Toshi, ex-vocalist of famed, legendary (insert fangirly adjective here) band X-Japan wrote an entry in his blog last March 21, about meeting with an “old friend in Los Angeles”, which led to a “new project [that] is about to start soon.” In the JRock fandom, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who he was referring to: Yoshiki Hayashi. X-Japan’s founder, leader, drummer and pianist. (read: rock icon.)

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J Crunch is back! And it’s coming on full blast with everything that you liked about the first one but this time so much better!

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Christine Gambito is teh female Rex Navarrete.

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Ang Pinoy magaling manggaya! [Filipinos are great imitators.]

But even with that statement, we don’t feel threatened. I mean, after four centuries of colonization, some influence from other cultures have definitely rubbed off. And we don’t just imitate. We own! Take the jeepney for example. That’s a US Army jeep that we made into our own funky transport system. Same goes with our telenovelas, teleseryes and telefantaseryes.

With regard to Japan pop culture, we’re still guilty of some. Take Super Twins, for example. Tsk. Tell me it’s not Sailormoon.

Super Twins

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Okay, so whenever I think of “fat” and “Japan” I think of sumo. But get a load of this, the fattening machinery MacDonald’s is now making our ordinary Japanese friends into super sized fatsos.

Uy, akin lahat yan!

Take a load of this monster. It’s the Mega Mac. A large lard burger with 4 patties. And MacDonald’s Japan made it available this year.

Ever heard of the Okinawa Crisis? The next generation of Okinawans have gone fat on the merits of too much fast-food. Hey, isn’t Okinawa where they have the US bases? Yeah. And it still has the most fast food joints in Japan. Fast food = fat food. As a result:

Experts say that the generation that grew up eating American food is now reaching middle age overweight and at risk from diabetes. Almost 30 per cent of Okinawan men die before reaching 65, and nearly half of men in their forties are obese.

Sources: Telegraph.co.uk and JapanSugoi

Want to see Utada Hikaru getting owned? I’m an Utada fan so seeing this video is a treat but the bigger props is that this involves gravure idol Leah Dizon. Leah’s got some Pinoy blood in her so double the reason to put this thing here. Anyway, yeah, I’m stretching it. Here’s the vid:

So Leah and Utada want to be friends? Hey, how about me? And Leah’s staying in Japan to explore a singing career. Send me packing to Japan, someone!

Source: JapanSugoi

According to Japanese PR firm, Edelman, the Japanese are the top readers of blogs edging out the Americans, Koreans, Britons, and French.

In an average week, almost three quarters (74%) of the Japanese Internet users who participated in the survey said they read blogs at least once a week. This is significantly more compared to the other countries studied, with just under a half (43%) in South Korea, just under a quarter in the UK (23%) and France (22%) and just over a quarter in the USA (27%).

And I thought Pinoys are the most notorious blog readers out there (and yeah, the best Grammar Nazis and members of the Snark Patrol too). But the survey didn’t say if it included us, so maybe just maybe… Hehehe.

Source: The Blog Herald

This stars Shingo Katori, my favorite SMAPpy of all time! I don’t care if he looks good in a dress and apron (Does Shingo Mama ring any bell?). I just love him!

Anyway, I believe this clip below is one of those short films that he and his mates come up with for special episodes of SMAPxSMAP.

Gads, it has everything – suspense, comedy, action, hot chick, sentai, surrealism, aliens, blah and blah!

Warning: This lasts 7 minutes or so, it’s not for the impatient!