Another interesting development, not reported here, is that Blair has confirmed that he wants to carry on being leader all through a third term if Labour are elected in the next election. That means we have Blair hanging around, making earnest, preachy speeches until about 2009, when the election after the next one is due. Gordon Brown has no chance until then. And given that Mr Blair's main rivals are Charles Kennedy and Michael Howard, it looks pretty certain that it will be good ol' Lionel. The irregular heartbeat is a worry for him, though.

 

I saw adverts for Wall Street English school all over when I went on a trip to France recently. The posters were all of successful people in suits, smiling confidently, and the caption beneath was: "I speak English... WALL STREET English." The inference seems to be that, as soon as you learn a bit of English there you'll make your first million and become Michael Douglas's character in Wall Street. Greed is good!

 

I was looking forward to seeing him! I'll be going to those matches. Never mind. Take better care of that groin of yours, Nakata!

 

At least he didn't say: "From my seat, I can see you checking out my ass. It looks bad when shown on TV."

That would be weird.

 

"ALL of my friends, Canadians, Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and *even Brits* were pretty upset."

What do you mean? Brits are anti-American? Brits are so evil they laugh at tragedy? Brits are so tough they are unmoved by death? Enlighten me.

 

... It's like glue mixed with sugar and concrete. Still, each to their own.

 

I'm a fan of Beckham as a footballer, but at times like this I feel like I really want to emigrate to the US...

http://www.chortler.com/1246becks.html

 

Yes, yes, but after all this, will she still be good old Guadalupe from the block?

 

Okay, you Germans got the beer gardens then.

Looks like we've still got the monopoly on humour though...

 

I just realised that the first link I posted was not actually about soccer but a press release about the EU's counter-terrorism measures. Very similar topics, I'm sure you'll agree!

Here's the link I was trying to post:

http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/barra/2002/05/24/worldcup/

 

'Even drinking alcohol has an aesthetic meaning of showing our praise for the beauty of "sakura.""'

Of course it's not just an excuse to get pissed under a tree and have a picnic. ;)

In a similar way we British have a unique way of celebrating the summer that foreigners may not understand. In the way that our knight forefathers did, we express our apporeciation of the summer sun by sitting in traditional British "Beer Gardens" and show that we understand the unique spirit of the British summer by drinking lots of what we British call "Beer"...

 

Okay, I know my flippant comment that baseball is only popular in three countries was bollocks. But soccer is popular in whole continents, while the popularity of baseball still seems to be spread among a few countries.

But I have seen some statistics that show that soccer has many more participants/associations around the world or something. Strangely enough, the same stats showed that volleyball is actually officially the world's most popular sport!

Anyway, as I said before I wouldn't try to say that baseball "sucks" or anything like that cos I dodn't know enough about it. I want to see more games if I can.

I do sometimes get annoyed at the American attitude to soccer though, and I suppose that's what provoked me to go on about how much more popular soccer is. There are two examples here:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenM...

http://www.soccersucks.org/

The second one's actually quite funny...

 

So MLB is popular in Canada too... I see. That makes three countries then.

Whereas football (by which I mean REAL football) is massively popular in the whole of Europe, the whole of South America, the whole of Africa, most of Asia, and is more famous than baseball in Australasia.

That leaves North America and some Asian countries like Japan in which football is fast overtaking baseball in terms of popularity.

Not bad for a game of hackeysack(?) or whatever that other guy wrote.

 

have cool smiles, but I have to take issue with what Takao says when he claims that MLB is an "internationally major, popular sports brand".

It just isn't, unless you equate "international" with "the US and Japan."

I don't know the names of any MLB stars except the Japanese players that went over there, and I am quite interested in sport. In contrast, there are probably Mongolian sheep-herders living in caves who have heard of Beckham and Machester United.

Not that I am trying to say football is better than baseball or anything. I don't know enough about baseball to judge it - I wish I did but I don't get the chance to see games where I'm living. But I would say that football has much more of a legitimate claim to be considered a major international brand.

Sorry Takao - keep on smiling.

 

have touched on an interesting issue in modern relationships that is evident in the UK at the moment. I have seen a lot of anecdotal evidence myself to suggest that women are at much more of an advantage in the "dating game" at the moment, and men are increasingly becoming desperate, male Bridget Jones characters. Women can pick and choose as they like and they often seem more inclined to do that.

They often seem to approach choosing a date as a calculation, and its not just about money now. Women now want impeccable looks, preferably to David Beckham level, big muscles, great intelligence (preferably professor level), trouser snakes of at least ten inches, great wealth, an engaging personality with absolutely no defects, however minor, and of course a sense of humour. If you only have a couple of these requirements, I'm afraid you don't fit the bill, and the woman you are attempting to woo will be quite happy to stay single and wait for her Mr Big, all the while chatting to her stupid friends about how pathetic men are, watching "sex and the city" DVDs, and going on exotic holidays.

Men are left wandering the bars, playing Playstation, and going home and watching TV, yearning after the beautiful newsreaders on local news channels that they will never meet.

It has even been shown by a survey:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1045964,00.html

But to get back on topic, I couldn't say that this phenomenon justifies any kind of perverse behaviour, and thankfully the kind of dodgy people the guy mentions above are in the minority.

 

Sho Ishizuka seems particularly intelligent and his comments are pretty perceptive for a 21-year-old.

I was a bit worried that I'd see the phrase "Japan is safety country" here, but they all seem to realise that no country is a "safety country" any more.

Maybe some people will take issue with some of the respondents' apparent perception of terrorism being almost exclusively an "American" problem, though...

Also, I feel that Japan would be under the threat of terrorism even if it weren't involved in postwar Iraq, and they don't seem to comprehend that. But Iraq involvement does bring new things to the mix of threats...

 

The series you're thinking of is the League of Gentlemen! Absolute classic! It's like a cross between Twin Peaks, Monty Python and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. One of the best things to have been shown on British TV in the last few years. Very dark, great acting, and ocasionally very funny. I highly recommend the DVDs if you can get hold of them.

To avoid been slapped by the Mod, here's a very on-topic comment: To Cleo: Yes, I was forgetting that Holly's only 20, and she might not be the most intelligent person in the world... But as a famous, popular person, she could at least try and avoid alienating her fanbase.

 

For "foreign" films read "Hollywood" films.

No country can match the sheer financial power, marketing muscle and movie making know-how of Hollywood. It isn't just a Japanese problem. Hollywood has hit a great formula, a way of making money by entertaining people, over years and years of making the things. When the new blockbuster comes out, it's like a juggernaut. All the right commercial buttons are pressed, all the right marketing campaigns are wheeled out.

Other countries take a different approach to making movies, dictated over the years by a lack of money, but also by different cultural factors. Can anyone remember the last worldwide hit to come out of the UK? The British can speak English, just as well as the Americans, but still their movies are not hits, so it can't be a linguistic problem. "The Full Monty", despite not being particularly good, only did quite well because of aggressive marketing in the US by Miramax (I think).

I think Japanese movies suffer in the same way as UK movies. Firstly, they don't have any money. Secondly, they usually favour old-fashioned, quaint themes. Small-time dramas about regular people fighting hard circumstances. UK movie makers seem to have an obsession with plucky kids from council estates fighting the odds to succeed, albeit in a quirky yet grittily realistic way. There has to be a family confrontation on the way, complete with the word "f***" being shouted in an emotional way in a regional accent a few times. Hollywood knows that teenagers around the world want to see explosions and heroes, and it has the money to bring them that.

Real movie buffs will always love good movies wherever they're from, though. There are plenty of good Japanese movies. If a movie doesn't smash box office records around the world it doesn't mean it's a bad movie. In fact, it makes it more likely it's well made and intelligent. I mean, look at "Hulk" and the recent "Matrix" sequels. They did well around the world but they were absolute bollocks.

 

Foddy and Jeremie seemed more put out by Gucci's contention that British TV is boring, rather than his suggestion that the British are a bunch of perverts and the aspersions he cast on British food. What's all that about?

I actually think British TV is traditionally quite good, but in the last few years it's very, very poor. Now it's either a soap, reality show, a home improvement show, or a combination of two or all of the above. And nothing else.

As for Holly, she seems to have something against the UK, and she always seems to seize the chance to slag off this fair sceptred isle at the slightest provocation. I can just imagine it:

"Do you like Japanese boys?"

"Good question! Much more intelligent than those smutty, evil, perverted Brits."

She obviously has something against Britain. It must be all that money her British fans pump into her bank account by buying her CDs, and all that free publicity the tabloids give her, thereby ensuring that she earns more money. What a bunch of miserable, smutty gits eh Holly? Maybe if she doesn't want smutty things written about her in the tabloids she should cover a Cliff Richard song for her next single and appear in the video dressed in a big potato sack with only he face poking out of the top, and then she if she'll manage to sell loads of records purely on the strength of her singing voice....

No? I didn't think so!

 

if I had 100 yen for each time the word "kawaii" was said at that exhibition I'd be a rich man.

 

she doesn't usually look like Morticia Addams, as she does in this picture. What's her natural hair colour then? I suppose there's only one way to check... I wonder if Mr Sasaki gave it a try...

 

I was thinking about celebrities the other day... you know the way you do, when you get the horn, and you need a focal point for the horn. And I thought a bit and realised that I didn't particularly like many famous women. They just look too pristine, too groomed, and by extension, my bitter mind concluded, too bitchy.

But Halle Berry is an exception. She is just beautiful - no doubt about it. But unfortunately, being a faithful, kind, loving kind of a fella I probably wouldn't get a look in with her.

Ah well...

 

As Roger Moore says, I think most smokers would completely forget about smoking (and everything else, including their names) if they came across these three beauties. This is a very good idea. I doubt the strange fragrance works, but if these ladies are against smoking, I am too, and I think all males will now agree what a disgusting habit smoking is. They should now get a world peace bra and parade these beautiful young ladies around the world, saying a few choice slogans about how war is wrong. Instant world peace.

 

Viz magazine would like this pic wouldn't they, Mr Horn?

 

that JT's very own Roger Moore has been honoured for his services to the mother country, even though he now resides in the far off land of Japan. Sir Roger, we salute you! Go to the pic of the day, have a look at the Vodafone thing, and arise, Sir Roger, as I'm sure you will.