I'm not dea...I mean, I went to the Maguro Festival 第２５回串木野まぐろフェスティバル

So. Not dead and all that. The first part of Golden Week gave me an opportunity to hit up the Maguro Festival for the first time ever. Enjoy this short photo journey.

By train, you need to get to Kushikino 串木野 Station which is between Sendai 川内 and Kagoshima Chuou 鹿児島中央 Stations.

Not much to see here.

Festival!

Fish heads!

The guys check everything out before the show starts.

Dance for the people! Dance!

On the slate: 山本進悟 Shingo Yamamoto, 竹田敏浩 Toshihiro Takeda, 管野仁志 Hitoshi Kanno, and　朝一眞 Kazuma Asa. Makoto Nagano was unable to attend this year.

Big.

What will we get for lunch?

Defacing property.

Line up.

Demonstration.

They are waiting to help kids up the wall (there's another photo of this in action later).

We might get wet so let's have Makoto Yahagi do it instead.

Yahagi in action.

The first group of people who tried the course.

The All-Stars.

Victory of Muscle.

Maguro donburi.

What you see from the dock.

Unnecessary graffiti.

Up and away!

Asa in action.

VICTORY OF MUSCLE!

The future.

No group shot of the second group. After they were done everyone just sort of screwed around on the course.

Shingo mentors his young padawan.

Somewhere. Not sure where.

SASUKE MANIAC May 18, 2008 Sort of liveblog! サスケマニア

As always, the pictures that go with the story are here!

Yamada! Nagano! Takeda! Akiyama! Someone else! You have two choices! The All-Stars go head-to-head at the Maguro Festival! Can their friendship survive? Will the maguro ever be the same? Who will be number one? Who will conquer the Maguro Festival Mock-SASUKE Obstacle Course of Doom and Destruction? It's SASUKE MANIA!

While we're waiting, let's watch JSpo and take a look at Princess Megu (プリンセス・メグ) and the rest of Yanagimoto Japan, i.e. the Japan Women's National Volleyball Team who beat Puerto Rico tonight, 25-20, 25-18, 17-25, 26-24 in their bid to play in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Whoa, what's up with that new Axe commercial? (It's the limited whatever one with the puppets)

What would YOU do if your girlfriend was a cyborg?

Last week we saw the first day of the Maguro Festival and the fun to be had there. This week, they promised us a competition of sorts as the All-Stars and others try to complete the short course.

More information about the Maguro Festival. HEY! That's Shingo Yamamoto! Perhaps he was busy pumping gas. Hey! Crazy marriage lady again.

Pipe Slider, Jumping Bar, Trampoline (just Trampoline), Shin-Cliff Hanger. It's some kind of special stage for today? No idea.

Some spectators try to tackle the course.

One guy (Yahagi Makoto 矢作誠) is from Tokyo. He has sent in SASUKE videos before but couldn't cut it at the last SASUKE trial. The Maguro Festival could be his chance!

Start! Pipe Slider. Cut to the Jumping Bar. No problem! Takeda and Yamamoto look on! Shin-Cliff Hanger. Swinging...swinging. NO! Was this his last chance? I guess we'll have to wait for 21 to find out.

Others are unable to clear the Shin-Cliff Hanger.

The All-Stars confer with each other. They're going to do a time trial! So they'll not only be competing against the course but against each other! All-Stars explode! They climb to the top of the course as they are introduced. Too bad Yamada didn't fall down while he was doing that.

Akiyama is up first! Pipe Slider. Hayai! Jumping Bar. SASUKE no All-Stars Gachinko Battle! Trampoline! Shin-Cliff Hanger coming up. NO! He fell! (He had made it during the demo part last week.)

Yamamoto is up next! Pipe Slider and Jumping Bar are done! Whoops! He went in the wrong order! He went for the Shin-Cliff Hanger before the Trampoline. Shin-Cliff Hanger..NO!

Mr. SASUKE is next! Pipe Slider and Jumping Bar are fine. Trampoline (you jump to a bar to hold on to then go a short distance). Shin-Cliff Hanger. OY! He's the first to complete the course! 50秒91!

Takeda up now! Pipe Slider. Jumping Bar. Woo. He's going fast. HOLY CRAP. Did Mr. SASUKE do something to piss him off? Takeda finishes the short course in less than half the time of Yamada. 20秒87!

Nagano! Can he do it? Man. It was too fast to even describe. What was his time? We wait to build some tension...21秒20!

Takeda wins!

Your Maguro Festival Mock-SASUKE Obstacle Course of Doom and Destruction winner is Toshihiro Takeda!

Yamada and Takeda miss Shiratori.

They go to Shiratori's house to talk to him (where he was apparently cleaning his SASUKE set - does he use Pledge?). Didn't quite catch what they said. Sorry.

Back to Maguro Festival. They all get a present! Free fish for everyone!

The All-Stars talk about their experience. Some little kid tries to get into Nagano's camera shot.

And that's it for this year!

2008 Muscle Queen! 2008 マッスルクィーン!

Last week! Kayo Noro 野呂佳代 defeated Yurisa ユリサ to tie them up at the top of the leader board. This week they go to Hiromichi Sato's old hangout, the Muscle Park!

Noro and Yurisa are already through so the others have to battle it out to determine the final..um..finalist.

Coordination! Momomi Yoshino 吉野ももみ and Izumi Takami 泉貴美! They have to follow the voice and touch the appropriate pad with their hands or feet. Yoshino is first! She gets 42. Izumi up now. She missed one somewhere I think. They stop tracking her score to build suspense. She has 40! Yoshino wins!

Next! Cherry Pie チェリー☆パイ explodes! I have no idea what the name of this event is. It's like Can Alley, if you know what that is. They have to throw balls into a raised basket but a cover is rotating so something. I have no idea. Kassun gets a total of 15 after two rounds. Miho only needs five to get through since she had 11 in the first round.

CMs. FYI, Kyoko Fukada has taken Kumi Koda's place as the CM face of Kirin.

Back.

Pressure! Miho struggles but pulls through! Kassun is out!

CMs.

Oh wait. The program is over. I guess next week is more Muscle Queen! See you next week!

SASUKE MANIAC May 11, 2008 Sort of liveblog! サスケマニア

Update: Arsenette has pictures that I was too lazy to take here.

Decided to watch this one since it a) wasn't simply another re-hash of 20 and b) wasn't completely focussed on the Muscle Queen competition which I wasn't following because I didn't know who most of the people competing were.

D'oh! I missed the preview at the beginning.

We pick up at the station airport (Kagoshima Airport to be exact) where the All-Stars~! are meeting each other. There's Akiyama and Nagano meeting Mr. Tight Shirt Mr. SASUKE. And there's Takeda. He's the youngest but he's the latest!

It's off to the Maguro Festival! Day 1! Everyone is looking forward to it. At the Maguro Festival, there is a decided focus on Maguro. Who'd have thought it? Ohh..I'd like to try try some Maguro gyoza. 400 yen! They've got a whole SASUKE set-up there.

The All-Stars share their thoughts. Live from Kagoshima! It's the 17th Annual Maguro Festival!

Nagano reflects on how the event is important for SASUKE's popularity. Mr. SASUKE is nervous about something for some reason.

The reason could be that random people in the crowd grab his chest as he's walking around. Or old ladies accosting him. We see the All-Stars mingle with the common folk, signing autographs, shaking hands etc. One lady is soooo overcome with meeting Nagano that she can't help but be giddy as a schoolgirl. She says that she wants to marry Nagano and that it's like a dream because she wanted to meet him.

Takeda and Nagano receive something from two little kids. One is a picture of maguro and the other is a letter. They apparently give them to them every year. When that little boy grows up he wants to be compete on SASUKE!

This is the third year that the All-Stars are at the festival. The old obstacles were:
Lamp Grasper
Cliff Hanger
Soritatsu Kabe
A Rope Climb similar to the old Final Stage

This year they've added:
Salmon Ladder
Shin-Cliff Hanger
Spider Walk
Jumping Bars
Pipe Slider
Something that looks like the Swing Ladder.
A pole that serves as a bridge (no idea).
Plus the Lamp Grasper and Soritatsu Kabe for a total of nine obstacles.

And parts of it are over a pool of killer sharks! No wait. I think those are more maguro.

Yamada and Akiyama are a bit nervous. Takeda is all cool by saying zen zen daijoubu (no problem).

Nagano demonstrates the Lamp Grasper. Yamada does the Jumping Bar. Nagano with the Soritatsu Kabe. They talk to an old lady who is a wee bit confused as to what she is watching.

Akiyama does the old Cliff Hanger.

Kakkoi! The youth of Japan have spoken!

Some random people try out the obstacles. Nagano laughs at their failure! Laughs I tell you!

Kids try too. Slightly uncomfortable moment as Takeda (?) looks like he's catching some up-skirt of a little girl trying the Spider Walk.

After the festival the All-Stars run into some people who are apparently fans as they go out for a drink.

Hrm..Yamada and Takeda are having beer. Either Nagano and Akiyama are drinking oolong -cha or long island ice teas. I bet on the former. Squares.

They really like playing with kids! Wait. I don't think that's what they mean.

The next day the All-Stars and others will tackle the course! But that's for another episode! We've got women to show off here!

2008 Muscle Queen!

We're entering the 2nd Stage. Last week the ladies paired off in different events. This week, different pairs (I think) and different events.

1st Battle: Kayo Noro 野呂佳代 of AKB48 vs. idol Yoshino Momomi 吉野ももみ in the 50m Hurdles. Noro does dance as part of her training for AKB48. Yoshino is part of this geinojin female futsal team that competes against other idol teams. They're off! And it's Noro!

2nd Battle: comedy team Cherry Pie's Miho vs. model Yurisa in a 100m race where the point is to reach the goal as close to 30 seconds as possible. Miho is off! She's..um..clapping. To keep time? She's finished! It's Yurisa's turn! She looks serious! She dashes for the line! What is she going to do! She stops right near the line! Waits. Then crosses! Time to for their times! Yurisa's time is 26.59! Miho is 32.18! She went over! Yurisa wins!

2nd Stage Final: Noro vs. Yurisa! Again! They had faced off in an earlier event, the Eternal Jump, which sounds really cool but was actually just them jumping rope until one of them (Noro) trips up.

The event is 5 50m interval runs. Whatever that is. I guess we'll find out. They're off! I still have no idea. OK. It's like they just have to complete 5 laps of 50 m. 1. 2. 3. 4. Yurisa looks tired but at the 4th she shoots out at the start! Last race! But let's cut to a CM first.

Riverdance is back in Japan!

Last run! Revenge! Noro wins the last race! Yurisa says Yappari stamina nai!

And it's on to the 3rd Stage! They will find the top 3...at the Muscle Park! Synergy!

Next week! More Maguro Festival! More Muscle Queen! More Riverdance! Well, maybe not the last one.

Thanks to this AKB48 fan blog which is where I got the names for all the competitors!