(Should this be an article? News? Perhaps even a blog? I'm never sure about these matters!).

This video has been floating about the internet for some time now so chances are many members here have already seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrIDxLZNT3Y

The footage is of a young Australian doing foolish things in the late night/early morning in Osaka, Japan. From tormenting the homeless to doing something quite stupid with a bicycle, the man acts like an absolute moron until his deserved comeuppance. Many of the viewer comments are interesting to read as well, although I think Australia receives too much of a bum rap.

I've attached the link simply because several readers of The Bridge Across the Pacific who have never been to Japan have wondered if people like the horrible Marvin (the "hero" of Bridge) actually exist. The video serves as an indication that while not common, Marvin and his kind are not unheard of in Japan.

The next question, of course, is why I could possibly want to devote an entire story around such a person (one reader suggested that the next time I decide to write a story, I should provide the main character with a somewhat more palatable personality. My reply was that I if I tried to do so, I'd likely be bored within minutes). Unfortunately, I do not have a great answer to the question, other than to fall back on what I wrote in my description in the "My books" section: in that much of the fiction about foreigners in Japan shows Japan to be the "wacky" country, I thought it might be a good idea to write something that presented an opposing view, namely that it's not always the Japanese that are acting oddly.

Overall, a tad short for an article; perhaps a blog entry would have been more appropriate!