Soran Bushi - Outside Edition April 26th, 2008
Sorry for the wait! It’s my fault as I’ve been pretty busy recently with choosing modules for my second year (more on that later) and also starting to think about which university I want to attend in my third year (more on that much later), and taking a mid semester exam. Anyway, last week we performed Soran Bushi for East Asian day just outside the union in broad daylight, making for some great photos. Photos were taken by Joseph (thank you!) and are available on Flickr here.
Pre-Soran
As we are a very drunken important and lazy professional dance team, we never do silly things like pose for group photographs or take silly photographs. Honestly. Did you really come to this site expecting to see that sort of thing?!
Only kidding! I guess this is our promotional photo, although a few members sadly couldn’t make it to this performance, so it’s not a perfect lineup. But it’s close! Here’s the lineup as we are standing in that shot;
Goto, Mo, Naomi, Simon
Taka, Amelia, Mike, Maria, Me
Following this very important photo, nonsense prevailed;
As you can see, Simon was not impressed by our antics, choosing instead to the professional “no-nonsense glance at camera” pose.
Alright kids, enough stalling, start dancing!
Soran Action Photos!
We did the dance twice and both times I think we did a great job. Unlike our earlier performance at the Culture show, we could hear the music from the start and everyone was a lot more confident. Sadly when we stamped on the ground this time there was no sound, but on the flipside people could stand all around us and it was quite exciting for everyone to be visible at all times. No more hiding on the back row getting the moves wrong for me!
As I said before there are many more photos available on Flickr here. Oh well, guess there’s nothing else to say…
HOLD IT!
Super Bonus Video Time!
Thanks to AJ for filming this one!
That really is it for this update! Stay tuned - I’ve got over the lull of posts and have a few more planned for the nearby future, and if that doesn’t work I’ve warmed up the excuse generator! See you then!
Sheffield Japan Society - Soran Bushi Dance 2008 April 20th, 2008
Wow! Last night at around 11pm myself and 11 other members of Sheffield Japan Society ran on stage at Sheffiend International Culture Evening 2008 and danced like maniacs. I don’t really know what to say, so I’ll post this video for you guys to enjoy.
Let the video load before playing it. Hosted courtesy of Facebook. Bonus points for spotting me.
Dancer Lineup;
Naomi, Kuni, Mo, Kishin, Simon, Masa, Mike, James, Maria, Amelia, Taka & Me
Best dance team ever.
Photographs will be here in a few days (courtesy of Joseph Tame)
Blood Types In Japan April 10th, 2008
There’s a popular belief in Japan that a person’s blood type determines what kind of personality and temperament they will have in a way similar to our Western star signs idea. Here’s a quick run down of the four blood types with information about each one, taken from Wikipedia;
| Japanese Blood Type Personality Chart | |
| Type A | |
|---|---|
| Best Traits: | Earnest, creative, sensible, calm. |
| Worst Traits: | Fastidious, overly earnest. |
| Type B | |
| Best Traits: | Wild, a doer, cheerful. |
| Worst Traits: | Selfish, irresponsible, arrogant. |
| Type AB | |
| Best Traits: | Cool, controlled, rational. |
| Worst Traits: | Critical, indecisive, unforgiving. |
| Type O | |
| Best Traits: | Agreeable, sociable, an optimist. |
| Worst Traits: | Vain, careless, ruthless, cruel. |
Interesting. Blood type A is apparently the most common in Japan, with 40% of the populace having it, as do I. According to this table, I’m earnest, creative and sensible, but I’m also overly earnest. So whilst it’s a good thing to be earnest, make sure you’re not earnest! Oh no! Anyway, I have to admit I find these traits a little dull, aside from Type O who are apparently manically evil. (Vain, careless, ruthless AND cruel?!) So I’ve rewritten the blood types with a more interesting spin. Consult the chart and find out what the future holds in store for you!
Type A
Best Traits: Dedicated, survives zombie attacks well, excellent balance whilst standing on one foot, rarely chooses bad food at restaurants.
Worst Traits: Flammable, terrible for the environment, often forgets to update blog for weeks, terrible at ice-skating, hands wave around uncontrollably just before and on Halloween.
Type B
Best Traits: Excellent at bass guitar, always remembers where they left their keys, can hide nuts in cheeks over winter to preserve food.
Worst Traits: Easily confused by bright coloured lights, will stab friends in the back if the chance of obtaining syrup is present, known to cause fireworks to go off whilst in their packaging.
Type AB
Best Traits: Can survive solely on pineapple for just over three months, immediately knows all dance moves to Grease upon birth.
Worst Traits: Won’t stop listening to Grease, body shrinks to just under 3% of it’s normal size whilst on trains, often born with eleven feet.
Type O
Best Traits: Can help Type AB people grow back whilst on trains, can juggle for hours.
Worst Traits: Has no comprehension of how loudly they are talking in a cinema, doesn’t close the fridge properly after use.
See? Much more interesting! But I want to take the idea further. So,
You would watch that and you know it. Every week they’d get into a mess of some description and every week we would learn something. Except Type O, he’s too mean to get into trouble.
As closure I’d like to say that I am not trying to get at Type O people here, in fact quite the opposite. By making a mockery of these terrible blood beliefs, I hope that one day people of all types of blood can come and play hopscotch or chase cats or whatever people these days do, in perfect harmony. That is my dream. Well, that and to write silly updates about news reports on this blog. I think I’ll stick to that.
The Horrors Of jPop April 8th, 2008
Preface: I’m not trying to offend anyone with this. Music taste is relative.
Japanese Pop, or jPop as it’s come to be known, is without a doubt some of the most migraine inducing music in the world. I’m not saying it’s all bad, and it really boils down to exactly how you define jPop, but as I’m not really a huge fan of it I feel that is more than enough reason to make fun of it. Yes, I’m a terrible person. So I’ve trawled the web and found the five worst jPop videos and songs, and collected them here just in case you were feeling too happy today and needed some depressing. Most of the songs are relativity new as they are easier to find on Youtube. Also, thanks to this blog, I found most of these songs there.
Japanese Runners COVERED IN BEES - Eddie Izzard Laughs April 7th, 2008
From Japan Today;
Thirty-two runners were stung by honey bees while taking part in a marathon event in Saga on Sunday, local fire department officials said. The runners were treated at a hospital, but their injuries are not serious, the officials said.
Well that’s just plain unlucky, to be honest. I’m terrified of bees, but to be honest would you keep running if you saw this ahead of you;
Now as everyone knows, being covered in bees is the third most scary animal to be covered in, after spiders and jellyfish in that order. So in a way, you can look at this news and go “Oh well, at least they weren’t jellyfish”. I hope that’s what the doctors told the injured runners. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. We had a bunch of runners yesterday who were attacked by a team of jellyfish.”
Anyway, on with the news story;
The 32 runners participating in the half-marathon race were attacked by a swarm of honey bees at around 10:50 a.m. Sunday when they were around the 11-kilometer point near an apiary, according to event organizers. Many of those who were stung dropped out of the race, but the overall event, featuring races of varying distances, continued as a makeshift route diverted trailing runners from the area where the bees appeared, the organizers said.
What I love about this story is that the event wasn’t cancelled. The organisers just created a new route and everyone went around the swarm. Brilliant. In England the race would have been cancelled, the organisers sued, and the bees deported from the country, or jailed.
So why, Mike, are you posting this story? It’s not very interesting I know, but it allows me to post the very first ever Youtube video on Japan Is Doomed! Woohoo! I really wanted to post one a while ago, and I have a great update lined up with a handful of videos. But I think to kick it off we need a really great performer. So who better than the legend Eddie Izzard?! I know the link is incredibly tenuous, but here he is discussing being covered in bees, just like our poor runners;
So, to conclude, a quick run through of facts;
- People get stung alot but people keep running anyway. Humanity 1, Animals 0.
- Jellyfish much more dangerous than bees.
- Eddie Izzard very entertaining.
- Mike teases with promise of funny update. Makes a change. (Hohoho).
So was this really just a thinly veiled Youtube test? Yes Of course not.