After a week or so of university related updates, I think it’s time for a return to my social commentary updates, and what better way to return to the exciting world of Japanese news than with this fantastic story;

An annual “crying sumo” contest for babies, in which pairs of infants are brought together to see who can cry the first or the loudest, was held at Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple on Sunday.

Sensoji. I’ve been there. I can’t remember if there were any crying children there or not, but I would assume if there was, the parents would have been frantically trying to stop their child from disturbing other visitors, right? Well, apparently one day a year the parents do the very opposite.

As you can see, these kids thought this crying thing was nonsense and were having none of it. I have to admit, I’d probably take a similar approach. Apparently, however, if the kids don’t start crying the people running the show don scary masks to make them cry. To be honest, I think just explaining to them exactly why they were being held up in the air would be enough to set most kids off. “You messed up my daily routine of crying and running around for this!?”

So whilst some kids didn’t cry, others took the “quicker I cry, quicker it’s over” approach, and appropriatly turned on the waterworks;

I feel the best way to stop this madness would be for the kids to all go on strike, but I do not mean any disrespect to the kid on the right in that photo. The poor thing is not letting the team down at all, because the man who is looking at hime there is the scariest man in the entire world.

Prepare yourself.

Aah! I think I’m going to start crying! Look at him! He clearly feeds on the tears of children! I like his hat though. Still, I don’t feel I’d be comfortable allowing the Elf of bad dreams here wander around listening to the screams of my baby child. That’s just me, though.

Of course, it’s all in good fun and I’m sure nobody takes it too seriously. Their website suggests the crying competition is just part of a big festival, and serves only as a bit of light entertainment. But come on guys, can’t we have something more normal like running races or Super 100m Beetle Back Janken Sumo Pen Spinning? I know which I’d rather see.

Thanks to CNN/Getty Images for the photos.

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!

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)

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;

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.