Mari - diary

Autumn TV ads

I love Autumn!!. The Weather is mild, the food is delicious, autumn is good for everything I think. On TV,  the ads are changing to autumn themems. I will pick some nice travel and food ads today.

JR East has "a travel alone for adult" campaign. The actress is Sayuri Yoshinaga (cute!)  who is a very popular in Japan, you can also see her in Sharp Aquos TV ads. This is the Shinshu version, this is Aomori prefecture, aah I want to go traveling again soon. JR Tokai has service with the Shinkansen running between Tokyo and Osaka. Here is their Kyoto travel campaign page. During each season spring, summer, winter, Kyoto has different face and beauty. This is autumn. The images are covered with red and gold. Unfortunately I can't find any tv ad movies, but this site has some streaming videos of Kyoto.

Every Autumn Kirin releases an Autumn Beer. This year they have 47 kinds of delicious food presents. Koichi Sato eats many good foods! This is Matsuzaka Beef, this is Hida Beef sukiyaki, more, more and more!  The ads make me hungry. :-) You can check on this page to see all of them. (please click "CM") This is Japanese soup stock DASHI TV ad, The actress is Takanohana's ex girlfriend Rie Miyazawa. Japanese radish Daikon is very delicious in autumn and winter. Of course there are autumn versions of many sweets and snacks, and I will check and report on them later!

Are you blogging?

One year and three months have passed after I started this blog, but basically I am very enjoying my blogging still now. This is from BBC news. US blog search site technorati had a report. It said "Every second a new blog is created in the world, but 13 percent of all blogs that Technorati tracks are updated weekly or more, said the report, and 55% of all new bloggers are still posting three months after they started."

Yea,  These two are very nice English blog, but they seemed to stop updating. erasmusing  Yukkuri Countdown
You can find English blog about Japan in this Japanblogger's link. Of course I join them too!

I am lucky because I could use PC while I am working, my lunch time is my writing time. It will be hard (impossible?) for me to update my English blog (it takes time for me! because I need to use dictionary often.) everyday when I get home after job or gym. Actually my theme writing part is getting "slow down". But since I love writing, I can update Japanese blog anytime, even I am drank he he he. I started my Japanese blog in this month. The title is Koshitu no Tamamono, directly it means "The fruit of my persistence" Well it won't make sense in English :-)

Japan is good market for foreign fast food chain?

The season of Tukimi Burger has come! Please try it in McDonald's in Japan. :-) It is very easy to find McDonald's in Japan, I feel I see it at every station, on every street corner? he he he. It means that for foreign restaurant and fast food chains, Japan is good market? No, never. Maybe successful foreign restaurants and fast food chains are McDonald's, KFC and maybe Starbucks. That is all. You like Wendy's? Yes we have, but it is very hard to find where it is, Wendy's hass 90 shops in Japan, on the other hand, McDonald's has over 3800 shops.

You see Denny's very often in Japan? Yes we have it, but a Japanese company bought their trademark, so it is a different "Denny's" who has the logo. Actually they have a unique Japanese menu, look! This morning set. My American friend said he misses Burger King.
Well we had it before, I remember Burger King was near my job, but they had to leave Japan. Denny's have a Japanese menu, and Seven Eleven Japan has variety of rice balls and Obento, but basically fast food like hamburgers could not be more than a snack in Japan. Couples will eat lunch at McDonalds while dating, a young businessmen may have his dinner at Wendy's, our food life is changing to western style exponentially. But my dad and mom, I and my friends won't go fast food place for a dinner, that is true too. So even though they have good taste, good price, good location, they aren't enough to promise their success in Japan. So why McDonald's and KFC were accepted? Maybe it will a kind of "brain-washing" :-)! Yes a huge number of TV commercials and promotions they made.

Burger King joined in a project with Seibu Shoji first, and joined with JT later. However JT needed investment funds to buy a foreign tobacco company and also UK Burger King did not participate actively and positively for the project, they did not take risk for red and big promotions. Then finally they decided to stop service in Japan. I read like that.
It is not so easy to have business here in Japan, but I like Tacos. I hope Taco Bell tries to come to Japan. Last week I had a Taco party, my friends all love Tacos. Here is a market! (maybe) Taco Bell, Come on!

Good by Hollywood? A change in TV ads in Japan

Do you like "Lost in translation"? By they way I found a good post about the movie. ( His blog was good, I am sorry he stopped updating.) Like the scene he wrote, Japanese companies use Hollywood movie stars for their TV commercial ads. I wrote about it in this theme topic. The funniest one would be Dennis Hopper, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicolas Cage. We could see many Hollywood actors and actress in TV ads, like Kevin Costner Bruce Willis, George Clooney etc., But now I hardly see them, as far as I remember Richard Gear appears in Dandy House TV ad now. (Dandy House is a men's aesthetic salon.) But I don't know any more.

Today's Los Angels Times writes about it. They explain how Hollywood is disappearing from Japanese TV ads after bursting of the bubble in the late '80s. Even though the Japanese recession seems to be close to the end, now other Asian countries stars are hottest in Japan, yes especially Korean. Bae Yong Joon appears in Lotte, Coke ads now, Lee Byong Hun, Jang Yong Gun, Kwon Sang Woo are all Korean actors. And Chinese Zhang Ziyi on Memory of Geisha, appears on Shampoo. A manga oriented movie Initial D use a Taiwan actor as the main character.

Bae Yong Joon's new movie "April Snow" was released this month. In Japan, I heard it is doing well at the Japanese box office. (And in Korea, it was not good). Actually we can see many Bae Yong Joon goods in market. Here is Bae Yong Joon version music multi player. This can work as alarm, of course Yong sama will wake you up with his voice "Oyaho"... I feel the gap between this machine's target and Yong Sama fans.  However finally Korean boom is slowing down, the boom heated up too much, and naturally people are getting tired.

2channel vs Avex record!

Numa numa Yeah, Numa numa numa yeah!
I am enjoying a new festival about 2channel. 2channel is the biggest anonymous internet discussion board in Japan. Just a few years ago, people did not have good image for 2channel because people thought it was full of otaku or Hikikomori, and sometimes atrocious crimes have been linked to the website. But I can say we can't ignore 2channel when we talk Japanese sub-culture. The train man (very sorry for Napoleon Dynamite) was a warm topic and it became big in entertainment. I am not a 2channeler but sometimes I like to see and read the festival like this.

Then a new festival happened. I wrote that "Maihi Maiaho" had to be dog food :-) for 2channel. 2channel made soramimi flash (what is soramimi? 1. 2.) with the 2channel character "Mona". "Maihi Maiaho"( "Dragostea Din Tei" is the real title though) was not released in Japan at that time even though it was a big hit in Europe. Then finally one of the big record labels (Avex record) had released the song in Japan, but they made a new cat that looks a lot like the character Mona, then they did some promotion and new promotional flash (actually this is PV too). But unwisely they named that cat "Noma" neko (cat), then registered the brand name and started to sell "Noma good".   Of course 2channelers were angry. Actually toy maker Takara tried to registered Mona once before and gave up "super" immediately because the 2channeler's protest was so hard. But this time, Avex did it and expressed an apology on their web.
Here is the page. Shortly they said

"We are very sorry to make things confuse. But we are doing our business, so when we made a promotion and when we got some reaction, we will try our business chance bigger. We will make a promotion "Nomaneko" only, we will never bother Mona and other any cats characters. We hope we can comminicate with the Internet people and hopefully we can provide creative contents to the world."

Well basically they say sorry? Maybe, but their words made people angry of course. Avex will not withdraw the Noma registration and will not stop selling Noma goods. Then today 2channel counterattacked Avex.
Here is a page and massage from a representative of 2channel "Hiroyuki"

"Nomatako was born in one 2channel thread, this character was made from inspiration for traditional arms. We are doing our business, so when we made a promotion and when we got some reaction, we will try our business chance bigger. We will make a promotion "Nomatako" only, we will never bother Ayumi Hamasaki's logo. We hope we can communicate with the Music business field people and hopefully we can provide creative contents to the world."

Well yes the A mark looks like Ayumi Hamasaki's logo. She is the biggest singer in Avex. Actually She is very very popular for young people in Japan. (maybe the best still now). So I must say she would be the best target for 2channel. Nomatako has a Sake bottle, "Tako! is octopus in Japanese, but we use Tako to say "stupid" too. "Kono tako!" means "you stupid". Apparently 2channel was a cut above Avex. I will watch what is going on with this festival more and will report here.

The result of Sumo

Asashoryu wins the Autumn sumo title after a playoff with Kotooshu. Here is the picture. He won the tournament 6 times consecutively. This record was set in 1963 by Taiho who was one of the big three in the 1970s. If he wins the next tournament, a Mongolian guy can set a new record in Sumo history.

I'm not into Sumo so much, but if I had to choose one Yokozuna, it would be Chiyonofuji. He is a macho type, his nickname is wolf. He is a cool guy who looks like Marcus Chong who appeared in the Matrix.

Foreign wrestler made Sumo hot!

The national sport of Japan is Sumo. The ancient history of Japan book "NIHON SHOKI" had a short article saying they already had Sumo in 23 BC. Originally Sumo is related to the Shinto religion, some shrines have local sumo tournaments in their festival. The word is not only used in wrestling, but we also call some one-on-one matches "sumo". For example we call arm wrestling "Ude (arm) Sumo", little boys are crazy for the "Mushi King" game, we call such a beetle match "Mushi sumo" originally.

Although Sumo is strongly related to Japanese history and culture, it seems to be the most globalised among Japanese professional sports. Football (soccer) and baseball are the most popular sports in Japan, but they have a limit for foreign players, but Sumo does not have it. The current Yokozuna (the highest rank) is Asashoryu only, who is from Mongolia. (Yokozuna and Ozeki (the second highest rank) are decided by qualifications by committee. They must have enough power (result), skill and dignity/grace "hinkaku" to be qualified for promotion. So promotion is not so easy, and there are only 67 Yokozuna in Sumo history.)

Asashoryu is very strong, we think he will set a new "win record" in sumo history. A foreign wrestler Akebono (he is now a K-1 wrestler) and Musashimaru (he looks like the Japanese historical hero Saigo san) could get to be Yokozuna. Konishiki is well know as a Guinness record holder and he is a Hawaiian musician, piko used him as an image character. They all came from Hawaii. A current wrestler, Kokkai came from Georgia, Balto who is from Estonia is hot because of his blond hair and sweet face, and more wrestlers are in lower rank. In this autumn season tournament (15 days), Asashoryu (Mongolia) and Kotooshu (Bulgaria) are competing to be winner. I heard the Bulgarian people are worked up. Tomorrow, Sunday is the last day, I will check it out.

Anyway we don't have a Japanese Yokozuna now, the last one was Takanohana. Like an article said, he was a beautiful guy, and actually his ex girlfriend was Rie Miyazawa, and his wife is FUJI TV announcer Keiko Kono. But recently he and his brother ex-Yokozuna Wakanohana are well known for their ugly family business. Here is the story.

A new lovely robot??

The new robot has been released. Which is designed by Robo Garage

"Very cute design like Astro boy, this robot Manoi can appeal to non robot fans. He can fit to your living without problem, and will be acceptable for women.

Well do you think this robot can fit to your living room? I don't think Manoi will be hot for women. Talking about "toy type robots", AIBO suceeded to be accepted by women. Actually I thought about buying one as a replacement for a real dog in my apartment. I saw women named AIBO, clothed AIBO and then had AIBO owners meeting.. It is completely the same like the love for PET. Sony will have to provide parts of AIBO forever for them? If not, they will have hard protests from those owners appearently. (Or someday they will throw their AIBO as garbage?. squash! Bye bye Puppy chan!)

Or if Manoi could be custmizable like dress-up doll? Blythe is very expensive in Japan (in aucition vintage Blythe cost 240,000yen,) but she is very popular to fashion-oriented women regardless of the age. Blythe owners sand down their doll's face to make "mat skin", then of course cut hair, change eye colors, trade handmade clothes, etc. Well I don't think Manoi doesn't have those factors (pet or dress-up doll) which fascinate girls. So this can be good for robot fans? I think one of robot's charms is cloddish, conscientious, hard-working like Tetsujin 28, Zaku of Gundam, and Landwalker of Sakakibara Seiki. Or I think astroboy(Japanese theme: ram), or Urasawa's Pluto, talking about real robots, R2D2 or Honda Asimo (TV ad) has some stoic mood, so they are dear.

"Big round eyes are pretty, price is reasonable too! Robots can get closer to your life."

They will say things like that, but it won't be so easy. What d o you think?

Katamari Damacy2- Japanese site is update

Katamari Damacy 2 has been released in North America. My friend has a small game development company, he has heard about this game. The idea was presented to some publishers, but most reactions were "What is the point of this game? just rolling a ball?". Hmm... I understand the reactions a little. This game has: a Prince, an arrogant dad, a fancy mom- such characters are the hot part. Visual and music and background supports them very well. It would be difficult to feel the charm of this game with only text presentation.

Here is their new Japanese page. Since the rules of how to play the characters are very well-known, their page has not so many menu selections. Please click each picture, you will see all the funny characters. I like coffee lover, puffy guy, and this is best!!  hard worker.
Here is the new wallpaper collection. I like this!! The title is "a life construct" ha ha ha. The old wallpaper page is here.

P.S. I have found the first Katamari Damacy TV ad!

Affordable way to eat in Tokyo

I found an article that says that Tokyo is affordable. Yes I think so. I am gathering information about affordable Tokyo part 2 for my theme writing too.

I will write about the "affordable way to eat in " in Tokyo.
You can use some coupons like Tokyo Coupon or Gourmet Navigato on the internet. If you can read Japanese Hot Pepper is the big coupon site. They will give you 10% off or so. 

"Tabehodai =All-you-can-eat buffet" is a good place for people who can eat a lot. I like this Shabu Shabu restaurant "mo mo paradise" in Shinjuku, you can eat Shabu shabu as much as you can for 1700yen or so. This is Kushiage (fried meat and vegetable) tabehodai, this is sushi tabehodai. Many restaurant have a tabehodai menu for lunch and they are 900-1200yen or so, very reasonable.

If you want to save on price, how about Standing Japanese noodle (soba) shops inside train stations or near train stations? They serve soba for 250yen to 400yen (2-3 USD). And C&C Curry chain is a standing curry shop and they serve Japanese curries for less than 500yen. Even though Yoshinoya doesn't have beef bowl, they and other beef bowl chain shops have a reasonable less than 500 yen bowl menu. And there are many Obento shops on the street. (Hoka Hoka Bento is the big chain shop) People get these for their lunch or single people eat them for dinner. They serve hot rice from rice cooker, you can get hot food anytime. I like Origin Bento shop, the price is less than 500 yen. Since they are a kind of deli too, you can pick some dishes by yourself. Of course if you want to save more money on food, convenience stores have various obento, and barkely's bread and sandwich would be enough good for lunch.

For a night life in Tokyo, standing style is a kind of boom in Tokyo. This standing sushi shop has retro mood interior, they serve sushi for 100yen each. This is a Yakitori place. This is a Shochu place in Nishiazabu, they have over 170 kinds of shoshu.  You may find affordable food in Tokyo.