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You go to Japan. You gotta do some karaoke. It’s an unwritten law. After all, Japan is the home of it (depending on who you speak to) and nowhere else in the world quite revels in it like Japan. Whilst the full on karaoke experience in the Western word is rather expensive and only of real value if you go with lots of people – in Japan it’s affordable and won’t burn holes in your pockets. Well…if you ease up on the food and drinks it won’t anyway. Everybody from school kids, to salary men, to part timers can just wander  into a Big echo to drop some karaoke un-planned and scrape together some Yen to belt their Nihongo classics, the Oricon’s chart toppers and the Eigo hits.

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I’ve been absent from Dark Diamond for God knows how long. Not that it’s had any kind of effect on things here, but I thought I’d mention it none the less as a contributor to this wonderful, wonderful otaku haven that we call home.

My absence has been due to having gone on holiday. Where to I hear all 2 of you ask? To Japan!! There’s so much to say and share about my time over there, but as not to bore you with walls of text; I’ll post periodically on my experience and some of the stuff I saw whilst in the land of the rising sun. Some of our Dark diamond readers may live in Japan – to which it’ll be interesting to hear your views on the country and if they clash or are in unison with mine. But I thought it may be cool to have yet another ‘foreigners’ insight into what it was like to be in Japan for a couple of weeks.

So during GDC Miyamoto announced a new Wii channel that will let people compare their Miis in a popularity contest. This wont just be limited to your own Mii but your little avatar will be competing against other Miis from around the globe in what can only be described as the Wii’s Hot or Not.

That’s what this is. Just wait for it people, soon everyone else with your Wii’s friend code will be sending your messages asking you to rate them. So we might just as well get over it now, above you can see me and Fadsy battling it out in the ultimate sexy race, so who’s hot, who’s not?

Note: Height in this image is proportional to ego. In real life Fadsy is probably much taller than me.

[Kotaku]

A long time in the making, and even longer in the ‘why hasn’t it been done? done list comes this World of Warcraft video very cleverly emulating a Mario plataformer.

The best parts are the powerups and the underwater level, this must have taken a really long time to make, and the editing is top notch!

[Joystiq]

Capcom’s localization team must be filled with either true geeks or Will Smith fans. Why? Well apparently a dialog in the soon to be released Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Justice For All is a famous internet meme as seen in this video.

Didn’t get it? Pause at the clowns dialog, here let me type it for you.

“In West Clownadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spend my clowin.”

You got it right, thats the theme song of the Fresh Prince of Bel-air. Here’s the original lyrics:

“In West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground is where I spent most of my days.”

Will Smith fans or huge geeks? We guess huge geeks. After all, there was 1337 speak in the first game. Way to go Capcom!

Once again Patrick Macias is out with the latest footage of his appearance on Tokyo Eye. This time he gives us an overview of the figure scene in Japan, from girls with guns to slimy frogs.

I keep waiting for Chris Peppler’s voice to get even deeper and hear that cristal desk rattle from his mighty bass of the beyond.

[Patrick Macias]

This guy really had a good idea when he linked his KORG Kaos Pad 3 with his DS Lite with a copy of Electroplankton. Recording Elektro-songs and mixing, altering them with his touch-screen big fella.

I’d definitely go to a Rave if the DJ used that!

[Thanks Picha]

Engrish is an infinite source of comedy gold, but sometimes things get so out of control and out of the reach of common sense that we just have to share, for great justice.

James from Japan Probe, who works as an ESL teacher in Japan posted some of the best engrish his student’s used in a recent test. My favorite is the following gem:

Question 4: Mary is going back to America for the winter holiday! You are her student, so please finish this e-mail to her. (Must be 2 sentences related to winter vacation.)

Answer: I will kill you, next summer.

I bet Marry wont come back. Go check out the rest of the questions, they are hilarious.

[Japan Probe]

From the ‘why didn’t someone think of this earlier’ department comes this brilliant piece of pie-chart humor.

This is easily the best ever in pie-chart humor bar none, literally!

[BoingBoing]

Every year in or close to Halloween, foreigners (and likeminded Japanese) living in Tokyo raid a train from the Yamanote line and party hard inside it. Drinking and jubilating is the name of the game, all of which is forbidden. The nature of the event is very impromptu and the date and place is usually announced just a couple of days before. Japundit brings us this video of this year’s festivities.

Oh those crazy gaijins!

[Japundit]