Vibe Check #15 (Fall-Winter 2024)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 15th edition of Vibe Check. Because Jay Japan was getting ready for the year 2025, we didn't have a lot of time to talk about what was going on that ended the year 2024. For people who are new to our vibe check, we end the month with what's going on at the end of the month that deals with anime, Japanese culture, and anything on the top of our heads. So, what happened that ended the year off?

Christmas Gift

Tons and I mean TONS of people recommended that I buy the PS5 because of how fast games would be played, the tons of games I can play, and things of that matter. For a while, I brushed their opinions the side because I wanted to keep playing Forza Horizon 5 on the Xbox One

However, as time goes by, it does make me wonder what it's like to have a PlayStation since I haven't personally owned one since the PlayStation 3 (which at that time when Madden games were decent). 

So, in December 2024, I decided to buy the PlayStation 5, and goodness... the differences in speed were night and day. 

Before the change, whenever I was playing Fortnite with my gamer friends, I was always the last one because of the slow speed of my Xbox One. Because of my slow speed, it made even easy targets difficult. On average, I ranked between 30th to 45th. With the PS5, the speed of the console helped out drastically with aiming at opponents and getting out of sticky situations. The average now goes between 25th to 30th with even more top 5 finishes from the first 10 games with the PS5 than even 50 games with the Xbox One.

The question I have in mind is can I buy some imported games from Japan and play it on my system? I do have a couple of games in mind that I would love to play (despite my Japanese is not the greatest of all time...)

Overall, the PS5 is the best investment in entertainment I have had for a while now!

Kawamura's Legacy

As someone who watches the NBA, there was one basketball player that immediately caught my interest: Yuki Kawamura. For NBA fans, they didn't realize how talented he was despite being the average height for the American male. For myself, I kinda already knew that he was hella talented. A Yokohama native (born, raised, and even played a professional team in Yokohama), he was already one of the best players in Asia alone. It took the FIBA World Cup and the 2024 Olympics to put him on the radar for NBA teams.

The one thing that people are impressed by is his basketball IQ which adapts into the NBA level a lot faster than most players. Almost close to superstar level (if he had more minutes on the floor). 

However, the two-way system is a blessing and a curse at the same time. For people who don't know how it works, it's mainly Yuki who has to bounce from the NBA team to their G-League team (like a minor league team) in the same season before the NBA team decides on whether he joins the NBA team or not. 

Although I am not a huge fan of him compared to Rui Hachimura, I do love his personality and his playing style of having some flair in his playmaking skills (no-looked passes, tight passes, etc). Because he's short for an NBA player, being quicker and processing faster than most players was his biggest strengths (in my honest opinion).

The one thing that makes people wonder is this (myself included): 

If he's that good while being the average American male height (5'7"), how good would he be if he was the average NBA height? Plus, what would happen if he had more minutes on the floor?

I would love to see him play live if he plays away from the New Orleans Pelicans (even though the Pelicans are not good this season). Hopefully, it'll be cheap to watch them play live.

The Saga and Aftermath of Johnny Somali

As the year ended, the nemesis of the world, Johnny Somali, was wreaking havoc in South Korea. From throwing noodles at a convenience store's door, screaming in public, harassing South Korean women, and even disrespecting the "comfort women" of South Korea (just to name a few). 

As a cherry on top, he told people in South Korea to come fight him and confront him in real life, which is considered to be extremely dumb to do...

For people that don't know, every single Korean male would have to take an 18-month mandatory military service. Rare exceptions are Korean athletes competing in international competitions (in my prediction). So... he pissed off a country where almost every single male has military training...

So not only he got beaten and thrashed by Korean people, but he also got arrested for narcotics, disturbing the peace, an AI scandal, and assault. So his trial was placed on December 20th (moved to March 5th if I remember correctly). During that time, he could not stream nor have any computer equipment or he would have another charge and have his equipment confiscated by the Korean police.

Also, Korean streamers just put a target behind his back for the entire country to go for.

Now I know what you might be thinking, 

"Why is there an aftermath of Johnny Somali even though he got banned in Japan?"

The aftermath has hurt Japan in the long run. Remember the 99.9% conviction rate for Japan? The moment cocky and annoying foreigners realized that he beat the odds and not going to Japanese prison, and the Japanese Yen being extremely weak in the 2020s were a recipe for disaster.

That means even people from lower class would get a cheap ticket to Japan. I'm not even kidding...

In 2018, my ticket from Louis Armstrong International Airport (an airport in New Orleans) to Narita International Airport (Tokyo) was about $1600. In 2024? Less than $1000~ So an average paycheck in Louisiana would now be able to buy a ticket and visit a week in Japan.

So seeing Johnny Somali's antics just opened a Pandora's Box for crappy foreigners Japan would have to adjust for both safety and convenience for everyone...

Hopefully, it'll change for the better in the future...

-

That's all for the Vibe Check in the year 2024. Hopefully, we'll have some better news in the year 2025! Thank you for reading, and have a Happy New Year.