Nakayama Kinnikun DESU!

There was this one Geinoujin (芸能人) in Japan during the early 00's called Nakayama Kinnikun or "Muscleguy Nakayama" who was a laugh riot and all the kids LOVED. He even made it on most variety shows and even was a frequent guest on Yoshimoto's Osaka Shinkigeki. Apparently, he was in America last year. Here he is, drunk:



Apparently, he lifts with Yagi from the comedy group "Savanna." Not to name drop or anything, but I used to teach the other member's (Takahashi) family members English.

http://kinnikun.laff.jp/blog/blog_index.html

Anyway, enjoy. I hope Kinnikun does well in America.



If you understand Japanese, this is hilarious.

Places where eels sleep

Kyoto (where I lived for two years) is a very cramped place, especially the middle part and the eastern part (中京区、左京区). The main part of Kyoto lies somewhere around Shijo (四条) and Kawaramachi-doori　(河原町通), and if you walk a few streets toward Kamo River (鴨川), you'll hit Kiyamachi (木屋町) - where liquor was taken up to the imperial palace from the Fushimi area years ago - and Pontocho (先斗町) - where all the maiko (geisha) are. Even thought these places are very busy, they are also extremely compact, and the tight, confining streets that interlace the area are called Unagi no nedokoro or "Places where eels sleep" (鰻のねどころ) as eels are very slender (and delicious) and therefore can sleep in a very narrow, confining place.

Pontocho:


Unagi no nedokoro:


Gosh I miss Kyoto now and my former home in the Kurotani-dera area...

Morning Musume - AFTER DARK

Well, I heard a couple of years ago the whole Morning Musume idea was sold to China for them to create their own Morning Musume group so that we can all forget our own ambitions and focus on 10-15 pubescent starlings.

No, I'm not bitter, but I do hate their producer Tsunku♂ (apparently he needs the male astrological sign beside his name, because he's writing all their girlie lyrics) who was lead for Sharan Q.



Tsunku is the second from left. Anyway, in the late 90's the Osaka band Sharan Q decided to "mix it up" with one of my favorite bands, another Osaka group The Ulfuls.



The Ulfuls are still going, and have a few of the best Karaoke songs ever made: "Guts da ze!" (It takes guts!), "Baka survivor" (Idiot survivor), and my personal favorite, "Osaka Strut." How this conversation evolved from Morning Musume into Osaka pride issues? Well, Morning Musume, one of the biggest franchises in Japanese history? Run by a guy from Osaka. All comedy acts in Japan? 90% are run by a company in Osaka. Yours truly? Lived 2 years in Higashiosaka - where Tsunku grew up. Enjoy the video. I was

Ulfuls - Osaka Strut
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Nagoya July Sumo Tournament

The clay, the salt, the sake, the wonderful tradition of sumo will continue this July (12-23rd) in Nagoya. My favorite wrestlers are KotoOhshuu, Takamizakari, and Ama. I've been following Kotooshuu since his entry in the early 2000's, and he's always been a very powerful wrestler, but he lacks the ability to really surprise his enemies with anything other than brute strength. He is, or is near, 7 feet tall. He's next in line for Yokozuna, and if he wins a couple of tournaments we might have the first caucasian Yokozuna.



Takamizakari is a mediocre wrestler, but he's beaten Asashoryu (probably the strongest wrestler in the last ten years) before, so he has the element to surprise. He's nearsighted almost to blindness (big coke bottle glasses outside the ring) and he does a really funny opening kiai (an athletes way of powering up) that makes the crowd go wild.



Asashoryu (yokozuna) is in black and Takamizakari is in blue. Takamizakari starts pleasing the crowd from 4:55 and he gets a lot of applause for an exciting tachiai (fight). Takamizakari really doesn't have much of a chance though against Asashoryu.

Finally, I really have liked Ama from the beginning because of his somewhat small stature but awesome technical skill. He's almost the opposite of Kotoohshu. In this video, you can see Hakuho (the other yokozuna) has about 100lbs on Ama, and Ama puts up a very strong defense. Hakuho is out of strength, but gets Ama in a headlock and delivers him down to the dohyo.



Any sumo questions? Ask me. I've loved the sport since I first started watching it in the Akebono/Musashimaru days.

Reimen - Cold Ramen

Man I wish there was a machine that could send me back to Kyoto for a quick sit down lunch at めしや (Meshiya). They had the greatest seasonal food, and reimen (cold noodles) are awesome.

Will Saibi win Koshien this year?

I started watching this team after they won Senpatsu 2004, and they are awesome. Saibi High School, located in the relatively rural Ehime prefecture and formerly an all girl's school, has a great high school baseball team (two years old when it won senpatsu, since boys entered the school in 2002) and could be a contender again. Maybe people were expecting Tohoku High to win the 2004 Senpatsu (even though Yuu Darvish was pitching) and the coach made the mistake of putting Darvish in the field.

One 3-run home run later, one of the most meaningful high school songs was played over the sound system as Saibi went home with the Senpatsu flag.



By the way, as a former Osaka resident, I certainly don't mind Osaka Toin winning again like they did last year (17-0), but it's refreshing to see teams like Saibi win.

Ramo Nakajima

I did the wiki page for him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramo_Nakajima

I love his books, and I think he's one of the weirdest raging alcoholics ever to be arrested for marijuana possession and die falling down some stairs while walking out of a bar. My favorites from him are "Tonight, From Every Bar in Town" is a semi-autobiographical look at a raging alcoholic dealing with recovery, his short essays, and "Gadara no Buta" (The pigs of gadara - the ones that jumped off the cliff after Jesus exorcised Legion from the insane man) which is a very deep and beautiful look at religion's stupidity as well as its necessity. He also was on some TV shows in the late 90's early 2000's, and my favorite was a collection of Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Kobe) comedian's called "Saigo no Bansan" (The Last Supper):

If you can understand Japanese:　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygFP78_5z24

You can tell all the liquor and drugs have destroyed his speech permanently.

Ramen - Types

I guess today is ramen day.

There are four basic types of ramen, and some types are more prevalent in certain areas of Japan (Shio is big in Tokyo, but not so big in Osaka). So lets go through them, shall we?

Shio Ramen (Salt-based):This ramen is one of the lightest and easiest to make, and comprises maybe about 20% of the ramen market. Its a little more popular in Tokyo, and is made by taking a secret mix of bones, veggies, and salt and slowboiling or simmering it over night to make soup. I don't like to eat shio unless it's highly recommended by some magazine - it tends to be thin and while many Japanese love it because of the subtlety of its taste, I usually will end up dunking garlic or shichimi (a type of spice) in it to make it taste better. The soup is usually a thin color.

Shoyu Ramen (Soy sauce-based):


Shoyu is the same boiling process for the soup with less salt to compensate for the salty soy sauce, and the soy sauce is added either in the soup-making stage or right before the noodles are put in. As far as I've seen, this type is quite popular and has about a 35% share in the market. Its got an easy to distinguish brown color.

Miso Ramen (Bean paste-based):


Now we're starting to get into the thick stuff, and miso really brings a lot of thickness to the soup. Some miso can actually get almost chowdery with viscosity, and this makes miso ramen a very powerful weapon against winter colds (and cold itself!) Green onions and garlic compliment this ramen very well. Notice the lack of seaweed as well, you don't see it that often in miso ramen.

Tonkotsu Ramen (pig bone-based):

Tonkotsu is pig bones boiled with miso, shoyu, or salt to get all the fat in the bones out in the soup. During winter, this soup will literally force all the phlegm out of your lungs due to the warm fat that sits adjacent to your lungs - pulsating and loosening all the mucus in your lungs. Needless to say, this soup is very thick and if mixed with miso, can be almost like a cream based soup. This pic is of my favorite ramenya in Kyoto - Hakata Ramen Miyoshi.

There are several others:
Tantan men - hot noodles with ground beef as topping
Kimchi men - hot soup with a kimchi/miso base
Champon - seafood ramen
Butter ramen - usually miso/shoyu with a slab of butter on top.
Reimen - cold ramen