Bear with me – the whole post’s not about last night’s game (10 pm start here in Tokyo), but it does deserve a mention because I spent 2 hours watching it! I decided to give this photo of my tv a nice retro feel because, well, that’s how it felt: memories of the last WC. While not a huge footie fan, I know enough about the game to be constantly amazed by Japan’s technique of charging the net and then coming to a FULL HALT, giving the opponent time to regroup, and then passing to some guy who’s not even there. Everyone groans and teeth are gnashed and then the whole thing plays itself out again in 4 minutes. That, coupled with the Japanese defense seeming to forget in the final 15 minutes of the game that their chief role is to defend, led to what I’d call a predictable result…sayonara “Samurai Blue”…

Yesterday, while perusing the racks at Kinokuniya in Takashimaya Times Square ( a behemoth of a structure that always reminds me of the building that uproots and sets sail as a pirate ship in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life), I came across this:

Yes, it’s Ayumi Hamasaki in drag on the left and then, on the right, in her usual garb. I’m not in the least interested in Ayumi, but (if you don’t know who she is), in Japan, she is equivalent in popularity to, say, Brittney at the height of her career (I am sure someone will post a comment refuting this – either some slighted Brittney fan or some Ayumi expert, but it’s the only analogy I can make due to the fact that I am not much of a pop fan, so forgive me all you diehards). Anyway, Ayumi’s done a double cover for WE MEN (which apparently helps you to “Be a Better Man”), and the ONLY reason I’m posting it is because I actually had to stop and look at it because she looks truly AWFUL as a guy – she looks like Squiggy on the Laverne & Shirley show, or like some greasy extra in a mafia movie. Most women can pull off drag (much harder for men) but, really, Ayumi needs to stick to her usual look…