Mari - diary

insect cartoon

I read the UK band "The Get Out Clause" was so poor so that they make their music video form video of security camera, here is the video.

This is so funny, "road kill toys". If I give this rabit to my friends as their bithday gift, how many people will be happy? At least I won't be happy but I want to give it to somebody.

Did you read about "green porno" of Isabella Rossellini? You can see the making video on sundance official page. Hmmm I don't know what should I say... Talking about insects, we have many cartoon of insects ; "Honeybee Hutch".(I found this Bashar?! . They change the name of Hutch to Bashar?! I don't know which country is this.), "Maya the Bee" and my favorite one is "Microid S". I don't know that cartoon was aired in foreign countries. The original was Osamu Tezuka's manga. For me, the coolest theme song of Tezuka cartoon in Japan is Triton of the Sea (from wiki). And I am thinkig to read Budda again in this my holidays.　I wish he made Jesus Christ and Allah too, so that I can understand those religion more. :-)

I will try this place Shoyu (Soy sauce) restaurant"". You can try various type of soy sauce and they serve some food with soy sauce base. Especailly I want to try "KOGASHI SHOYU fondue". Kogashi shoyu meanse burned say sauce. If you like Japanese food, let's imagine Mitarashi Dango, Yaki Onigiri and Yakitori, you would know a little bit burned soy sauce is great. In Japan, burned soy sauce can be a sales point for soy sauce base ramen too. I will report when I try the restaurant.*

"Japanorama"

Did you read this post of wired? "NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed" It's impossible for me. I can't stay on bed even a one day.

I picked this video to show nigo's house before, but I didn't know that it came from this UK TV "Japanorama". Did you know that UK TV show? They show many weird Japanese sub culture.

I remember well I ate cheese fondu at swissland, it was delicious but super expensive! I did oil fondu at my firend's party and every fried food is delicious of course. Then I will try this chocolate fondu next time. Put a choco into micor oven and dip some snack! I guess Doritos will be nice.

I will go to complete physical examination next week, I must have it once a year and my company pay it for me. I will have it before I quit my job. Since this year, they will check metabolism of our body. One of baseline is waistline. Guy has more than 85cm (34inchi), woman has more than 90cm(36inchi) of waistline has to be said "metabolic symdrom". By the way, complete physical examination is called "human dock" in Japan. Are we ship??? But I think it's charming name.

busy to quit my job

My golden week was over now. I will start my blog again. Sorry for short post today. I was busy for paper work to quit my job.

Here is the ranking of "top Ten Crazy Asian Pizza Crusts". Hmm I can't agree, whole shrimp cheese bite is worse than rice crust???

1. Whole Shrimp Cheese Bite (Pizza Hut; Japan, South Korea)
2. Shrimp and Mayo Roll Crust (Pizza Hut, Japan)
3. German King: Sausage, Bacon and Cheese Crust (Pizza Hut, Japan)
4. Triple Cheese Pizza (Domino's, South Korea)
5. Mizza: Rice Crust (Pizza Hut; Taiwan, South Korea)
6. Abalone Sauce Cheesy Lava Stuffed Crust Pizza (Pizza Hut, Hong Kong)
7. Shrimp Nude; Cream Cheese Mousse-Filled Crust (Mr. Pizza, Korea)
8. Rich Gold; Sweet Potato Mousse-Filled Crust (Pizza Hut, South Korea)
9. Sausage Crust, Mochi Crust, and Cheddar Sauce Crust (Strawberry Cones, Japan)
10. Grand Prix: Cookie Crust Pizza Topped with Shrimp and Potato (Mr. Pizza, South Korea)

Mos Burger open shop in Thailand. Hopefully Thai people enjoy that. I like Mos very much especially Mos Rice Burger.

funny topic from the Internet

I can't find any good Japanes topic today...
Ohh cute!! 10 of the Strangest Looking Dogs! I love this. Is this dust?

This is bad news. I like Ellegarden, they are rock! but they will stop the band in September. I will miss them.

I picked this Air Mac parody Super envelop DELL verson ads before. I found this Sony Vaio one. That is my laptop actually, it's very thin and it works fine without AC for over 7 hours. And also I saw this one, is this parody or IBM's official ad?

There will be many companies that have name "OGC". I don't know this is foreign company or Japanese company, anyway some found the loge is pervert when make it vertical. This one is also .....　Ha ha ha

Kamen Rider

Look at this 'Collector Spotlight: Yexel's Toy Museum'. Hmm, is he a son of a rich family or something? He has everything from Micky to Tomorrow's joe, everything! This and this is the web site of Kotobukiya he mentioned.

I didn't know that the TV series of Kamen Rider 'Kamen Rider Dragon Knight' has started in the U.S. Here is the trailer. It will be remade from Japanese 'Kamen Rider Ryuki'. Kamen Rider is a very long series that had started in 1971. You can see all Kamen Riders in this video on Youtube. It is such a long series, though the most famous one would be the first Rider. The main actor was Hiroshi Fujioka, but since the first series got to be such a big boom in this country, I must say he had to be typecast for Kamen Rider as a 'tough friend of justice'. And it was getting to be a 'Tough, straight sports guy having a muscle brain'. Here is a long TV ad of Sega Saturn where he appeared. And recently he is on ads of beer. Ha ha ha, see? You know such an image. I picked Kamen Rider in this post before 'Trauma and Shockers'. Now kids are becoming adult enough to sense the sorrow of enemy shockers.

I found this site today. He took photos of bridges over Kanda River that is the dirtiest river in Tokyo. Over middle age Japanese have a certain type of image for Kanda River. 'Young, Poor, Sorrow'. Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary had much effect on Japanese folk singers before, in the early days Japanse folk songs had the character of protest songs but they became more pop and more popular music later. One of the categories of Japanese songs is 'Yojohan folk'. Yojohan means four and half tatami room and Yojohan folk means a song about life, love, dreams and collapse of poor young people who live in such small rooms. Kandagawa (Kanda river) is a representative example of Yojohan folk sung by Kaguya hime. It's a song about a couple who are living in a three Tatami room around Kanda river, meaning they might be students of Waseda Univ. Here is the video from Youtube. 'Don't you remember? We went to the public bath together covering our necks with red towels instead of mufflers'...orz. It's not my taste, though I guess the bridge site looks nice when you know such background.

Instant noodle

This is the ranking of National Trends in Instant Noodle Demands. I could guess China would be No.1 and I thought Thailand or Indonesia would be No.2, and the rank of Japan would be high. BUT! I didn't suppose USA is No.4. Do you eat instant noodles often?? What is your best noodle? In Japan, there is a huge number of instant noodle types, cheap ones, expensive ones, soy sauce base soups, pork bone base soups, etc.

Maybe you know the Nissin Cup Noodle series, but the kinds of soup are so different from Japanese ones. You can check it on wikipedia. My favorite taste is Curry, I want to try the Crab taste of China, and the Tom Yam Goong of Thailand. I am not sure I want to eat the Broccoli of Germany and the Cheddar Cheese of Mexico.

And do you know the Maru-chan brand? I saw many Maruchan products in CA before. In Japan they are well known for their instant  Japanese Soba and Udon series. But I can tell you ramen is much better than that, I recommend real Soba and Udon, not instant ones.

I think the most expensive instant noodle that you can buy anywhere will be Nissin Goota. It's about $3. The most reasonable one would be Nissin Chicken ramen or Nisshin Demae Iccho, they are about $1.

I heard Ippudo, famous for Kyushu type ramen (Pork bone base soup), is getting popular in NY now. Nissin collaborated on such popular ramen shops: Ippudo, Sumire (miso base soup), Santoka (salt base soup) and they had released a special ramen like this.

If you come to Tokyo, you may try this shop 'Akiba-noodle'. They have over 400 kinds of instant noodles and you can pick out, walk and eat what you want. Here is the inside of the shop.

good night

This is the biggy bank project from Spain. I was interested in that project, because piggy banks are really popular stuff in Japan too. This is a Japanese typical piggy bank. Cute right?

Since this is the first day of GW, I went hiking and I am too tired to write my blog. Sorry, I will pick this funny post from the US and go to bed now, good night.

Golden Week has started!

Golden Week has started. I will be off tomorrow. I am super happy now!

This is a good idea, people support elderly people who live alone. In Kyoto, elderly people hang up a red rose ornament around their entrances in the morning and take it off in the evening, so that neighbour people can know they are okay. When the rose is not there, somebody visits to check them out.

This is a Japanese Anatomical chart. Hmm, gross, but those pictures have some mood.

Since I don't go to KFC, I didn't know KFC Japan had changed their logo. Just a few years ago, many shops used the old logo. But they didn't change this part: The life-size statue of Colonel Harland Sanders stands outside of every one of the more than 1,000 KFC outlets in Japan, and is dressed for the season as Santa Claus, in a jolly red-and-white suit. And in Akiba, he wears maid clothes. Is this okay?

I am eating this chesnut as snack now. We say 'Ama Guri', ama means sweet and guri (kuri) means chestnut. I love this because it has natural sweetness. But my American friend said it has no taste. Japan, China and some Europe countries eat chesnuts as snacks. Americans don't eat them? Amaguri is an old snack but usually it was sold with hard skin. That chesnuts snack could be popular because they sell it without skin. Actually the name of the snack is 'Amaguri Muichaimashita!' It means I removed the skin of chestnuts. And it is one of a natural sweet series. There are Edamame (I pulled out the edamame from the skin!), Corn (I removed the corn kernels from cob!), Sweet potatoes (I cooked potatoes!), etc. We couldn't eat those outside before, because we needed to cook them to eat and they were hard to eat with skins. And also we had an image amaguri was a drunk father's small gift, edamame was a snack for beer, and sweet potatoes were a lonely snack, because they makes farts. But now we can enjoy those anywhere because of the natural sweet series in a small package, small portions, cut into small pieces without skins. Good.

Rainy Saturday

Good TV ad from Italy :-)

This is a funny post: 'Is Okami The Worst Box-Art Gaffe Ever?'. I think MEGA MAN (rock man?) is much worse and Star Chess looks like a painting that I drew in art class when I was 10 years old.

I found this news today: 'Gillian is terrified of buttons'. I wonder if buttons would be related to some bad experience for her and she might have forgetten it.
Did you know this 'Flogos' ? It's a bubble AD on the sky. I found the video os flogs today. Here it is.

I will go to Tokyo Mid Town tonight for dinner, and maybe I will try 'Okawari'. Okawari means 'one more helping'. After one bowl of rice, we say 'okawari!', then you will get one more bowl of rice. At Okawari, you can pick foods from various types of small shops. If you like, you can choose a piece of Pizza + miso soup + a piece of Tempra. :-)

Sushi Prince

Wired.com Exclusive: Watch 'Wanderlust,' Bjork's New 3-D Video. Hmmm, interesting. Do you know she protested to China about the Tibet issue in concert in China? She won't be able to enter that country again for a while. I appreciate her valiant attitude. Today someone wrote a bomb warning on the Nagano Station page and the Beijing Olympic page of Japanese wikipedia. Zenkoji temple is in Nagano, it may be related to that issue. Zenkoji had graffiti spray-painted a few days ago. I hope the warning is just a bad joke.

This is the official site of Sushi Prince goes to NY. It's a crazy comedy movie about a Japanese Sushi chef. Look at this trailer. Ha ha ha so silly. That prince is Koichi Domoto of Kinki Kids. He is a popular idol of Johnny & Associates. I thought Kinki Kids would fit for the cast of Death Note film, Koichi could be Kira, Tsuyoshi could be L.
Today I found some funny foreign sites and no domestic ones.

This is today's best site 'LSD vs Alcohol vs Tree'. Cute!! I laughed at IKEA, Lenin, Schwarzenegger...ha ha ha.

Andy sent me this cute site : 'Animals on the underground'. Since Tokyo has a more complicated subway map, we may find a lot of animals. Hope someone tries it.

I thought it would be an initiation of a new cult in the Blue cloak. But it was 'Record-breaking Mentos and Coke explosions' news. Here is the video (so so).

This is a funny flash game 'Billy Suicide'. Help him and stop his suicide. I could't stop it and he shut his head in the toilet. ....orz

This is "the 10 Most Comfortable Airline Economy Seats". Wow JAL is ranked in?? I agree that flight attendants are so kind and food is okay but I am not sure about the facility. By the way, do you know you can eat CUP NOODLE in JAL if you ask them? Please try when you are so hungry. They will give you one. I love using Singapore Air because their food is good. Here is my post of the ranking of airline food.