I remember the beatbox thing being so cool when I was a  kid, but as I got older nobody was that impressive… until now. This 18 year old Japanese guy is awesome. I thought the whistling part was sweet, but then he started doing the scratch effect… whoa! He made this video to try and win the wildcard entry to the Beatbox Battle World Championship, good luck to him!

Here’s a Japanese commercial featuring Brad Pitt. He’s upset, he’s drinking coffee, everything works out in the end. Good stuff! I would never have imagined the huge market that canned coffee has in Japan. There are a ton of varieties, hot and cold, and they take up a lot of space at the convenience stores. It seems unreal. Each can costs ¥100-150.

Did you know that Sony products in Japan don’t offer multiple languages? An employee at Bic Camera told me the menus and instructions are only in Japanese… AH HA! Maybe that’s why a lot of Sony products are cheaper than what I am used to in America!

I just bought a Sony DSC-T70. Mainly because it’s small, it’s fast, it has internal zoom, and I’m satisfied with the image quality. The menu is pretty slick. There are nice icons, lots of Katakana, and I also downloaded the English manual form Sony’s website. All it took to get used to it was going through the settings, reading the Katakana, and memorizing a little of the manual. Now I’m golden and I’ve saved about $50. I mean… um… ¥5000…

If you’re interested in this camera:
You can download the English manual and get specs here.
You can read a review here.

And here’s a nice hands on review.

Here’s a commercial for Street Fighter IV: A New Beginning. This looks really awesome! I decided to post this video because of my friend Nick back in California… it reminded me of the home built arcade style controller we used for tournaments during poker night. It seems so advanced compared to the original. You can read more about this upcoming game here.

I eat at McDonald’s every now and then here in Japan. I was really impressed with the quality of service and how the food looks when you eat you it. I was also shocked by the smallest soft drinks in the world. It’s probably an 8oz cup filled to the top with ice. What does that mean? Probably 4-5oz of Coke. Here are some other things I feel about the McDs in Japan vs. America and a commercial I found on Youtube… Yes, the restaurant looks like this. Yes, McDonald’s cheeseburgers look like this (to me). Yes, you are happier when you eat McDonald’s in Japan vs the U.S. and yes, you are hungry 2 hours later just like in the U.S.

Speaking of McDonald’s, their profit grew five-fold according to The Japan Times

McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. said Thursday its consolidated net profit in 2007 was five times higher than in the previous year, totaling Â¥7.82 billion on record high sales of Â¥395.06 billion, up 11.1 percent.

I find that pretty interesting.

For those that might have missed the Super Bowl and the commercials here’s a link a friend sent me. It shows each commercial quarter by quarter.

 Super Bowl Commercials

Here’s another video game commercial I found on You Tube. This game looks pretty sweet and now I’m definitely going to have to get a PS3. A friend of mine recently got one and he loves it. At first it’s all cute until the end where you see Leah Dizon (supposedly) kicking some ass playing Ninja Gaiden on a Play Station 3 in-store demo machine. Cool commercial.

Pizza in Japan is usually quite a bit different from the American version. Here they put some crazy things on pizza like shrimp, squid, tuna, mayonnaise, sesame seeds, teriyaki chicken, corn, potatoes, and sometimes mustard. Oh yeah and sausage. Not the sausage you might be thinking, but more like the Super Bowl Sunday little smokies. Also the prices can get insane. A pizza for two people can easily cost around $25 USD. At least you don’t have to tip the delivery person which is a plus. Here’s a menu from Pizza LA. So far I’ve found pizza most like the ones you can get in the U.S. at Costco and Dominos. Costco doesn’t deliver and they are located about 1 million miles from me.
Here’s a Pizza LA Commercial

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I haven’t been snowboarding in Japan yet. I’ve almost made it a few times and had to cancel our latest reservation for our trip to Geihoku near Hiroshima. It’s all good because life happens and the mountains will always be there for us to throw ourselves down it at blazing speeds at any time.

I miss snowboarding so I thought I’d share a video from last season. I had my ipod blaring, I was thinking about the next stretch of the mountain, and I was wondering why there was a crowd of Ski Patrol. I didn’t see her until it was too late. By the way I hope to book a secret trip soon for me and my fiancee, so if anybody is in Fukuoka and wants to hit a mountain let me know!

Here’s a recent update about me since my last post:

• One day I was sick. I blame the dust mite demons, but I had flu like symptoms. One morning I work up feeling like I was going to die. I slept for about 48 hours. I woke up at 100% health. Nice!
• I read every post on a few sites that are new to me like The Daily J, Alex’s Japan Blog, Jamaipanese, and Urutora No Hi.
• I have updated my iGoogle homepage.
• I’ve been playing the hell out of my Xbox. New games I want seem only to be available on the Xbox360 or PS3. And this picture is funny.

Speaking of video games, I found this commercial for the PS3 entertaining. Btw, I hope to get an xbox360 (or PS3) for 1 and 1 reason only. NHL 08… oh what? 08! oh what? oh hellz yeah!