The Eastern Edge

This is a mini follow up to a couple of posts over the years (here and here) related to the nutty Japanese obsession with mascots.Some collective genius at the Tokyo Stock Exchange seems to think that Arrow-kun here will attract more women and young… more »

"Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that ..." - George CarlinThat pretty much sums things up for me lately. I'm… more »

After a hard week of training in my Trailwalker prep, I took a leisurely bike ride yesterday across the Edogawa river into Chiba.  About 4 or 5k into my ride, and about a minute or so after crossing the Edogawa river, I hit the brakes when out of the co… more »

I never buy this brand of coffee. Never! I always get Boss or Georgia.Today, however, I passed them both over for this... more »

Welcome to Japan!A place where trivial issues such as the rights of gays and lesbians, women, and foreigners in general barely make a blip on the the societal radar, but yet you can marry a goddamn game character and make national and international n… more »

Dear USA;You can have the most medals.You can have the most money.In fact, you can have the rest of the world.But, USA, you can't have Hockey!!HOCKEY IS OUR GAME!! more »

It's a real shame that Ponyo is getting little recognition outside Japan, and even less by people over the age of eight.I wrote about that on the blog yesterday and then watched Ponyo again last night after a 5k run. Something about running on a cold nig… more »

Almost time to kick off a three day weekend that will be jammed with 10 hours of Aikido. Most of the rest of the time I'll be reading Yotsuba To! If only we could all look at each day with the wide-eyed wonder and enthusiasm that Yotsuba does! O… more »

I use this Grinch pic every year, but this year I found myself wondering why I know so little about one of my favorite cartoonists/writers from when I was a kid, Dr. Suess.Imagine my surprise when I found out that not only was he vocally anti-Jap… more »

Just a post to say that I haven't dropped the final part of the Urasawa interview translation and abandoned this blog. On the contrary, I'm nearly finished my next piece of Urasawa goodness, and I expect to have it ready early next week... more »

Just when I thought that educating the Japanese public about changes to the legal system via women's underwear was about as low as they could go, Triumph International is once again triumphant in pushing the boundaries of bad taste and insulting a genera… more »

I am just realizing immediately after typing it that the title of this blog post invokes all the wrong images. However, I'm going to leave that to your imagination to elaborate on. What I meant was simply a "quick" post with "Vagabond" artwork. That’… more »

⇒ This is old news now, but the Anime News Network reported that the am/pm chain of convenience stores in Japan has begun a test manga rental program.Unfortunatley they fail to mention what they will do about the manga that they are already renting… more »

Sorry, Urasawa fans, but no new Billy Bat until next week's Morning and I haven't finished quite enough material to start posting about the Urasawa interview yet. Things have been pretty busy for the last week or so, but I am working on it and I promi… more »

No word on fatalities, but at least three people were nearly throttled to death in Japan when they trusted their foot massage machines with other parts of their bodies. It seems they didn't realize that it isn't a good idea to stick your neck in the rol… more »