Katatsumuri (Escargone) (mirror
here, in case you don't want to sit through a commercial), a Super Mario-ish Flash game from Japan, except instead of an Italian plumber, you are a snail. With a mustache. From the fine folks at
SKT.
Left click to jump, left click and hold to climb walls, reach the end-of-level ring before the time runs out. Watch the animation before each level to see what new obstacles and enemies are in store.
posted by Gator
on Jul 22, 2006 -
8 comments
"Spare me my life!" In the innocuous early '90's, Fuji TV
came up with
Zuiikin English, a television program which combined quirky language lessons with bradykinetic exercise. Was Zuiikin English ahead of its time? Or is it merely enjoyable bunk? (More
here and
here.)
posted by ed
on Jun 22, 2006 -
16 comments
Gimmie Gimmie Octopus is apparently a Japanese children's television show from the 1960s.
Yes, it's YouTube, but at least there's no lip synching.
posted by klausness
on Jun 18, 2006 -
13 comments
Matthew Barney, of
The Cremaster Cycle fame, has a new film coming out. Starring Bjork and Barney himself, along with a largely Japanese cast,
Drawing Restraint 9.
"The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto."
"The core idea of Drawing Restraint 9 is the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity, a theme it symbolically tracks through the construction and transformation of a vast sculpture of liquid Vaseline, called “The Field”, which is molded, poured, bisected and reformed on the deck of the ship over the course of the film."
Uh huh. If you liked the beautiful weirdness that was TCC, check out the
trailer {embedded QT}.
posted by zardoz
on Mar 15, 2006 -
28 comments
Kintaro Walks Japan A Google Video featuring an American who walks from Kyushu to Hokkaido in the hopes of learning about Japanese Culture and finding his father's birthplace.
(Running time ~ 1hr)
posted by matkline
on Jan 9, 2006 -
15 comments
Here we GROW again... A little late for Flash Friday perhaps, but... for those of you who
remember and enjoyed GROW from the fine Flash folks at
Eyezmaze. (Sort of like
Orisinal with fewer, but deeper, things.)
The new game is exactly like the old game, if a little easier in that there's only eight things to place instead of twelve. But there's a weird RPG sequence afterwards, beyond your control, where the fate of a little demon-slaying dude is influenced by your planet's configuration.
posted by JHarris
on Jul 23, 2005 -
31 comments
Thursday non-flash fun:
Pendulumania! (Direct link
here.) Swing the ball around to hit the targets, but don't let your line break.
(more inside)
posted by squidlarkin
on Jul 14, 2005 -
8 comments
Tokyo Times is an insightful, well-written blog dedicated to Japanese culture, books, current affairs, news, sex, random images and observations of life, as seen through the eyes of an English expat living in Tokyo.
posted by darkstar
on Jun 18, 2005 -
13 comments
Shibori is an amazing Japanese textile dying technique--a very sophisticated form of tie-dye, where
nubby,
lumpy,
bizarre things like
this are
transformed after
dying into this
fish or these
flowers (scroll for detail) or these
starbursts. Specifically
this odd thing became
this (
detail). You can find excellent photos and descriptions of the process
here,
here(scroll down and hold mouse over photo), and
here. There is also information at the
World Shibori Network . This
photo shows partially dyed fabric and here is a
video of the preparation for dying. Shibori is very
labor intensive (
carpal tunnel syndrome-city) and was a one time subject to a sumptuary tax and one form was outlawed by an emperor for being too extravagant. There are many different knots and ties for different patterns--browse
here,
here(gallery1-7), and
here. Shibori can be used to make some
striking and
detailed images. Diverse examples of shibori --
iris,
layered squares,
waves,
kimonos,
large bridge banner,
subtle black and white winter scene, , a nifty “aerial view” of
earth as a tidal pool with hot air balloons (
detail of anemones). Don't miss the stunning work of Hiroko Harada (
English/
Japanese). I especially like
Rain In the Forest,
There Are Ripples On the Cloth,
Seasonal Changes, and this
large installation. You can browse more
here, but the
Japanese page has more.
posted by lobakgo
on Jan 16, 2004 -
18 comments
Have a merry, sex and gadget filled hyper-commercialized Japanese Christmas. "Well it all started when a Spanish Jesuit missionary named St. Francis Xavier brought Christmas to Japan in 1549...." The
Jesuit bid to
Christianize Japan was a flop though, and now - while Jews in the West, for example, tend to go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, the Japanese had little connection to the Christian version - so they invented their own! Syncretistic Japan pulls in random elements of Western "Christmas" and recombines in pleasing new ways! ( shocking only to Christians ). Santa Claus on the Cross and more!
A proper Christmas in Japan - for singles - involves a hot date and visit to a "Love Hotel" where
"you might be directed by scantily-clad female elves to rooms complete with Christmas trees and life-size reindeer watching the proceedings with interest." and
"Grope Free Commutes", for Japanese women tired of having their asses grabbed on the subway by drunk salarymen returning from "Forget the Year" parties.
This fine blog chronicles it all: " the Dolphin-and-fish-surrounded Christmas tree", Ukelele Christmas parties - "I wandered into a score of middle aged Japanese ladies wearing Hawaiian shirts and plastic lays, tuning up their ukuleles" and more. And don't forget to buy some
cool new
gadgets.
"...a tiny robot helicopter weighing less than 9 grams... "
posted by troutfishing
on Dec 25, 2003 -
19 comments
The Japanese SAQ provides some much-needed and often fascinating answers for seldom-asked questions about Japanese culture like, "Why do those porcelain
Tanuki statues outside of restaurants have such outrageously large testicles?"
posted by MrBaliHai
on Dec 5, 2003 -
23 comments
Ozu Yasujiro.com: "This site is non-profit, based in England, and maintained as a shrine and resource dedicated to the late director."
posted by hama7
on Sep 3, 2003 -
9 comments
Japanese Tolkien fans angered over translation issues. Relatively old news, but I believe not that well known. Do the technical difficulties involved excuse the loss of important meaning in dialogue? Film translation seems to suffer from much less prestige than
literary translation, though that too has
its controversies. In the US, anime fans replay the loose vs strict translation debate daily, also protesting
cuts and
edits. Is it really impossible in the rush to make money off the geeks
and off the masses to stay relatively true to the original material?
posted by e^2
on Aug 29, 2003 -
21 comments
