Mari - diary

what do you want to eat?

Wow! I am impressed by this . This one will be nice for Hikkikomori, they could enjoy more and more private space,  This one would fit for stressful salary men in this country.

When it comes to stress, it would be so stressful to solve this 3D puzzle.

A Japanese magician Mr.maric shows the trick of levitation.  Ah now I understand!

This is the ranking of food that you want to eat just before you die. This was surveyed in a younth music magazine, so the result is just like a young person's taste. But still it's amazing No.1 is Hamburger.
1.Hamburger
2.Curry rice
3.Sushi
4.Miso soup : Those two pretty boy "Tegomasu" from Johnny's group (this is my post) debut in Sweden in English song Miso soup . Hmm why Sweden? why in English? why Miso soup?
5.Rice ball
6.Cake
7.Nikujyaga (Simmered meat and potatoes)
8.Omurice (Omlet rice)
9.Korean BBQ
10.Teppanyaki (meat roasted on a hot plate)
hat do you want to eat before you die? Hmm, it's tough choice. I think I want something very sweet. I prefer Japanese sweets, maybe Yokan or oshiruko (sweet red bean soup).

Kokuyo Design Award 2006

Sometimes in my blog I post links to the biggest stationery maker in Japan, "KOKUYO". I look forward to checking their KOKUYO design award every year to see unique ideas and imagine which ones will be real products later.

This is the result of the KOKUYO design award 2006. The winner is this "Slice". It's a sticky which looks like a red onion. They said its color changes like a real vegetable (maybe lighter color?), so that you can know how long you’ve left it. Hm, it's great, isn't? I packed SAKE to take to the U.S. I was so annoyed with sealing tape. So I am impressed with this crast-tapecrast-tape. You know how it's nice to know the center of the tape when you pack. Which one will be a real product of KOKUYO? Hmm, the Slice would be difficult to make, and the crast-tape or TAS (paper cup with writable scratch red circle) would be easy to make, however regular tape and cups are sold in 100yen shops everywhere...So maybe "leafusen" ? (Fusen is sticky in Japanese) They can sell a "white tree board" for leafusen too. Don't you think it'll be a nice idea?

Anyway in this "Kimokawaii" post. Greg left a very interesting comment.　I agree with him 290%. All my American friends said young Japanese have only two words for something they like: they are only Kawaii (cute) or Kakkoii (cool). They said girls call them "Kawaii!!" whatever they do. Eating hamburgers at Mac, asking the way to the station, especially talking in Japanese, they have to be called "Kawaii!!" Then from guys and boys, they are called "kakkoii!" A)"I am American." J)"Wow Kakkoii!" A)"I ate ramen today," J)"Kakkoii!" I am not kidding. You should come here to check it.

Shojin Ryori

Shojin Ryori (Shojin means "devotion", Ryori means "cuisine") is a kind of vegetarian cuisine mainly for the believers of Buddhism. Wiki said "Rebirth is one basic tenet of Buddhism, and this includes rebirth of humans as other animals, and vice-versa. Due to the understanding of animals as conscious and suffering beings, many Buddhists do not kill animals and many also do not eat meat."

I was asking about Shojin Ryori from my foreign friend recently, but I didn't know about it so much. Actually I have very poor knowledge about Buddhism. Like I wrote before, I, my family and many of the people around me are not devout Buddhists. Not only for Buddhism, Japanese religious feelings seem to be unique. Actually, my Swedish friend went to a temple for ascetic training and he gave me a Shojin Ryori restaurant guide. I think he knew much better than I about Buddhism and Shojin Ryori. I checked about Shojin Ryori a little today, so I will leave the links here in my post.

>When Buddhism came to Japan from China, such vegetarian cuisine came together. But Shojin Ryori developed after the Kamakura period because of an influx of Zen. Rinzai and Soto are two big schools of Zen in Japan. Dogen is founder of the Soto Zen sect. He went to China to study Buddhism and learned about every daily life, including cooking and eating as a practice of Buddhism. He wrote "Tenzen Kyokun" and "Fushuku Hanpo" These books would be a kind of text book of Zen Buddhism.

In Shojin Ryori, soy beans are a very important protein source. But it's impossible to eat raw soy beans. This is one of the reasons why we have so many kinds of soy bean food like Miso, Tofu, Soy sauce, Yuba, Soy milk, Natto, Abura-age, Koya Dofu, Goma dofu (sesame), Kurumi dofu (Walnut) etc. Also, those foods are good for long storage and we need variation for not being tired to eat. Actually "Salad" -- eating fresh vegetables -- is not so old an eating custom for this country. One of feature of Shojin Ryori and Japanese traditional food would be time-consuming preparation like boiling, removing harshness, etc. This and this are nice articles about Shojin Ryori. Check them out.

By the way, some temples serve Shojin Ryori for people like a restaurant. And there are also Shojin Ryori restaurants. However I must tell you they are expensive! Like I wrote, I understood they are sophisticated, elaborate, but... still expensive. I ate Shojin Ryori a long, long time ago in Kyoto when I was a kid. I remember I was amazed to know it was just Yuba because I thought it would be hum. Shitake mushroom tasted like abalone, Koya Dofu tasted like chicken, etc. I really wanted to find a nice recipe site in English, but there is no good one. I wish this temple blog made an English page.

guy's disillusionary attitude

Wow, today is a funny day. Some world leaders fell down in public: Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Italy and President Fox in Mexico. As a Japanese, I remember the president of the United State of America puked in Tokyo, but his wife's speech was a nice funny one after that.

This is a result of questionnairing conducted by Ranking Japan, "The ranking of guy's disillusionary attitude for women." I wonder if you will agree or you think some are unique Japanese feelings?

No1. He acts arrogant at the restaurant or shop : 1017
No2. He asks to split the bill, it's 10yen : 985
No3. He panics when he finds a cockroach or other bugs : 871
No4. After eating, he cleans his teeth by toothpick without hesitating : 852
No5. There are too many figures on his office desk : 767
No6. Printed T-shirts can be seen through his shirt : 633
No7. He is poor at parking a car : 620
No8. He looks good in a business suit but his ordinary clothes are so so : 602
No9. He really gets into cell phone games on the train : 528
No10. He wipes his face with the "OSHIBORI" (hand towel) at a restaurant : 463
No11. He is not good at wiring, he is not good with the PC : 453
No12. His wallet is big because of receipts and useless cards : 431
No13. He checks and gives his hair a trim in the subway window : 400
No14. He wear a nice business suit but his socks are white and cotton : 336
No15. He uses pictographic characters on his cell phone mail :304
No16. His hand writing is so bad so that we can't read it at the office : 295
No17. His typing is too fast and too loud : 210
No18. He collects point cards or coupons a lot : 157
No19. He likes to drink sweet cocktails like Kahlua milk: 152

No3 is okay for me if he doesn't cry :-) I agree with No7; I need a guy who has good motor coordination. Parking should be a very instinctive reaction, like animal behavior. No10 is very Japanese ("OSHIBORI" is a wet hand towel offered to customers in places such as restaurants or bars in Japan). I understand No.16 too. I don't care about his writing in private, but when he writes something on paper or a white board at the office, I want him to care about others reading without problems; it's a courtesy. From that stand point, I understand No17 too. He may not mean anything bad, but his loud typing has to be taken as exhibitionism.

There is woman's disillusionary attitude also. But it's not so interesting.
No1. She smokes and let it out through her nose :686
No2. Her scent of her perfume is too strong : 549
No3. She applies make-up in a train : 546
No4. She sleeps on a train with her mouth open : 421 .....
Mm there are no impressive answers there. I won't complain because maybe guys don't care about small things and don't dislike women for unreasonable reasons :-P

busy weekend

I was busy to prepare for trip to the U.S in this weekend. I got a three bottles of SAKE and Shochu. In California, they say I can bring less than 60 liter of alchole. I hope I won't have any problem in the airport in LA.

I want this so much! Give me one stone cushion!

This is the great meat seat meat suit.

And this is a little scary if it has face.

Damen's Walker

Wow! Look at this: very mysterious "Stunning pictures of animals in the womb".

an official site of the animation movie Paprika was completed. You can check the trailers here.

Is there any woman around you who has to date a** holes? In many cases, she is really smart and independent, almost perfect at her job. But in private, she is run by her a** hole boyfriend. Her life is unstable and troublesome because of him. She regrets having such a bad guy, but next time, she chooses the same type, just another stupid jerk, as if she had a keen nose for a** holes. Is it impossible to understand her? I can very well. Actually, I feel there are two types of women: ones who always trap good guys and ones who always traps bad guys. And it does not relate to her intelligence at all.

"Damen's walker" is a coined terms. dame・means bad and no good in Japanese, so it stands for "bad men walker." "Damen's walker" is the title of a manga written by Mayumi Kurata which is a series of stories based on women's real, sad, but funny experiences with a** holes. So many Damen's walkers read and sympathize masochistically with stories like Narcissist man, Domestic violence man, Dutch account man (share everything), Mother complex man, Dreaming man, Question man (ask why why why always), "On the scrounge" man, pimp man, dirty man, etc.

Anyway, this Autumn, "Damen's walker" was made into TV drama. Norika Fujiwara is a starring actress. Recently it became a big topic that she would marry the comedian Tomonori Jinnai. Not only her, many beautiful actresses choose comedians as their husbands: Yumi Adachi and her husband, Emiri Henmi and her husband, Misako Tanaka and her husband, Kazuko Kato and and her ex husband. Comedian guys are very popular and they are envied by other guys. Well, relationships are always difficult to understand.

A new sushi sushi fraud

The malicious intentions of "Ore ore fraud" are known to everybody in Japan. Still, many people are scammed by it; the average person can't be strong like Osaka people.

Recently I heard a new kind of fraud is increasing. Actually I've read about it on people's blog so often. It's "sushi sushi fraud." Generally sushi sushi fraud is like this... One day a middle-aged guy with a white cook jacket and white helmet (typical sushi delivery costume) comes into an office around lunch time. He says, "Sorry, did you order lunch yet? My son got an order for 30 sets of sushi from the floor above, but he made a mistake. They ordered only 3 sets! Now I have 27 leftovers. Each package usually costs 980 yen, but I will give you a discount. It's only 500 yen. Would you buy it?"

When it comes to Sushi delivery, we usually think of "Nigiri"; we don't order roll, or actually it is pretty cheap to buy roll sushi at the store. Seeing the delivery man haste, office workers think the sushi will go bad quickly (which would be the case with Nigiri). And since it is exactly lunch time, people think it's a good deal and buy the sushi. But when they open the package, they discover it is just roll and usually costs less than 500 yen at the store.

Funny story? But I could find the posts where people fell for the fraud easily here and here and more, even WTBW too! We can laugh at this and sound serious. But since the delivery man does not say "it's Nigiri," I don't think it can be fraud. What do you think?

related link
Sushi topic from Paris
Eating sushi in Tokyo? I recommend this.

New diet method

I found this article on the car card advertising of Shukan Gendai. Then I went to the super market on my way home and bought two cabbages.

Dr. Yanase of Nagoya Univ created this cabbage diet and he actually has lost over 30 kg. It is very easy. Eat 1/6th of a cabbage by size before your regular meal. The basic rule is to cut them into 5cm squares and eat these squares raw with light dressing like lemon juice and pepper. When you eat it, chew as many times as you can. If possible, you should eat it before every meal, but otherwise, before dinner alone is fine. When you are tired of raw cabbage, you may try it boiled, pickled, or cooked with pepper, but raw cabbage is always the best.

A local train company needs your help

I told you we have an uncool image of Chiba prefecture in this their new logo post. Like James said in comments "Chiba is poor because we call them Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Narita Airport; even concerts at Makuhari are said to be taking place in "Tokyo."

Today I found another topic about Chiba. Choshi City is the eastern tip of Chiba. Speaking of Choshi, my image is Soy sauce (You may know Kikkoman, but other big makers Yamasa and Higeta are in Choshi), Bosozoku. (Chiba pref had many Bosozoku before, I am not sure now) and of course "Kujyukuri-hama" Beach that is a 66-kilometer-long coastline. At the northern end of the Kujyukuri-hama Beach, there is Inubo-saki Point, the easternmost peninsula in the Kanto Region. That area is very crowded on a new year day. Like I wrote, Japanese love to see the first Sun rise in a year and it was very good point to see that.

To go to the Inubo-saki point by train, you need to go to Choshi station by JR and take the local train Choshi Dentestu to Hon-Choshi.The Choshi Dentestu (of course they have no English page and their server is too slow) is the poor local train and they are in a struggle to survive every year. But last August, they found their ex president embezzled over a million dollars, and also they have to assume debt repayments of the ex president's private company. They are in a hopeless plight now.

Then they sent their message to people on their site. Their message is briefly, "We are very poor now, then in this way, we won't have the check on train by year end and we can't run some trains anymore. So please help us by buying our items on-line and hopefully we can keep our regular train schedule." What are the items that will save them from financial crisis? Japanese crackers: "osenbe"....which lack punch. Is it okay to sell osenbe? What a patient company. Since this is becoming a topic on the Internet, they should find better, high costs items. Choshi people won't lose their means of transportation and this will help the company to be more aggressive.

Austria got angry?

It's very difficult for me to understand this. I hope it makes sense to you.
The Commercial Section of Austrian Embassy in Japan released an official statement that they will change the phonographic writing of Austria from オーストリア(Austria) into オーストリー (Austry) in Japanese. Why? Because people confuse Austria with Australia in the southern hemisphere、they said. Here is the statement.

Thinking of their their long history, why are they throwing out the familiar spelling in this country? I won't be able to change my writing suddenly; I studied world history with “Austria” for 12 years. And should I pronounce the country name "Austry" too, or is that only for writing? Has this only happened in Japan? I am not sure. Actually we may mistake the pronunciation or spelling of those two countries’ names, but I can't believe people confused the countries themselves. But their original name is "Osterreichs" (it's close to Austry in pronunciation); Austria is the English name, like Spain's real name is Espana. Our country name is NIPPON. “Japan” is the English name which came from Marco Polo, who called this country Cipangu (Jipangu). We have never said "please call us Japan" :-)

What do you think? I am sorry to say this, but the interesting part is Austria felt bitter that they were confused with Australia.

As an additional topic, this National frag joke is funny. Check it out.