Japan continues its cultural dominance over the entirety of American broadcasting with a game show in which animals navigate through a racecourse of dominoes while humans look on and cheer nervously.

Japan has given the world many unique and culturally valuable contributions: Haiku, the first novel, Kabuki and Noh theater, various martial arts, sumo wrestling, sushi, etc. Surely as important as all those is this bikini-clad man's lonely spastic dancing.

Though an American institution, the Peanuts crew is not exempt from inexplicable appearances in Japanese advertising. Here, Snoopy and the gang's girls hawk hot pepper sauce with a song catchier than anything Schroeder ever played.

Japanese pranks are great for their over-the-top elaborateness, attention to detail, and cruelty. Today, we have eight of our favorite practical (and not-so-practical) jokes, straight from the Land of the Rising Sun. Tanoshimasu!

The Wall Street Journal does a piece of recession cultural anthropology today about Japanese people abandoning their preference for living alone and shacking up with roommates. Clearly, the Journal haven't been to New York. Or read Vice this month.

Commercials for Tarako, a roe product marketed with marching kewpie dolls and children's choirs, are always strange, in keeping with Japanese advertisement standards. In the full-length Christmas ad, children chant incessantly while visions of fish eggs dance on their heads.

Sometimes these novelty acts really suck, but this kid is really good once he warms up. Plus it's so cute hearing him sing English songs he learned phonetically.

An Italian court convicted Amanda Knox for murdering her study abroad roommate; four American teens have been arrested for a roadside prank that turned near-fatal in Japan. America, it's time to stop screwing up on foreign soil. Here's how.

It's really hard to tell what product Quentin Tarantino is even advertising here. And the language barrier doesn't make it any easier. It just involves the director, a talking dog, and a samurai suit.

Barack Obama has responded, via an anonymous aide, to charges that by bowing to the Communist emperor of Japan he was actually surrendering and apologizing for World War II, which is technically illegal because he's not a citizen.

Did I just make an argument for or against him? Crap. [LIFE]

[George W. Bush looks a little lost in translation before taking the field to throw the first pitch in a game between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters in Tokyo today. Image via Getty]

The Way We Live Now: Wrong. It's funny how dumb people are some times when it comes to economics. They spend all their money. Then they're broke. Then they save all their money. Wrong move! I'm looking at you, Japan.

We may have a new hero: Miyuki Hatoyama. While boring first ladies like Michelle and Carla like to remain prim and proper, Miyuki enjoys breaking boundaries, like confessing she was kidnapped by aliens.

So you think the American economy's bad? Well get a load of this: Things are so awful in Japan that many of that country's women are seeking employment as gentleman's club "hostesses," which is basically a prerequisite to prostitution.

This photo of the solar eclipse was taken from a ship sailing near Kita Tokyo, Japan. Millions gathered all over Asia to watch as the entire region fell under almost complete darkness. [AP/Kyodo News/Akiko Matsushita]

[Performance group La Machine operates a giant killer robot spider in Yokohama, Japan today. After this photo was taken, all perished. Image via Getty]

The Way We Live Now: Panicky! Swine flu is happening so sell your stocks, for some reason! Japan is shrinking! The good grocery store went out of business! Where will we buy our 'Recession soup?'

The economy of Britain—fancy Britain!—is doing so poorly that the government might have to ask for help from the International Monetary Fund. Shit. The smart countries have already regressed to agrarianism.