OC Weekly sent this reporter to Japan for two weeks to study karaoke. Or, this reporter took a vacation. Not saying either way. Regardless, even in the land of the rising sun and the plentiful vending machine, Orange County wasn't ever far from mind.
Three examples follow…
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1. Repping OC on tees
In Japan, you get used to seeing t-shirts that say really bizarre things in English. You also get used to seeing shirts mentioning Laguna Beach, made iconic by MTV and the fact that the word “beach” is in its name. But… Costa Mesa? At the sacred Shinto shrine in Ise? Props to this guy for randomly selecting an English-language shirt featuring Orange County's best city.
2. Fake In-N-Out
Saw this sign by a restaurant in Kyoto. If it's gonna rip off our favorite Irvine-based fast food chain, it should least extend its hours past midnight.
3. The Offspring
The Huntington Beach pop punks played at the Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka. I watched from afar, but the band certainly wasn't in want of a crowd–a crowd made up, in large percentage, by Japanese people. Yes, the Offspring are big in Japan.
BONUS: Obama-hatin' art
Well, we can't say that the proprietors of this shop in Osaka are Obama haters. More likely, they were using this image as part of the America-obsession in their neighborhood, rightly titled Amerikamura. But by now, everyone but OC's birthers realizes that this photo of Obama with a cigarette was forged, unlike Obama's birth certificate.
