Is it just me, or is this delicious snack disgusting? It must be, since they made the contestants eat it in two episodes of Survivor…

A Balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. They are considered delicacies of Asia and especially the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors at night in the regions where they are available. They are often served with beer. The Filipino and Malay word balut (balot) roughly translates to mean “wrapped.”

Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed. In the Philippines, balut have recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried in omelets or even used as filling in baked pastries. [Wikipedia]

We hear that protesters at the Burmese embassy were throwing women’s underwear into the yard — scaring the living daylights out of government staff. Talk about non-violent protest… Apparently superstitious Burmese believe that touching women’s underwear will make them lose power. Well they definitely are superstitious and maybe they will.

But all of Asia seems a tad superstitious–there is surely more supersition than medical science behind the idea that electric fans can be criminally responsible for obese drunk guys having heart attacks? So to follow on the recent lists of Japanese and Korean scary movies, here is a sampling from the rest of Asia.

As before, it’s hard to correctly choose just five. I wish The Bride with White Hair (1993, Hong Kong) could be regarded as a ghost story, but guess not. We would never include Windstruck (2004, Korea) as a ghost story, even though it definitely is. Anyway, of the following TXT looks far better than the relatively poor quality trailer suggests and The Maid is definitely a must-see.

A Chinese Ghost Story (1987, Hong Kong) This popular and beloved film is a standout in the Hong Kong supernatural-action genre and spawned many sequels and copycats. A timid and likable tax collector looking for a place to stay the night comes upon a spooky abandoned temple occupied by a tough Taoist swordsman (Ma Wu). Despite his warnings, he stays anyway. Later he encounters a beautiful maiden who he quickly falls in love with. Unfortunately, she is a ghost who is being forced to trap men for an evil spirit who feeds on their souls. Widely praised for infusing the genre with humor, action, romance, and inventive special effects. Cheung and Wang are a likeable romantic pair, and Ma Wu creates a hilarious character who breaks out into song and a martial arts dance when drunk. It’s a must-see for Hong Kong action film fans. [amazon.com]

Ang Pamana: The Inheritance (2006, Philippines / Canada) Johnny and his sister Anna must go back to the Philippines from Canada to represent their parents in the reading of their Lola Nena’s last will and testament. Johnny meets his cousin Vanessa who also has a taste for drugs and trouble. Their first surprise is Tommy, a mentally handicapped boy who is also named in the inheritance. As they explore the property they’ve inherited, strange things occur to make them wonder what secret their grandmother took to her grave. [ClickTheCity] Trailer here.

The Eye (2003, Hong Kong / Singapore) At the age of two, Wong Kar Mann lost her vision. Since that time she has lived with that handicap but now, reaching the age of 20, she has the possibility to regain her vision with a risky corneal transplant operation. After the successfully operation, Mann’s vision is starting to get better and little by little she can almost see perfectly. After getting used to her new situation, Mann has started to notice some really strange effects. It seems that she cans see people that no one else can notice. Are they really ghosts? And who are those strange shadows that sometime come around the living people. With the help of her new psychiatric guide, she will try to solve that problem, which will lead her to a small village in Thailand were the original corneal owner lived before she died. Will Mann be able to find out what happened to the previous dead owner and finally get rid of her curse and live a normal life again? [KFCC] Trailer here.

The Maid (2005, Malaysia) “Every year, for thirty days during the lunar seventh month, the Chinese believe that the gates of hell are thrown open. Vengeful spirits or hungry ghosts wander among the living, seeking revenge and justice before the gates of hell are closed again for another year.” The eighteen years old Rosa Dimaano arrives in Singapore from Philippines to give support to her family working as a maid in the house of the artists of a Chinese opera troupe Mr. and Mrs. Teo on the first day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. She is welcomed by the family and introduced to their friends and their retarded son Ah-Soon. Later, Mrs. Teo advises her about their beliefs and how the dead should be respected and honored along the seventh month. However, Rosa sweeps their offer on the sidewalk breaking a basic rule and offending the spirits, and she is haunted by ghosts everywhere. When Ah-Soon calls her Esther Santos and she finds some belongings of the unknown Esther in the house, she discloses a dark and scary secret about the past of her masters. [amazon.com] Trailer here.

TXT (2006, Philippines) A provocative thriller that will surely raise the fear in you. Proving that no one, not even DEATH can separate us from the living. A story that conquers the old adage “till death do us part”, Roman (Oyo Boy Sotto) dies in a car accident. In a restless and unforgiving state he continues to prove his affection for girlfriend Joyce (Angel Locsin) . He then decides to embark in an intrepid and malevolent journey in order to keep Joyce. Joyce then began receiving hair raising text messages and even gets “death photos” of people close to her, including that of her current beau Alex (Dennis Trillo). She ignores these at first, but when the deaths happen under the exact circumstances at which they were predicted, she realizes she must fight the evil behind all these to protect her loved ones from this supernatural force. [IMDB] Trailer here.

The most popular dog name in Japan for the third year running is “Choco,” followed by “Marron” coming in second.

The Philippine government has ordered the discontinuance of strip searches of suspected Japanese yakuza by immigration officers to look for tattoos. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan took the action because of complaints about the strip search policy.

Libanan said, “Henceforth, the conduct of monitoring, examination and inspection of departing and arriving passengers shall be limited only to their travel papers and documents.”

At the same time, the immigration chief orders immigration officers to stop inspecting hand-carried luggage of passengers, as this is the function of customs authorities and security officials at the airports.

Libanan adds tattoos alone cannot be the sole basis to bar any foreigner from entering the country. He said immigration officers must only send back anyone to their port of origin if they receive derogatory information about them.

According to Libanan, “Unless a tattoo is morally offensive, indecent and vulgar or [of a] politically and racially insidious depiction, it should be treated as an art.”

The Philippines still, however, will maintain its ban on yakuza entering the country.

Via Mulboyne at FG

Anyone who lives in Japan or has spent time here during the run-up to an election knows what a headache that can be, with sound-trucks circling your house or business, with shrill obaachan incessantly screaming out the name of whoever through a megaphone.

You can perhaps sympathise then with those in the Philippines. Today is election day there, which means that for the last few weeks, the good citizens of those islands have also been labouring under the assault of electioneers. But in the Philippines, the barrage is visual.

This is what some streets in Manila look like at election time.

AP photo via BBC News

More electioneering / littering has been captured by Flickr users and can be viewed here and here.

It may look like it, but it ain’t no party. And some poor blighter’s got to start clearing all that up tomorrow morning.

Akira Makino, an 84-year-old former high-ranking Japanese military medic has revealed publicly that he vivisected the bodies of living people during the war. Makino has announced that he “cut up living bodies towards the end of World War II” as part of human experiments and is now coming clean to set the record straight.

Stationed on the island of Mindanao, Philippines during World War II, Makino now resides comfortably in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture and is willing to speak about his past experiences because he says when he dies he wants the truth to be known about his life.

Makino belonged to the No. 33 guard unit of the Japanese navy. From August 1944, he treated injured Japanese soldiers on an airbase on the west side of Mindanao. The medical team was led by a military doctor in his 30’s whose name Makino has never publicly stated.

According to Makino, the vivisections began in December 1944 on residents of the island who were suspected of being spies for the U.S. Military. Their operations were performed at a hospital on the base with two people operating under the instructions of the military doctor. The victims were put under anesthesia, and then had limbs cut off, and abdominal operations at a rate of once every three days. This continued up until February of 1945, Makino says just before the U.S. Military landed.

It is a well-documented fact that Unit 731, a clandestine medical unit of the former Imperial Army, performed vivisections on Chinese in Manchuria. But Makino’s testimony is the first time any reports of medical torture and vivisections outside of China have been mentioned to the public.

“I was unable to resist orders, and I did something cruel”, Makino says. “As the number of people with wartime experience decreases, I have a responsibility to speak the truth about the war”.

EDIT: After discussion in the thread, the image associated with this story was removed due to questions about historical inaccuracy. Thank you to the folks, particularly Fluffy and Aki who looked into this.

Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza, Miss Puerto Rico, was crowned Miss Universe 2006 in Los Angeles, beating out Miss Japan who was runner up.

A few moments after being crowned, Ms. Mendoza fainted on the stage. . . From hunger perhaps?

More photos here.

Takoyaki (fried octopus balls – no, not those kind, the other kind) are a favorite food in Japan and we have written about them on a number of occasions here.

Who ever would have imagined, however, that takoyaki had the power to save the life of a Philippine drug addict and turn him into a successful businessman?

Click here for the full story (in which takoyaki is misspelled as “takuyaki”).

Just about the biggest news story for the past few weeks in Japan on the daytime variety shows that cater to housewives is one that involves deception, betrayal, greed, murder and many of the other trappings of a soap opera.

It involves an unnamed Filipina who is trying to collect a 45 million yen life insurance claim from Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company over the untimely death of her Japanese boyfriend in 1998. Though not married to the man, the woman was named as the beneficiary of two separate life insurance policies, the 45 million yen policy from Dai-ichi and a 33 million yen policy from another company that has already paid. She claims that the man did bought the coverage because she was pregnant with his child.

Rather than going into a long narrative about the details of this saga (which you can read here, if you want), here is a recap of the highlights.

• The woman’s boyfriend was only 34 years old when he died. The cause of death was not specified.
• The man purchased the Dai-ichi policy only two and a half months before he died, and the other policy only one month before.
• The monthly premiums of the two policies totaled more than 52,000 yen, though the man’s a monthly income was only 200,000 yen.
• Only 11 days before he died, the man acknowledged paternity of Filipina’s unborn child.
• Tests on the man’s internal organs showed high amounts of salicylic. Salicylic acid is an over-the-counter medicine that can cause respiratory difficulties and vomiting, and even coma and death in large doses.
• DNA testing proved that the woman’s child was fathered by her current 66-year-old boyfriend.
• Three years this case the woman was living with another man who died suddenly at the age of 30, on which the woman collected 90 million yen on a life insurance policy taken out just before his passing.

All of the above came out in the civil trial that ensued when the woman sued Dai-ichi to collect her money. Though the court came to conclusion that the woman and/or her current boyfriend probably poisoned the younger man, the woman has not been arrested. I saw her on TV crying and carrying on about how she was being unjustly accused of wrongdoing, but in light of the facts of the case I really don’t see how you can come to any other conclusion.

Japan’s ambassador to the Philippines has apologized to Filipinos for wartime atrocities committed against the country by Japanese soldiers during the battle of Manila.

“The terror that each Filipino man, woman, and child must have experienced in Manila 61 years ago is beyond the imagination of any sane human being,” said the ambassador at a memorial to the dead in the Intramural old city of Manila.

“With this historical fact in mind, I would like to express my heartfelt apologies and deep sense of remorse over the tragic fate of Manila,” he said, adding “About 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed, many of whom suffered atrocities by the Japanese military.”