About a year and a half ago I wrote a post about Tsutomu Yamaguchi.
He was the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as a survivor of both the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Click here to read the post that explains his story in more detail.
Well, I saw on the TV news today about the extremely insensitive “comedy” show that the BBC of England aired that made light of Mr. Yamaguchi’s story.
Japan lodged an official complaint with the BBC and many Japanese people e-mailed the station to express their anger and disappointment over the show which was titled “The Unluckiest Man In The World”.
On the show they laughed and joked about the experiences of Mr. Yamaguchi. With comments such as “(maybe) the bomb landed on him and bounced off”.
The BBC has issued an apology for the episode and removed the video of it from their website, but the surviving members of Mr. Yamaguchi’s family said that they could never forgive them.
Do you know the Japanese manga (comic book) and TV anime (cartoon) titled 「ワンピース」 (“One Piece“)?
Do they sell the manga or show the anime in your country?
One Piece is about a boy called 「ルフィ」 (Lufi (pronounced: “loofy”)) who grew up in a port town idolizing the pirates.
He decides the he wants to find the “One Piece” treasure that will make him the “King Of The Pirates”.
He also mistakenly eats a magical fruit that makes his body become elastic and rubbery.
The story revolves around the adventures that Lufi and his pirate crew have while they search for “One Piece”.
Anyways, a new One Piece movie titled “Strong World” has just been released in Japan a few days ago.
I have never watched any of the One Piece movies…but my kids like to watch the anime on TV on Sundays and they have a few of the manga.
So I started watching the anime with them sometimes, and I read a few of their manga…it’s a fun story.
Well, the “Strong World” movie has been released at the ten year anniversary of the release of the first One Piece movie.
So to celebrate, they’re giving away free Volume ZeroOne Piece comics and 「ワンピーベリーマッチダブル」 (“OPBMW“) game cards to people who buy tickets to the new movie.
A flyer telling about the Vol. 0 comic and "OPBMW" cards
One Piece vol. 0 comic
Some "One Piece" game cards
Do they show One Piece movies in your country? Have you ever watched any?
I just watched the documentary about the heavy metal band “Anvil” titled “The Story Of Anvil“.
It was a fun movie. It’s like a real life “This Is Spinal Tap” (which is a “mockumentary”, or mock documentary, about a fake heavy metal band called “Spinal Tap”).
Anyways, I knew the Canadian heavy metal band Anvil in the ’80s. But I was never really a big fan of theirs.
Actually I had totally forgotten about Anvil for the past twenty-some years…until this movie was released last month.
But Japanese fans are famous for being dedicated for life. This documentary about Anvil begins with the band playing at a heavy metal festival in Japan in the mid-80s, and then it shows how they struggled for nearly three decades in obscurity in their small hometown in Canada…until they were offered the chance in 2006 to return to Japan and play at the LoudPark ’06 heavy metal festival in front of a huge Japanese crowd again.
The behavior of the members of Anvil in this documentary makes me think that maybe “This Is Spinal Tap” is inspired by Anvil…even though the Spinal Tap mockumentary was released in the mid-80s.
For example, in the Spinal Tap movie, one member of that band changed the numbers on his amplifier so that the maximum volume read “11” rather than “10”, and he thought that that made it louder than other amps.
And in the Anvil movie, the guitarist’s amplifier also goes up to eleven.
Also, the Spinal Tap band went to “Stonehenge” and were inspired by it and decided to add a giant 18-foot prop Stonehenge to their stage…but a misunderstanding led the prop to be designed at only 18 inches tall.
And in their movie, Anvil also went to “Stonehenge” for inspiration.
Another similarity between the two movies is that both bands struggled to become successful, often playing in front of audiences of less than six people…until they learned how popular they were in Japan.
And an usual coincidence is that “This Is Spinal Tap” was directed by Rob Reiner…and the drummer of Anvil is named Robb Reiner.
I’m convinced. Anvil is the real Spinal Tap.
Here’s the official trailer for “The Story Of Anvil“:
And here’s the scene from “This Is Spinal Tap” where the guitarist is convinced that having “11” written on the amp makes it louder:
KISS was on the American TV show “Late Show With David Letterman” to promote their new album (Click here to read my post about their album).
I haven’t seen the David Letterman show (or any other American TV show) in many years…but thanks to YouTube, I was able to find out about this and watch it!
On October 12th, the 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Train Line“) that connects 29 stations in Metropolitan Tokyo in a loop-line will turn 100 years old.
It takes a train on this line an hour to make the whole loop…but there are 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“) trains going in two directions, so the longest you could possibly need to spend on a ride on this line is about thirty-minutes or less.
All of the train lines in Japan are color-coded and the signs and trains for the 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“) are all colored light-green.
「山手線」の電車 (A "Yamanote Line" train)
But to celebrate it’s 100th anniversary, JR (the company that operates numerous train lines in Japan…including 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“)) has painted some of the normally light-green 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“) trains brown and decorated them with images of “Meiji Chocolate“.
The reason that some of the 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“) trains are decorated with images of Meiji Chocolate is because Meiji Chocolate will also be celebrating it’s 100th anniversary in a few years.
Meiji Chocolate
Anyways, if you’re in Tokyo and you want to see a 「山手線」 (“Yamanote Line“) train decorated like a Meiji Chocolate bar, they started running three days ago and will be running until 2009 December 4th.
Here’s a YouTube clip from the TV news program I saw about this campaign:
Tokyo Five 
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