How much change can a guy accumulate over 3 years in Japan?

Click "Read More" for the answer.

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On Saturday I went finger to finger with Japan's second highest ranked professional arm wrestler. Click "read more" bellow to find out who won!

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For the first time in the three years I've lived here, pro-wrestling is coming to Noheji! Former WWE mid-carder A-Train and the current Tiger Mask are featured prominently on the poster, so I guess they'll be here.

Link: http://homepage2.nifty.com/shirotabi/collection.htm

'The Great Sasuke' is but one of the masks this little doggy is modelling on this site. Strange how the JMA seems to only have one dog as a member.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0HSOaDN7FQ

Sing with the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW)




Around 1985 Vince McMahon came up with the idea of "Rock N' Wrestling" and the golden age of wrestling novelty music began. Before that time, there had only been a few noteworthy wrestling related songs released, such as the much loved Freddie Blassie Classic "Pencil Neck Geek". Hopefully someday I'll get my hands on the hard to find "Wrestling Rocks" LP from Rhino so that I can finally hear such other tunes from that era as "Who Will Dispute the Genius of Lou Albano" by the Foreign Objects or "The Body Rules" by Jesse Ventura.

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Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_KaPyDJFpY

Download it:

Windows Media Version (Slightly better quality)
Xvid Version (Bigger file, much better quality)


Update: You Tube has some good Michinoku videos stolen off the Gaora channel. Here's one from the Akita show I went to last year. I didn't attend the show this clip is from, but I wanted to include it because because at the end there's a funny bit with Sasuke singing and dancing with the boy band wannabe Sato twins (also known as The Sailor Boys).


It seems like nobody ever comments on my wrestling posts, and I just don't understand why. I can only assume that this is because people find them boring, but if you ask me pro-wrestling is one of the most interesting things you can ever hope to see in Japan. This is especially true of Tohoku based Michinoku Pro-Wrestling, which brings its high energy Mexican-style lucha libre shows up to Aomori every few months.


Just over a year ago, Marc Miller invited Kate, Hugh and I to a pro-wrestling show in his tiny little home town of Onoe. We had no idea what to expect, but figured the show wouldn't be too impressive given where we would be seeing it. While there couldn't have been more than a few dozen people in the crowd, the wrestlers didn't hold anything back and put on a really amazing show. Kate and I have been devout Michinoku Pro-Wrestling fans ever since.

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May I introduce you to 'Hayate', a Japanese luchador who takes his name from the speedy bullet train that travels between Tokyo and Hachinohe stations. You can see his website here.




While a train might be an unlikely choice for a wrestling gimmick, it seems like at least two other grapplers think that it's a good idea.

Link: http://smt.blogs.com/mari_diary/2006/06/a_new_craze_spo.html

Mari has an interesting article about a new craze in Japan surrounding a character named 'Spoo'. It all started with this video clip (edit: actually this clip) from one of my favorite Japanese kids shows. In it the two hosts try to draw a picture of one of the show's main characters, Spoo, with pretty funny results. The guy draws him correctly, but the woman's drawing is really, really far off the mark. Much like what happened with that Star Wars Kid a while back, the clip has inspired countless Japanese Internet nerds on 2CH to create their own spoof videos. Will he have the same impact on English speaking nerds as Domokun did a few years back? Since nobody outside Japan knows the original character, I kind of doubt it.



Update: I found this other Spoo drawing video from the show. This time Spoo himself joins in the drawing fun as everyone waits to see what the female host comes up with this time. Sadly it seems like she has learned to draw a pretty good Spoo since the first episode aired, though it's still the worst of the bunch.