Showing posts with label otaku. Show all posts
Showing posts with label otaku. Show all posts

Sunday, September 5, 2010

"Sub-sub-sub-culture" exposes Japanese men to ridicule as they take 'virtual girlfriends' on holiday - augmented reality for lovelorn otaku nerds

japan flag Pictures, Images and Photos


Russia Today
is a 24/7 English-language news channel based in Moscow and other international cities that I first watched the Saturday morning in April when Polish President Lech Kaczynski's plane crashed outside the airport in Smolensk, on his way to represent Poland at a ceremony commemorating the 1940 Katyn massacre, killing all 97 people on board..

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/11/world/la-fg-polish-president-crash11-2010apr11
RT
was the only TV news network reporting the story LIVE from near the scene, plus had well-informed analysts on the phone from various European capitals, including Warsaw, who could speak knowledgeably about Kaczynski's personal life and Polish political history and how these events all connected in one horrible day for modern-day Poland.

As I wrote at the time here, since I was awake when it happened, the Fox News Channel was first U.S. cablenet to report the crash, and as usual, MSNBC slept, showing one of their many old crime documentaries they lard their overnight and weekend schedule with, rather than break into it.  

That was not the first time that I saw MSNBC be the last TV cable net to air some breaking news, so now I never even bother flipping to them to see their take on anything.
Homepage: http://rt.com/


Their YouTube Channel has some interesting videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday

Alyona Minkovski in particular interviews all sorts of characters on her show:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlyonaShow
Here's a video from her show about the topic du jour: lovelorn otaku nerds in Japan taking their virtual girlfriends on holiday with them to a hotel in Atami on the Pacific Coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebrvafpjIlg




Some of you longtime readers may recall me writing in the past here on the blog that my first year living in Washington, D.C., I lived next door to (in front of) the Japanese Ambassador's official residence on Nebraska Avenue, N.W., thus putting yours truly in one of the safest neighborhoods in the city, due to all the security details in the area, which I greatly appreciated. 
This was when the crime and murder rate in D.C. was out-of-control and made D.C. America's murder capital.

I was living just down the street from the campus of American University, as well as the Swedish Ambassador's home, NBC-TV's Washington news bureau and their DC affiliate, WRC-TV, as well as the real-life HQ for NCIS.  (Years later, when I was living in Arlington County, I had an NCIS agent for a neighbor.)

Wall Street Journal's Japan Real Time blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/09/03/this-weeks-hits-virtual-girlfriends-walkman-beats-ipod-calling-the-boj-shots/


'Love Plus' resort: A solo romantic getaway
Why are men with virtual video-game girlfriends flocking to a Japanese beach resort town?
http://theweek.com/article/index/206736/love-plus-resort-a-solo-romantic-getaway

Konami Digital Entertainment
http://www.konami.com/


http://news.discovery.com/tech/love-plus-dating-game.html