Whatever you do, and wherever you go, have a ‘lovely’ Christmas. May all your hopes and wishes come true.
And then some.
Merry Christmas!
(click image for larger loveliness)
Lovely jubbly
Food for thought
Extensive research involving quickly flicking through the freely available terrestrial channels, found that 99.8% of Japanese television programmes are food related — whether creating, consuming or simply going cock-a-hoop over the stuff.
A sorry state of affairs that leaves those not exactly obsessed with food somewhat starved of entertainment, although thankfully there is the odd exception.
Cleverly combining cooking and scantily-clad young ladies, the far from comatose contestants have to try and keep track of how each tasty little dish is made, rather than greedily feasting their eyes on the far more fruitier offerings on display.
An approach that if embraced by all the channels would surely fail to go stale, the endless variations of recipes and raiment keeping customers more than happy.
Such a bold move perhaps also causing cooking fans to conjure up very different images whenever the name of famed TV chef Fanny Cradock is banded about.
Stormtrooper style
The long-held belief that women find men in uniform irresistible was further strengthened over the weekend, with Prince William’s girlfriend gushing, “I love the uniform. It’s so, so sexy” as her 24-year-old partner graduated from Sandhurst as an army officer.
A condition that would also appear to affect Japanese ladies — especially bikini-clad ones. The only apparent difference being the kind of costume deemed decorative enough.
Click here for more images of young ladies in limited amounts of clothing going gaga over Stormtrooper Choo’s get-up.
Morbid mobile usage
“I get the sense that people no longer respect the dead. It’s disturbing.”
Mobile phone shutter noises have gradually increased in volume to counter the dark art of upskirt photography, but as one avenue has closed, another appears to have opened, with photography of the dead now a growing trend amongst Japanese phone wielding photographers.
Yet despite the concerns of the lady quoted above, and her worries that “the deceased would never want their faces photographed,” she appears to be behind the times somewhat, with social commentator Toru Takeda claiming, “Some can’t grasp ‘reality’ unless they take a photo and share it with others … It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased.”
An assertion that may well hold some truth, but with mobile technology now allowing an array of alterations to be made to a photo, it arguably depends on what kind of images are being shared.
As it’s a fine line between the respectful.
And the perhaps not so respectful.
Donut dementia
Despite several other outlets serving similarly sweet foodstuffs — and a few further factors facing the new franchise — the Japanese mantra of ‘if it’s new, we will come — en masse’ has once again been put into effect, with the first Krispy Kreme shop in Japan receiving the customary fad-based fanfare over the weekend.
And whilst the elderly security guard fortunately found the crowd sedate as well as sweet-toothed, the huge amount of people was reminiscent of the recent PlayStation 3 pandemonium.
Which in 6 months time could well have dwindled to a couple of foreigners and the odd donut devotee.