Recently, I was reminiscing about all the food I long to eat in the United States. Pizza with layers of real mozzarella cheese and pepperoni, a fat breakfast of steak and eggs, doused in Frank’s Red Hot, a Mexican Pizza and a few MexiMelts from Taco Bell after drinking all night, a REAL hot dog, […]
Grizzled, determined archaeologist Indiana Jones crouches in front of a bizarre, fascinating golden idol. The John Williams score needles in and out. Jones runs a hand across his stubble, trying to guess the weight of the artifact. He reaches into his sack and pulls out a handful of sand. Slowly, he lets the grains fall, […]
In 1964, the Summer Olympics were held in Tokyo. What I did not realize until about 15 seconds ago (thanks Wikipedia) is that my own hometown of Detroit was somehow in the running for the bid. The Motor City finished a distant second. Thank goodness, too. Though hosting an international competition might have helped Detroit […]
DOUBLE FEATURE OF DEATH: Rambo and Battle Royale
RAMBO
Apparently, John Rambo was right: Nothing is over. As the world exerted a collective snigger after Sylvester Stallone announced there would be a new “Rambo” film — the fourth of the franchise — coming on the heels of the final “Rocky” installment, I joined in.
As much as I […]
First, let’s clear the air: Tokyo has a tremendous public transportation system. It’s convenient, reasonable and expansive, not to mention pretty easy to understand for foreign types. My hometown (Detroit, MI) would have benefitted greatly from such a system. Instead, awful political leadership over the past 30 years has relegated the city to being a […]
I love animals. When I was a young’n, I used to want to be a zoologist. Then I found out how much math is required to earn a degree in zoology and gave up on my dream. But even then, just as now, there were some animals I didn’t care much for. Specifically those of […]
Just a little over 20 games into the season, Major League Baseball is just getting going. For fans around the world, things are about to get interesting. But for fans of Japanese players, there’s already been some early noise. The biggest splash thus far had been made by outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, who signed a huge […]
As a college senior in 1999, I was living a pretty isolated existence. Stuck in a rundown apartment building (and paying the unbelievably low rent of $225 U.S. per month) the only thing I had going for me was a premium cable package that helped advance my growing interest in film. One film stood out […]
It’s unfortunate that this is the inaugural review I am writing for sevententotokyo. Not that the film is that brutally heinous (though it’s not exactly a masterpiece). It’s just that I usually don’t get too involved in the horror genre these days. First, because I think the medium has been dead for years, and second, […]
When I came to Japan for the first time in August 2006, I was steadfast in only one thing: I refused to live in Tokyo. Too expensive, too crowded, too annoying, too cosmopolitan, too cool. Considering the amount of money I brought over (enough for approxomately 12 meals at Sukiya), my Japanese language level (a […]
