Getting Psyched for Skate Canada

The Constructivist family's heading on a field trip to Ontario for Skate Canada in a couple of days. Of course the main attraction for us is Daisuke Takahashi, a true artist of the ice. Check out the various styles he's a master of (or in the process of mastering):



Love the Cowboy Bebop meets spaghetti western vibe of his free skate (even if it was a sloppy performance):




Of course Dai-chan's main competition is going to be Patrick Chan, but Kevin Van Der Perren came in 2nd behind Michael Brezina and ahead of Takahiko Kozuka at Skate America just last week, so with an up-and-comer like Adam Rippon also in the field and Denis Ten coming off a respectable performance at Skate America, as well, just about anything can happen.  Dai-chan had better bring along a real grizzled veteran's gunslinging attitude to Mississauga!

Dai-chan, Mao-chan, Omedetou Gozaimasu!

Meet your 2009 Japanese national figure skating champions, Daisuke Takahashi and Mao Asada!



That was the closest Dai-chan's come to landing a quad in competition since his knee surgery, but even though he had shaky landings on a couple of other jumps, his overall performance was good enough for the 1st major win of his comeback. Check out his reaction to his score at the very end of the clip: he was not sure he had beaten Nobunari Oda, and his surprise and relief was palpable.

Mao-chan, Mostly Harmless regulars will recall, had even her most devoted fans worried after a terrible start to the season. But after failing to qualify for the Grand Prix finals, she came roaring back in nationals:





Next up, 4 Continents, the Olympics, and then the worlds!

Dai-chan, Arigato Gozaimasu!

Nice QSMS present from Daisuke Takahashi to the Full Metal Archivist:



A season-best performance in the short program at Japanese nationals! (We still love his Skate Canada performance--nothing like being there.)

Dai-chan, all the FMA wants for her birthday in February is a gold medal at Vancouver from you! Gambatte!!

'Twas the Afternoon Before Honika... Uh, Two Weeks Ago

OK, so I'm a little late with this, but I finally finished grading and it's time to celebrate! Actually, T-Joh is to blame for this departure from my usual anime Hanukah thing:



That's the real Lady Gaga in there, right?

For background on Smooth-E, check out this youtube timeline of Hanukah-themed parody songs:





Merry QSMS, everyone!

[Update 1 (12:24 pm): OMG, I'm such a bad Jew I even got the title and timing of this post wrong! Should have posted it at sundown so I could have called it "'Twas the Sundown Before Honika... Uh, Two Weeks Ago"! Yeesh.]

Could You Imagine the LPGA Ever Doing This?

Check out Happy Fan's picture- and video-laden post on this year's KLPGA awards show. This is the 2nd year in a row I'm asking my title's question. Wonder if Michael Whan will pay attention?

[Update 1 (1:39 pm): There's more at Seoul Sisters.com's message board.]

[Update 2 (12/12/09, 12:03 am): Nice story on Ji-Yai Shin's little sister doing great on the education front.]

[Update 3 (12/15/09, 6:15 pm): Thanks to Golf Babes for the linkage!]

Tiger Woods Sparks International Incident

Young girls and otaku all over Japan are petitioning anime fan and Prime Minister Taro Aso to issue a formal protest to the USGA for the U.S. Open coverage on TV Asahi preempting Fresh Pretty Cure Sunday morning. A 3-year-old asked for comment screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOO!" Her older sister, 5, had a different reaction. "Didn't we watch it?" she asked. When it was explained to her that we had watched a taped show from the previous weekend, she didn't seem that concerned. When asked to give her reaction to being able to watch 2 episodes in the same day (had she been able to), she replied, "I'd be tired." When told older episodes are on youtube, she said, "Let's watch!"

Wonder Girls

Why, oh why, can't the LPGA's end-of-year celebration be as fun as the KLPGA's? Thanks to the folks at Seoul Sisters.com, you can check out some photos from the Ritz Carlton Plaza Hotel in Seoul, where the KLPGA's young guns--6-time-winner-in-'08 Hee Kyung Seo, Ha-Neul Kim, Ran Hong, So-Yeon Ryu, and Rookie of the Year Hye Yong Choi--did a little dance number to "Nobody," a K-pop smash hit by the Wonder Girls (whom they got to meet, as well).

Thanks to the wonders of teh intertubes, here are the originals, in a cute little video that gives the song a little fictional backstory (please note, Carolyn Bivens, their English is pretty good, too!):



And the KLPGA's wonder girls themselves.

BTW, the entire female K-pop pantheon loves this song. Check out the Golden Disk Award Show's remix performance from Friday:



It's K-pop 101!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The Full Metal Alchemist's birthday gift to me was the fan-subbed live-action version of the hit anime Nodame Cantabile. (Think Bad News Bears meets classical music. It's one of those funny-but-moving J-dramas I've already written about here.)

Just for you all, here are some opening and closing songs from the anime:



And here's the anime-style ending song from the special episode that takes place after the series we watched ends.



For the series itself, though, I recommend veoh.com--the episodes only get chopped down into 2- or 3-clip sequences.

Oh, and by the way, it's inspired a dance for all the kids out there:

Tokyo from Memory

Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic artist who loves to draw panoramic views of cities. In this video he draws a panorama of Tokyo from memory; drawing starts at about 3 minutes in.

I Can Do That!

Follow the bouncing baby:

Have I Mentioned Before that Anime Rules?

OK, so I'm a bit biased. But check this testimonial from Lumpenprofessoriat. A magical girl series I never heard of? Now I know how I'll be entertaining onechan and imoto while the Full Metal Archivist sleeps over in Buffalo on Thursdays this semester!

Bye-Bye Bacteria

To celebrate the end of onechan's sinus infection and imoto's ear infection, here's the first episode of Chibi Maruko-chan for your viewing pleasure. Will this be onechan and imoto in a few years?



The subtitles are almost as funny as the episode itself, eh?

These sisters have practiced the theme song's dance moves!

It's Come to This, Bacteria

This will hurt me a whole lot more than you. Really. But you've forced me to deploy the infamous Oshiri Kajiri Mushi:



James at Japan Probe alerted the English-speaking world to this butt-biting bug's popularity in Japan last June, and about a month ago he linked to a clip of OKM dancing with a bunch of cute kids. So, bacteria, go study your trivia and dance moves and boogie on away from onechan's and imoto's bodies for once and for all!

We Have the Bacteria on the Run

Both girls were feeling a lot better yesterday, which resulted in lots of "happy happy joy joy" time until the inevitable sisterly fight or parental misunderstanding of imoto's grunts and gestures arose--in which case full-blown tantrum time. Well, no tantrum could withstand this Enka performance (Japanese country music) that James at Japan Probe just shared. Take that, bacteria and bad moods! Away with ye!

[Update: Wil Wheaton rightly calls this list of 17 free downloadable graphic novels both awesome and sensational--and you know what? He's right.]

Time to Unleash the Awesome Power of Mottainai

Girls still not better. Must up ante. They're big fans of Mottainai Obaasan, this grandmother in a children's book who goes around telling the kids not to waste anything. Turns out there's an NGO called Mottainai, whose official theme song didn't pass the musume test. But here are two videos on the same theme that did, the first a little bit country and the second a little bit hip hop.





Maybe together they can lend extra power to the girls' immune systems!

3Tops Declares Winter Festival Season is OPEN

Let there be rejoicing in WAAGNFNP land!



Looking for signs in the East:



No train on the tracks:

Soft Shoe, with dew, for a Monday evening

Asian Swing

Japan:





China:





Korea:

Gnarly, dude: role model for little girls

Her name is Chicchi.



Here she is being a secret agent - honestly, what more could you want from a Magical Girl? (It takes awhile to get started.)



Here she is playing with some young ladies known as Hot Style:



You get the idea. Just search for "chicchi" on the TwoYubes.

Postmodern Sunday: Bakki and Sloucho

Sloucho is still far too busy to start posting here, but he just wrote what would have been a great one over at his paying gig at Fantasy Football Today on postmodern sport. Clearly he's angling for the postmodernism beat here at Mostly Harmless.

Or maybe the tsuma is. Thanks to her, I was able to introduce you earlier to Kimutaku and the Disney version of the "para para" dance that was popular in Japan around the turn into this millennium. Here are a few more versions (non-Disney) based around this character he created for the Smap x Smap variety show he and his bandmates have made the most popular in Japan. So without further ado, I present to you Bakki ...

...at an elementary school:



...in the park:



...at a construction site:



...at a disco bar: