Saladin The Animated Series

Saladin The Animated Series is the upcoming 3D animation series funded by the malaysian goverment to publicize the Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor and to create and grow the pool of local talent in the animation industry and help increase their expertise to that of world-class standards.
It's a story about the famous 12th Century Kurd Muslim warrior who lead the muslims against the crusaders during the holy wars. i'm soo lazy to write so just click here for the information about SALADIN.
from the trailer, it looks like a kick ass animation to me. the target audience is kids but it's soo cool i can't wait to watch this! it was scheduled to be released late 2007 and will be distributed around the world. so this is also are going to be a malaysian entertainment industry's biggest international project that will reach costumers around the world. Malaysia Boleh !

sakura mankai

sakura mankai (桜満開) means sakura a.k.a. cheey blossom, in full bloom. i always love spring in japan. the scenery is very beautiful. the best thing about spring here is the cool weather and sakura blooming. just by looking at these magnificent creation from GOD makes you feel relaxed and happy. it really has a magical soothing effect that i can't explain. although i like it a lot, it is very unfortunate that sakura only blooms for about a week, and only just once a year; and that's why i'm super excited to see them every time spring comes.

in japan, there is a 'culture' called hanami (花見). hanami is one of the most popular events of Spring. Crowds of people - families, groups of friends, and groups from companies sit under the fully open sakura tree, usually on plastic tarps, and have a picnic celebration. The picnic fare consists of a wide variety of foods, snack foods, and sake (rice wine) or other drinks. The activities often include dancing and karaoke in addition to the sakura viewing. click here for detailed information about hanami.

so, last friday, the コミュニケーション同好会 (communication club) held a small hanami event at a park near our school. unfortunately for us, that day the sky is quite dark and it's quite cold outside but we decided to do it anyway because we don't have time to do it on a different day. we walked for about 15 mins, bringing a lot snacks and drinks along with us. because most of us are students and are under the legal age of drinking, not to forget i don't do alchohol because i'm a muslim, we drink green tea instead of sake. we took pictures, and had a nice picnic but it was soo cold that everyone agreed to go home early.

i noticed today, the sakuras in front of the dormitory started to fall off. i guess they'll be leaving us soon, but not to worry, insyaallah next year i'll be seeing them again. i hope. IF i pass the university entrance exams!!! man, i should focus on my juken benkyou (受験勉強 - examination studies).

they love their gamers

the japanese love their gamers. when i was walking around Akihabara, Tokyo,　there were lots of people gathering in front of a game store and i was just curious so i went to check it out. the huge crowd that could easily reach 50 people were watching this guy playing 太鼓の達人 (taiko no tatsujin; US title:Taiko Drum Master ). Taiko Drum Master is basically a japanese drum rhythm game where all you got to do is to hit the drum with the stick that comes with it , synchronizing with music; it's really easy to play and i enjoyed the game a lot although i suck at it. back to my main story: this guy got some very serious gaming skills; he scored perfect! he was soo into the game, he jumps around too; and you know how hardcore nerds move. there were lots of people taking pictures of this gamer (term for people who play games) using their mobile phones; he's been given the pop star treatment. after he finished playing, the crowd gave him a standing ovation (well everyone's standing so...) and cheered him.

the japanese are very cool with the gaming culture. not like the rest of the world, gaming is not strictly a kid's hobby here, it's an experiance that everyone can participate and there's nothing nerdy about it. outside japan, where gaming is still considered a kid's thing, people would probably diss this maybe in his mid-20's gamer and they probably would say " hey look at that weird asian guy nerd, he should get a life ". people don't understand, gamers need no life, they got lots if it.

naked child statue

OK. I've been living in Japan for about 3 years now and i have seen a lot of weird and crazy things here, and it's a great experiance because i love to see and learn about other people's culture and be amazed at how different humans are although we are from the same species.

but today i'm going to write about something bizzare about japan that i DON'T like. here is a picture of a statue of a naked girl that won some 'statue competition' here where i live (Tokuma, Nagano, Japan). maybe some of you art lovers would probably say this "you pervert that's nothing wrong with it, it's pure ART ". ok i must agree, this is ART and well, just like the rest of the world, i don't understand art. all that i can see is a piece of child pornography. i know it's none of my business but what really bothers me is that they put this sculpture in front of the train station, in public for everyone from little babies to dying grannies to SEE ! and just like me, these people don't understand ART, so why put such a misleading thing for everyone else to see when child-pornography is still a very serious problem in japan? things like these makes this sick social problem worse everyday. when people see these things everyday, they got used to it. when they get used to it, they can't decide wether it's wrong or right. some of you might say " awh that kind of art wont turn the japanese into child molesting fuck ups ". well guess what, child molestation is soo common in japan they only show it on tv when the molester kills it's victim(s). people should not be made to got used to child pornograpy, that will fuck their brain up.

it's a sad thing. the japanese goverment doesn't take the child pornography problem seriously. japan is a heaven for lolicon people (japanese for pedophiles) who likes manga/comic. lolicon comic books can be easily bought at convenience stores and comic book shops from around the country. shit, even 7eleven and Amazon Japan (link for examples) sold these disgusting work of ART. the law implies that as long as the materials used in making and producing it doesn't use real children, it's ok. they don't want to be soo strict and 'close minded' just for the sake of freedom of speech. i guess they want freedom of speech more than wanting to protect their own children.

in my opinion, the japanese are sexually weird if you compare them to the rest of the world. did you know that japan produces more adult videos than any other country in the world? did you know that they have a shirine in tokyo that worships penises and pussies (wikipidia link )? they are very hard to understand. in my classroom, my classmates posted posters and pictures of half naked women on the walls and the teacher doesn't give a shit about it so at i first i thought they were open about sex and idolizing (or maybe degrading?) women so one afternoon when we were just hanging around during recess time i asked them " hey how many times have you all had sex? " and then they gave me this " why the fuck did you ask the question, it's freaking taboo !??" kind of face. i guess i have so much to learn about the japanese, and i intend to learn it with an open mind and a hard face.

Nacchi's Latest Commercial

元モー娘。安部なつみの新CM。
Ex-Morning Musume, Natsumi Abe's latest commercial for Geogia's GABA COFFEE product. damn nacchi kawaii nak mampos!!
なっちスマイル大好き！



only the commercial:


*update: just after i wrote this post, i went out to American Drug to buy me a bottle of Georgia GABA Coffee. My God the taste is awful! shit if Nacchi was not involved in all of this i wouldn't even want to finish this horrible tasting liquid from hell. My advice: you can drool on every advertisement that Nacchi's on, but don't expect the product to be as sweet as her smile.