Tag Archives: japan

Big Man Japan

I recently watched “Big Man Japan“, the Japanese mockumentary about a Japanese superhero that grows to immense proportions when shocked with electricity. He’s the sixth generation Japanese Apache Chief. The film follows the the big man in his normal life. We see his crappy house. (He can’t hold a normal job, he’s always on call for a monster attack.) We see him deal with his estranged wife and his disinterested daughter. We watch him negotiate with his agent on corporate sponsorship deals; and catch reactions to his battles from person on the street interviews.

Throughout the entire film is the undercurrent of lost glory. The big man’s grandfather, “Number Four,” protected Japan during the 40s. There were shinto ceremonies prior embiggening, and much more pomp and circumstance, but now – like the current big man himself – they are in considerably less glorious.

The film starts out very slow, but once it picks up after the first fight, it starts to move at a nice pace, and gets progressively funnier. It’s netflix streamable, so there’s no reason why shouldn’t watch it now. DO IT NOW!

Warships in San Francisco

Today, five warships from three countries arrived in San Francisco. The Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser, CG-52 USS Bunker Hill Three Japanese training ships, lead by the Kashima class, TV-3508 JDS Kashima, and the Russian Slava class guided missile cruiser Varyag (formerly the Chervona Ukraina) will be there.

Why mention this? Well you can get photos and tours of all these ships, except the American Bunker Hill.

Updated: Thu Jun 24 09:26:24 PDT 2010: Thanks to some mysterious stranger in the comments, the Bunker Hill is conducting tours. Table updated.

Bunker Hill Pier 17 Thursday, 1 pm – 4 pm
Kashima Pier 27 Monday 9 am – 11 am and 2 pm – 4 pm
Varyag Pier 30-32 Thursday, 10 am – 3 pm

Japanese Bug Fights

Japanese Bug Fights is a website dedicated to invertebrate cock fighting. It’s videos of two bugs fighting to the death. I watched some of them. The video above is Round 15: Japanese Hornet vs Scorpion. I have to say, I felt a bit uneasy watching it. Kind of like watching something off of rotten.com . Although, if i learned anything out of reading the ethics standards for high school science fairs, you can do ANYTHING to a invertebrate, and it’s all good.

Mark, pointed out that “the Japanese love bugs.” He says that Pokémon’s success can can be traced to cultural phenomenon. He pointed to the documentary The Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (trailer), which chronicles Japan’s pet bugs. Beetle Queen is on the festival circuit, but there isn’t a Bay Area screening scheduled yet.