Viewing archives from "July 2007"

Some of you may remember a while back some talk about photographing and fingerprinting foreigners visiting Japan... Well it's here finally! In effect by November everywhere in Japan, special computerized machines at immigration will scan your face and hands. I hope my ugly mug breaks their machine. The reason is due to the rise in "multiple simultaneous terrorist attacks" throughout the world. The computers will cross-referencing your prints and photo with a list of suspicious persons.

The video explains it all, but you'll have to follow the link as the government makes it really hard to steal:

New Immigration Procedure Video

Also, and this is the kicker - it will identify foreigners that keep trying to get in illegally. ie, on repeat tourist visas etc. Holy sushi-roll, ManBat! That means YOU!

"What if I refuse to be fingered or photographed?"

"If you refuse to be fingerprinted or photographed, you will be denied entry and ordered to leave ^_^

"Ok~! I'll pass it on to my friends too!"

Released on July 4th as straight to DVD and Bluray, Ghibli's latest movie is a partnership with the artist Inoue, who also worked on the arty sequences in "Whisper of the Heart". Details about the plot of Iblard are sketchy, and the best I could find was:

A project about Inoue’s imaginary world Iblard. Fragments of forgotten memories... Nostalgic days that are sure to come again... Iblard is made of such elements.

You can check out the trailer and try to decipher more youself, over at the official website @ iblardjikan.jp

June 30th saw armies of otaku (Japanese dorks, geeks, etc.) marching through Akihabara in protest of discrimination against their culture, reclaiming Akihabara as their rightful holy-land and home. The rally was organised by 3 Otaku Alliances, the Otakuism Alliance オタク先鋭派 革命的オタク主義者同盟, Revolutionary Moeism Alliance 革命的萌え主義者同盟 and the Revolutionary Rejects Alliance 革命的非モテ同盟.


The Otoki donned a range of clothing (as you would expect...) from standard protest costumes to darth vader and coke machine lookalikes, and walked 1.5km through the city, holding their banners high with pride. I say fair play to them. We see gay pride and womens rights rallies all of the time, so why not Otaku, stands to reason in my opinion.



My guess is at the end of the walk they all jumped on the train and went home... I would not like to have been an unsuspecting school girl on that chikan train to hell!

Lots of coverage of this event at various online vendors, Kotaku, Japan Probe, etc. but this vid was my favourite for its randomness (despite becoming a little repetetive). Anyway, without further ado, here is Danny Choo in Tokyo, in a storm trooper outfit, dancing.