Filed under: Japanese, Weird | Tags: Japan, Japanese TV, Matt Harding, VISA
So you guys know all about “Where in the world is Matt” right? If you don’t, watch the video, it’s kind of fun.
I was watching TV the other day (I forget which station). And I happened to catch the new VISA card TV ad. This ad has always featured long dead Japanese historical figures Natsume Soseki, Hideyo Noguchi and Fukuzawa Yukichi in modern day settings. This time however, they’re all with Matt himself doing “the Matt dance” all over the world. The ad finishes with Noguchi saying “By the way, who are you?” to Matt. As a foreigner aware of the dancing Matt thing I found this hilarious, but my guess is he’s not that famous in Japan – hell he isn’t really THAT famous outside of the Internet. Certainly Mayumi nor any of the guys at the office had a clue who he was. Here’s the ad:
Seems a strange choice for the face of VISA if no one knows who he is or why he’s dancing like a fool. But there’s really no accounting for some of what happens on Japanese TV.
So since the Korean missile I’ve not posted much, for a colorful variety of reasons. Business of the new school year, getting used to new faces in the school, studying for the JLPT and such, watching too “The Apprentice” too much. I could go on all day, but I shan’t.
New school year in full swing and the 5 day holiday of golden week fast approaching. I have to say I like the new atmosphere in the schools this year. The new first graders are pretty decent, primary school is going well now and I’m asserting myself enough to make sure I keep a nice balance of work and free time. I’m trying to start running again but it’s not something I have much staying power with, I ran with the kids doing their 1 mile tryouts the outher day and faired rather pitifully – I ran it as best I could but was completely knackered come the final stretch finishing 4th out of 8 in the first grade boys – I am turning into an ambiguously beer bellied middle age man at a rate I am less than pleased with.
I’ve livened up the atmosphere slightly in the classroom through the medium of novelty ties having purchased some sexy comic ties for next to nothing on ebay:
It’s been a hit so far, the one with multiple characters occupied at least 10 minutes of every class while I explained each character and we ran into a segue about Thor and Thursday (Thor’s day).
Also this weekend is the Global warming forum in Koya, here’s the site I translated for them, although I feel the formatting could have been done much better. I’m voluntering this weekend as a would be interpreter, I’m hoping I’m spared from anything too demanding as there are fully trained and experienced professionals on board so I doubt they’ll lump anything too weighty over to the amateur fella with a country twang to his Japanese … but I’ve been wrong before.
I’ll try and get back on track with regular updates etc. but with the baby on the way in the coming month and a half I forsee a slightly busier period of life on the horizon. (Mother and Baby are doing well by the by).
Until next time true believers.
Excelsior!
I’m sure there’s a song from way before I was born entitled: “Wouldn’t it be nice to get on with your neightbours”. But we all know it isn’t always possible, especially when your neighbour is as mad as a bag of spiders. Yes, the almost comically insanse Kim Jong-Il proceeded with the launch of a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile on Sunday, sending it skirting over Japan and into the Pacific ocean. The international reaction has been roughly what one would expect, stern words all round and threats of trade restrictions and so on, but in reality it doesn’t feel like any of this phases the brass in over in Pyongyang.
Probably a bigger story than the missile test was the amount of false alarms leading up to the real launch, in the northern prefecture of Iwate-ken （岩手県） there were two false broadcasts claiming the missile had been launched prior to the real announcement. I would say this induced panic, but frankly it feels like the people of Japan have gotten used to the insanity from over the water. Still, it was big news for a few days and was great for picking up a few extra pieces of vocabulary that I would otherwise have no use for.
探知 – detection (of a missile)
誤探知 – false detection
誤報 – false information
逆探知 – phone trace
