We're all mad here

Today I met some friends and we were talking about the scandal surrounding a particular 'mook' (magazine/book) published recently here in Japan about foreigners and crime. One of my friends had bought it and had it with her. She is going to use it for her cross-cultural studies. It is truly unpleasant, and there is an article about it at Japan Probe.

However, after finding that link above, I started clicking on other links from there, and eventually ended up watching this video and feeling ... better is probably not the right word. What IS the right word? I can't REALLY say this stopped me from wondering what on earth I am doing in this mad country, but it did make me laugh, especially the second part.

In the first part of the video I worried about the older man, as did my Japanese friend when I showed it to her (ABUNAI!!!), but the MISSION II section had us both in stitches. We were especially enchanted by the kanji coyly covering up the crucial bits throughout. 尻 (shiri, says the hind one, and 金 (kin) says the one in front.

In case you were wondering, the entire practical joke was dreamed up by a 17-year-old lad who wrote in to the programme (his letter is shown at the beginning), who thought it might be funny if they did something like this. 17-year-olds are ruthless.