And are all of these offensive?
Here is a pizza flavored pretzel commercial from Japanese TV, which uses the Italian word bongiorno, so I guess it insults the honor of two nations with one stone.
As you can deduce from reading JAPUNDIT and just about any other Japan blog, Japanese TV commercials are pretty popular the world over. . . Except in Japan, where people tend to tune them out.
So what do Japanese advertisers decide to do? Produce a TV commercial about TV commercials, of course.
There was an interesting article by Leo Lewis in this weekend’s Times in which Lewis outlines how he reckons that a very simple agreement between the USA and Japan could be a massive step towards world food price stabilisation.
Lewis says that current World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules “[oblige] Tokyo to buy rice it does not need and that eventually rots in storage. The WTO rule, its many critics say, effectively turns millions of tonnes of high-grade American produce into feed for Japanese hogs and chickens.”
If Japan doesn’t want or need the US rice, you may ask, why then doesn’t it simply sell it to some of its neighbours?
Standing in the way of that, however, has been a rule that prevents Japan from re-exporting its reserves of US rice without permission from Washington, which has not been forthcoming until now because of the fear of domestic political repercussions from the US rice industry.
Washington’s Centre for Global Development (CGD) said an agreement “would prick the speculative bubble and the hoarding mentality that has sent rice prices into the stratosphere. [...] A sudden surge of unexpected supplies [would] reassure anxious countries and poor people around the world that there is indeed enough rice for everybody.”
The amount of rice being spoken of is said to be in the region of 1.5 million tonnes, the release of which, according to the CGD, could mean that “rice prices could halve by the end of the month.”
A longtime Japundit reader alerted me to an important beauty treatment now available at New York’s Shizuka salon, a place I went to once in search of a Japanese-style manicure.
a high-end Japanese spa in midtown, has just introduced a new “Geisha Facial,” which promises to cleanse, brighten, and exfoliate a patron’s face—thanks to a secret ingredient: bird poop. For centuries in Japan, both Kabuki actors and geishas used uguisu no fun, or nightingale droppings, to clean off their thick white makeup and soothe their faces; apparently, guanine, found in the droppings, helped their complexions.
Hopefully the bird droppings are not collected from the upper reaches of Hokkaido.
Vanity, after all, can make you sick.
Spam emailers have discovered that eating seaweed can miraculously rid women between the ages of 25 and 54 of the roll of fat around their middlesection.
Just take a couple of sea-weed tablets every day, and perhaps you too will see your weight plummet, so you too can join the ranks of women who enjoy the lowest rate of obesity in the world!
Personally, I’ll stick to weekly misoshiru and some nice sunomono with wakame.
Uguisu photo via.
From Pink Tentacle:
Swedish furniture giant IKEA has converted the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom before the April 14 opening of a new retail outlet at Port Island. The redecorated train, which features a colorful exterior, bright upholstery and fancy curtains, will carry passengers in style until May 6.
I wish they would have pulled that publicity stunt on a Yamanote train or a shinkansen!
Here is a Japanese TV commercial from the 1980’s for athlete’s food medication, which seems to be trying very hard to make the most of the “tentacle sex” theme that has been so prevelant in Japanese pornography over the centuries.
Via Pink Tentacle (of course!)
You know who Domyoji is, right?
And here is the behind-the-scenes report in which his outfit is scrutinized. Personally, I don’t think he really needs to drink a zero calorie drink–he’s gotten awfully thin again.
So, what do you think about the yellow suit?
