Itai! The Latest Japanese Obscenities
Since its heyday beginnings, Wired has suffered from what my (Japanese) wife characterizes as “yellow fever:” A fetish for Japanese women. Wired’s repeat offender “Japanese Schoolgirl Watch” is legend. Actually, Japanese schoolgirls are not much to look at, unless you are a pedophile and have a yen for plaid skirts and bobby socks. How does a lowly Lambo Gallardo get into Wired? It must look like a Manhattan subway car that was attacked by spray-can-wielding Japanese schoolgirls. This $>200K Gallardo belongs Japanese Age-Soft’s CEO Yoshida. He made the money to acquire the Lambo (and other likewise tagged wheels) with hentai videogames. “Hentai” means “pervert” in Japanese, but according to my wife (bless her heart) in Japan, that can be an honorific. Painting cars with manga characters is a new and somewhat itai (painful) Japanese fad. [Again, Autoblog gets it wrong. They write “In Japan, Otaku are the rabid fans of anime.” No true. Otaku is Japanese for geek. Ota-ku is also a ward in the south of Tokyo. Go figure.]
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I'm a huge fan of anime, but not on cars.
I'd rate that as slightly less cool than greasy adolescents wearing brightly coloured DragonballZ shirts. In fact I would expect said adolescent to climb out of that thing, flush with cash from career computer hacking but still unable to comprehend why people avoid talking to him.
I once saw the Pikachu-Beetle driving on the opposite side of the freeway. It was quite neat! http://www.cjonline.com/images/082798/daypokemonb.jpg