Sean Akizuki's Personal Blog

Image Source She's looking really red hot in here!

The recent incident regarding Leah Navarro has been reached to Japan. Both Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte have made a mutual agreement regarding the incident. Prime Minister Abe expressed his grievances and promised President Duterte to sign a persona non-grata on Shinzo Abe. "I am disappointed at how Leah Navarro belittled kitchen staff. I admit, Nobita Aquino was seen off by them too. If she loves former president Nobita Aquino that much - she should know that he, too, was seen off by kitchen staff during his visit. She had insulted the Japanese value of menial labor. I, therefore, order a temporary restraining order against her until she issues a public apology." said Prime Minister Abe. Soon enough, Navarro started to tweet that it was unfair. She said, "In due respect Shinzo Abe, declaring me persona non-grata until I apologize is a childish decision. I was just expressing how if President Duterte were so valued ...

Here's something that's a bit of a stretch. No longer satisfied with just playing it on console -- they decided to do it for real. I find this to be pretty funny!

While I'm open to having Japanese shows localized here and there because the Japanese companies want to hit the international market but... I couldn't still express my disgust at the Americanized version more often than not.  Here's a clip of Golion vs. Lion Voltron. Okay, Golion may have not been popular in Japan and Lion Voltron got popular in American but I can't help but facedesk at this scene. It's an obvious planetary destruction. How can everyone be evacuated already when it's an obvious war? War has casualties! Editing all the bloody scenes can be done, I don't care if they localized it but the problem is it defies logic too much. They could have kept the death in the plot even if the deaths aren't shown on-screen. Or who could forget how Shirogane and Sven both had their fates in Golion vs. Voltron. It's obvious Sven was too injured. Hagar inflicted a mortal blow. In Golion, Honerva did such a damaging attack. If he was just out...

I remembered one of the most shocking moments I learned in my College days was that fugu could be eaten. If it did shock me to learn that cassava can turn poisonous and deadly then it also shocked me to learn that blowfish (called fugu in Japan) can be eaten if it's prepared properly.  What I could remember is the preparing the blowfish is no walk in the park. If you puncture the liver or any of the internal organs then that blowfish can't be eaten anymore. The risk is that blowfish contains a lot more poison called tetradoxin in the internal organs. Throwing away the toxic waste requires special waste management because the poison is more potent than cyanide. Preparation isn't easy so it justifies why the price is so expensive. Speaking of which, I remembered that episode in Dragon Ball where a young Goku got punished for slacking off - then I thought Master Roshi and Krillin were going to get poisoned from eating blowfish. But years later, the real problem is...

Here's a popular Japanese song called "Naniwa Bushi Jinsei Wa" which can be translated as "Life is but a long sob story." The Naniwa Bushi is a sob story. What I find so funny is that as sad as this song is supposed to be about the sad life of a woman but it's a catchy song.  The translation of the lyrics goes as follows: When I was told to drink up I meekly obeyed Beginning to feel that way when an arm curled my shoulder Foolish encounters are cleverly disguised as something promising I should give up but once again it's love at first sight The life of a woman is nothing but a sob story I'm kindly and gently told lies by another The love in my heart is found by them as well Just toyed around by that same person A woman with her hopes extinguished is alone once more The life of a woman is nothing but a sob story Blooming, withering, being thrown away Meeting, parting, losing all hope While at the mercy of anothe...

After Australian citizens have become vocal that they do not want Jim Parada back into their country, it has given a dilemma where to put him. Filipinos do not want Parada and neither do Australians. The matter was met by the Malacanang and they decided to talk to one important ally namely Modern Japan. President Duterte managed to secure an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Abe where they had discussion at the Malacanang.

I like spicy foods which explains why I eat Iranian, Indian and Korean dishes. I can't really forget about how my buttocks felt like it "caught on fire" after taking another level of God Fire Tonkotsu to a whole new level of spiciness. I had level one spiciness and I decided to try level two to check my tolerance out. I wasn't able to tolerate the new level of spiciness immediately. I had to slowly drink it and I drank lots of water as a result. Worse, having some phlegm stuck on my throat didn't make things better. The result was that much of my stuck up phlegm got out. Fortunately, I was finished eating before I actually spewed all that annoying phlegm giving me quite a relief. Talk about a delicious remedy! For now, I think I won't get another level of spiciness. I think my tolerance to spicy food has lowered considering I haven't eaten much spicy food as of late. But again, who knows when I can reach another level or maybe I can't considering...

There's always the time to call a U-Turn in my life one way or another. I could now talk about some instances of how I usually contradict my usual (or default) preferences. Here's a list of those crazy instances when my preferences contradict my usual preferences with Japanese culture. I usually prefer Chinese food and Korean food over Japanese food (but I love all three) but I prefer Japanese noodles over Chinese noodles and Korean noodles. It's been suggested that noodles was a Chinese invention that got modified overtime in many countries. While I enjoy Chinese beef noodles but I really like ramen over Chinese or Korean noodles. I like eating all varieties of noodles but ramen happens to be my favorite. My favorite Japanese ramen is Tonkotsu. While I'm not such a big fan of Japanese cuisine but I still prefer ramen over other types of noodle soups.

Even if I'm of Chinese descent but I'll admit that as much as I prefer Chinese food over Japanese food but there are some things Japanese do better. I'd like to present the cover then the original. You can go ahead and think that the cover is better but I think the original Japanese is better. Here's Leslie Cheung's licensed cover of the hit song "Monica". As much as I'm a fan of his music but I don't think his rendition miles better than Koji Kikkawa's version... Here's Koji Kikkawa's rendition of the Japanese pop song "Monica". Kikkawa himself has a better voice and passion than Cheung in this area. While Cheung himself has had a lot of good songs but I don't think he reaches Kikkawa's performance level. Is it me or do most Japanese singers show better vocals than Chinese singers? While Chinese entertainment usually presents better action than Japanese entertainment but I usually like Japanese music over Ch...

There's always the mayhem about the Japanese katana to the point that it's exaggerated. After doing some research, Understanding the Japanese katana would at least help consider some of the misconceptions about the sword itself. The process of steel folding There is the myth that the folding the steel took up to a million times. That statement really made me go, "HUH?!" because I guess that's just pretty impossible. Folding of steel happened during the manufacturing process was because of lower quality steel back then. To make quality steel out of what was available, iron sand was purified for 72 hours straight to get rid of the slag and later, the tamahagane had uneven carbon content. It required heating and breaking to find which ones where harder steel (kawagane) and softer steel (shingane). The kawagane are all stacked together, they are covered in Japanese paper, muddy clay water and straw ash to help even out the carbon. The process of folding is done. ...

This is one touching story from Japan.  Here's what was said in the Facebook page " Japan from Inside ": Yesterday (22nd July) at 09:15am, in Minami-ku, Saitama-Shi JR Minami Urawa station, a 30-year-old lady slipped into the gap between the train and the platform when boarding the Keihin Tohoku line. She was stuck at her waist.   About 40 passengers, both on the platform and from the train carriage, came out to help push the train away from the platform so as to rescue the lady. The lady was later brought to the hospital and was reported to have no significant injuries.   When the incident happened, the train staff made an announcement apologizing that the train has been delayed because someone got stuck in the platform gap. Instead of grudging or complaining about the delay during the rush hour, several train passengers voluntarily got off the train to help the train staff rescue the lady. Within moments, everyone got off their seat to join in the rescue.  ...

I just had my thoughts that first I drink some cold Matcha green tea (though I'd also like to try it hot) then maybe this tea flavored wafer might click with me... Here'sa  look at the inside.  Makes me want to try some too.

So far I am impressed with Japan but the sad fact is the education system can be bridged to the extreme.  So what do I propose for its changes.  Here are some: Five day education but longer schooling hours.  That is from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. schooling.  Saturday should be devoted to homework exercises and tutorials instead of classes. Avoid the cram sessions as much as possible.  Instead go for tutorials for lessons that students struggle with great difficulty. Avoid being too education crazy.  To be honest, that Liveman episode focusing on Goh Omura was so well written it should be a warning against parents.  We have to avoid parents like Wataru Asami from plaguing Japan.  As said, I believe fiction is one's way to reveal frustration and truth.  Super Sentai is fiction where reality blends in to our minds too! Find out where the child is good at and send him/her to where they are good at. Oh yeah keep the Sentai spirit.  In Sent...

While it's been pretty much in our minds that Americans are usually taller, the contrary is true. Also with the Chinese, many of them have gone taller and China also has gave one of the tallest basketball players around Yao Ming. Also there are some Chinese stars of this generation who are actually around 175 cm and higher. For example, Japanese actor Tori Matsuzaka is 181 cm in height. That makes him taller than the rest of the Taiwanese F4 boyband members. Some Oriental males who are married to western women are a lot taller than their wives. And some Americans are actually shorter than we think especially with women. Emma Roberts is only 5'2 tall. Hmmm I wonder why she didn't grow taller? In fact, some Chinese guys who married American women are actually a lot taller than their wives. I remembered meeting an American woman and she was just that tall too. I personally would be interested in dating a 5'2 Caucasian girl.