Big America game

I mentioned in an earlier post (click here to read it) that McDonalds in Japan is currently offering fours burgers (one-at-a-time) collectively known as “Big America“.

The burger that they’re currently selling is called the “Texas Burger” (my oldest daughter and I tried one each. I thought it was mediocre…my daughter hated it).

Well, even if you’re not in Japan and can’t try these burgers…you can visit the McDonalds Japan website and try the “Big America Burgers” game.
Since the current burger is the “Texas Burger“, the current game on their site is the “Texas Burger Game” (next month, when they begin offering the “New York Burger“, I’m sure the game on their site will change, too).

"Texas Burger Game"

To play this game, you click “Start” and then point your mouse on all of the burgers, fries and drinks that appear and click your mouse to “lasso” them in.
When the game ends, you are given between one to five “sheriff stars” depending on how much food you lassoed.

Click here to try the McDonalds Japan “Big Texas Burger Game“…and then tell me in this post’s comment section how many “stars” you got.

I tried the game once and only got two stars.

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Also, if you visit the post I wrote last year about the upcoming Karate Kid remake starring Jackie Chan, you’ll notice that I recently updated the post and added a video of the movie’s official trailer.

Click here to see it.

Car recall isn’t an issue in Japan

In America and China many 「トヨタ」 (Toyota) cars are being recalled because there’s a possibility that an ill-fitting floor mat can cause the accelerator pedal to stick which could cause an accident.
And now 「ホンダ」 (Honda) cars overseas are being recalled too.

I heard that Toyota and Honda dealers in those countries are losing a lot of potential business because the public has become hesitant to trust the safety of those cars now.

「トヨタ」 (Toyota)

「ホンダ」 (Honda)

This issue isn’t an issue at all in Japan.

Most Japanese feel that the cars being recalled overseas are different because they were made in America or China.
Japanese cars in Japan are made here…and anything “Made in Japan” is seen as superior in quality and safety.
So, Toyota and Honda dealers here in Japan aren’t feeling the affects of the recall overseas at all.

In fact, Toyota is the best-selling car in Japan…and has been for many years.

Has your image of Japanese cars changed because of this recall?

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On a totally unrelated subject…
I found out that Gene Simmons (of the rock band KISS) did a TV commercial in America for the Dr. Pepper soft drink.
His son is also in the commercial.

As I don’t live in America, I don’t normally watch America TV…but thanks to the internet in general, and YouTube specifically, I was able to see it.

It’s here:

Do you live in America? Have you seen this commercial on TV before?

In Japan, KISS has done a few TV commercials too.
I wrote a post about them last year. Click here to see that post.

Movie trivia challenge

I like movies.
I used to watch them alot more often when I was younger…but I still like to watch a movie that looks like it’ll be good.

If you like movies too, let’s play a kind of “Movie Trivia Challenge”.

I’ll write a trivial fact in this post about a few movies…if you recognize what movies I’m describing, then write the titles in this post’s comment section.
And also write a trivia question of your own about a movie or movies, and me or anyone else can try to guess the movie.

So, here are my questions:

1. What movie starred Clint Eastwood, Jim Carrey, and had a cameo appearance by members of the rock band “Guns ‘N Roses?

2. What movie starred Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd?

3. What was the first movie that Johnny Depp appeared in?

Are these questions too easy?

News Summary…2010 January

★　The murder trial for the man who killed and injured a crowd of people in the June 2008 “Akihabara Attack” began today.

He entered in a “guilty” plea and apologized for his crimes in court today. Admitting guilt and showing remorse often helps defendants in their trials in Japan.

The likely verdicts in this case will either be the death sentence (which is done by hanging in Japan) or a life sentence.

Please click here to read my post from last summer about the one-year anniversary of this attack.

★　The iconic Seibu Department Store will close their large store in 有楽町 (Yurakucho, Tokyo) near 銀座 (Ginza, Tokyo) on 2010 December 25th.

This store has been a landmark in Tokyo since it opened in 1984.
But due to the bad economic times recently, not enough people have been shopping there these days for the Seibu group to afford the rent in Ginza.

The plot of land that this store’s building is on is the most expensive real estate in the world!
The Seibu Department Store pays ¥1 million (about US$10,000) in rent for this spot.

New Years Postcard Lottery

New Years is Japan’s biggest holiday.  The holiday has many traditions in Japan.
One of the traditions is sending 年賀状 (New Years postcards).

One the back of Japanese New Years postcards, in the lower right-hand corner, is a six-digit number.
Every year in late January, the Japan Post Office has a New Years Postcard Lottery.

Yesterday was this years drawing.

The winning numbers for the 2010 年賀状 (New Years Postcard) lottery:

★ First Place (TV, computer, travel, digital camera or an office set)
– 975424

★ Second Place (Wii, digital camera, DVD player, TV)
– 259668,
– 446722, or
– 630838

★ Third Place (brand name merchandise)
– any number with the last four digits as 0977

★ Fourth Place (postage stamps)
– any number with the last two digits as either 00 or 52

★ “C” Prize (JTB ¥5,000 gift certificate)
– any number with the last five digits as 27520

There is also a Summer postcard lottery in Japan.
And I wrote a post about the New Years Postcard Lottery last year.

Did you get 年賀状 (Japanese New Years postcards) this year?
Do any of you cards have a winning lottery number?
I have three winning cards…all for postage stamps.

World’s largest Pokemon collection

A 21-year old English woman named Lisa Courtney has recently been entered into the Guiness Book Of World Records for the “World’s Largest Pokemon Collection”.

「ポケモン」 (Pokemon) is a Japanese abbreviation for 「ポケットモンスター」 (Pocket Monster).
It’s a Japanese franchise of characters used in cartoons, movies, comics, games and toys.

Lisa Courtney said that she was severally bullied in school due to a physical handicap and she began collecting Pokemon toys since she was about eight years old to cope with the bullying.

In the thirteen years that she has been collecting, she has acquired over 13,000 Pokemon items…which qualified her for the world record.

Lisa Courtney and her huge Pokemon collection

She has even been to Japan a few times and bought some “only-in-Japan” Pokemon items. She said that she plans to come to Japan for another visit sometime this year.

I think 13,000 toys is too much personally…but it’s her hobby and it helped her feel better from being bullied (which, by the way, is unbelievable that a child would get bullied because of a handicap!).

When she visits Japan this year, she should order the “Kids Pokemon pizza” from Dominos Pizza in Japan.

Voice of 目玉おやじ R.I.P.

I’ve mentioned before that I like the Japanese manga and anime titled 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“).

It’s about a group of 妖怪 (ghouls) who help humans.

I have a few of the manga, I watch the anime on TV sometimes, and my family and I went to see both of the live-action movies at the theater.

I also like the artist, 水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki). His life story is fascinating.
I wrote a bit about him and the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“) on another post.
Click here read it.

Anyways, 田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), the 政友 (“Seiyuu“)…”voice actor”…who did the voice of one of this show’s main characters–「目玉おやじ」 (“Medama-oyaji“) died last Wednesday.
He was 77 years old.

田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), R.I.P.

I wrote a post last September about the death of the artist of another popular Japanese manga…Click here to read it.

Gene Simmons is a werewolf

A new remake of the movie “The Wolf Man” is set to be released in America soon (the Japan release date hasn’t been announced yet).

I never cared much for the 1941 version.

Movie poster for 1941's "The Wolf Man"

But I thought the 1994 movie “Wolf” starring Jack Nicholson was pretty good. (But I almost always like Jack Nicholson movies).

Movie poster for 1994's "Wolf"

But this 2010 remake of “The Wolf Man” looks like it’ll be quite good.

Movie poster for this year's "The Wolf Man"

It stars Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro as the “Wolf man”.
Lon Chaney Jr.’s 1941 “Wolf man” has become a pop culture icon…but with modern special effects and make-up, Benicio Del Toro’s 2010 “Wolf man” looks so much better.

Lon Chaney Jr as the "Wolf Man" in 1941

Benicio Del Toro as the "Wolf Man" in 2010

Anyways, it was reported that when making this 2010 remake of “The Wolfman”, the director wanted the best werewolf howl possible, so he auditioned many people to record them howl…and he finally decided to use the wolf howls of David Lee Roth (of the American rock band “Van Halen“) and Gene Simmons (bassist of the American rock band “KISS“).

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Another excellent remake of a classic horror film is the 1994 version of “Frankenstein” starring Robert DeNiro.
Have you seen it?

Movie poster for 1994's "Frankenstein"

Boris Karloff as "Frankenstein's monster" and Robert DeNiro's version.

But I was disappointed with the 1992 remake of “Dracula” starring Keanu Reeves.

Movie poster for 1992's "Dracula"

Earthquake

Yesterday was the fifteenth anniversary of the 阪神淡路大震災 (Kobe Earthquake).
It was a level 7 earthquake that flatten the Kobe area of Japan and killed over 6,000 people.

Click here to read the post that I wrote about the fourteenth anniversary of this quake last year.

And one year earlier, in 1994, an earthquake hit southern California in America.
Both the California earthquake and the Kobe earthquake happened on January 17th…only a year apart.

Of course everyone knows about the recent earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday.
Hopefully that country can recover from the damage soon.

I hate earthquakes but they’re a fact of life in this part of the world.
Growing up in Florida I never experienced an earthquake until I came to Japan.

The fifteenth anniversary of the Kobe, Japan earthquake and the sixteenth anniversary of the California one…as well as last week’s quake in Haiti made me remember the major earthquakes that happened around the world in the twenty years since I came to Japan.

Do you remember:
△ 1990 June – a level 7 earthquake killed about 50,000 people in Iran,

△ 1991 October – a level 6.8 earthquake killed about 2,000 people in India,

△ 1992 December – a level 7.8 earthquake killed about 2,500 people in Indonesia,

△ 1993 September – a level 6 earthquake killed about 9,700 people in India,

△ 1994 January 17 – a level 6.8 earthquake killed about 60 people in California, USA,

△ 1995 January 17 – a level 7 earthquake killed about 6,000 people in Kobe, Japan,

△ 1996 February – a level 6 earthquake killed about 300 people in China,

△ 1997 May – a level 7 earthquake killed about 1,500 people in Iran,

△ 1998 May – a level 6.6 earthquake killed about 4,000 people in Afghanistan,

△ 1999 August – a level 7.6 earthquake killed about 17,000 people in Turkey,

△ 2000 June – a level 7.9 earthquake killed about 100 people in Indonesia,

△ 2001 January – a level 7.7 earthquake killed about 20,000 people in India,

△ 2002 March – a level 6 earthquake killed about 1,000 people in Afghanistan,

△ 2003 September 25 – a level 8.3 earthquake killed zero people in Hokkaido, Japan,

△ 2003 December 26 – a level 6.6 earthquake killed about 31,000 people in Iran,

△ 2004 December 26 – a level 9 earthquake killed about 228,000 people in Sumatra,

△ 2005 March 28- a level 8.6 earthquake killed about 1,300 people in Sumatra,

△ 2005 October – a level 7.6 earthquake killed about 80,000 people in Pakistan,

△ 2006 May – a level 6 earthquake killed about 5,700 people in Indonesia,

△ 2007 August – a level 8 earthquake killed about 500 people in Peru,

△ 2008 May – a level 7.9 earthquake killed about 87,500 people in China,

△ 2009 September – a level 7.5 earthquake killed about 1,100 people in Indonesia,

△ 2010 January 12 – a level 7 earthquake in Haiti (death toll currently unknown).

Have you ever experienced an 地震 (earthquake)?

My guest post

I was asked by the owners of a blog if I’d write a “guest post” for their blog.

They’re an American couple who recently came to Japan.

So I just wrote a post for their blog about Japanese baths (they’re much better than American style baths).

Please read the post I wrote for their blog.

Click here to read it.

After you’ve read it, tell me in this post’s comment section what you thought of it.