Genghis Kong vs. the SoftBank Dog

This is just a little note to bring to your attention another little piece of strange Japanese tat I have acquired.

My friend Lars got his mobile phone from SoftBank (not a bank at all, just a phone company) and with it they gave him a small white stuffed dog. He didn't see the point of it, and has no love for strange campy, kitsch Japanese nonsense and fripperies, so he offered it to me. However, it turns out to be no ordinary small white stuffed dog - oh no - this is the SoftBank "talks just like your father!" dog (お父さんってしゃべるんだ～！）, which is to say, when you squeeze it's bottom it chastises you! (Just like a real father!) It comes with 5 "classic" fatherly phrases:

今日はそこまで！
That's quite enough of that!
お前にはまだ早い！
You are too young for that!
やばい、やばい。
That's dangerous.
家族仲良く！
Treat your family well!
いいじゃないか、家族なんだから！
There's no need for that - we are your family!

(Apologies if those translations are a bit off/completely wrong. I find this kind of coloquial Japanese extremely difficult to understand so these are educated guesses at best.)

Anyway, here he is:



He's pretty stern-looking, isn't he? When he tells you off, you know he means business.

Lastly, I would like to bring your attention to a new item on my blog, entitled Genghis Kong's Guide to Speaking Engrish. It's a collection of Japanisms I find around the place and which seem amusing to me. It is located somewhere to the right of this message. Any suggestions of other good examples of Engrish are very welcome.

Right - that's it for today. No music video or nothing, I'm afraid. You'll have to go back and watch Dschinghis Khan again if you want some jolly music with which to end your blogging experience.

Ciao,
Genghis x