Mari - diary

Trick or treat?

They say Halloween is getting more popular in Japan year by year after around 2000 when Kid's English school and Tokyo Disney Land started Halloween events. Since we don't have any big event at this time in the Japanese calender, Halloween would fit Commercialism too. Club have Halloween parties, Sanrio can sell new cat item, even Japanese sweet maker can make new Manjyu Item. But how many Jpanaese understand the meaning of Halloween? Don't expect so much. I think many Japanese think it is just a monster costume party day. (if I do it, I will wear Sadako of Japanese original "Ring") Of course I love something fun, so I won't be so strict, but I think it would be fun more to understand the meaning of each festival. And speaking of Halloween, I remember this sad news too.

Anyway it's Halloween,  this is the most scary stuff I found today, the road and fathead fish.　And this is funny one. Some made photo video with photos of this "How frustrating!" page. The BGM is 言葉にできない = "not know how to describe my feeling".

Do you know where it is?

Look at this bike! wow cool... It is a German maker's bike. It seems to be inspired by Kaneda's bike. Talking about bikes, the advertisement of Honda Italy is cool. This is Kame (turtle), Kiba (fang) , Ken (sword).

Even thought Japan is such a small country, there are 48 prefectures.  suppose we can tell all 48 prefs, however it'll not be easy to tell each location in a map. This is the interesting research "Prefectures which we don't know where it is". In bar charts, red is answer of Hokkaido and Tohoku area, Orange is Kanto area, Yellow is Chubu area, Green is Kinki area, Pink is Chugoku, Shikoku area, then blue is the answer of Kyushu area people. They pick the prefectures which have less presence in each area and then ask do you know where it is to people.

Saga(green on map) pref is picked as the worse presence in Kyushu area, 21.3% of Hokkaido and Tohoku area people don't know where it is actually. The funny part is Saga people admit by themselves, it's very country and not so special. Shimane pref is picked as the worst presence in Chubu area, and 34.6% of Hokkaido and Tohoku are people don't know where is Shimane pref(yellow part).

Shiga (pink in Kinki area) has Kyoto and Fukui (purple in Chubu area) has Ishikawa next to them, they would be overshadowed by those tourist neighborhoods.

In Kanto area, Tochigi was selected the worst presence pref. Actually 36.6% of Kinki area people don't know where it is (orange). Hmm. Tochigi has the national park Nikko and good hot spring area. For me it's a good place for a one-day trip.
In Tohoku area, Fukushima is picked in Tohoku and Hokkaido area. I can tell where it is, but I must agree with this result, because I can't imagine the specialty or famous souvenir of Fukushima pref. :-)

Perfect desktop

Here are the great traffic accident pictures. Something beyond repair makes me feel easy. It must happen sometimes.

This is the perfect desktop. This has nice sense.

A part of Okasa area uses blue light at night on the street. They said blue light makes people feel calm and the amount of crime is getting less. I feel this is a good idea and we should take this idea more.

Such a busy day

ぎょえ～忙しいよ。Small stuff I like today.

"Umai" is a casual way to say "yummy" in Japanese. This kitty says   "umai na! uma, uma!". So cute...It would be so delicious.

This is so sad, but funny. Maybe it's a TV ad from Thailand.

I love this news Toilets Beware, Germans Follow Directions to the Dot

Um, if you are a devout Christian, please don't look at this. Wow!  Christ is here too!

Parfait? Sundae?

I wrote that the corn dog is called American dog in Japan. And Cream puff is called "chou cream" in Japan. Today I found a difference regarding Parfait.

In Japan we call this kind of food Parfait: Typically, it consists of a dish of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup (often chocolate, strawberry) and in some cases other items such as chopped fruits, peanuts, whipped cream, etc. Yes, it is called a Sundae in North America. In wikipedia, American Parfait is described like this. French parfait has no article. I did not know that only Japanese call it parfait.

In the nature of "topping type food," Parfait can be a kind of "challenge menu". Sometimes it is too huge, sometimes it has unmatching topping. However basically we have an image for parfait, it is girl's sweet, cute desert. Actually some parfait has a cute name like "the glass shoese of Cinderella" . ha ha ha.

Then Nifty Portal Z has a series "Men's parfait." Its project is "Let's go to eat parfait with only guys." Incongruous guys went to a pretty cafe and ate big parfait, that all. But it's funny. They ate tall one, funny one, then huge one in  in tough guy mood. They call them parfait samurai because of  the eating way with long spoon. Ha ha ha, you have the same image for Sundae? It is embarrassing to eat it alone or with guys only? I hardly eat parfait because it 's so high in calories, maybe after I'm 70years old, I won't care about weight so much and eat parfait as much as I want. :-) Ah! As a mischievous trick, how about  this?, fallen sundae food model.

By the way, Speaking of corn dog, I love "THAT part".   Nifty Portal Z has the post  "let's eat  THAT part of corn dog as much as I can, It's not the main body, I love crispy bottom part.  We say "Kari kari no tokoro"

Paris syndrome

The French magazine "Le Journal du Journal du Dimanche"  ran an article about the fact that  some Japan tourist in Paris have had to undergo psychological therapy.  The number averages around 12 a year. The reason for the therapy is because these people became mentally unbalanced when encountering something unexpected on their trip -- rude Parisians, dirty streets, etc.

The article went on to say that the Japanese Embassy in Paris has sent four people back to Japan this year. Two of them complained that their hotel rooms were bugged as part of some conspiracy. One believed that he was Louis XIV. One woman believed she was attacked by an electric oven.

The magazine calls it "Paris Syndrome," which was first named in 2004 by a psychotherapist. Wow... Is this only happening to the Japanese? Actually, when I was there, I was shortchanged twice in a cafe, which made me a little disappointed. But I also have fond memories of the food and great museums.

By the way, the "Big Three"; page of Japanese Wikipedia is funny. It has the Three Biggest Tourist Attraction Disappointments: Merlion of Singapore (it doesn't spray water anymore), The Little Mermaid of Copenhagen (too small), and Manneken Pis (also too small). Since I've never been to any of them, I can't be sure :)

New Izakaya trend

For no reason, I did not feel up.  Do you have such days?  What do you do to feel better?  I went to the gym and talked to my muscles.  It worked :-)

There are countless Izakaya in Tokyo.  But I must tell you, not only me, but my friends are saying they are "getting tired of regular Izakaya, especially chain Izakaya."  Izakaya need character to survive.  For example, "A Hide-out in Kanda, Vegetable Izakaya GENKI" has a mood like "a neighbor's home."  They serve vegetable dishes.  In this one, Okasan, all the cooks are women like Mom, and you can enjoy Mom's hand made dishes.  I like this "do it yourself" Izakaya. In this place, you grill seafood yourself on a "Shichirin" (a Japanese charcoal grill). In this one, "Honan", you cook your food on "Irori". I think it is because of the slow food trend that these kinds of Izakaya are popular now.

Some say the new trend is Japanese dried fish,  "Himono". They have more calcium, phosphorus, iron and potassium than raw seafood and most of all, because drying fish in the sun increases  the UMIMI  (savory flavor),  himono is very tasty.  "Ichiya Ichiya" serves Ichiyaboshi (fish dried for only one day) and white rice cooked in a traditional rice cooker, a "kamado".　Aburyanse Hyakkan, Ichigo and Kemuriya, those are all Himono Izakaya. Just reading the menu is making my mouth water, but this would only happen if you're Japanese :)

When I checked some Izakaya information, I found there are many Izakaya in New York now.  I think you can enjoy Himono at Aburiya Kinosuke. Please check the review here and here.　Izakaya Kenka looks like a very authentic Japanese izakaya to me.  Check it out.

What do you want to eat the most?

There is no nice topic to write about today.  Yes, "Hageshiku neta ga nai."  So I will pick this: "The ranking of the best food which I was in animation and want to try the most"

1.Heidi's Cheese : The original is the book written in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. You will know this this animation. You will know this animation.  It aired even in Switzerland.  To be honest, I have never seen it because I was addicted to Ultraman Ultraman (wiki) and Kamen rider.(wiki).  The cheese in Heidi is so impressive, even my co-worker said he wants to try it.  Considering that he is 42 years old, this sounds like some kind of trauma.  Actually, the official Heidi site has the recipe of cheese.

2.Oishinbo menu : I don't think this animation has aired in other countries.  This is a gourmet animation.  The main character, Yamaoka, tries to make the ultimate menu.

3.Meat from Hajime Ningen Gon :  This hasn't aired in other countries either.  I love this animation.  Gon and his family always eat chunks of mammoth meat.  I don't know why, but those looked very delicious. So I agree with this ranking.  This restaurant serves meat on a bone as "stone age meat". And the meat is an important item of Gon's figures. You know how much we love that meat. I could find only  the slow ending theme on youtube.

4.Anpanman's face : Yeah, I wrote this before.  At any rate, I don't want to eat his face.

5. Senzu Bean from Dragon Ball:  I don't know Dragon Ball very well. It doesn't look so delicious to me.

I agree with "Corn from My neighbor Totoro (13th)" and "Cheese from Tom and Jerry"(9th), which would be Emmntal. However will pick this as No.1 "white rice in Nippon Mukashi Banashi"（Old stories of Japanese).  Here is an old TV campaign ad of Japanese government,  in which they use Nippon Mukashi Banashi characters. That campaign theme was "Mottainai". Yes Ginshari!! I am so Japanese. :)

Pachimon

I wrote about the boom in ear ethetic for women. Then the men's ear ethetic opened in Ikebukuro.  Ha, ha, ha...their service is another type of healing.  Nice looking ladies clean your ears on their knees. We call these "hizamakua" (lap pillow) and "mimikaki" (ear cleaner).

We refer to fake products by the slang term "pachimon."  ("Pachi" means "to steal" in the Osaka dialect)  I wrote about  this crazy pachimon recently. I suppose Mickey Mouse has the most fake items in the world.  For a Japanese character, I wonder if it would be Doraemon.  Actually, the U.S government has one :-) Or it will be Pikachu. I worte about a Pikachu bike before--- this one is of good quality.  But throughout the world,there are many crazy, ugly Pikachus.  This is a Pachimon Collection site. 1.2.3.4. Ha those are great. I like this and this from Taiwan. What an ugly...But the worst one will be exactly this. ha ha

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Diet!

On October 10th and 11th, there was an interesting case in which a car license plate, hood, the door of a private residence, the name plate, etc., were found to have been mysteriously painted gold.  This motorbike was originally black. The owner said, "What can I say?" Yes, I agree.

Today we have this  "Overweight men increasing in Japan". Hmm. if you want to be choiwaru oyaji, you need to worry about what you're eating.  On the same day, I found this blog too. A few years ago, a husband was diagnosed with some health problems during a physical exam.  After that, his wife cooked low-calorie and low-fat food and the man posted them on his blog every day.  The page design is good, using the dishes and arrangements to heighten the sense of the food.  And the great part is that the man and his wife are almost 70 years old.  I feel that good food won't make the brain, body, or spirit rust out.  In their blog, there are a lot of hints for dieting.  They eat Japanese food often and use bamboo, mushrooms, and other such low calorie and calorie-free ingredients.

Speaking of weight, Kunihiro Matsumura, Hikaru Ijyuin, Hidehiko Izhizuka and Papaya Suzuki from Debuya are called "Debu (fat) four heavenly kings". But Matsumura has lost over 30kg weight. His diet method is walking while watching "ebi-chan" (cute fashoin models). He says he can walk longer with those models cheering him on.  This way is called the Matsumura Method and has an entry in Japan wikipedia. You think it's such a silly idea?  But I can tell you it works.  Actually, I use Jin Akanishi as my cell phone wallpaper and imagine him saying "debu!" to me.  So I'm patient about eating sweets. This is the Masochistic Mari Method.