Month: June 2007

Hard Gay Father’s Day

Father’s Day is a primarily secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother’s Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father’s Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and family-oriented activities.

The officially recognized date of Father’s Day varies from country to country. Third Sunday of June: Argentina, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.

Purikura is a term of Japanese origin meaning either a type of photo booth or the product (a decorated photograph commonly measuring 1 inch by 1/2 inch) of such a photo booth. The name (written プリクラ in Japanese) is a shortened form of purinto kurabu (プリント倶楽部, a registered trademark): the quasi-English term is “print club” in Japanese pronunciation. In Japanese, the plural of purikura is the same as purikura.

Jointly developed by Atlus and Sega, the first purikura were sold in July 1995.

The name “Shibuya” is also used to refer to the central business district of Shibuya Ward, which surrounds Shibuya Station, one of Tokyo’s busiest railway stations. Shibuya is known as one of the fashion centers of Japan, particularly for young people, and as a major nightlife area.

Positively Tokyo Metro

Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. (東京地下鉄株式会社, Tōkyō Chikatetsu Kabushiki-gaisha) is a private company jointly owned by the Japanese government and the Tokyo metropolitan government. It replaced the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (帝都高速度交通営団, Teito Kōsokudo Kōtsū Eidan), commonly Eidan or TRTA, on April 1, 2004. TRTA was administered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and jointly funded by the national and metropolitan governments. It was formed in 1941, although its oldest lines date back to 1927. [It] forms part of one of the most complex public transportation systems in the world. It is extremely well maintained and clean, although some stations on older lines are beginning to show their age.

Yu Yamada (山田優 Yamada YÅ«, born July 5, 1984 in Okinawa, Japan) is a model, actress, singer. Yamada also appears in advertising for instant spaghetti, yogurt, Vodafone mobile phones, Kanebo’s T’estimo line of cosmetics and most recently Canon Ink Jet Picture “PIXUS”.

Godzilla: It Came From Japan (part 2)

As the Godzilla series continued, the monster has been both a hero and an anti-hero. Godzilla is one of the most recognizable aspects of Japanese popular culture worldwide. To this day, Godzilla remains an important facet of Japanese films, embodying the kaiju subset of the tokusatsu genre. Godzilla has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the United States. The earliest Godzilla films, especially the original Gojira, attempted to portray Godzilla as a frightening, nuclear monster. Godzilla represented the fears of many Japanese of a repeat of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Peanuts are a Japanese twin sister singing group. They are Ito Emi (Ito Hideyo) and Ito Yumi (Ito Tsukiko). The twins were born in Nagoya on April 1, 1941. They are probably most known internationally for their appearances in the Mothra and Godzilla movies of the 1960s, in which they appeared as fairies called shobijin (small beauties) who had telepathic communication with Mothra. Although of course now played by different actresses, the characters have continued to appear in the more recent films as well.