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Satoshi Kon's last words

Satoshi Kon, the director of anime movies Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Millenium Actress and Paprika, as well as the TV series Paranoia Agent, died on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at the age of 46. (NY Times obituary.) He left behind a rambling but extraordinary document, which his family has posthumously posted on his blog.

We Love Funassyi, a new Tumblr blog

funassyi-face-glasses.jpg

I've decided to start a Tumblr blog about Funassyi, the yellow and blue pear fairy and the unofficial yuru-chara or gotouchi-chara (local/regional mascot) from Funabashi, Chiba, Japan.

Why? Because I'm a big fan.

Link: We Love Funassyi

Oops, teroppu

A local TV station in Japan makes a stupid mistake onscreen.

The curious case of Minamisoma and the overseas media

One story that suddenly got picked up in the last couple of days by the overseas, not-in-Japan media in the last couple of days is the case of the town of Minamisoma or Minami Soma, a small city in Fukushima prefecture located about 25km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. It says quite a lot about the inability of these media sources to keep up with current events in Japan.

Genpatsu-kun (Nuclear-Reactor-kun) and the Japanese spirit

The cultural background of Genpatsu-Kun, aka Nuclear Reactor-kun, a viral video explaining how a nuclear reactor accident like the one in Fukushimaa works.

One last Satoshi Kon post: 100 Movies chosen by The Dreaming Machine team

Besides that last blog post, something else that Satoshi Kon posted on his blog - on August 18th, just a few days before he passed away - was a list of the 100 movies that were "chosen by the Yume Miru Kikai team".

Further language and cultural notes regarding Satoshi Kon's last words

There may be some things about Satoshi Kon's last words that may be puzzling to non-Japanese readers, so I'm going to attempt to clarify some of them. Note that this is not based on any kind of personal knowledge of Mr. Kon or his family, but just on general principles that are atari mae, commonly held mores and principles, in Japanese culture.

Doing business as a Japanese businessman in the '60s and '70s

The most recent Mad Men episode reminded me of my father's experiences as a Japanese businessman in Europe and the U.S. back in the late '60s to '70s.

Fallen heroes

It was quite heartbreaking to see Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang have to pull out of his Olympic event due to injury. I have to admit that I am now very curious to see how his country reacts to a fallen hero with such big expectations on his shoulders.

A tale of unbelievable customer service by Nintendo Japan

This Japanese blog post ran across the virtual desktop of my life today. (It was on the del.icio.us/popular list.) It tells a tale of unbelievable service by Nintendo. Here's a rough and somewhat abbreviated translation:

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