Ninja Train, originally uploaded by [douglas japonicus].

In case anyone still had any doubts about whether pirates or ninjas were better, the little town of Iga Ueno in Mie prefecture puts forward its argument - the Ninja Festa 2008. JapaniCan describes it thus -

Wearing loaned ninja clothes, you can have an experience of learning ninja skills at ninja schools.

And you even get free travel on the Iga Tetsudo (see picture) if you’re dressed up like a ninja. Sweet.

Beat that pirates.

The Ninja Festa 2008 started on April 1st and runs until May 6th. Break out dem shurikens.

You can also see a rather mad video by going to the Iga City website here.

(WARNING: contains mind melting images of dogs dressed as ninja.)

… but this commercial really appeals to me. Well, except for the giant furry pink bear. The less said about that, the better.

Louis Vitton, those scurrilous purveyors of overpriced, baby-s**t brown hand bags, wallets, and whatnot, put together a really neat video. Perhaps a bit cutesy, but what the hey?

I went to a great exhibition last Friday, taking in some really cool artwork that was used to promote plastic models in Japan in the last century. There were a lot of war machines, racing cars, motorbikes, monsters, superheroes, mecha and even some Gerry Anderson. Parts of the exhibition were very meta - art of things that really existed in scenes that never did used to sell something that will then be rebuilt and used to reenact further scenes that never existed. The artwork from the sixties in particular seemed to be very much in the vein of Moah! Moah!

Peruse, if you will, this dazzling scene -

You may notice that the artist finally ran out of things to add, and was probably a little bit upset when he realized there weren’t any guns left to paint going off.

Other parts of the exhibition were just plain cool; I discovered some hidden gems.

Take this guy -

His name is Diamond Eye, and he fights mythical beasts disguised as humans in the manner that Japanese superheroes have been fighting mythical beasts since the concept first appeared: he uses some kind of voodoo and transforms. He also has a Honda motorcycle, like any self-respecting, patriotic Japanese superhero, and a couple of snazzy weapons, as I learned from Japan Hero -

His sole weapon of choice is his [Diamond] Stick, a sword-like weapon, which he carries constantly in hand. In addition to using it as a stabbing and slashing weapon, from the base of its handle Diamond Eye can fire his “Noble Punch” special attack. His “Noble Punch” attack is a beam ray attack of incredible power that can stun and immobilize his enemies.

Sweet.

My favourite piece of art was probably this one -

- which turns out to be from a series named 戦闘メカ　ザブンぐル - Sentou Mecha Zabunguru, which turns up in Wikipedia as Combat Mecha Xabungle, putting me in mind of an anime starring Mike Patton. I’ve never seen or heard of the series before, but this picture is just so beautifully rendered, yet utterly mad - giant mecha on skis?!!!!!111 - its hard not to love it.

You have until the 20th May to pick your own fave, at the Shizuoka Prefectural Art Museum (Link to their website, which is shocking looking, as is the custom with all government websites across the globe.)

The Herald Sun is reporting a recent scam in Japan where around 2000 women were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles. These pets, valued at around 160,000¥ were sold as fashion accessories by a company called Poodles as Pets. The scam was only uncovered when devastated celebrity Maiko Kawakami was told on a TV talk show that her prized poodle was, in fact, a sheep.

Now, you may ask why these consumers never noticed that their bleating and wool producing new puppies had hooves, not paws? Well, the life of a pampered Japanese pet does not include walking on is own feet, they prefer to be carried…. everywhere.

Caveat Emptor Indeed.

For more on Pet consumption and adoration check out this article in Japan today on the life of a dog in Japan.

So you’ve come up with a camera, named it Kiss for reasons best known to yourself and/or your marketing department, and you need a cool commercial to show the world how rocking it is.

The logical step would be to get four kids to get made up just like Kiss, have them sing a song to the tune of “I Was Made For Loving You” while touring stereotypical and invented Japanese scenes. And you have to conclude with the kids learning to breathe atomic death rays like Godzilla.

Wow.

It’s not often TV entertains me this much -