‘Naked’ feel is in works for shoes
December 30, 2007 / ChicagoTribune.com—
…James Stoxen, a chiropractic physician at Team Doctors Treatment and Training Center in Chicago…. is working with Converse Footwear Co. in Japan to develop a shoe that allows the feet to flex. The company plans to launch it in Japan next spring. We may never see it here, but who knows how much that “naked” feel could catch on?…more...

Nike has given up promoting their popular niche-market “Air Rift” toe shoes and companies like Converse see an opportunity to the void. There’s even an underground market for Air Rifts on e-Bay. In addition, Vibram Corporation is selling their “FiveFingers” footwear (see right) for those who want to going barefoot with some protection and grip.

It’s no wonder that Converse is going to launch their ‘Naked’ shoes product in Japan where there is PRIOR ART for …

“Jikatabi“—often referred to as ‘Ninja Shoes’— the type worn by the ninja of long ago, and are still used today by Japanese workers who need more agility, safety and grip than regular construction boots. Japanese prefer Jikatabi [地下足袋] for their split toes and softness of their soles that gives tactile contact with the ground, as well as their gripping ability that allows workman to use their feet more agilely than rigid-soled shoes allow.
For example, Japanese iron workers who traverse steel girders on construction sites like to know what is under their feet, and Japanese craftsmen such as carpenters and gardeners additionally use their feet as if they were an extra pair of hands to hold objects in place.

(Jikatabi are available via our sponsor J-List.com.)

China kung fu monks seek apology for ninja affront
Fri Aug 31, 1:34 AM ET BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is demanding an apology from an Internet user who said its monks had once been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja, Chinese media reported on Friday...more…

Ahhh, an Internet “discussion” about martial arts is a certain guarantee having groups of teenagers arguing about which of their quasi-fictional superfighters has the has the most superpowers. Bah humbuggered By the Powers, mates. Pirates demand apology for the Shaolin snub of the superiority of Pirates. A hardy bunch of Pirates could swab the decks of whimpy ninja or Shaolin…. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

However, Lester Haines of the The Register put it best when he wrote:
…We’d like to suggest that before this gets out of hand the kung fu monks could settle the matter out of court by simply challenging Japan’s top ninja to 15 rounds in a pay-per-view WWF-style “Battle of the Titans”. The last Oriental standing could then go on to challenge aikido death machine Steven Seagal for the coveted “Hardest Man Alive” crown…more…

We had a little bump at 4:30am this morning— a 5.3 M earthquake off the coast of Chiba just east of Tokyo—so I have an early start today. Just as I was drifting off to sleep at 7am, the PA systems in the nearby park began cranking out at 110db, the Japanese “Radio Taiso/Exercise” song for the school kids on summer vacation.

Listen to the exercise song heard everyday throughout Japan via my MP3 podcast site, taro.podomatic.com:

Poor kids don’t even get to goof off for their already pathetically-short, 6-week vacation. Most students are forced to take part in these Stalinesque exercises for indoctrination in Japanese group-think (and more importantly to get them out of their mothers’ hair).

How do you like these “food stamp cards” shown below? As you can guess, this mysterious “STAMP CARD” needs to stamped as proof students have attended their morning exercises.

The Kampo home page has little animations like these and a full explanation (in Japanese) on how to do these Radio Taiso (ラジオ体操) exercises properly.

See the Wikipedia links to Rajio Taiso, and you should watch the music video by YMO showing of the true nature of Radio Taiso as well as the following videos too.

Podcast/audio lesson for aliens called:
Japanese lesson in English
Let’s create greater harmony with those who are different from us!

kodomo no koro no natsuyasumi to ieba,
子供の頃の夏休みといえば、
Speaking of summer vacation as a kid,

「rajio taisou」
「ラジオ体操」。
“radio gymnastic exercises”.

souchou kara okite,
早朝から起きて、
Getting up early in the morning,

sutanpu oshite morau ka-do wo kubi kara sagete,
スタンプ押してもらうカードを首から下げて、
with a stamp card dangling from my neck

majime ni ittotta wa~.
真面目に行っとったわ〜。
I would attend them earnestly.

koutei de rokuji han kara hajiman nen.
校庭で6時半から始まんねん。
It starts at six thirty in the schoolyard.

more….

Here is the official Japanese website with all the various Radio Taiso instructions.
Don’t worry about the Japanese—just click on all the links which will take to all the picture instructions on how to do the exercises: Kampo.japanpost.jp Radio Taiso.

Here’s a useful machine-translation from Japanese to English of the official Radio Taiso website

The “Muscle Musical” featuring twenty-four Japanese ex-athletes, many of them former Olympians and world champions, is starting a new show in Tokyo July 20th called “MATSURI” (meaning festival in Japanese). As you can see by their PR photos here, this performance trends toward a rather kitschy Los Vegas style display of acrobatic skills that will run through to September ninth.
See the official Japanese website: musclemusical.com/guide
Also check out the show’s Los Vegas website in English: matsuri.musclemusical.com

Edo period ukiyoe

Sumo association gets no new applicants
Japan Today - Monday, July 2, 2007, NAGOYA – Sumo’s status as Japan’s national sport has been jeopardized further as no one applied for the tests for new recruits for the first time ever, sumo officials said Sunday. The Japan Sumo Association was forced to cancel the tests scheduled for Monday after receiving no applications from would-be professionals prior to Sunday’s deadline…more…

Of course, the rest-of-the-story is far more “interesting.”

1) The first fun factiod is that nearly one-thirds of the top ranks of sumo—thirteen out of the 42—are are not Japanese. And, the two top sumo champions, Yokozuna, are now Mongolian—there are no Japanese in the champion class. Japanese folks have less interest because sumo itself is less “Japanese.”

2) A second sadder factiod is that sumo is killing its own.
According to MSN-Mainichi News, the sumo wrestler, Tokitaizan, died after collapsing during practice from so-called “heart failure” at age 17 on June 28. There are reports in the Japanese press that the boy’s body had a split ear, a swollen face and there was evidence of burns on his body from a cigarette. The dark secret in sumo is that abuse and hazing “builds character.”

In light of these facts, it’s understandable that no young Japanese guy wants to apply to the Sumo Association’s tests for recruits.

Draft horses, dragging heavy loads, being exercised last week at the racetrack in Obihiro

A Horse-Racing Tradition Lumbers Into Its Final Stretch
New York Times, December 25, 2006 / OBIHIRO, Japan— It was one of the last contests of the day at the draft-horse racetrack in this rural corner of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. The spotlights glimmered in the snow-streaked evening sky as the gamblers, who had been inside huddling around strategically placed portable kerosene heaters, took their spots alongside the track.…more…

Japanese draft horse racing may be fading but thoroughbred horseracing and offtrack betting still holds many older men’s wistful dreams in Japan. The Japanese thoroughbred superstar, “Deep Impact,” retired on the 24th, winning his final race. Despite his drug scandal after the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last October, (Wiki ref.), it has been ages since any Japanese horse could run this fast this long. Deep Impact will still be in the money as a stud but the 4-year-old failed to give Japanese horse racing the respect Japan it has long been hoping for—Maybe draft horses are the answer?

“The Running Fish Gutter” an Asics shoe commercial is the faux life-story of Kenshi, fish disembower–a guy who guts fish for the market— and his Olympic quest. It makes light of the often silly/obsessive extent the Japanese take their cultural value of “gambari” (頑張り) tenacity/endurance/never-say-die to absurd lengths. This often futile attitude that one must keep going no matter what—Gambarism (ガンバリズム ) gone bad.
Link thanks to Mulboyne

40-yr-old has best body!
The Peninsula On-line, 12/9/2006 3:29:52 ::: AGNS
DOHA—Hong Kong’s Chan Yun To, the reigning Asian 75kg bodybuilding champion, easily outclassed his competitors to win the gold medal [in the 15th Asian Games]….
Chan finished with a score of 10 in this evening’s final to win the top prize, ahead of Japan’s Yoshihiro Yano [age 42], who earned silver …
…at the age of 40, Chan showed his body is still in top form with his muscle definition and body symmetry far surpassing his opponents.…more…

At first this sounds odd—a 40 year old and a 42 year old taking the gold and silver in bodybuilding, respectively.
But actually, a bodybuilder’s biggest challenge is keeping the motivation going. The life of self-discipline to realize goals but that can be tough. On the other hand, these bodybuilders have results they can see late into life, unlike many sports where being 23 years old means retirement. I once met the four-gold-medal Olympics sprinter, Jesse Owens, at a Chicago promotion for PUMA shoes—He loved to repeat his sage advice about getting too wrapped up in sports: “A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.”

Doha, Qatar’s largest city, is boring. However, today Team Japan helped make it a hell of a lot less boring….

Japan’s Satoko Urata returns the ball during the 15th Asian Games beach volleyball competition against Iraq in Doha …Beach volleyball’s penchant for bikinis has touched off a bit of a cultural clash in this conservative Muslim city...more...
— butt thanks to CNN