Ashcraft warned us of the evils of Tokyo idol group AKB48 (AKA Akihabara 48), but I wasn't convinced until I was faced with the gaggle of twenty-something hotties today in a live concert they performed in a booth.

Attracted by the sound of women singing I was lured into the enclosed booth. Inside was a pretty large open faced fronted by a stage that was at least twenty feet above the crowd. On the stage were, initially, four women singing pop songs and dancing around.

After getting caught video taping (apparently that's no-no) I put the camera away and was about to leave when a swarm of woman took the stage with the four already there. I spent the next twenty minutes or so in a kind of stupor watching them frolic and sing. It wasn't really anything sexy, just painfully cutesy... and hypnotic. By the end of the show grown men were waggling their hands about, limp-wristed, and throwing up their back feet in imitation of the girls' dancing. I resisted.

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