People who are amazing at utterly trivial pursuits, part XIV

"Fish Spa", Chiang Mai, Thailand

Sit with your legs in a bath and use the internet while little fish nibble away your dead skin tissue. There are estimate to be around 3000 of these establishments operating in Thailand. However the practice has been banned in the US and recently the UK Health Protection Agency warned that it could potentially lead to transmission of blood-borne viruses. Is that just the nanny state in action, or a real health risk?

Botaoshi

This is cool. Sort of like that "capture the flag" game we used to play in primary school, only with an additional "dude just beating the shit out of each other" component. It's good to watch, although I don't know if it's the sort of game I'd get into. I'd be the guy trying to convince the two teams to share so everyone could have a turn with the pole.

Asians impersonating Christopher Walken

Some of these are lame and weird, but the fact that this video exists at all is why the internet is the best thing ever invented.
The first dude is pretty cool.

Beat-boxing Miss Philippines

I don't really pay much attention to Miss World pageants. Really I don't. But occasionally something they produce something fascinating/hilarious/bizarre which is too good to ignore. Case in point is this year's entrant from the Philippines, Quenerich Rehman. Her entry in the "talent" section of the competition is surely a world first.

Sure, she's not the best beat-boxer you've ever seen, but it's better than I could do. And don't we all want our world represented by a beautiful lady who can beat-box? 

Unfortunately she didn't win. That honour went to Miss China, who in all fairness, is hawt. But can she beat-box? I'd have to presume not.

Btw, if you are wondering why her surname is unusual for a Filipino, it's because she apparently has a Pakistani father. If you are wondering why her first name is unusual... it's because she's Filipino. They like that kind of whackiness. It's sometimes listed around the place as "Queenierich", which doesn't make it any less odd.

For more beauty contest enjoyment:

Interview with Miss Universe China. Oh man, this is good.

Facepalm-worthy entrants on The S Factor, Singapore's answer to Next Top Model

Is it OK to laugh at this?

I like to do it Gangnam Style

I'm not exactly sure what the f*ck this is. But it may well be the best thing ever in the history of the universe.



Koreans.

More Awesome Asian Ads - Japan

 More here.

My favourite thing in the world, this week

Love the choice of background music. Weird juxtaposition.

Meanwhile, in Japan...

Everyone needs a hobby, I guess.

TOKYO (Reuters) - In the suburbs of Tokyo lives Kenichi Ito, the world's fastest man on four legs.
For nearly a decade, the 29-year-old Ito, long a fan of simians, has been perfecting a running style based on the wiry Patas monkey of Africa, winning himself a Guinness World Record in the process.
"You know, my face and body kind of look like a monkey, so from a young age everybody used to tease me, saying 'monkey, monkey,'" Ito said in his neat apartment, sitting in front of a large poster of a chimpanzee.
"But I wasn't really bothered because I really liked them, and somewhere inside of me I had this ambition to adopt one of their traits. When I saw a monkey that could run fast, I knew I'd found it - and from that point on I practised running like a monkey every day."
For eight-and-a-half years the slender Ito has walked around his neighbourhood on his hands and feet, wearing gloves and cleated shoes. He has turned his household chores into challenges on all fours and squats like a monkey while talking.
Constantly honing his style, he looks for inspiration from across the animal world by using the Internet and a season ticket to the local zoo. So far he's developed six distinct forms of all-fours movement, from his top-speed "gallop" to a more leisurely walking pace. His speed at running 100 metres on all fours, just under 20 seconds, won him a Guinness record.
Occasionally Ito, who survives on money earned through his running as well as part-time jobs, gets together with fellow four-legged running fanatics to race each other. Sometimes, they bring cats and dogs to join in the fun - though a well-trained dog will usually win.
Ito believes so fervently in his form of "sport" that he is convinced athletes of the future will eventually come around to his point of view.
"Certainly four-legged running isn't an Olympic sport yet, but my prediction is that in 500 years' time all track athletes will be running on all fours," he said.
But his passion for simians has not been without setbacks.
"In the streets around here I get stopped by the police, so I went up into the mountains for about a month for a kind of four-legged training camp," Ito said.
"But on the first day, a hunter mistook me for a wild boar, and he tried to shoot me." [Source]

So many questions:
He "survives on money earned through his running". Why didn't my careers counselor tell inform me of this possibility?
Does Kenichi have a girlfriend?
If so, does she also run on all fours?
And how bad is that hunter's eyesight?

Random Asian-ness

Even more Awesome Asian Ads: Japan

I sometimes wish I could understand Japanese just so I could understand what the hell is going on in their ads and TV shows. But perhaps it's even better watching them and not knowing.








Want more? Of course you do. Go here, here, here, here and here.

Every Chinese New Year I'm shufflin'

Some might see this as disrespectful to tradition, but I think it's just harmless fun. I wouldn't want this to replace the traditional CNY lion dance (or is it a tiger dance?) of course, but they've done the traditional thing and are just adding something different and entertaining at the end.

And I understand if some of you never want to hear Party Rock Anthem every again. But it's worth watching if only for the bit at 1 min 43 seconds.

This seems to have been shot in Malaysia by the way, I think in Bukit Bintang although I could well be wrong.

Finally, a solution to dawdling

Dunno why I didn't think of this. Japan, you've done it again.

In my life I have most needed one of these bells in the streets and subway platforms of Hong Kong, and in KLCC mall in Kuala Lumpur. Although having said that, in neither of those places are the people so unfailingly polite as the Japanese, so I'm not sure how effective it would be.
The other problem is that the average dawdling teenager probably has an iPod playing while they dawdle, which possibly neutralizes the bell.

"Warriors of Goja"

All of a sudden, The X Factor and Australia's Got Talent seem even more boring than before. Might need more Punjabi contestants.

Still more Awesome Asian Ads - Thailand

Thai commercials. Still better than any other country's.







More: here, here and here.

How Asians get to work

4 ways.







And don't try this ish at home, kids:

Singapore's answer to Michael Winslow

I think one day I'll start a website devoted solely to amusing Asian uncles.

Japanese TV weirdness of the week: Split-walking

Why not?

Some Engrish from Shanghai

My friend Raffi Koshayan travels to Asia a lot and has a good eye for spotting odd translations into English. These are from his favourite Manchurian restaurant in Shanghai.

With some of these, you can probably work out what they intended to mean. With others, it's a complete mystery... so if any of you out there read Chinese, you might be able to explain to the rest of us what the hell they actually are intending to say.

I also invite you to contribute your own captions for each.

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Awesome Asian dude of the week