Hayato came to stay in Wakayama City this weekend and it was right good to see him again. Despite my having been well over an hour late to greet him at the station he was chipper and made me a gift of all four current volumes of One Piece in English, the Japanese versions of which I had been struggling gamely through. Yeah, One Piece is some good manga - now I'm so caught up in the story I'm attempting to read Volume 5 in Japanese - I've forgotten all about Naruto for the time being (although obviously not, as I just mentioned it).
On Saturday we watched the Ichi the Killer anime (Episode 0) which I understood approximately nothing of - apart from the killing and erections stuff. It was really pretty dark - but then that's Ichi the Killer for you. (The trailer I just linked to is pretty graphic so be warned).

Today I was watching a little TV whilst eating dinner and a commercial for NTT came on featuring Nao Omori, the guy who plays Ichi in both feature films - Ichi, this guy is Ichi - and here he is having a romantic chat with his wife through the wonderful service provided by NTT. At the end of the commercial he and his wife meet up and this is when I half expected to see him slice her legs off. It didn't happen. They walked off down some street chatting and swinging bags of vegetables.

No such thing as typecasting in Japan eh? Unless you're Riki Takeuchi.