Vibe Check #12 (July 2024)

Welcome to the 12^th Edition of our Vibe Check, where we talk about what’s going on in the entire month dealing with anime, Japanese culture, or anything that’s on the top of our heads. So, sit back, and hope you enjoy some reading!

Check #1: Hulu Saving the Day

On the quest of watching 50 anime series for the entire year, it tends to be a little hassle to doing a binge-watch of popular anime series to start off. However, with the help of my sister’s password to her Hulu account, it saved the day for me. For tons of anime fans, they are basically into watching episodes nonstop to finish off the season. While it does work out, it didn’t fully work for me. When I do it, it tends to be a hit or miss. There are more times I tend to finish watching 3-4 episodes and take a break rather than watching an entire season of 12 episodes in a matter of a couple of hours. Which made me think a bit, is it that difficult for me to do 25 episodes for an entire day??

With Hulu, the commercials are the best way for me to stretch my body and not let it sleep on me. The moment my body tires out, it’s a domino effect of me heading towards a deep sleep. Because of Hulu (and their commercials), I caught up with My Hero Academia and Spy X Family.

I would try that strategy out of using commercials to take a break, stretch my body out, or even walk around and get a snack before the commercials end. Would it work out for the entire time? I honestly don’t know, but it never hurts to try. One thing is for sure, Kaiju No. 8 or finally watching Jujutsu Kaisen would be my next go-to after I catch up with Spy X Family and finish the season finale of the 5^th season of Demon Slayer.

Check #2: Japanese Yen and Foreigners

For the entire year, the Japanese yen has drastically decrease in value whereas foreign currencies such as the United States dollar have increased in value. Therefore, it can be one of the main correlations of tons of foreigners going to Japan and balling out on Japanese soil.

Does the value of Japanese yen factor out the reason many foreign visitors are heading to Japan in swarms? Most likely yes (and TikTok), and it makes everyone and their moms trying to book their tickets to Japan as quickly as they can to take advantage of their currency being more valuable in Japan. From getting more souvenirs to even buying houses that are cheaper than even renting in their home country. While it does seem like paradise for foreign visitors, it’s borderline living hell for the Japanese or anyone that lives in Japan. It leads to the Japanese citizens and foreign residents that lived in Japan having to struggle massively with the value of Japanese yen being at their lowest since the 1990s to early 2000s (don’t quote me on that).

However, governments from different prefectures have tried many ways to boost their chances for not just their preferences but for the entire country to earn some profit from foreign visitors. From spiking up prices in English menus in Japanese restaurants to putting a price on attractions that were free in the first place, those types of tactics are the main ones Western media talked about on how Japanese prefectures have to combat the terrible times.

Recently, the Japanese yen have slowly increased in value, but it would take a lot of time (and patience) for the yen to increase in value. Until then, I wouldn’t blame the visitors booking their tickets to Japan as quickly as possible (even though I want to go back so badly…). It’s not a matter of if, but when the high of buying tons of things in Japan would wear out.

Check #3: Paris Olympics

Oh God…. Where would I begin with this…?

Before this entire crap circus going on, I was excited on watching the Olympics that’s going on in Paris. I thought they would improve a lot more than what happened in the Tokyo Olympics from 2021, and… I was being too optimistic too early, was I?

Not even the ceremony started, and there were fans “rioting” a soccer match, and there are certain events that are in the morning time in America, so you would have to wake up as early as 4am to watch an event you're interested in. Plus, the whole controversy of what they did in the opening ceremony by making fun of the Last Supper makes people think “this is going to be a long two weeks, is it?”

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. A Japanese gymnast by the name Shoko Miyata must be sent home because she was seen smoking and drinking at a Monaco party (even though she was of age to smoke and drink). It wasn’t even the International Olympics Committee’s decision: it’s the Japanese Olympic Committee’s decision. Another shocking thing about that decision was they didn’t even bother replacing her with another gymnast in line, so they must continue with a man down. Now I can understand the whole follow the rules and have some discipline situation, but if it’s just one smoke and one drink, it’s not going to hurt her immediately.

So, let’s understand the logic: a literal child rapist (he even admitted to having intercourse with a preteen girl) can compete for the Netherland’s men’s beach volleyball event, but God forbid you drink and smoke and party at a party before the Olympics start. I don’t understand this at all…

This story just made me stop caring about the Paris Olympics in general: France vs. Japan in the men’s basketball. Japan was doing exceptionally well against the French national team, but two events during the game pissed off tons of people (including me)

• Rui Hachimura having two flagrant fouls despite the replay showing common fouls that would make him stay for the game. Fouled out? Not exactly, but he would’ve stayed for the entire game.
• The phantom foul that apparently Yuki Kawamura made that game goes to overtime. There were constant replays and photos showing that Kawamura wasn’t even close towards a foul. Without that phantom foul, it would be one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history.

Because of all that, France won 94-90 (France clinch a spot in the knockoff round, and Japan would have to be lucky to get in), and it was a nail in the coffin that makes me not want to even look at articles about the Olympics for the entire time. Even FIBA shown a correlation of “there is no corruption in FIBA basketball” from their Instagram page like “there is no war in ba sing se” from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

It mainly just begs the question from me for the entire Paris Olympics event: what’s the next controversy we must deal with? People are weirdly more into the controversies that happened inside and outside the events (which a great number of controversies are terrible) rather than the events itself.

Now, all expectations of the Paris Olympics are out the window and want to get the rest of the event over with, so we won’t have to deal with it again.

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That’s all for this month’s version of our Vibe Check! Tune in next month to get anything interesting going on in the month of August. Thank you for reading~