No blogging last week because the pestilence, by which I mean the dread stomach bug, went through my house last week like a big stinky freight train.
As it happens, my four year old daughter and I have been watching (and re-watching) a DVD of Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, which is just about the ideal movie for a father and daughter to watch together, let me tell you. It’s also given us an opportunity to talk about other cultures, how they write in Japan, and what life is like there. Pursuant to this last, we took in a few YouTube videos, and as you can imagine, there is no shortage of weird Japanese YouTube videos, even among those that specialize in teaching basic Japanese.
I mention all this because we happened across this video that combined the two recent trends sweeping through our household: intestinal distress and Japanese cultural studies. For the record, this is a real video for teaching Japanese travelers useful phrases in English.
Don’t skip out before you see the aerobics section in the second half. If you’re anything like me, you’ll soon have new song to sing to yourself throughout the day.
Hum it a few times. It’s catchy.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 
We’re huge fans of Miyazaki at the Onken house; not so much the gastroenteritis.
1. That video is funnier than anything SNL has done in a long time
2. “…Totoro” is good but “Spirited Away” is far and away the most creative film I have ever seen and I think Miyazaki is a genius.
My initial reaction to the video was: “Girls, if I felt like that, I believe I’d change out of my pastel tights.”