Notices by マリオ (Mario Menti) (mario@neko.cat)

The Hot Spot ホットスポット is definitely my favourite new Japanese TV series this year. On Nippon TV and Netflix (and probably some other streaming platforms), the premise is that a single mother living in a small Yamanashi town in the shadow of Mount Fuji discovers that her co-worker at the hotel she works at (who looks about as un-alien-like as you could imagine) is in fact an alien.

But thankfully it doesn't turn into some sci fi thing, but stays resolutely anchored in the everyday and mundane, with much of the time taken up by extremely funny chit chat. Can't be sure where it's going, but I hope it stays as hilarious and down to earth as the first few episodes promise.

#ホットスポット #TheHotSpot

Quite a few of these are on my virtual 積ん読 TBR pile.

10 Japanese Books in Translation to Read in 2025 - Savvy Tokyo

https://savvytokyo.com/10-japanese-books-in-translation-to-read-in-2025/

Some good cat content here 😸

Surrey: Adventurous cat takes train into London from Weybridge - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce85xjnn7nko

@blabberlicious but actually, at least where I am, it seems to be back working again with the default DNS servers

@blabberlicious yes, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

@blabberlicious have you tried changing DNS servers (see my own reply to the post), this worked for me

Ok, updating the DNS servers to Google's (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) seems to fix the problem. Should probably work with any other non-default DNS servers until CommunityFibre fix the issue.

Ah, this explains my current internet issues... #CommunityFibre

Community Fibre down: Customers hit by major internet outage | News UK | Metro News

https://metro.co.uk/2025/02/17/thousands-community-fibre-users-hit-major-internet-outage-22573887/

Wow, Zen Browser is great. Much like Arc, but based on Firefox/Gecko rather than Google's Chromium, so that's a huge plus to me.

#ZenBrowser

https://zen-browser.app/

@ErickaSimone @Kruku no question for me, Galileo Galilei's Japanese version the The Boy With The Thorn In His Side wins hands down 😊 https://youtu.be/iRpUENt3cFg?si=FdUkUj0gK4SK6I-3

童話故事下集 (I am married...but! in English), a Taiwanese dark romcom now on #Netflix is great. It's both very funny and at the same time really touching.
#童話故事下集 #IAmMarriedBut #Taiwan

♫ Top 5 artists of the Last.week: Yama Warashi (37) Park Jiha (36) mekakushe & 長瀬有花 (30) 橋本絵莉子 (30) Pedro (29). #myweekcounted 606 Scrobbles with Lastfm #music via @lfm_blue

Full #PEDRO set from Zepp Haneda a few weeks ago

PEDRO ラブ&ピースツアー Final 「意地と光」 [Full Live Video at Zepp Haneda | 2024.01.21]
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ajNatne7T8o&si=BK8vmaCaGEG5dlet

@unseenjapan @gilester45 I mean there's no shortage of great band names in Japan... School Food Punishment スクール フード パニッシュメント has long been one of my favourites 😁

Help I'm being attacked
#CatsOfMastodon

"I'm sorry, the kitchen looks a bit Dexter y"

Me, cooking beetroot risotto, warning my other half before she comes into the kitchen.

I might just have found what I'm watching tonight... (via @unseenjapan)

Broken Rage, Kitano Takeshi's New Yakuza Flick: Pretty Enjoyable, Pretty Weird, Blissfully Short - Unseen Japan

https://unseen-japan.com/broken-rage-kitano-takeshis-new-yakuza-flick/

A couple of wonderful albums out today:

Park Jiha's All Living Things: https://parkjiha.bandcamp.com/album/all-living-things

Ambient, meditative music using many traditional Korean instruments.

Yama Warashi's At My Mother's Piano: https://yamawarashi.bandcamp.com/album/at-my-mothers-piano

Improvisational piano pieces interlaced with field recrordings, inspired by Yoshino Shigihara's trip back to her family home in Ashiya City, Hyōgo, Japan earlier this year.

#ParkJijha #YamaWarashi

@nosword I think he sees a lot of potential in streaming and sees it as a positive force - he explains his thoughts in this short video (when his collaboration with Netflix was first announced): https://youtu.be/jco9kEzBwzw?si=GNnMQe7Jd3dQbYoJ

Interestingly the initial announcement mentions a TV series and a film (the series being The Makanai), but not sure what happened to the film, or if that ended up turning into Asura...

@nosword if you haven't seen it, this is quite interesting on the different versions https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2025/02/12/tv-streaming/asura-hirokazu-kore-eda-netflix-nhk/