Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
This isn’t the most exciting thing in the world but the girl on the left is a huge star in Japan. Her name is Mana Ashida and as a child of 7 years, she’s a hit. If K Pop is going to reign with sexy girls, then why not combat it with a new genre of J Kid Pop? With an older demographic and aging population, this is odd and something that’ll be studied. “Most impressively, respected Japanese advertising agency Dentsu named Ashida the sixth best Japanese “product” of 2011—placing her in front of hybrid cars and emergency supplies.” (The Atlantic – Mana Ashida) [youtube]RWV_rx5PYD4[/youtube]
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Tamae Watanabe makes it to the top. She held the previous record at 63 years of age. The oldest is a 76 year old Nepalese man who did it in 2008. Congrats.
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Here’s the monument and it’s being asked to be removed by Japanese officials, but that isn’t happening. Some officials maintain that the event didn’t happen as said by many which pushed the matter to a halt. The monument will stay. (NY Times – Monument)
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So, they don’t hate each other entirely. The rocket got launched by Japan, and now Korea has a strong satellite in the sky that can monitor their Northern Korean neighbors and just about anywhere in the world. It’s the first commercial space launch for Japan which means many more will come. Just because they can, should they? Eventually, when it gets into bad hands, our local space will be an amalgam of hell. (VOA -Space Japan and Korea)
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Video shot by Lefty Gomez that’s previously never seen before. Lefty Gomez was part of the MLB tour of Japan in 1934 and shot this video which is insanely valuable. The tour is constantly talked about since it helped make baseball huge in Japan. Babe Ruth, the oversized star was huge in Japan, and it’s fun to see the video footage that’s being put out in promotion of his book, Lefty an American Odyssey. You’ll have to wait a while to see the video footage since it loads slow, but it shows the vibe of the time. (Random House – Lefty) The story as told in SI is equally an interesting read and tells about the journey to Japan. (SI – Lefty)
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