The Pretty Side of Ping Pong

Source: People's Daily

She's never broken into the world's top 150 but Japan's Naomi Yotsumoto is still a star on the table tennis world stage.

Wearing knee-length socks, a pleated mini-skirt or a shirt with one bare shoulder during her games, the woman dubbed the "Lady Gaga of pingpong" receives as much attention as the finest players.

"I like table tennis and fashion. I think it's best to look fashionable when playing table tennis," the youthful-looking 31-year-old said at the Volkswagen Cup in Guangzhou.

A second-tier player in Japan, Yotsumoto didn't come to compete at the event, which featured the top players from eight countries, including her compatriot Ai Fukuhara.

Instead, she was invited to participate in an exhibition match in clothes she had designed as well stage a fashion show featuring her stylish sportswear.

"I'm still learning design in Tokyo while playing professional table tennis. I hope more players will wear the sportswear designed by me," she said. "Now, most of the women players are still wearing shorts. I think if they wear more beautiful clothes, the games will be much more interesting."

Seems like a publicity stunt and a sideshow. I'm sure the aforementioned Ai Fukuhara is still the most popular player in Japan since she's in the top 10 in the world and she's cute too. She was Japan's flag-bearer in 2008 Olympic Summer Games.

Here's video of both, you judge for yourself.

Sony Ping Pong Mandarin Commerical

HAHAHA that's pretty funny.

For those who can speak Mandarin. That's pretty bad right?

Mandarin's such a tonal language there's no way these guys can pronounce it properly on such short notice. Especially Manning who's from the south. I hear LeBron is learning Mandarin. Perhaps they should have gotten him!

Japanese crybaby now table tennis star

Source: Reuters

Japan's Ai Fukuhara, famous for bursting into tears on national television as a toddler, has been given top billing at the world table tennis championships before she has even pinged a ball in anger.

The 20-year-old brought practice to a standstill on Tuesday, spending more than two hours tossing balls high into the air to see how the lights at the arena would affect her serve.

Japanese camera crews tripped over themselves to film Fukuhara, who has little realistic chance of disrupting China's dominance at the April 28-May 5 championships in Yokohama.

"I was working out exactly where to throw the ball into the lights," Fukuhara was quoted as saying in Japanese newspapers on Wednesday. "I'm beginning to get excited about the championships."

Fukuhara will take centre stage, with one of the courts already being christened "Ai-chan's Court" (Little Ai's Court).

Once the darling of the Japanese media, Fukuhara appeared regularly on TV shows as a child where she would throw tantrums and wail out loud if she lost a point to celebrities.

I remember seeing her in the 2008 Beijing Games. She played so many games in the team competition because Japan play poorly early and had to going around the backdoor repechage to battle for Bronze.

In singles she played ok but got an unlucky draw and had to face the #1 seed from China in the last 16.

Here's some footage of the Bronze medal team battle against Korea


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