freecounterpoint: I'll See Your Sumo and Raise You a Sushi

Monday, October 09, 2006

I'll See Your Sumo and Raise You a Sushi

11 comments:

My Frontier Thesis said...: The difference between sumo and sushi is that the Mongols dominate the former, and Samurai the latter.; 10/09/2006 9:26 PM
The Darkroom said...: this was truly fascinating.; 10/09/2006 9:48 PM
Mr roT said...: I was wondering about your opinion, Pepe and MFT.
Pepe, what do you think about this (I guess) Japanese social auto-critique? Dry and funny and odd, huh? Like it a lot more than I thought I would. And not just for the porn.
MFT, what do you know about that far East stuff, anthropo-like?; 10/10/2006 12:19 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: I'm just excited to see Pepe discuss something other than f#cking politics. Only a right wanker would politicize everything.

Anyhow, the contemporary Mongolian anthropology that I know of spreads into Japan by way of sumo. Not necessarily in Ulaan Bataar, but in the vast provincial countryside Mongol men grapple and wrestle one-another when not consuming vodka or herding their herds with Mongol short horses. In doing this, Mongol culture has managed to produce some of the greatest sumo wrestlers to date, so good that the Japanese circuit has placed a maximum limit on how many foreigners (or, if Pepe, feriners) can enter and compete.

If any of you (even Pepe, ha!) are looking at visiting the capital Khan city, let me know. A close friend of mine has been living in Ulaan Bataar for the last five years, is fluent in the language, knows the good drinking spots, and can give you the cultural assimilation treatment so often absent from regular vacations. You get to decide on whatever level of debauchery or "spiritual cleansing" you might want. This same friend says the goddamned American and Euro hippies are clogging up the Ulaan Bataar streets with their hemp necklaces, body-odor, and bicycles. They have no appreciation for actual Mongolians or its culture.

Next week we'll discuss Mongolian horse-head fiddles/violins, and throat-singing.; 10/10/2006 8:01 PM
Mr roT said...: Had a girlfriend once that could throat-sing.; 10/10/2006 9:09 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: With a phrase like that coming from JJ, I don't know if he's alluding to actually dating a Mongol, or, well, yeah... something else. Right. It's "something else."; 10/10/2006 11:30 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: By the way: I absolutely love great sushi with a bowl of miso, and sake warmed just right (even though I hear it's trendy to drink it chilled now).; 10/10/2006 11:32 PM
Mr roT said...: Eat bait if you want to. I'll stick to the Kobe beef if I must eat Japanese stuff.; 10/11/2006 10:20 AM
The Darkroom said...: the more i watch this video, the more i suspect it is a gag: the cook wiping his face with the same towel as the one he uses to clean the knife, the salt at the end, the bit about the refund, using the sushi plate as shoes, and a couple of other details just don't sound right. wtf is this video about?; 10/11/2006 6:52 PM
Mr roT said...: Pepe, sure it is a parody. A bit on the dry side, but a parody nonetheless.
The way the whole sushi bar tips their head back in unison, the precision of the hand placement to open the curtain...
It's a gag, but an odd one.
I believed the thing about the salt, but maybe you're right about that.; 10/12/2006 12:27 PM
Mr roT said...: The endangered species are way over the top too!; 10/12/2006 12:31 PM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)