Japan's 1st Red Bull Cart Race

It was a lovely day in Odaiba for a rather odd event, the existence of which I was made privy to due to a rather bizarre promotional campaign I told you about a while back. This was Japan's 1st Red Bull Cart Race, and both the spectators and participants warmed up to it rather pleasantly, I must say. It was covered over at the BBC as well, with a nice little video... I saw the aftermath of the wreck, but their video was way better than the view I had!

As is standard for this kind of event, the entries had their share of color, and you had every opportunity to talk to just about all of the teams before and after they ran. There were teams from all over the country and covering all kinds of themes, from environmental to tiger woods and ninjas to fish in a bath tub and takoyaki. Awesome, randomness at its best!

Since I took the change to talk to a few of the team participants, I'll give you a little more detail on those teams along with some pictures. First, we have the takoyaki team from out in Mie. They were kind enough to let us climb into their cart for some photo ops, and told us that their cart took them 3-4 months to construct in total. They're looking forward to next year.
Next we have this guy - any guess what that rear wheel is from? The rear wheel and front suspension were both taken from a Ferrari... I hope they didn't try to use those fliers I saw in Cat Street.
There were plenty of other bizarre contenders - the guy posted at the top of the page was actually the driver of the first cart to run, and yes he wore that while racing! All the participants were very open, friendly and willing to chat about their projects as long as you were, which is pleasant in what can sometimes feel like a cold and heartless city. Here are some more pictures, and as always the rest can be found on the flickr page.

Starting the event off right.

I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to be... not Ultraman, the "Safety Unzenger"?

The flower power tank, mid race.

Red Bull Box Cart Race, Oct. 11, in Odaiba

A former co-worker pointed out an interesting marketing scheme that he ran across the other day in Harajuku. There's an area around Shibuya-Harajuku known as Cat Street - the description I found searching around was this:

明治通りの東側 原宿～渋谷の川を埋め立てた曲がりくねった道 　静かでおしゃれな店がちらほら
1.猫の出没が多い、2.猫の額のように狭い、3.「Black Cat」発祥地　など名前の由来に諸説有り

On the east side of Meiji-dori - the twisting path covering the river between Harajuku and Shibuya. It's quiet with a bunch of cool stores here and there. Guesses on how it got its name are: 1. there are lots of cats, 2. it's narrow like a cat's forehead (don't ask me to explain that one...), 3. gets it's name from famous stores like Black Cat, etc. in the area.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself, the easiest way to get there is to get off at Harajuku station and walk all the way to the bottom of Takeshita-dori. It's not the main street you hit, but sort of breaks off from there paralleling the main street on the far side away from the station. There's a bunch of weird fashion stores there and a few cafes/restaurants. Here's a list of stores there (link in Japanese).

Anyway, so lately on Cat Street, a bunch of the bikes that have been left there have started losing random parts, like you see on the right here. What's the deal you ask? Is there some random bum around making a bike part castle somewhere, or did the police forget to bring their truck when they came to confiscate bikes and just decide to take what they could?

Nope, none of the above - the parts have been "borrowed" with a promise to return them even. Here's the caption as it reads on that note you see attached:

タイヤ（シート）借りました。

自転車の持ち主へ
2009年10月11日（日）に開催される
RED BULL BOX CART RACE用に
あなたのタイヤ（シート）を借りました。
イベント後に必ずお返しします。

REDBULLBOXCARTRACE.JP

I borrowed your tire (seat).

Dear bike owner,
I have borrowed your tire (seat) for the Red Bull Box Cart Race being held on October 11th, 2009 (Sun.). I will return it after the event without fail.

Soo... it's just a marketing scheme then? Here's a video - they're still taking entries for anyone interested, so sign up!



Details on the event:

the 1st Japan Red Bull Box Cart Race
Date: Oct. 11, 2009, starts at 1pm
Place: Odaiba, Dream Bridge (夢の大橋)

If anyone's actually interested I could have a look at the rules for entry... I think it might be worth at least showing up for to watch. More than that though, the ad scheme is certainly attention grabbing.

Original link my co-worker came across is here (Japanese only).

Edit: pictures and my write-up on the event itself can be found here.

To Work or WBC, and Fake Swingers

Everyone at work seems totally distracted, and I don't think it's because the two owners (also brothers) had an escalated altercation that broke into fisticuffs last night (true story).

No, I would have to say that it's because about half the people currently in the office are closely huddled in front of the tv by the entrance watching the World Baseball Classic. They told me that yesterday Japan beat the US in the semis, but personally I could care less... I'm more interested in the NCAA tournament, even if my team's already out. If you don't care about either I won't hold it against you. As much as I'd like to ignore it, I guess it really is true that Japanese love their baseball, and even more so than they do soccer.

This brings to mind something only tangentially related but that has always struck me as funny - the fake swing. Whether it be a fake golf swing or a bat swing, you will see people doing practice swings all over the place here, from the office to the train platform. Don't believe me? Well there's even a poster about it. This guy has an umbrella, but you'll see it more often than not totally empty-handed, and in addition to the baseball/golf swing you may see a budding pitcher practicing his curve ball depending on who you watch.

What prompts this you might ask? A trip to any school sports club will provide the answer. I first ran into this back as an exchange student when a friend joined the tennis club - he told me that for beginners they actually have you just swing at air 100 times to practice your form before you're "ready" to step up and hit a ball! Who knows how long it'll take you hitting a ball before you're ready to actually take on an opponent, maybe years.

You may be thinking that this happens in baseball practices all over the world, and indeed my capoeira instructor harps about form when we practice as well. But if you think this and you haven't seen Japanese people practice then you don't know what I'm talking about - they can just practice swinging for hours without playing a real match or scrimmage, which to me is like making a cake and then not eating it. They are obsessed with proper form and will take it to the utmost extreme. I don't know if their desire for perfection before they even get started is admirable or masochistic, but at times I think it's a little from column A and a little from column B. It'd certainly take all the fun out of sports to me. I guess it's better than having them read a book about how to hit a ball, but I still think the best way to practice hitting a ball is to... hit a ball. With someone, preferably in a situation somewhat gamelike. Call me a purist. :P

Rio for the Olympics in 2016!!

If you live in Tokyo, there is no mistaking that they are making a bid to host the Olympic Games in 2016 - there are signs about it everywhere with this fruity looking rainbow ribbon thingy as seen above. The nationalistic right-wing mayor of Tokyo has been fighting for this forever... since they failed to get the nomination in 2012 at least. Their competition this time around? Madrid, Chicago, and Rio de Janeiro.

Up until recently, I was rather indifferent to the whole issue and wished Tokyo best of luck - I mean why not, right? Well I'll tell you why not. You see, there's this park in downtown Tokyo - the biggest one, actually - known as Yoyogi Park. This place is amazing, and you can find just about anything going on there during the warmer months of the year, from bands, drum circles and performances to people practicing all manner of hobbies from capoeira and juggling to... stand up comedy and fake sword fighting choreography. You can find people playing all sorts of sports, and it is a premiere spot for hanami in the Spring as well as host to any number of cultural festivals throughout the Summer. This place is like my haven - a place of solace to protect me from going mad when I'm feeling stressed from living in this uber-urban concrete environment that is Tokyo. It's got it all, and I'm not even going into the full details of this place by far. Here's some videos I found of a guy walking through Yoyogi on a typical Sunday - check them out.

What does this have to do with the Olympics? Well I'll tell you what. They're talking about ruining this park to make way for new Olympic facilities!! Concreting over even a section of this party would be a travesty - I don't care what they build or how much added traffic and revenue this place gets, sacrificing this park is not worth it and I can't believe they'd even consider it... oh wait, this is Ishihara we're talking about, so yes I can.

So in short, to all this I say Rio for the Olympics in 2016!! I'll be rooting for you all the way as I think S. America is ready to host the Olympics. Sorry Chicago, but they've already been in the US enough times to give Brazil a shot and I'd like another excuse to go down there... besides capoeira, Carnival and the World Cup 2014 that is. Maybe next time.

By the way, BBC seems to agree with me that Rio is the right choice - there's a precedent for World Cup hosters to follow up with the Olympics as well: Mexico '68/'70, Germany '72/'74, and Atlanta '94/'96.

Angola vs. Regional

In spite of being quite busy lately with various random tasks, including some annoying last minute details on my latest excursion (to Vietnam - this makes country #7!!), I did make time to get out to the Brazilian Festival going on this past weekend in my favorite park in Tokyo, Yoyogi! For anyone coming out to Tokyo, Yoyogi Park is a definite don't miss: all in one afternoon you can get your classical culture fix visiting Meiji Shrine, then get your modern culture fix in Harajuku whilst shopping and oogling random weird people and stuff. You see the most random of stuff on the bridge from Harajuku station to Meiji Shrine, including the famous cosplay girls, as well as all kinds of weird street performers. That, and you can find just about anything in the park, from the Fonzie-wannabe 50's dancers and drum circles to soccer and frisbee to... those weird guys that practice their choreographed sword fights under the trees, and the guys I saw with quite deliberately placed trash can lids and signs on their bodies as they were themselves sprawled across the lawn - whatever your interests it's a great way to spend an afternoon, especially in the summer when the weirdos are out in full effect.

So anyhoo, most every weekend in the summer has a different festival, and this weekend was the Brazilian Festival, with my capoeira group was doing a performance right off the bat on the first day. Of course I couldn't miss it, but just for cathartic disclosure I did sleep in and miss the first 10 minutes or so (shhhh!!!). After that there was a free roda (pronounced "ho-da". It’s easy to remember: just think “hoedown”, but way cooler. Heh, capoeira hoedown, yee-haw.) in which people from all around the country and a few in from abroad even played capoeira for a good 2-3 hours. That was one of the most interesting gatherings I've been to in a while!

One theme which reared its head a few times over the course of the day though was a slight bad vibe between the two main schools of capoeira: Angola and Regional. In general, Regional (pronounced "hey-joe-nal") is the newer style and probably the one that most people are familiar with. If you saw someone flipping around and stuff, more than likely it was Regional. They came up with a sort of belt system to mirror other martial arts... it's more about form and show than it is about really being effective as a fighting style though if you ask me, but then the flips and stuff are most definitely fun in their own right. Here's people having fun flipping around, spinning on their lips.

Angola on the other hand is the original capoeira, just as it has been since the slaves in Brazil developed it way back when. It tends to be slower and closer to the ground, which takes more strength and balance. It's much more closed so you don't leave yourself open to attacks as much, and while there's still a bunch of whole lot of inverted stuff going on, it doesn't have as much of that acrobatic element that is so definitive of Regional... Angolistas are also much more likely to take the opening and knock you back on your ass if you let them too. Here's a vid of Angola style.

I started out doing the former and am now practicing the latter, so I'm sort of in the middle and can't really see why the two wouldn't get along, but apparently some don't agree. When I talked to some Regional friends, they would say how they thought Angola was boring, which I can understand since it isn't as flashy (the basics are harder though if you ask me). If you listen to the people in my current Angola group, they sort of talked down at some of the Regional people, saying they were out of control and wild... to their credit, at least twice some Regional player fell into the berimbau while trying some move, which is a big no-no. Still, the mumbling behind backs and all sorta irked me. If you watch them play together you'll definitely notice a difference in styles, but at the same time you can tell they're just two different styles of the same sport.

In the end, the maestres (teachers) all get along and understand how to look at the big picture and keep the capoeira love going... I think when people get to that level they can appreciate each other's respective strengths and skills more. I just wish everyone saw it like that... it's just another in the series of artificial barriers that human nature seems to love to create for no other apparent reason than to make unnecessary friction. Why can’t we all just get along???

Reminds me of a famous Doug's lyrics:

"So why does there only have to be one correct philosophy?
I don't want to go and follow you just to end up like one of them.
And why are you always telling me what you want me to believe?
I'd like to think that I can go my own way and meet you in the end.
Go my own way and meet you in the end."

-Doug Robb, Hoobastank (a.k.a.: the Mountain Dew Band)

It was a good run...

Well, I made what I thought to be a rather important discovery this past week - CBS decided it would be a good idea to make all games for March Madness available online, both in live feed and recorded playback. I wholeheartedly concur!

So this means that I have seen MD slide by Davidson in the first round, and also means that I woke up at 4:30 this morning to watch Butler squeak by us in the 2nd round. Although I am disappointed as I believe we could've given Florida a run in the sweet 16, I'm still happy with how they finished the season and think that the way they were playing the best team won.

Equally as exciting is the fact that Duke got knocked out in the 1st round, proving that they were over-seeded and that we totally owned them this year. Any year that we make it into the tourney and do better than Duke is a successful one in my book. I guess from here on I can't cheer for MD or anti-Duke, so I'll be behind the rest of the ACC teams left. Here's looking forward to next year!

Go Terps!!!

So just now, as we enter March and its impending madness, am I getting around to seeing a Maryland basketball game, and I am pleased as punch with what I saw. Actually, from what I've seen online maybe it's a good idea that I missed out on the first part of conference play. So I got to see us win in what I would consider rather comfortable fashion for the second time this season over the pathetically slumping Dook Blue Devils. They seem to be rather mediocre this year, but Maryland triumphing over Duke is something that'll never get old to me. Sort of like pizza, or some good Thai curry, or cheese. Ok so I guess if you leave them out too long those things get old, but I still don't tire of them. Anyway, from what I hear I really wish that I got to see the NC game, but I was happy with the play of the team, especially the new kid Greivis (not to be confused with Grievous, although he may inspire more fear in the hearts of his opponents since he probably doesn't do that weird breathing thing) and that (c)Osby kid, which I shall dub "fro guy" for obvious reasons. That'd be cool if he started doing Jell-o pudding pop commercials like 'ol Bill used to do. Or he could be really cool and shave the sides for a Mr. T mohawk! Either way, they're going back to the NCAA's where they belong after 2 long years of a certain crazy runaway point guard and the aftermath he left in his wake. Stupid Gilcrist.

Yeah, and so of course looking around I heard the other disturbing news around the conference - Duke's Gerald Henderson dishing out a brutal elbow to the face of UNC's Tyler Hansbrough, whose nose expelled, gushed and oozed an astronomic proportion of blood and general unpleasantness all over the court and himself. See the video on Youtube. There was a bunch of bru-ha-ha to follow, and the evil Dookie was sent home early to sulk and contemplate what he did. I hear that he then kidnapped a baby from the crowd and bit its head off Ozzy style and spit it in the face of one of the cheerleaders, then kicked a baby seal on his way to the locker room where he met up with a harem of hookers and partook of several illicit controlled substances. Ok, well maybe not.

I also heard several references to an interview with Duke head coach Mike K...shasldfksafsky or however you spell it (heretofore referred to as merely "the devil"), who insists not only that his boy didn't do it intentionally, but that his guys always play nice. P-shaw I say - he is a dirty, dirty man who curses like a sailor on the sidelines, and whose players have been documented for going for blood on several occasions, especially with the likes of a despised cross town rival like UNC. Check out the links above for references to a certain Christian Laettner incident in 1992. He's also been quoted as asking why Hansbrough was still on the floor seeing as there were only 15 or so ticks left on the clock, making it seem like it was UNC's fault that his player, who can do no wrong and reportedly poops cupcakes and gingerbread cakes in his spare time, laid the smackdown on unsuspecting young Tyler's candy ass.

This is cool because:

1. "The devil" and his team are not happy about it, which makes me happy
2. Duke also lost again, which is always reason to celebrate
3. It gives me a new reason to dislike Duke, and "the devil", and sullies their reputation
   
4. It means that UNC's big man will have to wear a goofy-looking mask, which will be both funny and possibly make him play tentatively this weekend in the ACC tournament so we can stomp them a new one just like we did before
5. It was bloodier than a good number of boxing matches I've seen, which is brutal and cool

So yeah, all in all I would say it was a pretty good weekend in the world of college hoops. Please feel free to keep my abreast of any news or developments in the Terp world that I may not be privy to out here in Puroland.

F***ing Posh like Dave Beckham

Beckham to play for LA Galaxy - 5yr./250 mil USD
Beckham vs. Pele

First off, to those of you that don't care about football (as I will refer to it throughout this post) or prefer that American sport where you throw an oblong brown object and rest after every play to catch your breath, feel free to skip out on this one.

I heard about this plan of Beckham's to finish out his career in the States a while back, but I didn't expect it to be coming this soon... and yes I know this is soooo last week, but gimme a break as I wasn't around. So the headline says it - Beckham has signed a contract meaning he's no longer playing for Real Madrid and will be coming Stateside to play for the LA Galaxy starting in June.

So what does all this mean? Anything really? Some people are trying to liken this to Pele's attempt to make REAL football as popular in the US as the other major sports and take the position it has elsewhere in the world, and others equate it to little more then a publicity stunt with a price tag as inflated as the clothes and cologne and stuff that he sells. And I mean, who can blame the detractors? This is the guy that married a Spice Girl named "Posh" and throws away his cleats for a new pair after every match. He's not in his prime, so how much of an impact he'll make on the level of play has yet to be seen. To me he's really more of a face and a name than a player - he's the world's posterboy for football. A famous player from England who recently passed away, George Best had this to say about Beckham's ability:

"He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals. Apart from that he's all right."

So all that being said, I think he can and most likely will have an impact. He's not the best in the world, but he does play internationally and is better than a good majority of the league in the US. Moreso than that though, the hope is that he's setting a precedent for other international players to follow. But the much more famous Pele tried the same thing back in the 70's in the NASL (North American Soccer League), which eventually failed in the early 80's. Really, Pele back then paved the way for Beckham today, so maybe (hopefully) this is all it'll take to take football to the next level in the US. At this point, I'm sceptical but hopeful, as I know that most people in the US still really don't care.

There are just so many sports going on in the US right now that it's hard to say which ones are prevalent - I mean, despite the flagrant lack of right turns NASCAR is actually one of the most popular sports, especially depending on where you go. It's hard to compare football across the world, which is arguably the biggest sport worldwide, to soccer in the US as there's just so much competition: NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, and now MLS. Personally if given the choice, I would choose to watch British Premier League or Italy Serie over MLS, but I'll still watch a match if it's on and hopefully things will start to get more exciting now and encourage more people will come out to our side of the world to play... or not go to Europe/Brazil.

All in all I see it as a good thing, although it would be nice if we got some better talent as opposed to simply a well-known face. If football gained more popularity in the US, it'd be good for the game worldwide. The more big names, the higher the level of the game becomes on the global scale.