Fireworks @ Victoria Park

Victoria Park had some fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night. There was a bunch of carnival rides etc too, we went on the one at the end of the video!

JTV - April 2008

A catchup of recent JTV action.
With Super Special FX Sumo, YoYoMaster, Bug Guys, Velcro Wall and more and Girls on Slippery Slides.

japanprobe | tvinjapan

Hanami in London

Up in this half of the world, its heading into Spring time. In Japan, that means Cherry blossom season, or “Sakura” (which means “shit” or “god damn” in Czech FYI!). And Sakura means Hanami - Having a picnic under the trees in one of the many large Parks in Japan. So why not Hyde Park in London? There was a large Hanami party organised by a Japanese group so we tagged along. But of course, this is London. While the trees are blooming, its still cold, and still wet. We lasted about 2hrs in the park before moving to a pub near by instead. There were a few brits and an american girl there all with much better Japanese than mine, but at least I can get 50% whats going on. (Here in Prague im lucky to get any words haha).

Before Hanami however, I went to Portobella Road Markets (basically full of antique crap from peoples attics, but still fun and busy despite the weather) and inside a boutique chocolate shop that has an amazing smell that hits you as soon as you walk in! They were all very expensive (like Ł10 for a small bag) but looked great, and many seemed to be dark chocolate with only a couple of ingredients (vegan friendly!).

Chinese New Year 2008, London

China Town, and seemingly the rest of central London, was locked down & dressed up for a huge Chinese New Year Festival!
Thousands of people showed up for food, music, fireworks, dance, and of course my favorite, Kung Fu!

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Cloverfield

I went to see a midnight session of Cloverfield last night, and I guess it was as I expected. It’s campaign was basically viral marketing, and had no title, simply the date 01-18-08. J.J Abrahams was behind Alias (great) and LOST (couldn’t get into it). I had a feeling this movie was going to have too much of that LOST feel to it. Anyways, It’s a little hard to write about without spoiling things, but I’ll give it a go.
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JTV - Jan 2008

There’s one reason to love New Year in Japan, JTV. This is one of the best times of the year for Japanese TV. There are loads of specials, look backs for the last year, shows that revisit guests and episodes up to 10 or 15 years earlier, and even 24hr Live shows, where some hosts stay on for the entire show. Its totally crazy, and not hard to understand why people stay at home watching TV before heading off to the local Shrine at Midnight. So there’s loads of stuff for this month

Matrix Olympics - Similar to (the original and still the best) matrix pong and matrix pole volt.

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Japan & Whaling, Here’s the Gist of it

Right now, Greenpeace ship ‘Esperanza’ is currently chasing ‘Nishin Maru’, one of the Japanese whaling ships, and will attempt non-violent methods to stop or interrupt their hunt. They played this message in English and Japanese to the group of ships when they found them, taken from SMH

“Your so-called scientific whaling is a hoax and has been dismissed as useless by the International Whaling Commission. Modern scientific research on whales does not require killing them,” the message said.

The ships dispersed and fled with Esperanza in pursuit.

Theres a lot of news, reports, jokes, commercials, and YouTube videos going around causing a fuss on both sides.
Here’s a quick round up of WTF is going on, some clips, and points from both sides.
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Bumblebee

This is AWESOME! Engadget spotted this big guy at CES.
Now if only I could find the remote control…