Quote of the Day: A Tribute to Toshiro Mifune

Check out this review of Mifune: The Last Samurai, a new documentary of the great Japanese actor, and then go check out the film itself. If you don't know who Toshiro Mifune was, you'll certainly want to. Just take a look at this wonderfully mad description:

Mifune was a one-man kamikaze burlesque show, as elegantly savage as his future inheritor Bruce Lee, as dextrous as Errol Flynn, as insanely comic as Curly from the Three Stooges, with a bombs-away ego all his own. 

... He was a hurricane who blew away the landscape that had come before him. He was really the first samurai of action cinema, the one who cast his cross-cultural shadow over everything from the evolution of the martial-arts genre to Eastwood and Bronson.  

He also turned down the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi!

Mifune got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame not too long ago.

Japan's Multicultural Olympians

I don't know about you, but I've about had enough of the various lunacies in Olympic broadcast coverage. Sometimes the most interesting things are elsewhere. Check out this writeup about Team Japan that I just found.

Currently Japan is sitting pretty in Rio with 33 medals, 10 of them gold.

Help Wanted in Japan

Think you're up to it?

Meet Japan's Katana-Wielding Machine

Via Wired comes this video from the Yasakawa Bushido Project:

Houshi Ryokan: Japan's 1300-Year-Old Family-Run Hotel

 

You can stay there too. It's listed on Booking.Com.  Lots of (gorgeous) photos.  The ryokan was founded in 718.  The mind boggles!

Quirky Asia Files: Eating Autumn Leaves in Japan

Yeah, it's a thing.  Those fried leaves look good, though!  I wouldn't mind trying them.

Quirky Asia Files: Japan's Black Cheeseburger

Hungry?

Japan Gives Vietnam 6 Navy Ships

Japan and Vietnam cozy up against China? Who could blame them?  Don't take your eye off the South China Sea.

Taiwanese Defense and the UN Charter

Is it technically illegal?  Whatever. Does anyone really think the major players in Asia are going to care about use of force rules in the UN Charter if/when things get dicey?  Give me a break.

HE SAID XI SAID: Dangerous Brinkmanship in China’s Air Defense Zone

OK, I admit it: I first decided to link this story because I thought the headline was so clever.  Still, we would do well to keep an eye on the increasingly tense jockeying for position in East Asia:

Ships belonging to the various players in Asia’s game of thrones have been menacing, tailing, and ramming one another in the seas around China ... Now, things have taken an even more dangerous turn: China and Japan have started to do the same with aircraft.

Quirky Asia Files: A Doll Village in Japan

I hate dolls like I hate clowns.  This is totally creeping me out.

Friday Fun Video: Have a Nice Day

Via The Manolo:

How Not To Behave at Japan's Best Sushi Restaurant

Embarrassing.

Quote of the Day: China's Anti-Japanese Agitprop

Hmmm:

"The CCP may not want a conflict with Japan, but it's been telling Chinese youth for 20+ years that Japan is greatly responsible for the '100 years of humiliation.' So now the CCP is stuck; they have to be tough on Japan—even if they don't want to be—because their citizens demand it. The CCP has created an anti-Japanese frankenstein at home that has to be placated. They have to ride the anti-Japanese tiger their education/propaganda has created, or risk a domestic backlash."

How About More Security Cooperation For Taiwan & Japan?

Something to think about. Note this observation too:

"Together or independently, both governments have an obligation to pursue domestic and international options to fill legitimate defense needs, if the U.S. is unwilling to provide."

Quirky Asia Files: Getting From Point A To Point B

It all just makes me want to stay home, ha!

Japan: Railway Employee Versus Unruly Passenger

You go, girl.

Quirky Asia Files: Baggage Claim Art in Japanese Airports

It's like conveyor belt sushi, only bigger, inedible, and, occasionally, Disgustingly Cute.

Headline of the Day: Japan's Foreign Policy

"Japan’s Aggressive Diplomacy Alienates Rivals & Friends Alike."

OK, but if your "diplomacy" is "alienating" just about everybody, then you're probably doing it wrong.  Diplomacy?

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto: Meet Japan's Robot Astronaut

His name is Kirobo.