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Thursday, February 7, 2008
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Obama manjuu
posted at 10:14 PM  
Barack Obama has been endorsed by the city of Obama, Japan.Members of a local tourism association and other people formed a volunteer group Monday supporting Obama and put up campaign posters at a local hotel.
"We'd like him to win the election and visit our city as president," said 55-year-old Kiyoji Fujihara, a group representative.
[...]
According to the city government, the move arose out of an e-mail sent to city hall by a local resident in late 2006.
The message said Obama had joked "I'm from Obama" on TV when visiting Japan and that the city should consider giving him an award for the comment that became good publicity for the city.
It is not known if he actually did make such a comment, but the city last year sent Obama a letter and lacquered chopsticks, a local specialty, city officials said. Most exciting to me, though, was this bit:The group is also considering selling Japanese-style "manju" sweets with Obama's portrait on them. Mmm, Obama manjuu.
Via Japundit.
Update: It occurs to me that a person who uses name similarity in this way would be what Edogawa Conan would call an お芽出度い奴.Labels: barack obama, japan, news, photoshop, tourism
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Friday, October 5, 2007
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"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam"
posted at 6:33 PM
Japan officials warned over Wikipedia
A Japanese bureaucrat has been reprimanded for shirking his duties to make hundreds of Wikipedia contributions about toy robots, officials said Friday.
The agriculture ministry said the bureaucrat, whose name was not released, contributed 260 times to the Japanese-language Wikipedia entry on Gundam, a popular, long-running animated series about giant robots that has spun off intricate toys popular among children and adults who belong to the so-called "otaku culture" of fascination with comic books, animation and robots.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam," ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura said.
The agriculture ministry verbally reprimanded five other bureaucrats who contributed to entries on movies, typographical mistakes in billboard signs and local politics. The six employees together made 408 entries on the popular Internet encyclopedia from ministry computers since 2003.
The ministry did not object to employees making limited contributions on World Trade Organization and free trade agreements. Labels: funny, japan, news
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Saturday, June 30, 2007
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Rockin' Girl Bloggers
posted at 11:17 AM
Brooke has, for some unknown reason, named me a Rockin' Girl Blogger.
As I draw close to my 3000th post and wonder what exactly it is I'm doing here, it makes me feel good that someone out there has a use for it all.
The thing to do here, as I understand it, is to pay it forward and name five Rocking Girl Bloggers of my own. Brooke also didn't do any repeats, meaning I shouldn't use her or anyone on her list.
So, with those guidelines in place, here are five girl bloggers I think are awesome.
V, of Violent Acres: I am consistently impressed and intrigued by this woman. She has no problem telling it exactly how it is, and her essays are often a much-needed jolt of common sense in this crazy "how can I be a victim today?" world. There are things she's said that I disagree with, and there are times that I wonder if she's really okay or not, but ultimately I find her posts refreshing and enlightening, sometimes touching and sometimes funny. She's brutally honest about some things that you need to be anonymous to be brutally honest about, and I can respect that. And she's smart, and she's taking care of herself instead of expecting someone else to do it. That last is one of the hardest things in life; despite my own independent spirit, I struggle with it daily.
Merujo, of Church of the Big Sky: One of the funniest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting online, and certainly one of the best writers, Merujo inspires me with her fierce refusal to let life trample all over her. It knocks her down, repeatedly, especially lately, but what does she do? She gets right back up, usually with a snarky comment or two. But I was her fan before her current predicament--I like her style, I like her outlook on life, I like that she is so nonchalant about all the amazing things she does. Confident but never proud, Merujo is a model that any woman would be wise to aspire to.
Marie Mutsuki Mockett: Marie is a professional writer who blogs at her own space and on Japundit, which is where we met. I love her because she thinks like me, like an anthropologist. She's aware that there are often numerous reasons for why things are the way they are, and she's interested in exploring them all. Her specific interest in Japan, due to being part Japanese and growing up visiting Japan frequently, makes her writing extremely relevant to me, but anyone can write about Japan. Writing about it thoughtfully and objectively while adding personal perceptions and emotions is why I keep going back to Marie's blog. She takes in as many resources as she can, she evaluates the facts fairly, but she also explores what it all means, both to who she is and to society. It's that sort of critical analysis paired with emotional insight that draws me to a writer.
Sunshine, of Days of My Life: A teenager living in Mosul, Iraq, Sunshine has to fight to enjoy the things most of us in the US take for granted. She can't go into her bedroom now because it has large windows that face the street. When school starts again, she will be in danger of terrorist attacks--or friendly fire from coalition soldiers!--en route to her classroom building. She can't go anywhere or do anything and is essentially a prisoner in her own home, studying as best she can, reading ravenously, making handicrafts, and taking care of her younger siblings. But this is a girl who knows that if she gives in to her fear and depression, then she has already lost. This is a girl who steps out into her war-torn world with a smile on her face. Read this post for an example of what Sunshine lives through and how she has decided to live through it. If Sunshine is Iraq's future, then despite the helplessness and despair I feel with every news story about the war, I can still have hope. She's not just the pillar of support for her family...she's supporting her entire country, her entire world.
Mama, of Emotions: Where Sunshine tries to keep positive on her blog, her mother offers full-on, visceral reactions--which is probably why she doesn't post very often. There are no punches pulled at Emotions. This is a young mother who is hurting. Her country is a mess, her children can't go to school without being in danger of being shot or blown up, she sometimes can't get to her place of work as a dentist, and when she can she doesn't have the proper equipment. She has so little control over her situation. This is a true victim; this is a person who can't simply pull herself up by the bootstraps. And she tells us so. Look at what's happening, she says. Feel my pain. Something needs to be done. Her message is the message that people need to hear--without spin, without remorse. Because despite it all, she is determined to live. And she deserves to live free of fear.
This Rockin' Girl Blogger thing is everywhere. Just tracing back through my nomination at Brooke's blog to her nomination and the nomination of the person who nominated her, I've found fifty gazillion girl blogs. I'm having trouble determining where it all started, but regardless, it seems like a really good way to expand your reading material, if you should have a need for that. *eyes her ever-expanding sidebar*Labels: blogging, iraq, japan, rockin girl blogger, writing
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