Mari - diary

Virtual Onsen trip on your desk?

Today was good sunny day. It is a good season for walking, driving, and travels. I wish I could go hiking instead of being in long meetings. If I could have a three day weekend, I would go to Onsen!! Here is an English Onsen guide site Onsen and Ryokan of Japan, Ryokan. HOWEVER! Unfortunately, really good Onsen & Ryokan sites tend to have no English version. Actually, my favorite, and I think most dependable site, is Tabieru. They do not have an English page.

Okay in Tabieru, let's have vertual onsen travel now. They do not have video, but they have good slide show. Please click play button.
This is Hidaji in Gifu prefecture.　
Asebino in Shizuoka.
Okuhida Choza in Gifu.
Onyado Kawasemi in Fukushima.
Fukumoto in Ohita.

Yes, Good texture. right?

Gimmicky toys and Weird pen collections

I have found this streaming video page introducing Japan. Making Yakitori, Tokyo night cruise, Heritage in Kyoto, Robodex!? Every video has English captions. Please check "Sakamoto Fancy goods". Sakamoto co., ltd. is the company that produces gimmicky toys. Sushi ballpoint pen, pringles pen, chocolate mirror, tabret gun, gum noodle making machine. Hmm, weird.

I remind you that I posted healing mix pen before. Okay here is another weird ball-point pen collection, Uri Geller Psycic pen, Howling dinosaur pen, Shaky Manikin Piss pen､Pocky pen､Shaver pen, English pen, Bunborger, Bungogu means Stationery in Japanese, he changes like this.　Ahh there is no limit!

Another Long Running TV Program

I've talked about the long running TV programs before, so today I'll introduce another one. It's "Skekai no Shaso kara" (Through Train Windows of the World?!). It's been on the air in Japan for over 17 years. It's only a 5 minute long documentary program. There is no host, just a camera that follows a train trip, inside and out, between different places in the world. It's so simple (maybe so we won't get bored). Every night I can see a new smile and hear different music (the director picks music suited for each night's scene). Here is a Italy-Slovenia- Croatia route. Click "Calendar" and you can see the photo and hear the BGM. Here is a English countryside route. Ahh! I have been to Wordsworth's House. Here is a USA-Canada route. Look!. A cute little boy and his bear are at the table. In this way, every night I can enjoy someplace in the world by train. I like this TV program. Here is thier soundtrack CD infomation, you can listen samples. This for China(ram), this for Canadian Rocky. very nice．

Yummy!! American dog??

French Fries (oh oh Freedom Fries?? :-p, we Japanese call this French poteto. ) don't come from France (they originated in Belgium) and are called "Frites" in France. In the same way, French toast is "Pain perde" in France. Why are they called French in North America? But in Japan they are also called like that.

This is "Siberia cake" in Japan. Since sweet bean is sanded by sponge. I know this cake originated in Japan, So Why Siberia? :-) I don't know... And this corn dog is called "American dog". Why American dog? :-) I don't know... and I had to see this insect when I search American dog in google...umm why? :-( I don't want to know.

Except for common name, like coffee(Kilimanjaro), tea(Ceylon), or California roll, I tried to find some foods and meals which have the name of foreign country or district in Japan.

This is North Carolina caramel(by Fujiya(JP)), this is Vermont curry(by House(JP)). This is canned coffee named Georgia(by Coca Cola Japan(JP))

Drag queen needs 6.5 feet at least

I had a chance to work with Vivian Sato before. (What kind of work? You ask. Well, a serious cell phone subculture website. Really!) Vivian is a famous drag queen in the Tokyo party world. When I met him, She... he... was wearing a black long dress, an ostrich shawl, decked out in decadent makeup, complete with a purple wig and bondage gloves. The width of his hat's plume was 1m (3.9")! He had to take it off because he couldn't fit through the meeting room entrance! He looked so gaudy, but actually his bag was in tatters and his Nissan Sunny (reasonable car in Japan) was also old, he makes his English HP in free geocity (then plug－in error). hmm life is not so easy? You can't judge a book by its cover. Yet, I heard he takes good care of his mom too.
We talked about movie, and he recommended Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

By the way, they say there is a Definition of a Drag queen
-A man who imitates women by wearing feminine clothes and acts like a woman is called transvestite, drag queens are extravagantly fake women. Wearing too much makeup and eccentric dresses is the drag queen's flamboyant and exaggerated response to a serious heterosexual prejudice which protests the obvious that men cannot be women. From top to bottom, wigs to high heels, being over 6.5 fefet (2m) is fundamental.

Haaa! 2m.

Asian taste pop illustraions.

Yusuke Nakamura draws slightly nostalgic, slightly erotic illustrations, which look like wood engravings. I found his site while I was surfing the net a while ago, and I check it occasionally. Recently I have found his work in various designs - here is a famous songster's HP. Here is a new deisgn magazine +81 HP(ah! international call number of Japan!). He drew a jacket. This is a CD jacket of the Japanese band "ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION". I like this jacket. Here is his post card collection. Please check it out. Hmm, I like this.

By the way, if I had to choose a sound to match to his illustrations, I would pick these Japanese blues. SHIKISAI NO BLUES, Psychoanalysis) (ram) by Ego-Wrappin'. I like their style. A very retro feel.....

Hmm now I understand, maybe I like OLD stuff.

Tokyo game show 2004

Tokyo Game show 2004 starts today. You can get a little bit more detail from this Yahoo Japan page(JP) and here is coverage in English. And PS2 site site and Square enix site site introduce the games that they play on the show. Please check the movies there. The quality is pretty good.

I had the first Nintendo, and SEGA mega Drive, but after that, I did not get anything. Because I knew I would spend all weekend trying to defeat the "boss" living on the top of the tower, so my game history is old and short. But if I am asked what my favorite game is, I will answer, "the Adventure of LOLO" series. It is an old game, but I think it is enough fun to play, even now. It is not easy to reach the goal. When you reached the goal, you would gain a new wrinkle on your brain. (In Japanese, that is how we express thinking a lot and using your brain a lot).
Someone said, "Adventure of Lolo 1-2-3. I don't know too many people that are aware that the game is really hard despite the graphics and the kiddy・theme."

If you are interested, you can find its emulator is here. and rom is here . I will not play it anymore, because I have plans for the weekend already. Maybe New Year vacation, on a cold winter day this would be a good way to kill your time.

This is completely Pavlov's dog case.

When I listen to El condor pasa by Simon & Garfunkel, it still makes me feel hungry. WHY?? It is because this song was on when we prepared KYUSHOKU - school lunch at elementary school. This is completely a case of Pavlov's dog. Darn it!
The school should've changed its music everyday. I wonder why no one would imagine this could happen? To have the same music every lunch time for a growing child... Don't you think so?

By the way, sometimes I want to eat school lunch again. Not only me, my co-workers and I enjoy talking about school lunch at bars. School lunch is a sort of symbol of elementary school days, friends, and a lot of happy memories. Not only us, all people feel the same. So there is a school lunch restraurant. Of course it does not look so gorgeous. But people enjoy it so much. Not only can you eat in such a place, but this online shop sells school lunch set. . Who eats with this at home? Ha ha. But it might be fun to have a School lunch party.

The legend of Wraith in Tokyo

I found a oddy news today from Reuters. A college in India had to close their class because of a Ghost. Hmm. Actually it would be hard to study or concentrate in such place!

Do you know the legend of the wraith in Tokyo? The finance department of Japan or some big companies are concerned about this and even the U.S. shares a little part of the story too. It is the story about "Taira no Masakado". Here is the full coverage in English.

Taira no Masakado, a descendant of the emperor Kammu was a rebel leader in the Kanto area. He was
decapitated and his head brought to Kyoto. One day his head flew back from Kyoto to Kanto. The place where the head fell is called Kubizuka (meaning tomb of a head). People built a small shrine to appease the angry wraith of Masakado. But many odd and scary accidents and incidents took place there, especially when someone tried to move the Kubizuka. One example after WWII, when the GHQ (General Headquarters of the USA) tried to do it, the driver of the bulldozer died without apparent cause :-(. These stories were written as public documents.

There is something, some power that people believe in; here is a movie "Teito Monogatari" written by Hiroshi Aramata. The story is about an insurgent army raising up the spirit of angry Masakado to use it to break down the government.

In the center of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Otemachi Tokyo, It is still there . Companies around them belong to the Association to Preserve it. This sounds a little bit strange, but Tokyo people consider the wraith of Masakado as a sort of guardian spirit (or possibly spirit of destruction) of Tokyo.

Marunouchi, The center of Tokyo

The business area between Tokyo station and the Imperial Palace is "Marunouchi". Marunouchi means 訴nside of a moat・ Actually, this area was inside of the moat of Edo Castle. After the Edo Era, Mitsubishi Zaibatsu filled in the area. They made roads and built modern red brick buildings. People called the area "100 meter London" in those days. This web site has old Marunouchi Photos.

Marunouchi is known as the center of Japan's financial industry now. Actually, 60% of foreign financial companies are there, they say. And after the Marunouchi Building was built 2 years ago, this area is changing a little, and not only for businesses. People enjoy shopping and dinning there. Recently, a new shopping building, oazo opened. Its shops and restaurants seem to be more reasonable than at the Marunouchi Building. For example, Otoya is a famous food place because of its price and volume. Usually their shops are in a college town. Ah, Soup Stock is there! This shop is getting popular because of its variety of soup. When you visit Marunouchi on travel or for a business trip, they are good for lunch or dinner. :-)