A while back, I posted a video from the Gootubes of a troupe of traditional Japanese musicians performing a stirring version of Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water
Apparently, traditional Japanese music and British Heavy Metal have a long-standing relationship no one knew about.
Witness below this performance and video slide-show of the history of the song, Black Dog - best know to have been recorded and performed by Led Zeppelin.
I knew that Jimmy Page and Co. were guilty of ripping off Big Willie Dixon but I never imagined their inspiration went back to Japan’s Edo period.
The original poster on Youtube has also thrown up a rendition of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man to boot:
In the midst of repairing various parts of our desert compound, I spent part of this weekend watching G4’s Ninja Warrior marathon.
The show itself, known as Sasuke in Japan has been broadcast by TBS for over 10 years and has finally made its way across the Pacific to find a perch on American cable television.
I can see why the show’s landed on G4 - its multi-stage obstacle course from hell would be right at home in some permutation of Ninja Gaiden, Tomb Raider or another 3D action platform game.
Of course, as with previous Japanese TV exports such as Iron Chef, eventually, some television network here has made an attempt to copy the show - witness ABC television’s Wipeout which happened to be airing on the same day.
One marked difference between the two shows however is that where Sasuke’s whole point is to see if there is anyone physically blessed to beat its insane, 4-stage course, based on some of the contestants chosen, Wipeout’s apparent intention is to watch people fail spectacurlarly.
Some of that turn around may be attributable to a change in Sony leadership during the past two years. The high water mark for this change of course being Sony’s current CEO, Howard Stringer - the first non-Japanese executive to helm the venerated electronics maker.
Stringer probably has one of the least enviable corporate jobs I could imagine: trying to wrangle one of the largest Japanese companies around while dealing with not only major cross-culture differences but also Sony’s entrenched, 50-year old corporate culture - one that’s seen a string of rampant missteps in the past couple of years.
In a recent interview with Tech On, Stringer discusses his thoughts on the current recession, the importance of having good product engineers and even admits that one of Sony’s biggest mistakes has been its forgoing of open standards in favor of proprietary media formats. You can check out that interview here: [TechOn.nikkeibp.co.jp].
This of course is alluding to the still, stinging fact that the company associated with the Walkman has been nearly kicked out of the portable music industry entirely by a computer company from Cupertino California.
Despite Stringer’s thoughts on the matter, those who have watched Sony over the past 30 years will note that from Betamax to ATRAC, to Blu-Ray, Sony’s modus operandi has always been to invent their own, kooky, proprietary media format and attempt to sell it to the masses via their hardware.
Stringer will have to move mountains to change that kind of entrenched, corporate culture at the Japanese electronics maker.
For more info, check out this video interview with Stringer on Sony, consumer electronics and global business: [NyTimes.com]
Once again, its that time of the year where the collective video game industry converges on La-La Land in efforts to win the hearts and minds of the gaming press and by proxy the hard earned credits of gamers everywhere [E3Insider.com]
Since this site takes its name from an infamously disasterous presentation by Sony Computer Entertainment of America at E3 2006, I thought I’d comment on the well being of everyone’s favorite Japanese video game hardware maker (that isn’t Nintnedo).
Sony’s had a much better time of it at E3 this year - what with the introduction of new hardware, some sure-to-behit software titles and promises that Gran Turismo 5 will actually be shipping sometime in the near future (for reals - no joke).
That said, I kind of feel sorry for the folks at Sony - particularly their marketing department who had their thunder stolen days before their big dog-n-pony show as just about every major announcement they had cooked up was leaked onto the Internet. [Engadget.com]
I’m rather amazed that the Web itself hasn’t made the advent of E3 completely obsolete (but then again, E3 would have to exist in the first place in order for people to blog about it, wouldn’t it?).
I attended E3 in 2006 and thanks to that event, along with Twitter and a few assorted blogs I read, I will never need to attend another E3 as long as I live.
In closing, I predict that $249.99 is going to be a price point too steep for a lot of gamers (especially given the current economy) to be convinced to pick up Sony’s reboot of their popular hand-held system. At least they’re not asking $599 for it though.
Anyone who’s traveled to Japan and spent time in the country - particularly during flu season - has likely seen dozens if not hundreds of denizens of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama or other cities stomping around town wearing what appear to be surgical face masks.
I’ve heard a lot of people who’ve spent brief periods of time in Japan comment about this trend in modern Japan, often wondering what’s the deal with the masks.
Hello Kitty wards off the flu
The hows and whys of this Japanese trend have just as much to do with attempts to fend off the spread of the common cold as they do with coping hay fever.
Due to the current, global media panic over the H1N1 Swine Flu “outbreak” however, if you live in Japan or have been there within the past month, you’ve likely seen a great deal more people walking around wearing these protective masks.
A recent article posted on the Japan Times website not only explains the reasoning behind Japan’s general use of gauze masks but also explains a bit of the history of the trend: [Japantimes.co.jp].
One thing I was happy to read in the article was a quote from a manager of one of the health care product manufacturers who makes these things who goes on record to state that, despite what some may believe, wearing these disposable masks will in fact do little to prevent you from catching a cold (however, they will help reduce the likelihood of flu sufferers from infecting other people).
Despite this, due to the recent Swine Flu scare, sales of protective masks in Japan have seen a sharp increase in recent weeks.
I still think the best part of this trend is that you can always co-ordinate the whole mask look with a pair or Ray-Bans and a 2,000 yen construction helmet from Japanese hardware store, Konan to look like a biker outlaw.
Note that bonus points are awarded to anyone who caught the musical allusion from the post title.
Considering how much interest I have in video games, I think its somewhat remarkable that I seldom post anything gaming related on this blog.
That said, this post is about video games. Actually, its about Murakami Haruki, terrorists, a hard-boiled wonderland and postmodernism but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I’ve long been a fan of the Metal Gear series of video games. Spanning over 20 years and several console generations worth of game development, Metal Gear is probably one of the longest-running, single narrative game series ever.
Metal Gear Solid II: Sons of Liberty is often considered the black sheep of the entire game series - eschewing series protagonist Solid Snake for a seemingly derivative JRPG-type hero and incorporating game play mechanics that were a little raw for a final product, there’s many reasons fans of the Metal Gear series have to hate on MGSII.
I used hate on the game until I read a rather thought provoking essay on the game itself by video game journalist Tim Rogers.
Imagine if this man designed a video game.
Rogers likens MGSII to the video game equivalent of a Murakami Haruki novel. His claims are actually not too far off - the game features a seemingly straight-forward, somewhat derivative plot line and a familiar setup from the previous MGS games that gradually gives way to a game that is chock full of weird characters, illogical situations, diversions from reality and an ending that is as over the top as it is perplexing.
Years ago, Rogers famously devoted 5 pages of web space at InsertCredit.com years ago to make his case that Metal Gear Solid II is the ultimate, interactive post-modern trip.
In Internet time, his article is an artifact of Pre-Columbian culture. However I found the whole treatment so thought provoking that I occasionally re-read it every now and then - such as yesterday. For those who are fans of Metal Gear or Murakami, his post is long but worth the read. Check it out here: [Dreaming in an Empty Room: via Insert Credit]
A brief post from the online edition of Business Week, last week makes note that Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) has been reported to have shrunk 15.2% within the first quarter of 2009. [BusinessWeek Online]
And to think, Japan Inc. spent nearly 15 years stumbling its way out of the Heisei Recession [Overview by Koichi Hamada] only to step into another, whopping economic downturn a few years later.
Currently, economic factors look pretty bleak for the country, despite the fact that the Business Week article makes note that this kind of bad economic news is usually back-dated and that good news could be around the corner, next quarter (gee, where have we heard that before?).
One thing worth noting however is the use of GDP as the measuring stick for Japan’s collective, financial health. One thing I remember learning from the econ courses I took in Japan years ago was that measuring GDP as the ultimate test of economic well being was never really a great idea when applied to Japan.
The main reason for this is that Japan, while an international economic dynamo (even now), it’s local economy has always lagged behind what the country did in the international market due to morose consumer demand.
With exception to a very brief, golden period in the late 1980s, Japan’s domestic consumption has always been low when compare to other, equally well-to-do nations (such as the US).
I could go on and on about Japan’s domestic consumption habits but to make it short and sweet, while measuring Japan’s GDP gives you a fair estimate of the country’s economic well being, its worth looking at Japan’s gross national product (GNP) as it factors in GDP along with Japan’s international dealings (foreign direct investment, overseas manufacturing, etc.).
Still, either way, things currently don’t look too rosy for Japan - or anyone else for that matter.
Well, I made it a good, solid 2 weeks into the May Post-a-Palooza before falling off the wagon.
For good reason however - we’ve recently acquired and have moved to (and begun renovating) a new, 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom desert compound here in the Southern California wasteland.
We have now begun taking part in the unspeakable nightmare that is home ownership.
Fortunately, that also meant we were eligible to get fiber optic service for our TV/Phone/Interwebs. Now that I’m back online, its time to play catch-up.
Once a pretty decent and grossly under-marketed anime movie, featuring ground-breaking use of a completely digital pipeline, Blood: The Last Vampire is being re-released as a live-action movie. Starring Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun (of “My Sassy Girl” fame), and Japanese actress and model Koyuki (official site) as the villainess, it looks to be an exciting crossover movie in the action/fantasy/monster-movie genre. Yes, please!
From watching the trailer, it seems that they’ve even managed to keep relatively true to the original plot. Between this and Star Trek, it looks to be shaping up to be a busy weekend.
I went to the Osaka DMV today to get my regular license renewed, and also to get an an international license so that I can legally drive when I go home to visit this summer. I find no end of amusement in the fact that I can’t drive in my home country without such elaborate preparations; I almost want to get pulled over, just to see the cop’s reaction.
Okay, not really, but I think you get my point.
While sitting around waiting for them to call my name and deliver my precious permit to drive in foreign lands, I decided to avail myself of a refreshing drink and came across this humorous contraption: a vending machine that displays short comedy skits from the famous Yoshimoto comedy group while it prepares your tasty beverage. Osaka hometown pride I can understand, but talk about your esoteric locations!
Once a pretty decent and grossly under-marketed 
