These promotional concert pictures of new ANGERME member Momona Kasahara make her look a shapely 16-17. Unfortunately, she’s 12, which is why I’m linking the pictures rather than embedding them. Now, it’s true that many of her other pictures clearly show her youth, but someone squeezed her into that outfit and enhanced/highlighted her figure, which means you’re already making plans for solo photobooks and bikini DVDs.

I won’t be buying those, but just out of curiosity I’ll set a reminder for her 18th birthday, to see if she still has a career, or if you’ve used her up and thrown her away.

Or was that defining stereotypes?

(via)

More precisely, the average fashion-conscious young Japanese woman who reads CanCam and responds to surveys with some degree of honesty, from a sample of 1,000 selected by an undisclosed method.

To save time for the Katakana-challenged, the key numbers are 78.4cm-60.6cm-85.6cm (31-24-34), with an average height of 158.2cm (5’2”). This is not the same as their stable of models, of course, who tend to be several inches taller and a bit curvier (based on some inadequate but visually appealing sampling I just did, which included the popular and delicious Ikumi Hisamatsu).

Incidentally, while browsing their stable, I noticed that CanCam’s numbers for 22-year-old Rikako Sakata (88-57-85) differed substantially from Wikipedia’s (80-58-80). Turns out nobody’s updated that part of her Wikipedia page since she was 16, which is surprising given how detail-oriented Japanese fans tend to be. Then again, maybe she’s simply too old for them now; they cared when she was 13 (65-54-70) and 15 (78-55-76), but not so much now. Amusing intermediate data point: a 2014 video date (83-58-79) I came across in my “research”.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that this 1970 pop single by Rumi Koyama was not about the Third Reich. In fact I’m sure of it, given the lyrics.

(via Sono-Burogu, which collects vintage cheesecake of Japanese singers)

(source, via The Kimono Gallery)

I’ve had a Jiji plush in my cube for years, but last week I decided I needed a more powerful presence to protect me from evil…

($11 on Amazon)

First snowfall in Okinawa in recorded history.

Anyone know if Al Gore was in the area?