post last September without any warning. Two days before his sudden sayonara, he delivered a policy speech in parliament in which he vowed to continue his job. Finally, the smelly rest-of-the-story has leaked out, hee, hee.
Japan’s Abe says diarrhoea ruined premiership
10 Jan 2008. TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe, once touted as the fresh young face who would usher in a new conservative era, has said he quit the post because of severe diarrhoea.
“I have come to think that, so as to gain understanding on why I resigned, I should make no secrets about my illness,” Abe said…more…
Cash-strapped city sells solid gold and silver dildo[dolls] for 200 million yen
MDN-Mainichi , December 2, 2007, KUROISHI, Aomori — Two solid gold and silver kokeshi*… have been auctioned off by the cash-strapped Kuroishi Municipal Government, despite reluctance from local residents, with the successful bidder forking out about 200 million yen….more....
There’s two funny things about this story. First,
Kokeshi [こけし] is Japanese slang for dildo That is, the traditional kokeshi doll has a narrow cylindrical body and bulbous head that resembles the shape a penis—and the city managers thought this would be a fun way to spend a windfall with from the central government.
One of the weird legacies of the “Bubble Economy” of the late 1980s was that the central government gave 100 million yen tax grants–no-strings-attached–to small rural cities but those cities had no mechanism to spend such money so many, many local governments bought blocks of gold made them into statues and displayed them in their town hall or city museum. Notice that I said 100 million yen (a little less than 1 million US dollars) and these golden dildos sold for 200 million yen—that’s a tidy profit in Japan were bank savings accounts only yield 0.025%.
For more on the real kokeshi dolls, see Wikipedia and visit our sponsor J-List.
“ LA LA la la la la I can’t hear you! LA LA LA la …” —Fingers in ears, Japan’s new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
Actually, Reuters says that this is just PM Fukuda adjusting his interpretation headset as he strains to listen during the final news conference at the 13th ASEAN Summit (Association of South East Asia Nations) in Singapore November 21, 2007.
Japan publisher challenges genitals picture ban
TOKYO (Reuters) Nov. 15, 2007 — A publisher has taken to Japan’s top court his eight-year fight over the banning of imported images of male genitals in a book of pictures by the late American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe…..
…Japan’s domestic obscenity laws were relaxed in the 1990s to allow pictures of pubic hair, but imported publications are handled by customs and it still bans images of genitals…In 1992, four of the raunchiest photos in Madonna’s book “Sex” were scratched out by Japanese censors. But a Japanese language edition was published untouched a few months later…more..
Japanese ideas of what is “pornography” are unique.
Japanese censorship laws prohibit genitals from being seen but otherwise they are able to express anything… rape and slashing of pregnant teen nuns is OK—Mapplethorpe’s artsy-fartsy, black and white, gay photos like my parody below is not. Sheesh.
Japanese fire water cannon at Chinese protesters in disputed territory, activists say
HONG KONG (AP) — Japanese patrol vessels fired water cannon Sunday at a boat carrying Chinese activists who were protesting Japanese claims to territory in the East China Sea…A boat carrying the protesters arrived near the disputed islets — known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and Senkaku in Japan — on Sunday evening…more…
It’s no secret that China and Japan hate each other…even with squirt guns if need be…. and, it doesn’t help that Japan seized these “islands” in 1895 when it colonized Taiwan and China has been itching to get them back ever since. The-rest-of-the-story is that these aren’t even real islands—just rocks–and Japan wants to retain control control to keep its fishing rights and potential oil resources in the area even though they are far away from Japan and right next to China as shown in the map below.
Read more about these silly shoals and rocks—”terra nullius” in Wikipedia.
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