The kids face is classic!

So bizarre, at the same time the government is engaged in an ongoing anti-suicide campaign. I wonder how long they'll allow this gun to stay on the market, with this packaging?

I dunno...

I don't see six hippo feet chambers.

The Russian roulette part may just be someone's imagination.

It's the radiation.

I just watched "Lost in Translation" last week and I don't get it. Some of the Japanese cultural stuff was interesting, but overall, it was a bunch of character development that went nowhere.

Wait a second, I'm way off topic aren't I? Sorry.

the photo of the kids face was taken immediatley after his first viewing of "hentai"

Once you hook them on the adreneline rush of Deerhunter roulette, they're going to go to the hard stuff.

"MAO, MAO, MAO!"

Holy Shit! Allah's post slices like a fucking Fat Man.

Man..that is strange in so many ways that to explain fully I'd need colored markers and an easel. Upon which I'd use venn diagrams to illustrate the weirdness. Japanese pop culture is far weirder than any gaijin can ever hope to fathom fully. Some of their game shows are so transcendentally bizarre that it can cause actual madness in any Westerner who dares to watch.

That kid looks like the Japanese version of the Fat Star Wars kid that Ace showed the world this year...for the first time...ever.

Seriously, I feel kinda sorry for that kid. That is probably all the work he can get as a slightly pig looking child model. (even though I can't stop laughing every time I see his face)

"Sorry Junior, we don't have a place for you in our clothing models, but we have a toy that has your name all over it."

The kid kinda does look like the little hippos floating around the box.

ace:

how is it, exactly, that you know so much about japanese porn?

ACE!

Perfect sound clip for this story.

Man, I miss MST3K. . .

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

No-go on the link Dave.

Apparently this is Russian Roulette 2.0 for the Japanese. I remember a similar gadget going on the market about twenty years ago. It resembled a gun with a balloon on the end of the barrel. You pressed the balloon against your temple and pulled the trigger, and there was a 1-in-6 chance that a pin would emerge and pop the balloon. The package art featured a perky spokesmodel instead of a bug-eyed kid.

This was about the same time as Gaman!, the game show where a Dutch contestant wound up getting crucified, and the popular anime series Baby Jesus the Fortune-Telling Robot. I'd hate to live in Japan, but from a distance their pop culture is fascinating.

Bad descriptions. The gun isn't shaped like a hippo. It's a hippo looking out of the cockpit of a spaceship or jet. And the bullets aren't hippo feet but funny looking penises. But, then again, all you guys have funny looking genitalia.

Domo arrigato, Mr. Pink Hippo.

But, then again, all you guys have funny looking genitalia.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you'd be holding it, you'd be thinking it looked pretty good! Har har har.

Nobody's ever laughed at my genitalia, May. Usually my partners just sigh and shake their heads; sometimes they have to look away. It's an awkward, difficult moment, nothing funny about it.

New! From the makers of Chainsaw Bear, Bag-o'-Vipers, and Happy Fun Ball!

Ace,

I saw this product somewhere in the Shadow Media many months ago.

And yes, the Japanese are distinct.

I was in Japan last year.

And yes, it's tough for the gaijin there.

And speaking of the Japanese, here, via The Corner:

Enjoy.

Effin' Geo cities. . . loose shit.

And of course, it won't link this, either, because Ace's site thinks Geo cities (one word) is a bad word, on par with the f-bomb, or "Sullivan."

Copy, paste, and tighten geo cities into one word:

http://www.geo cities.com/Area51/Hollow/1814/japan.wav

Trust me, it's worth it.

Ace,

My bad.

Here: Yatta

Even a weekly dose of Adult Swim isn't enough to grant me understanding of Japanese pop culture.

I wonder what the hell is wrong with the Japanese every time I watch "Iron Chef" or "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge."

Doesn't stop me from laughing my head off, though.

Ace, no post about Japan's surreal social dysfunction is complete without mentioning the vending machines which dispense soiled schoolgirl panties.

Megan-- I love you.

No, really. Anyone who brings up Japanese soiled panty vending machines deserves all the love they can get.

That's far better than tentacle hentai.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Say what you want, but they make the best 3 3/4 inch action figures. 30 pts of articulation!

Like this , this, this, this, and this

Got to admit, the soiled-panty vending machines are kind of a surprise.

Of course, we're talking about a culture that thinks creamed corn and dried seaweed are pizza toppings. Nothing they say or do should surprise me.

utron, the chick/dude who was laughing about our weiners isn't named May. It refrained from putting its name in the basket. Maybe you already knew that. Maybe I should just shut up and look at my weiner some more.

Funny SFW cartoon from Breathed, Opus, and co.

You get some of the adrelinan rush of the ultimate game without all of the bloody mess. Sorta like paintball. I guess the better pc version would be musical chairs.

Wow, talk about PC. At the site below are old adverts of spankings used in advertisement. They're all boys being spanked mostly by their fathers up until recently: the last one is of a man being spanked by a woman! At first I got mad about intil I realized, they're only telling the truth!
GOTO:http://www.corpun.com/sell.htm
Next thing will be two men, uh ... let's not go there ...

The name of the toy on the box is "Kabakikku," if that makes any difference. No idea if that means anything.

Hey, leave Iron Chef out of this! That show ROX!

Plus, I have a thing for Ishi.

(Altho, I'm not as crazy about IC America)(Well, except for the new women ICs)

Also check out major league Jap. sickness among teens and adults at masamania.com/ very recently pointed out by Jeff Percifield at beautifulatrocties.com . Talk about grotesque!

Oh, one other link-- have you guys ever visited Engrish?

http://www.engrish.com/

Always worth a laugh for those folks who've never seen it. Like Ace.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Oh, like "Men In Black" and "Men In Black, II" aren't strange? A giant cockroach with the power of launching ultimate doom of our known universe, visiting Earth and being thwarted by a cat wearing another universe as a gem on it's collar? I could go on but somehow the Japanese culture just doesn't exceed some of our American madness.

Don't get me wrong -- I liked "MIB" (and, "II"), just that try explaining that and, oh, Mario Brothers and, Dungeons and Dragons and....I agree that the pink hippo/penis bullet launcher is an awful concept (and toy in manufacture), but it's hardly represents a benchmark.

Plus, I still laugh every time I see Domo-kan. No Western mind could ever devise such a thing. Instead, we get Dan Rather being smooched by the HIV-sensitive muppet after accepting a Peabody Award for a story that may or may not have been reported by a group that may or may not be ethical.

That last part, I find to be among the most weird evah.

Sorry, Domo-kun.

No study of the Japanese mind and culture is complete, without recalling this exchange between General Jack D. Ripper and Group Captain Lionel Mandrake from Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb:

Ripper:

Mandrake, were you ever a prisoner of war?

Mandrake:

Well, Jack, the time's running...very... huh?

Ripper:

Were you ever a prisoner of war?

Mandrake:

Ah yes I was. Matter of fact, Jack, I was.

Ripper:

Did they torture you?

Mandrake:

Ah... yes, they did. I was tortured by the Japanese, Jack, if you must know. Not a pretty story.

Ripper:

Well what happened?

Mandrake:

Oh... well... I don't know, Jack. Difficult to think of under these conditions. But, well, what happened was they got me on the old Rangoon HNRR railway. I was laying train mines for the bloody Japanese puff puffs.

Ripper:

No, I mean when they tortured you, did you talk?

Mandrake:

Ah, oh no, I ah... I don't think they wanted me to talk, really. I don't think they wanted me to say anything. It was just their way of having... a bit of fun, the swines. Strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras.

Japan fascinates me too - especially the fact that they contain about 70% of the US population and 50% of the US GNP - in a market that is about the physical size of Montana.

I've seen a few of the weird/unusual as well:

About half the country camps out under cherry trees during the month of April ...

They feel an acute guilt about abortion that is publically viewable ...

In a gadget crazed society - for the most part they carry around umbrellas that look like they are 50 years old.

See this for my Japan pics and stories.

For me, it is also astonishing that the incredible urban sprawl of Tokyo and many other cities in Japan are just now 60 years old. There was basically nothing there at the end of WWII.

So, MC, what you are really saying is that the japanese fuck like bunnies?

That toy gun is old news.

related (serious) comments on this at:

http://alessandrab.blogspot.com/2005/05/one-dose-of-sick-puppies-at-time.html

I do not pretend to understand the Japanese just because I own a 1300 dollar katana and hardly ever miss an episode of Cowboy Bebop. This is a level of f*cking weird that I don't pretend to get.

Here's the weirdest Japanese story I ever heard- in WWII this English was a POW for several years.

One time some guys in the prison camp got caught trying to escape. The Japanese guards ordered them to strip naked and put on dog collars and leashes. Then the whole camp was called out for assembly, and the culprits were WALKED at a leisurely pace around the entire group of hundreds of POWs.

The Japanese thought it was the ultimate in humiliation, and fully expected suicides. Instead, all the POWs could barely contain their laughter.

Later, there were other incidents of horrific abuse, but this was a pleasant and bizarre exception.

isn't russian roulette supposed to be played with a revolver? who plays rr with an automatic?

A buddy of mine from Ole Miss went to the Memphis PD. They worked a crime scene with three drug dealers dead, apparently tried R.R. with a Glock. Didn't work out well. Apparently when the first one lost the other two thought they had it made.

Sgt. Dan, I went to Ole Miss. Are you in Mississppi?