Friday, September 05, 2008

The Analog Game Japanese Version

Has nothing to do with digital - the usage of analog here is in the "bearing some resemblance" sense of the word.

My mother is notorious for pointing out people who look like other family members. For example: watching Rockford Files, Mom noted that James Garner "looks like Uncle Mark!" and on Dynasty, Linda Evans made her think of my Aunt Kate. Mom found look-alikes everywhere on TV shows, models in magazines and fliers, actors in movies and even random people on the street. This habit was picked up by my brother (for a while) and me. It got so bad that one evening, while all of us were watching a movie (on VHS! Kids, remember that?) my father turned to us and roared "They look like ACTORS! Shut up and watch the goddamm movie!"

Well, guess what? The game works here in Japan. I've seen Japanese analogues for a number of my family and friends:

My maternal grandmother
My paternal grandmother
My paternal grandfather
My father (which was weird)
My mother
My brother
Me (only from the back, she had the same haircut and color, and dressed in a style similar to what I like but was definitely Japanese. Chris pointed her out. I found it gave me a distinct sense of unease to be walking behind "myself")
My cousin Matt
My Aunt Den
Chris' dad
Chris' brother Tim
Chris' brother Gee
Chip F. (gets even weirder, because Chip looks like a really thin version of my dad, who hated the game, as previously mentioned)
Don S. (although we are not sure if it counts, because he's Chinese)
Ben L. (again, not sure if it counts, he's Chinese, too)
Ron R.
Randy L.
Chris W.
Mike E.
Chris S.
Rebecca C.
Scott B.
James T.
The Individual Formerly Known as Spouse
Dr. D
Ernie L.
Fran V.
The guy at the tollbooth here in Misawa who looks exactly like Hiro from HEROES (we weren't the only ones who noticed this either - the whole office was talking about it one morning. Not sure if it counts as he's already Japanese. Maybe that makes it a meta-analogue or something?)

I'm sure there's some I've forgotten, but you get my drift.

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