Monday, September 12, 2005

In search of bad English T-shirts in Ame-mura

Got out of the house around 1 pm and jumped on my bicycle, riding up Sennichimae Blvd over the hill past Tsuruhashi area and Uehonmachi then down the hill to Namba and our old neighborhood. Turned right and went south into Den Den town, the electronics district to check trends and prices and to look for old 168pin SDRAM memory chips.
A lot of shoppers out, probably skipping their duty as citizens to vote in today's general election. Neat gadgets abounded, mini DVD players with screens for 12000 yen, burners for 6000-some shops were gone from cutthroat competition, and a whole lot more manga, porn, action figure and cosplay establishments had taken their place. Dawdled until 3pm then headed up to American Village (Ame-mura), the Harajuku of Osaka, to search for the slippery and elusive bad English T-shirt slogan.

Here's what I retrieved after about an hour of hanging out inside the explosion of colors and fashion in that trendy part of town:

"A lie is told to its feelings"
"Lack of Regard - This Horse Rules the Yard"
"Be nice I've been sick"
"Glitter Cordless"
(on a hottie) "My mouth is filled pleasure of supremacy"

I give these passing grades but I look for those shirt slogans that convey a secret message to me only, such as the one I saw on the day after the November 2004 Bush-Kerry election debacle -
"Losers are always wrong."

These are all going into the book I am planning to write. Watch this space.

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