[M]anga, the Japanese world of fantasy cartoons and their gaming and toy offshoots, came to Paris at the weekend, with tens of thousands of youngsters queuing up—and dressing up—for this year’s Japan Expo.
...
Tess Collet, a 16-year-old from the Paris’ outskirts, wears one typical outfit: a Tartan skirt, ripped shirt, a plastic rat dangling from her neck and a syringe tucked into her belt. Oh ... and a mini gas-mask.
...
“Manga acts as a spearhead for Japanese pop culture,” explained event organiser Cyril Grillon. “Comics open up a window onto Japan’s language, its food, its fashion.”
...
“These French disguises are really excellent. They really look like characters from manga,” said Yusuke Yasuda, from the company Koikekazuogekigasonjuku, which manages private manga schools.

hi junko--please let me know if this adaptation “rings true” for you!  thanks --rodge

Pyua Toransu
Season Two, Episode Eighteen: “The Old Man and the Pee”
Showtime

EXT - SUBWAY. Two RATS, in some forgotten underground piece of urban infrastructure.  One rat chews an apple.  Another twitches his head, nervously. There is a rumbling.
CLOSEUP of a rat’s eyeball.  The rumbling increases. [already i am wondering:  why is at least one of these rats not being worn by a teenage girl?  -junko]
A giant loud BLUR.  The RATS are discombobulated.  The BLUR recedes suddenly.  We see it from behind, as it races precariously away: a subway train.
INT - TRAIN. KEIKO, a teenage girl, is almost alone inside the dingy train.  The lights flicker.  Keiko is wearing a blouse and a skirt. [at least one of these should be all ripped up.  the other must be argyle -junko]
An OLD MAN nearby makes a moaning noise.

        OLD MAN
    You must help me...
        [...because he has suffered a gas attack?  THERE MUST BE A GAS ATTACK OR IT IS NOT AUTHENTIC]
        [the old man must also be wearing a kilt and have bagpipes]

        KEIKO
    But I am not carrying any medical equipment...
        [it is clear you have never been to japan in your entire life.  for a schoolgirl not to be carrying at least a stethoscope is completely insane.  more likely, she has a syringe, and some gauze, and i think also many catheters.]

        OLD MAN
    Please… At least wear this plastic muskrat around your neck…
    It is the least you can do for a dying old man...
        [FINALLY some dialogue that makes sense.]

        KEIKO
    That is a weird thing to ask.
        [...]
        [i refuse to continue reading this mockery of my culture.]

Tags: entertainment, culture, japan, pure trance, plastic rat worn around the neck, manga

In this town in western Japan, people look to Tama, a nine-year-old cat working as master of an unmanned train station.

The tortoiseshell coloured creature, born and raised at Kishi Station on the provincial Kishigawa Line, wears a formal uniform cap of Wakayama Electric Railway and calmly watches passing passengers who greet her.
...
Happy with her successful job as stationmaster, the company promoted Tama to “super-stationmaster” in January this year, making her “the only female in a managerial position” in the company’s 36-strong workforce.
...
The stationmaster is set to appear in a French documentary film, being directed by Myriam Tonelotto, about wonder cats from around the world.

de Mimi Tartuffe
à Myriam Tonelotto
date Tue, May 27, 2008 at 10:38 PM
objet Fw: wondre-chat researche

Ma chere Myriam!
Eet was so wonderful to see you zis afternoon!  Your beauty, it only grows wiz each passing year, hein?

In answerr to your query about ze most wondrous gats I ‘ave come across in my carierre, I ‘ave ‘ad my lovely assistant Emile crreate zis list. He knows verrry much better than me the Eenglish, you will see.  I ‘ope eet ees sufficient for your porpuses, ma chere amie!  We must do lunch zis week!  Pas de excuses!

Bisous!
Mimi

-----------------Le texte des messages précédents-----------------
>Cuban snorkeling cat who uncovers sunken shipwrecks
>Swedish au pair cat - consistently gets children to eat their vegetables and go to bed on time
>Sadie, cat in Texas who started successful accounting firm
>Egyptian longhair claims to have advanced further in field of alchemy than anyone since Isaac Newton*
>Sir Whyskington, newly elected MP from Coventry, UK
>Indian tabby, Groucho, who holds world feline record for staying awake (6 hours, 13 minutes)
>Monsieur Pouffe, definitely the softest cat in Paris, most probably in all the world
>
>*note: this claim is so far unsubstantiated, but the research looks promising - his paper is currently in press
>
>Emile.
>

Tags: cats, japan, ridiculously cute