Typhoon Family
When the girls were talking about the weather after the Typhoon, they were making a Japanese pun. What Konata was trying to say is "台風一過" (Tai Fuu Ikka), which is the calm weather after the typhoon, but she thought she the term was "台風一家" (Tai Fuu Ikka), which means "The Typhoon Family". Then she proceeded to make seemingly funny comment about the big typhoon's siblings. Kagami, knowing the real meaning of the term, asked Kona if she's serious. Of course she was. Seemed like Tsukasa was in Kona's boat as well. This happens to a lot of kanji-semi literate Japanese teens.
The Typhoon Family Photo:
Pro Baseball In Japan
The Japanese pro-baseball season is now in full-swing. Overtime game would push midnight anime further back, forcing many otaku to re-adjust their VCRs. There are no Tivo-like service in Japan (I checked) so even with a DVR, they will have to do this manually. Thus many otaku in Japan hated baseball with a passion. Trivia: It seemed that Nanako's favorite Pro Baseball Team is the
Lotte Chiba Marines, and the main reason for this was that one of the team's star pitcher,
小林宏之 (Kobayashi Hiroyuki), is Katsukabe KyoEi High School's most famous alumni. He helped the team won its' first Japan Series title in '05; I remember him cus I watched the game. What's really unbelievable was the fact that Kona-jiji was watching baseball... isn't he an otaku? Another trivia - The Koshien Summer High School Baseball Tournament (something I watch live every night) does NOT hurt the Otakus as much because 1. All games are played during the day and 2. The games have a 15 inning max rule. Otakus should only hate PRO baseball, but I doubt many can tell the difference.
Yoshimizu loves his senpai:
Cool Biz
As many of you know by now,
Cool Biz is the environmental policy promoted by the Koizumi government - from the first working day of June to the last working day of September, salarimen in Japan should try not to wear a neck tie or a jacket. All AC should be set at 28 Celsius. Maybe Kona-dad's not so lolicon after all...
Former PM Koizumi with his Cool Biz shirt:
Waitress Kagamin!
In the imaginary sequence where Kagami became a waitress, she's actually Cosplaying as an actual waitress of a famous Japanese restaurant chain for American food,
Anna Miller's. The restaurant actually started out in
Hawaii and then expanded to Japan, and it's famous for its breakfast and Pennsylvania Dutch pies. Cospla-Ota also love their cute and a little ecchi uniform, which is probably why it's in L*S. While you have to admit Kagami is super tsundere in their orange apron, It's too bad that KyoAni really failed to show the most interesting part of the uniform - the apron's "supporting feature" (see below).
A real Anna Miller's waitress-san demonstrating why cosplayers love her dress:
Wonderful Discoveries!
The show they Hiiragi Twins are watching is again, a very popular TBS show "
世界・ふしぎ発見!" (Discovery of World's Wonder!). It's a combination travel/quiz show where they show the audience a place or city in the world and what' so special about it. There will be trivial questions asked during the show and the 6 or so tarento (talent-less guests) will try to answer them correctly in order to win the big prize - a travel package furnished by
LOOK JTB (name beeped), Japan's largest travel agency. The TBS staple is the longest running quiz show ever, having just broadcasted their 1,000th episode this year.
The joke here was the LOOK JTB travel package offered was "one month trip to (a frozen) Tundra", like that's an ideal vacation. The "wonder" featured that night was Australia's Ayer's Rock, based on the voice over from the TV. The Ota in me found that the show DID recently visit Ayer's Rock this year, with it's
998th episode aired on 2/17/2007. The date doesn't quite match up but you can't expect KyoAni to be 100% accurate all the time.
Takeuchi Kanae (show's on-location host) in Australia:
Quickie Reference: Kona's desire to know more about their school's "idol" and the staus of her "bodyguard groups" is probably a reference to "
D.C. ~ Da Capo" and "
SHUFFLE" games.
Shower/Bath in Japan
Nanako-sensei was shown to have taken shower/bath before going to bed. This is normal in Japan, just in case you don't know from watching all those anime. People do not shower in the morning; a bath is always before bed time. The Japanese believe bath is stress-relieving and it's required for a restful sleep. Another reason for the absence of morning shower (unthinkable in the US) is the lack of the need for deodorant (good luck finding it in Japan) - when you don't really smell bad when you wake up, you're less likely to want a full shower. However, some Japanese has been adopting the morning shower to appear Westernized. These people ended up taking a shower in the morning and a bath at night, as many Japanese will tell you, they can't fall asleep without a proper Ofuro.
Joy is falling asleep after being neck deep in a Japanese tub!
I figured some Japanese must have ponds... It's just nice to read about ponds (with koi!) in the yard, as that's something that would be considered rare here... *Especially* rare where I live.
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