Mari - diary

Tokyo illustration

All we need is love from wired : Best predictor of a product's longevity: "Do the people who like it take care of each other?" like a historic shrine in Japan. Hmm, Interesting.

"The Tokyo illustration 2007" exhibition is held in the national art center.. Here are prize-winning illustrations. They exhibits some past eminent illustrater's work as a special exhibition. 　Yoshitaro Isaka : Olivetti's posters is well known as good design, they use Isaka's work in 1969. Here is another his works. Ohashi Tadashi, his illustration excessively graphic depictions of foods like very nice botanical arts. Look at those small fishes, kelp. Ayao Yamana was well known as his Art Nouveau mood. Japanese cosmetic maker Shiseido used his illustrations for thier ads often. Ryuichi Yamashiro's cats are nice. His cats look very noble and cool. Cats lover will love his cats items.Peter Sato is well know his pastel work of foreign kids. In Harajuku he opened small gallery. cute!. Macoto Takahashi's big eyes girls has a kind of nostalgic mood. The exhibition didn't take this works though, I think his work is very unique too. I found good illustration movies on YouTube. Check this out too: V Water - there's something in the water", "NO Boundaries"

Talking about Japanese artists, I like Tadanori Yokoo, and his chaos cool crazy world. Look at those posteres. I can sense his "energy" from his blog. Love it.

By the way, I love breakfast, and I eat big a breakfast every day. Maybe this will be related to my love for simple foods like the travelers's food in fairy story. I wrote before this post "Nagoya morning set war". Cafes in Aichi pref compete for "how big" on their breakfast menu. (Sorry, all links are broken now) This page shows some cafes' breakfasts in Nagoya. You can eat all bread, eggs, salad, etc. for 399 yen. Cheap. I found this blog today; Ichinomiya city ( in Aichi pref) chamber of commerce and industry makes it. They introduced cafeterias in the city and also have "breakfast contests." Hmm, good idea, I love to see those breakfast pictures. But their breakfast is not big at all and many cafes put ANKO (sweet red beans paste) on toast! It is unusual for me.

Cats are cute

Good post! "Toys that should not exist." The first one looks like a Japanese toy...orz.

One of my favorite sites "thin building" added some new buildings. Look at this one. You can hug the building in your arms. Can you imagine that?

A Travel web site "Ja-lan"'s TV ads are cute. A cat travels SPA town and enjoys a Ryokan(Japanese hotel), Onsen (SPA), etc. Cat food brand AIXIA has cute ads. They made this one by public posting, cuuuuuute...This is a Japanese version, the last shot made me melt down.

By the way, when you see the page about paws on Wikipedia, on the English page, they show a dog's paw and on the Japanese page they show a cat's paw. Actually, Japanese love cat's paw very much. In Japanese, a cat's paw is called "NIKUKYU," meaning meat balls :-) This is the picture book of cat paw, this is cat paw toy, cat paw key chains, cat paw ball point pen, cat paw shaped sweets.

Iwami silver mine will be added to the world heritage. Here is an English site about Iwami Silver. As an industrial heritage, this is the first place in Japan. They still have from when they thrived on silver.

Summer features in Japan

This is a great car show attraction! Maybe it's at the Disney World?

This summer, the Dinosaur exhibition (Kyoryu Tairiku) is being held. They show over 40 skeletal preparations and a lot of dinosaur robots. It will be good entertainments for kids during summer vacation. Needless to say, they made their exhibition character, Yes we need a "character for everything".  Here it is.  He is a mix of dinosaur and Samurai. His name was chosen by the public: "Dina Souemon" (emon is a kinda classic name "samuraitic").  We have another great yuru-chara.

I got a message my new blog design is cute. Thanks! Those are Kingyo (golden fish) and it's one of  the summer features in Japan. When we saw this type of picture, we catch it's summer season immediately. But I think for other county's people gold fish won't mean summer.  What do you think?  So I will pick another summer features in Japan today.

Asagao : I didn't know Asagao is called Japanese Morning Glory in English. What a gorgeous name they have. Since they are easy to cultivate and grow so quickly, the observation report of Asagao can be a good homework during summer vacation for elementary school kids. I like this "Haiku". "Asagao ni, tsurube torarete, mora-i mizu" (morning glory, the well-bucket entangled, I ask for water). It means that a Morning Glory tangled the bucket of draw well and bloom, it's sorry to take off those vine to take water. So I asked for water from the neighborhood this morning.

Katori Senko : It's Japanese pyrethrum coils. The biggest maker Kincho starts TV ad in every summer. When I see it, I feel summer has come.  Their web site is good, (click everywhere) check it out. By the way, pig shaped ceramics are the most popular type of coil folder, I know some foreigner bought its as incense folder.

Furin : It's Japanese wind-bell made from glass or metal. We hang furin under the window and enjoy its cool sound.

Hoozuki : Wiki said it is Physalis slkekengi in English. On 9th or 10th of July we have "Hozuki-ichi" (Ground Cherry Fair) in Asakusa Sensoji. Seeing the news on TV, it means summer has come and rainy season will be over soon.

Nagashi Somen : It's flowing Japanese thin noodles. We put them in water flowing along a long bamboo gutter, then you catch the noodles with your chopsticks, dip them in a cool broth, and eat them. I don't know who wants this, but there is a USB somen Nagashi Somen machine.

Hanabi : Fireworks. My foreign friends said Japanese fireworks festival is the best. We have a lot of fireworks festival during summer. The biggest one in Tokyo is Sumida River Fireworks Festival. It will be held on 28th of July.

Yukata : Japanese summer clothes. During last few years, we had a little Yukata boom and young people wore Yukata often. They not only have a fashion purpose, those clothes are good for the humid Japanese summer.

As traditional summer feature we have more like  Mizu manjyu, Bonodori, Uchiwa, Sudare, Ajisai etc. As new one, Uchimizu Project and Candle night are kinds of summer events now.

The stinky food ranking in the world

I found this interesting article, the bad smell food ranking in the world. AU = Alabaster, the unit of the odor measuring device.

No.1 freshly-opened Surstromming - 8070AU : I knew, I smelled it before. It was amazing -- a cloud of flies came around the can as soon as we opened it. My friend said it was okay, but I couldn't get close to it.

No.2 Fermented skate - 6230AU : I have never seen this. It looks like regular sashimi, though they said it has a strong ammonia smell.

No.3 Canned Epicure cheese - 1870AU : I couldn't find canned Epicure cheese on the web. Some said it is a very sticky, heavy cheese made in New Zealand.

No.4 kiviak - 1370AU : This is the Eskimo's food when small auks are packed whole (innards, feathers and all) into a sealskin and buried for several months to age. It can be a dip for other foods. I saw Anthony Bourdain eat it on TV.

No.5 freshly-cooked KUSAYA - 1267AU :Yeah!! Japanese food ranked in! But I have never eaten Kusaya in my life. Maybe I don't need to eat later too. :-)

No.6 Narezushi -486AU : This is a fermented sushi that is said to be the oldest form of sushi in Japan. I can't eat much, but I like this one.

No.7 Natto -452AU : Finally Natto ranked in, but its smell is only 1/20 of Surstrming. I think now you feel easier to try natto :-). After the Natto Craze, we can buy it without a problem.

No.8 Pre-cooked Kusaya -430AU : Kusaya again. I wonder how bad it really smells. (What? I should check it as Japanese? )

No.9 Stincky Tofu -420AU :What a straight name it is. Wiki said Stinky tofu, but I am not sure that is the real name of this food. I am not sure I have ever eaten this before....maybe not.

No.10 Fish sauce -390AU : I call this nam pla or nuoc mam, it's stinky and I don't like this so much but I didn't think this stuff ranked in. My impression is there are not so many stinky foods in the world. What do you think?

Which one can you try? You won't try any? By the way, they checked the AU of dirty baseball socks after a game, and it was 420AU. Did you change your socks today? No? You can experience those food levels on yourself. Try it.

It's endless

Hmm, Jesus Car...Talking about a car, this dark mood site is provided by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc. It is impossible for me to imagine Toyota group has such a dark mood site in Japan.

Bubble wrap is called air packing, but we call it "puchi puchi," usually because of its popping sound. Kawakami Sangyo is a maker of bubble wrap, and they and a toy maker Bandai will co-release a new toy: "eternity puchi puchi." The toy has a similar touch and the real sound of popping bubble wrap. In real products, you can find a heart-shaped bubble in every 10000. Instead of that, eternity puchi puchi makes strange noises like a sexy voice, poopee, etc. in every 100 times of popping. At 819 yen, I think this is a good gift. I won't buy it myself, but I can help popping if I have it. Bandai will release this Sushi Roll machine too. Basically this is toy for kids, though we can make real sushi rolls. Cheap and looks nice.

He talks about my job area too, an interesting article "Tokyo, Living Lab of Possible Futures" via Wired Japan. My company has a very strict rule for PC use; it is terribly troublesome if I am asked to use PhotoShop on my PC. So I tried to find a good graphic program online. I think Next Image and Snipshot are good. I recommend them.

This is bad news : Takeu "Tsunami" Kobayashi who is expected to win his 7th victory on the Independence Day Nathans Hot Dog contest has Temporomandibular joint disorder joint disorder and can't open his mouth.　He lost his mother last March and is resting from his job for a while. I wonder if he can join the contest in this condition; he said he will join for his mother at any rate though. Last Saturday, I went to the the Independence Day festival in the U.S embassy's housing area. It is in the best area in Tokyo near Roppongi Hills. I ate a hamburger and a lot of free Coke and beer. That was interesting.

It's rainy Friday

I will go to the Medicom Toy Exhibition 07 reception party tonight. They give a special item for guest. Last time it was a Kubrick of Darth Vader limited version. I will tell you what I get today later.

The title of Biohazard 3 is "Residenta Evil". You can see the trailer on Japanese site.

Next Tuesday 26th June was the day that the U.S. returned the occupied Iwo Jima to Japan in 1968. You may read the news "Japan changes name of Iwo Jima" and I know it is a hot topic in the U.S too. Since I called it Iwo Jima always, I couldn't understand why they had to change the name. They said the original inhabitants called it "Iwo To" and when it was returned in 1968, the name was returned to "Iwo To" in the official Japan map, but when Geographical Survey Institute reversed the map, it was written "Iwo Jima" again. Original inhabitants sent a claimed to thr Geographical Survey Institute after that, then GIS accepted it. By the way, even the original inhabitants still can't go to Iwo Jima now. There are countless duds and remains of the war dead, American and Japanese. Without recovery, that island kept our history there.

The rainy season has started already. Today we have rain though we have less rain this year. It will be a big problem in August. This season,  the AJISAI (Hydrangea) are in bloom everywhere. Have you ever seen this flower? Its color is white at first, then changes to blue or pink and gets to be purple in the end. The flower's color depends on the pH of the soil. One tree even has pink and blue flowers sometimes. There are some temples called AJISAI temples because of their beautiful gardens. In the Kanto area, Meigetsuin in Kamakura is the most famous one. You can walk to the entrance going through a wall of AJISAI. Meigetsu has a chic round window and it is nice to see the changing of seasons on scenery from the window: spring, autumn and winter.

WWE SmackDown! is called Exciting Prowrestling in Japan

Two topics from other countries. BBC has very interesting news often, today's one is this: "Scientists' 'perfect' bacon butty ". And I love this! LEGO Alien. Cool!!

Oh! Ohmu Omurice! , looks yummy? Ridiculous?

This is a post: "The top ten weird and bizarre Japanese soft drinks" 6-10 and 1-5. Huh, good job and nice selection, but almost! No.8 is Korean fake Calpis, not Japanese. As a Japanese, mother's milk is really weird, I agree. But the others are okay....no?

The wrestling video game "WWE SmackDown!" is called "Exciting prowrestling" in Japan. Since I have never played it before, I am not sure, though the game would have a character editing function. I found strange movies with customized character on Youtube.

This is Kids TV program character fight ; Ponkikki vs Okasan to Issho. You see Gachapin and Mook vs Porori and Spoo...Hmmm scary. This is a match of Doraemon vs Pikachu. Their team mates are teacher Yamazaki and Kawauso, characters of the manga "Utsurun desu" (get infected) by Sensha Yoshida. (Wiki has a nice link!)
This is a video of Twin Angell, they are slot machine. characters. So I didn't know them, though it's interesting to see pretty girls wearing moe chara clothes hustle in the wrestling ring.

On July 7th

July 7th is the Japanese star festival "Tanabata". The festival is based on romantic folklore that Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair) were lovers separated by the milky way crossing the sky. They are allowed to meet only once a year on July 7th, the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calender. In Tanabata, we display bamboo trees and hanging wishes written on small paper. In the Kanto area, Hiratsuka city has Tanabata festival, but the most famous one is held in Sendai from August 6th, not in July.

In Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Tower changes it lighting color for summer on July 7th too. In winter time, their light is a warm orange color, and in summer time these are changed into white mixed. Some said Tokyo Tower is the power spot. I can see the tower from my job while I am working. Actually I like it and I am glad to have such a job situation.

The tower is a sort of symbol of Tokyo, but only two hours on one night the tower turns its lights off. It's "Candle Night". Last two year, I wrote about this and now I feel summer has come when I pick this news. I will turn off the lights and maybe the PC too... (it's more difficult for PC addiction).

Solid alliance's new product is nice for a hot summer. It's a USB refridgeater. You can keep your canned drink cold with your PC. This sounds good. I like this cute heart mouse too, the round shape is very lovely.

Youtube started foreign language pages, and this is the Japanese page. I am not sure, but on the Japanese page, can we see only movies from Japan? I hope not, but the videos on the front page are different. I can find funny videos accidentally; that is the good part of Youtube. Today I found this movie, "how to make Anpanman Sushi Roll" (Who is Anpanman?) I think I can make this.

The best art 100 in Japan

the Japan media Festival is a sort of contest that is hosted by Japan Agency for Cultural affairs. You can check the award-winner's art in their official page. Every art is good, though I love this small movie. "Cornelius -Fit song". You can check past 9 years result in this page.

Last year, they chose the best 100 of Japanese arts and entertainment in addition to regular awards to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the festival. They picked the best 100 in four categories: arts, entertainment, animation, manga. These were chosen by popular vote on web sites and specialists' questionnaires. Here is the result of art, entertainment, animation and manga. (Unfortunately they have only Japanese pages, but they should make English pages soon.)

This is the best 20 of animation. I think I can agree with this result. 
No1 Neon Genesis Evangelion : Rei Ayanami on T-shirt project
No2 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
No3 Castle in the Sky : Small trivia of Colonel Muska
No4 Gundam : I can't count how many times I wrote about Gundam.
No5 Lupin the third ;The Castle of Cagliostro : I wished I could be Fujiko Mine when I was kid.
No6 Mushi-shi : DVD will be released soon.
No7 Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex : This is my favorite. Did you see Solid State already?
No8 My Neighbor Totoro : I picked Glibli's movie on this topic recently. Movie location.
No9 Fullmetal Alchemist
No10 Ghost in the shell: I really enjoyed this comparison movie with Matrix. Both are my favorite.
No11 Dragon Ball
No12 Prince of Mononoke
No13 AKIRA : Here is the real Kaneda bike.
No14 Spirited Away
No15 Doraemon
No16 Fullmetal Alchemist-Conqueror of Shamballa
No17 Porco Rosso
No18 Legend of the Galactic Heroes
No19 Crayon Shin-chan : I don't like this animation.
No20 Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Those animation results were so different om specialist (I can't find the members list) questionnaire. Hmm a little bit old and conservative selection.
No1 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
No2 Astro Boy
No3 AKIRA
No4 Lupin the third ;The Castle of Cagliostro
No4 Manga Nippon Mukashibanashi
No6 Neon Genesis Evangelion
No7 Gundam
No8 Sazaesan : Sazae san is Japanese economic index and symbol of Blue Monday
No8 Doraemon
No8 My Neighbor Totoro
No8 Aatama yama. Maybe you don't know this animation, you can check it in his official site.

Someone made a video of the 50 best manga from this result with those book covers. I won't agree that  Slam Dunk is No1 but PLUTO is 42 and 20th Century Boy is 36. Check it out.

Crazy new maid service

It's humid today in Tokyo, so I would love to eat a big salad for my lunch. When you eat salad, what kind dressing do you like most? I really love Japanese dressing (we say "WA-FY" dressing). It's very popular in Japan. Actually, at my company cafeteria, Japanese dressing has to be gone faster than others at the salad bar. Here is the recipe. Substitute sesame oil for regular oil and add some sesame seeds, and it is called Chinese dressing in Japan. Both of them are good for tofu, boiled chicken or roast beef sauce. Yummy desuyo!

I told you Billy would come sooner or later. I got this new this morning! Yes, he will come here on the 20th. His schedule in Japan is filled up already with a lot of TV shows and interviews. すごい人気だね。I found this one "Parody of Billy's Bootcamp" by Shingo Katori on TV show SMAP SMAP.

Crazy...this is really crazy. I thought the maid cafe would be a temporary boom, but still they are popular and they provide new services. Not only in cafes, there is maid reflexology, maid beauty salons, maid ear cleaning service, etc. I found a new one today: it's maid sleep sharing! (orz....) They said the maid will come to your home and enjoy TV, videos, and games together with you, as well as sleeping together with you. They also have such options as ear cleaning ear and pillowing your head on her lap, though they never allow cameras, never touching and NEVER MORE. Well... okay maybe shy and lonely maid fans will use this service. I will check this site again later.

Did you know the new sport "extreme ironing?" Here is the article from the BBC and here is the video from YouTube. I knew about it because Yahoo Japan picked the official site of "Extreme Ironing Japan." They have an official iron and official iron table and here are their playing photos....hmm, what are the rules? How I can win? No shrink or form of ironing?