Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | pop culture
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March 11, 2013

Pretty cool: Domino's Pizza goes all in on mobile tech wizardry -- at least for its Japanese market -- with a new app featuring Hatsune Miku, a Vocaloid, synthetic/anime J-pop persona that's entirely digital. According to a new video that has Domino's Japan CEO Scott Oelkers introducing the app, Domino's staff came up with songs for the app, and the...

February 11, 2013

I’m a fan of anime and manga, although I don’t actually follow the zillions of comics or animated series and movies, because they’re instrumental in building bridges between Japan and the United States. I’ve spoken with eager young Caucasian anime fans in full cosplay (dressed in costumes playing the part of their favorite anime characters) who said they’re taking Japanese...

January 31, 2013

[caption id="attachment_4973" align="aligncenter" width="520"] The striking graphic that opens the article on Jezebel.com[/caption] As I read with disbelief the daily dispatches about North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un's bellicose statements about aiming nukes at the United States, threatening South Korea and putting his impoverished country under martial law to "prepare for war," I know that there are very serious issues...

January 30, 2013

Like zillions of other people, I'm enchanted by Hello Kitty and amazed by the worldwide phenomenon of the cute cat that was born in Japan and now adorns all manner of products and objects and toys and appliances worldwide. And, I'm enchanted by this totally cool video of a 7th grade school science project, in which Hello Kitty flies into...

December 21, 2012

Mmmmm. Chinese food. Just thinking about Lao Wang Noodle House in Denver, which I swear serves the best dumplings in the universe (it's where the photo above was taken) gets my mouth watering. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall tucked into a tiny strip mall along the South Federal Asian strip of mostly Vietnamese eateries. It's run by an elderly couple who...