The most beautiful ninja ever.

This is Ayako Miyake. She is one of the athletes that takes part in the Women of Ninja Warrior tournaments. Her first tournament was Kunoichi 4 and she won. Not only did she win the 4th tournament, she went on to win Kunoichi 5 and 6. She is the only woman to complete all stages of the Kunoichi tournament.

Unfortunatly, she fell in the second stage of the newest tournament...#7 but its ok...she will be back for #8 and she is gonna kick ass.

Kuchisake Onna

Lately I have been re-reading a lot of my books that are about Japanese urban legends and ghost stories. Japanese ghost stories are fascinating. No other country has the ability to scare the hell out of you with a story like Japan. One of the more well known stories is called Kuchisake Onna, which means "split mouth woman".

As far as Japanese urban legends go, this one is fairly new. Stories of this woman first started surfacing in the 1970's. According to the legend, a beautiful woman wearing a surgical mask follows groups of young school children and stops them and asks "Am I beautiful"? The child usually says yes because at first glance, she is beautiful but then she takes off her surgical mask revealing a very deep ear to ear slice. The she asks "How about now"?

When the child screams in terror and flees, the woman follows them and begins to butcher them with a scalpel while screaming "AM I BEAUTIFUL, AM I BEAUTIFUL...AM I...AM I... If the victim is female, she is turned into a disfigured woman as well. Some versions of this story have the woman attacking with a Scythe but i think the scalpel version is more fitting considering she is wearing a surgical mask and is apparently the victim of a botched plastic surgery job or a murderous husband who is tired of his wife's vanity.

Recently there was an accident in Japan. A woman was seen chasing a group of children down a busy road and was hit by a car. When police and bystanders went over to her to see if she was OK or if she was killed, they turned her over to see her face and her face was slit from ear to ear. True story. It was in all the major Japanese papers and on the Japanese news channels. Authorities said that the slice on her face was a result of the car accident but the pathologist said that it was an old wound and was not caused by the car accident.

Last year there was a movie made in Japan about this legend. The movie is called Kuchisake Onna, just like the legend. If you can find it, I highly recommend it. Its a great film.

Sasuke 20! Part 2

Well, Sasuke 20 is over and it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the Ninja Warrior all-stars showed up for this epic event. Olympic athlete Shunsuke Nagasake was absent due to his training for the Beijing games, Government worker Bunpei Shiratori was absent as well...I'm not sure where he was, Comedian turned athlete Kinnikun Nakayama was absent as well but the rest of the big guns were all present. Yamada, Nagano, Akiyama, Takeda, Yamamoto, Yamada(yes, i meant to type Yamada twice...there are two Yamada's) Iketani...all showed up. Trampolinist Daisuke Nakata was absent as well but due to his injuries from a hit and run a few years back, its understandable.

Shunsuke Nagasake wasn't able to make it to the event but he was able to train the 3 American G4 viewers who won the American Ninja contest...one of whom got farther than any other competitor...he made it to the Cliff Hanger in Stage 3. Grand Champion Makoto Nagano made it to Stage 2 but lost his grip on the updated Chain Reaction...the first obstacle in Stage 2. Levi had to go to Stage 3 alone.

Out of the 100 competitors only 3 made it to stage 2 and one of those made it to stage 3. Unfortunately, all of the All-Stars except Nagano were taken out in the first round. Japan's most famous Firefighter..Toshihiro Takeda was thwarted by the warped wall, Katsumi Yamada lost his grip on the Spider Jump, Superstar Shingo Yamamoto mis-judged his landing on the half pipe attack, 1st Grand Champion Kazuhiko Akiyama lost his grip on the half pipe attack and as for Yasushi Yamada...i just cant remember how he was taken out.

Along with the all-stars there were the usual faces...Hang Glider man, Mr. Octopus, the guy that makes the plastic models, the rather rotund comedian Choshu, garbageman Shinji Kobayashi...all taken out within the first few obstacles. For those of you who missed it, Sasuke 20 will air again today starting at 4pm EST on G4TV.

Usually the Sasuke tournaments are every 6 months so I believe Sasuke 21 will be in September, and I cant wait.

Mr. Sasuke, Katsumi Yamada has dedicated his entire life to Ninja Warrior, he has built a replica training course at his home where the rest of the all-stars join him to train. No man has suffered the heartbreak that Yamada has. He has made it to the final stages quite a few times but has never gone all the way although he was the favorite for several years in a row. Katsumi Yamada is what Ninja Warrior is all about. The man has heart, spirit, drive...everything. I really hope he will make it to the top of Mt. Midoriyama one day. His best friend, all-star and Grand Champion Makoto Nagano constantly pushes Yamada to train harder so that he can one day enjoy the view from the top of the giant metal tower.

here's hoping that all the all-stars show up for Sasuke 21.

Sasuke 20! Ninja Warrior is back!

Tomorrow, the 20th Sasuke (muscle ranking) tournament will air in the US. It aired in Japan back in March. The shows original Japanese name is Sasuke: Muscle Ranking but here in the US its called Ninja Warrior.

For those of you not familiar with Ninja Warrior, the best way to describe it is "the hardest obstacle course in the universe" Athletes from all over Japan and a few athletes from outside of Japan compete in 4 stages of the most brutal, bone crushing, skull splitting obstacle course known to man. Sasuke has it all...water pits, rope swings, salmon ladders, chains, fire, free fall, log rolls, barrel rolls, wall lifts, warped walls...you name it, Sasuke has it. Ninja Warrior is without a doubt one of the greatest TV shows ever.

Some of Japan's best athletes take part in the Sasuke challenges, some of the more notable ones are: Katsumi Yamada, Makoto Nagano, Toshihiro Takeda, Yasushi Yamada, Shingo Yamamoto, Naoki Iketani, Daisuke Nakata, Bunpei Shiratori, Kinnikun Nakayama, Shunsuke Nagasake Akira Omori and Kazuhiko Akiyama. Akiyama and Nagano are the only 2 athletes to complete the entire course, and Sasuke has been going on for 10 years now...that goes to show how hard this course actually is. The athletes mentioned above are considered to be the "Ninja Warrior All-Stars" They all compete in most if not all of the tournaments and Shingo Yamamoto is the only man that has been in all the Sasuke competitions...#1-#20.

Ninja Warrior is one of the few shows on TV that is worth watching.

best. show. ever.

another week down...only 46 left.

i have to admit...this little plan is actually working. Watching a movie every Tuesday and reading a chapter or 2 in a travel book about japan every Wednesday is really helping pass the time. Every week I find myself really looking forward to the coming Tuesday's and Wednesday's so I can watch a movie and read a travel book and add to my list of things that I want to see and do while in japan...right now I have about 3 full notebook pages full of stuff to see and do.

Tonight's feature:

Ryuhei Kitamura's violent, blood soaked action/horror masterpiece "Versus"

This film is great. It has tons of violence, gore, blood, swordplay, samurai flashbacks, revenge and resurrection. Its fantastic.

If you have not yet seen Versus, go out immediately and watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again.

It turns out that talking to strangers isnt so bad after all..

so i was down at borders today looking for books by the New Jersey Samurai...Anthony Bourdain. While I'm browsing the books, I was in my own world like i always am but I must have muttered something barely audible but loud enough for the girl behind me to hear it.

Before i know it, she starts showing me the books that she is holding and planning on buying and 2 of them are books by Bourdain himself. We started talking about books that we have already read by Bourdain and books that we are planning on reading and then we begun sharing our insights on Bourdain's books and philosophies. We made our way down to the cafe and continued our conversation over a few black coffee's and before we knew it, 2.5 hours had passed...she was late for work...what can I say...I'm charming.

I don't usually make it a habit to talk to strangers but today was rather enjoyable...I just might mutter things to myself more often.

my deepest apologies, now on to the show

Due to a series of rather strange events last night, I'm a night behind with the "passing the year with a movie a week" part of my blog. If there is anyone out there who actually reads this and enjoys it, I'm sorry for taking a small bit of sunshine from your life...but now I'm back.

Tonight's feature is Transformers...the new live action one from last summer, not the animated CLASSIC from 1986, which is by far a superior movie to the live action one.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the live action Transformers. The effects were outstanding, the fights were cool although very brief and they used the original voice actor for Optimus Prime.

The problem is, it seemed like a cross between a movie about giant robots and one long commercial for General Motors. It just didn't feel like Transformers. The humans were featured way too heavily, all the Decepticons looked like insects and Megatron was only in the last 20mins of the movie.

I'm a huge Transformer fan so I'm not going to bitch about the flaws of a for the most part, enjoyable movie. For a giant robot movie, this movie rocked...as a Transformers movie, it didn't.

Tatakai!

Lie to me, tell me stories so beautiful.

another week down, only 47 left.

Ive started to make a list of all the things I want to see and do while Im in Japan. I dont know how Im going to fit it all in seeing as I am only going to be there for a week and a half. There are a lot of sights that I want to see and a lot of restaurants that I want to eat at....nothing fancy just some small noodle and sushi places that Ive heard and read about. I will be staying in Tokyo so the majority of my sight seeing time will be spent there. As I read more travel books, I will be able to write a detailed list of what I want to do.

I am going to get a JR Rail Pass so I can take a day trip to Kyoto and Osaka. According to one of my heroes, Anthony Bourdain, there are tons of cool things to see in both of those cities. Some of the things that I want to see are the Takara building, the Tamiya Building, The Sony building, the grave site of the 47 Ronin and Himeji Castle for starters. I will be there in April for Sakura season which is what Im looking forward to the most. I cant wait to grab a local beer and find a spot under a Sakura tree and do nothing but enjoy the view.

Next April is so far away.

I would gladly be dragged naked over broken glass just to see her smile...

...yet I know I will never see her again.

I'm not leaving until I've had Reindeer sorbet.

I'm back home after having the distinct pleasure of attending an Akira Kurosawa film festival. Today was a long day but when I'm on my death bed, this day will be remembered as one of the best.

There were only 30 of us or so, crammed into a dimly lit old firehouse that smelled faintly of motor oil and wet concrete...it was awesome. Before the movies started, we ate food prepared by a couple local college kids that are aspiring chefs....dishes containing the likes of Asparagus, bacon, clams, scallops, rice, eggs...it was all good.

In the back, there was a bar of sorts, some local beer and some of the harder stuff. Most people waited in line to order the metro-trendy-euro trash Cosmo or other similarly named fruity drinks desperately trying to fit in with the hip art crowd. I'm not hip, nor am i an art crowd person. I'm a tall, way too skinny white boy from New Jersey that happens to think Kurosawa is one of the greatest film makers of all time...so i tried my best to avoid the Sex in the City crowd and just enjoy myself.

That's when i saw it. On the back of the bar, beautiful and chrome. A french press. Some of us were complaining about the lack of coffee at this get-together but our troubles were solved when i saw the french press. Like a ninja I scampered around the bar, snatching the french press for myself. I asked the "barkeep" if there were any coffee grounds on the premises and after a few minutes of bottle re-arranging under the bar, he hands me this crumpled, stained brown bag full of coffee grounds. Stale or not, i was going to bring coffee to the masses. Coffee makes any and all occasions better...and it doesn't get much better than coffee and Kurosawa.

I fill my cup, find a seat in the back and watch the lights dim and take in the masterpieces that are: Ran, Rashomon, Yojimbo and of course The Seven Samurai.

This is living.