Mari - diary

UNIQLO T-shirts 2005 project

UNIQLO (read this Yunikuro) is a casual wear brand. Their colorful, lightweight, warm and inexpensive fleece made big sales, and they became a well-known brand in Japan. Thinking of the expensive price of sports brand's fleece, their quality and price were a big surprise in those days. Actually UNIQLO was called one of the "price revolution" companies in Japan, the same as McDonald's, the weekday discount and 100yen shops. I had a beige fleece as my nightwear in those days. But like we say "Too much spoils, too little does not satisfy." Just a few years later, the sales went down and down, and people had an image of UNIQLO as a cheap Japanese uniform. This article "Do you like UNIQLO clothes?" was featured in 2001, ha ha.

But recently they've tried to recover from this setback with new ideas. They've kept the price low, but they've added something more to their product lines. For example I like this T-shirt project "T2005". UNIQLO now makes T-shirts with various motifs. In their Art category, you can buy Barbara Kruger, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein designed T-Shirts for 1000 Yen. In the Creative Award category, they offered an award and picked the most creatively designed T-shirts, hmm interesting isn't it?  With company collaborations, wow! So many T-shirts were sold out; they had a small stock for this skin lotion company''s T. The original skin lotion bottle is this one.  Art students around the world designed these T-shirts.  I like this. This is a sports T-shirt. I like this Dodgers shirt. In their original designs you may find some Japanese tastes, Not so bad, right?. 

Anyway they don't features Japanese artists, Japanese sports teams, or Japanese c olleges, but they picked American Artists, MBL & MFL, and the U.S colleges. Why? Could it be related to copyright issues or something?

Which one do I like most? I like the kids category's. I would pick either the Tomika (mini car) or  the Pararail (mini train).  Kawaii! However they are too small for me ah-ah. Anyway UNIQLO has a shop in the UK and China. They may open another shop in Europe soon.

Gundam! Approaching faith?

Have you gone to Star Wars Revenge of the Sith already? Unfortunately it has not been released in Japan yet, but we've heard in the news that a guy has already lined up many day ago to be first in line for the opening day, and about how much the U.S econony lost on opening day becaues of people's absence from work. I know most Ameriicans like Star Wars, especially the kids. But I suppose the movie would still be special for those guys in their 30's and 40's who first saw Star Wars when they were in elementary school.  Star Wars was fill up with the stuff of young boys' dreams; Spece ships, Aliens, Heros, Evil,  high-tech dogfights and romance with a beautiful princess. It misht be a symbol of their childhood, may be the first strong emotional impact they experienced in their young life.  In Japan  Ultra Seven (1967) is close to Star Wars with that type of quasi-religious significance. It is almost a kind of a faith to a certain generation. But Ultra Seven is not well known in foreign countries as Ultraman is. Actually I gave up trying to find a good pages in English. Google Japan has 150,000 links, but Google doesn't show anyt good pages. Thinking of the Japanese passion for Ultraman,  Ultraman does not seem to have been successful in foreign countries. I will talk more about them in the future. Because Ultraman and Ultra Seven is interesting topic for better understanding many guys in their 30s and 40s in Japan.

Anyway in the animation world, apparently Gundam is quite special. When I find some new topic about Gundam, I am always impressed with hou much the Japanese love Gumdam and even now, and there are still huge aoumnt of money being directed to the Gundam market. The Movie Gundam Z was released last Friday. My friend already went to see it yesterday.  Here is the trailer.  In this timing, I checked some Gundam topic, and I will introduce some which looked interesting.

Speaking of Gundam fans, an adventure movie Aimless Aiges went to Cannes Film Festival this month. The original novel was written by Toshiharu Fuku. Some of his novels will become movies later this year; he is such a hot person now. Popular author Fukui gathered even more acclaim when he novelized "Turn A Gundam" because he just loves Gundam so much.

About Gundam goods; I wrote before about a Gundam Shop in Osaka where all the staff wear Gundam clothes, I found an item that they sell. This is a Zaku head tape cutter.  Ah I will sell my Gundam bottle cap collection on eBay. I wonder how much it will be?

About figurines, at  the Bandai Museums, you can see a real-sized head of Gundam and Zaku. This is the best that I could find at this time,  a human size real Gundam, which is made by armer fan.  Wow kakkoii!

We will rock you

I went to the musical We will rock you today. It was held in Shinjuku Koma theater, and during the musical, you can meet a bronze Freddie. Here is their official web site. On this page you can watach movies of the musical. You can also check out the story there. It is not Queen's history or Freddie's story, just pure fiction. In a future world, music and music insruments have been banned from use and people are controlled by the Killer Queen. But the Bohemians resistahce believes that there was once a Golden Age when kids formed their own bands and wrote their own songs. A legend persists that somewhere on Planet Mall musical instruments still exist. The Bohemians need a hero to find this axe and draw it from the stone...The impression part is that boys bands and programmed music have killed real music, but they also have a political message.

I've read on some sites that Queen became a very big in Japan in their early days. In the 70s, Haneda Air Port and Nihon Budokan were only the places to see foreign bands. We have these old pictures of the band standing in the middle of the runway.

In the musical, they sometimes tried to cater Japanese audience. For example they fuatured two Japanese performers Ozaki and hide as legendary dead artists. But it is not necessary. Many foreign rock fans don't listen to, and don't care about Japanese Rock; acutally I have never listened to eitherm and to be honest with you, I really didn't need to have their faces stuck between my faves like John Lennon, Freddie, Jim Morrison etc,.

Anyway it was a good musical. But most of all, I really miss Queen, I wish I could still go to Queen's live shows. But of couse I do not mean this...(T T) ...Did you notice Brian and Roger were in this Pepsi TV ad with Brtiony, Pink, and Beyonce? don't mess up, please.

Character manjyu "Ningyoyaki"

Every region and prefecture in Japan has its own specialty food or sweets. When people visit there, they will get these as a souvenir for their family and co-workers. From Hokkaido, it would be a white chocolate called "Shiroi Koibito". . Akita has one of my favorite sweets, Gomasuri dango, which is a bite-sized soft mochi (rice cake) filled with a sweet sesame sauce. Yamanashi's shingen mochi always knock me out (nice blog Chika!). In the Nagoya area, Uiro is well known. I think I have already told you before, that Shizuoka has a pie that includes ground eel powder, called "Night King"(they say this gives you stamina for your night life). Everybody get Momiji manjyu from Hiroshima.

I posted before the rankingthe ranking of best selling souvenirs at Tokyo station. No7 is Nigyo yaki. It is a kind of manjyu which is in the shape of things that bring good fortune. The seven Divinities of Good Luck is a standard shape, I think. And we have various character types (yes Japanese are charactor lovers). Here is good site about collecting Ningyo yaki characters.

This is a Ningyo yaki of the most well-known animation in Japan, ,Sazae san. This is Doraemon, Godilla, Astroboy, Hamutaro, Micky mouse, Shinkansen etc,. And of course we have kitty, and kitter guy likes this. Ha! tail of kitty? Ha! tail of kitty? Ha! tail of Kitty? Ah, I can also tell you that soon Chiba zoo will make a Futa version, well will work fine for that.

Japanese soldiers are found in Philippines

Since yesterday, The media has been covering this news (another link). It's being constantly updated amd now we know their names and ages. One is 85 years old and the other is 83. Both want to return to Japan. Some say that there are still more Japanese, maybe more than 50 people. Over 50 years have passed since WW2 and is this possible? Yes I think it is. Actually We're already had two cases.

The first case is of Shoichi Yokoi. He holed up and survived for 28 years in Guam. This is the photo OF when he returned to Japan. When he returend in a wheelchair, I suppose people were pleased that he was safe. They probably imagined his lonely, wild, tough life and also felt some grief because he was missing 28 years. Then 2 years later, Hiroo Onoda returned to Japan from Lubang Island in the Philippines. It took a long time for him to return to Japan, even after the Japanese government knew that he was still alive and alone there because Onoda didn't trust anyone that said Japan lost ww2 OR THAT ww2 was over. He finally decided to return when his commanding officer, former Major Yoshimi Taniguchi was flown to Lubang, and said to him in person that the mission was over". When we saw him presented in front of president Marcos after 30 years of jungle life, peace-addicted Japanese were shocked by his crisp salute and his piercing eyes, I heard. Here is his full story, 1. 2. 3. 4.

Personally, I think that this is an amazing story, but I don't think that he is a hero. Even though some foreign sites call him the Last Samurai, after returning here, he couldn't have good days only because of basiing. This wikipedia entry explains that part well. Yeah, he chose to leave Japan and start a new life in Brazil. This story is a little bit sad. However! 83 year old Mr.Onoda keeps well and started A new project, "life in the nature" in Japan. Look at his smile. I think It's beautiful. I am simply very glad for his smile and know that he enjoys his life very much.

Lesser Panda will be a boom?

On the 19th of May, this photo appeared on Yahoo news as "The two-year-old male named Futa, who has been living at the Chiba City Zoo, stands straight like a man". I can easily suppose that many Japanese would shout "Kawaii!!!" in front of the PC. Of course his standing pose is cute. Not only that, his round face, his dot eyes and his whole appearace are the exact weakness of Japanese. The next day, the US boing boing showed the photo. Then I found CBS news introduced the same story today on I-video. I think he is pretty, but many people said it is not rare that lesser pandas stand like that. Oddly enough, other zoos complained that "our lesser panda stands too!" this and this. But I think that even though his standing isn't so rare, maybe Futa will be a short lives boom. They say he has a lot of TV ad offers already.

We have had many animal booms. It was recently the chihuahua boom like I wrote before. You can still find various kinds of Chihuahua goods like this, and thisin Japan. As a dot eye character that tickles Japanese minds, Axolotl (what is axolotl?) was the boom in the 80s. Not only such cute types are loved. As an oddish type, we had "a Frill-necked Lizard boom". It was started because MITSUBISHI motors used his running video on a TV ad and we a lot of Frill-necked Lizard goods in Japan because of it. Look at this old Photo book. The title is "run! Frill-necked Lizard kun". HA! I will not miss to inform you when I find Lesser Panda / Futa goods.

Where will you go? vodafon.

In the Japanese mobile market, i-mode and au fight desperately. TUKA seemed to has given up and has decided to go their own way. Their target is older people or a niche market like that. Look at this simple one! But for us, it's very inconvenient, because we can't see the number we're pushing. Then how about vodafon? Each and every day, what we know about voda is that "they are in a struggle to survive", like this, this, and this. Even the foreign media is covering their fall.

Since it is my job, I use various cell phones everyday, but I can tell vodafon's cells are hard to use. They have poor signal quality even in the center of Tokyo. Yesterday morning, it was stopped because of a sever was down. 3G phones have a 6k size limit for one web page.  How we can make a fun, creative page? We update same contents to imode, au, voda, and TUKA. On the I-mode phone page, there is flash, image, and movie contents. But on vodafone there is only text link and a very small image. My friend has an NK702 (Nokia 6630).  That phone has many good reviews on the internet. but he suspects "manipulation of information" :-P ha ha, because he has to reboot every hour due to memory troubles. His phone may have its own unique troubles, but I experienced freeze at my job too.

Voda said that they will release funny phone cover....Hmm bimyo!!(= subtlety, we say bimyo when it's hard to make an early judgement.) You like those covers?  I like the ideas, artificial grass ,cheese, tire, cupule. But obviously, it isn't time for that? vodafon.

It makes no sense! the Hanko system

Hanko(han), or Inkan(In) are Japanese seals which we use instead of signatures on business and private documents. For most public documents, you can only use a Hanko. We need a hanko for residence certificates, parking registration, getting a passport, banking, real estate deals, car deals, etc,. Yes. Unfortunately you cannot live in Japan without Hanko actually.

Hanko typically have this shape which is a round or square stick. For personal use, only one's last name is carved there. The price depends on its material. The most expensive one would be elephant tusk,  (What? elephant Ivory trading is under the ban by the Washington Convention. But Japan is allowed because we have sufficient management system. Maybe the needs and custom of Hanko facilitated this strict management system.) and cheap ones are made of plastic. Usually people use two types of hanko. One is a special one that is only used for banking, and public issues. Another one is a regular one that is used for daily isseus like a receipt stamp for package deliveries, and absence notifications at one's job. You can order your hanko or you can buy a ready-made at a shop. Actually if you do not have very very unique last name. You may find your name's hanko at this type of hanko stand. Recently 100yen shop sell hanko too.

You will suppose easily, we use hanko in such important case; finance or identification, but you can buy or order everywhere. What will happen when you lose it?  When someone copies or buys one with the same name as yours? Is the security of thehanko system work?

Ha! the hanko system doesn't make sense at all. Here is today's article. Two peoples withdrew money from a bank with identical seals. Guess what?  They both lost $4000 or so. In the court sentence for this case, the guy will be reimbursed in full, because the seal of the copy hanko was different. The edge was thicker. As a proffessional, the bank should have found the difference when they saw the paper. The women will not get any money, because in her case the copy seal looked very close and it was hard to tell the difference...

I hope we will change this soon, but I am pessimistic. I must admit that the hanko is deeply connected to our lives. Look at this!  We have hanko fortunes, too.  They read good fortune and bad fortune on our seals. And recently hanko have various materials. There are many colorful and pretty hankos, and we also started to break an old custom a little bit. Some people add their symbol. (I am not sure if this would work for public document. maybe not.)  It looks like a joke stamp, but at least it's unique. The Hanko system does not work, but they still don't seem to disappear...

Anyway there is another problem too. I wonder why Japan is lenient on banks. If I pile up money in the bank, keeping the money secure is the bank's responsibility. If someone withdraws/steals it from the bank,  the bank should t compensate the loss any rate.  But in this country, it is different.  Custmers have to accept los the loss meekly.  Can you believe it?

Rice with raw egg

TIME magazine presented the ALL-TIME 100 best films as chosen by TIME's movie critics. I like to see this kind of list just for fun. Ikiru, Tokyo Story, Yojinbo, and Ugetsu are chosen Japanese movies that were chosen. Ha! They are old Black & White cinema. But I am a exactly a person who doesn't go to the theater for Japanese movies. I can agree with them.

Anyway do you know the movie Tampopo? It was good food movie. The main story was a Trucker GORO helps a woman named TAMPOPO open a good ramen restaurant. Woven into this main story are a number of episode about food. Ken Watanabe, and Koji Yakusho are in the cast and the Director is Juzo Itami.(He was the target of Yakuza, because of his movie "Minbo no onna", but he did not show any signs of being daunted. However he committed suicide because of depressive psychosis.)
In the movie, there are two impressive scenes involving an egg. One of them is an erotic scene in which a guy and a woman pass an egg yolk back and forth, mouth to mouth. Another one involve this Tampopo Omlet & Rice.　The omlet is half cooked, and when you cut the top, the egg runs over the chicken rice. Originally this omlet & rice is served at well-known restaurant called Ginza Taimeiken. (HP).  This sounds very delicious to me. How about you? I ask because some of my foreign friends don't like half boiled egg.

Generally speaking Japanese like raw eggs and half done eggs. We appreciate them as "toro toro tamago!" For example, Topping boiled egg of Ramen, Omlet, Katsudon, Oyakodon, these are so delicious because the eggs are "toro toro" (soft, half done, close to raw).

And at breakfast, we might eat rice with raw egg (TAMAGO KAKE GOHAN). Basically, it's adding an egg to white rice with soy sauce, that's it. But way to add egg, kinds of topping(natto, mayo etc,.), quantity of soy sauce...we can discuss about Tamagokake Gohan for long time. Look at this long page at Wikipedia! That whole page talks about only Tamagokake Gohan. We actually have a special soy sauce for raw eggs, and there are two versions, for East Japan (strong) and for West Japan (Sweet). You can eat it in restaurants in Japan, this place has the name "Tamagokake Gohan Nakama"　Will you try rice with raw egg?

JR west train accident.

Ah lovely weekend, I tried to up some funny happy post. But the evening news about JR west made me a little angry. I really hate the JR west train accident news, and they never miss miss a chance to get me down.

It happened on April 25. We knew the train driver was in a kind of panic to make up for just a second delay. JR west are so crazy about schedule and work rules, that all drivers are in big stress. Today The Yomiuri said the driver had to compose 13 papers repenting his misdeed in 19 days, and he got 50000yen cut from last bonus. The most important part is driver's mental health for safety service, no? Instead of stress care, JR west made drivers stress out... Then you know this? While people tried to rescue survivers, JR West staff had a bowling party. I am angry and hate such a company, but I can't understand how people can do crazy things like this like this to other JR West staff. I am angry and I hate those people. And a press acted crazy like this, Who does he think he is? I saw people's comments on TV news. One middle aged guy said "not only JR west, recently Japan must be wrong somehow. I agree with him, at least finding a criminal for the JR west train accident is meanless. More or less we have ugly accidents, issues, problems always. But I couldn't understand the recent news, most of it are beyond my comprehension. And we look for a criminal, even it though it is a social issue.