Small topics from Tokyo

Too much!Too much!　They are Japanese, and sometimes strange make-up comes from Japan. Those false eyelashes are much better than ganguro though. Ah, I remember Nifty Portal Z has this post "make long eyelash and glove by my hair". Hmm, that glove is cute; it titillates my fetish. I will admit I like some hairy stuff. ha ha ha

I thought that the "PC and Mac" TV ad series was common in the world. But only the UK and Japan had the same type ads. (why?) Here is a comparison video. I know those two guys in the UK one, and I think the UK ads looks nicer than Japan. I wrote Japanese guys are comedians "rahmens", but something is not funny like the US or UK ads. Maybe Mac is not so cool and PC is not naturally uncool. Here are some new ads with English subtitles: "Home Movie","Steps","Microsoft Office". What do you think?

Isetan Department Store renewed their DEPACHIKA (food floor). There are Japanese foods, foreign foods, events and market areas. They have 183 brands of food, and 40 brands of them are Isetan original brands. The "vegetable sommelier," "wine adviser," "Sake adviser" will help with your shopping, etc. I will visit after opening rush. When you come to Tokyo, I really recommend you go to some Depachika in Tokyo. You can see various kind of foods in this country and pick some sample foods too. It's good free entertainment for you.

My friend said to go to see this movie "Bridge". It's released in Ebisu Tokyo since this weekend. Hmm, maybe I won't go. My taste is cyberpunk, or at least I need Aliens or monsters in a movie. By the way, I have this link this link "Suicides by location" in my favorite folder, but I don't know why it was so impressive to me. I wonder why people chose the 69; what can you see from the 69?

In the end, two impressive topics from the UK. One is this video "Looks can be deceiving" And "Disguise that took the intrepid zoologist into the crocodiles' lair". He must really, really want to know the crocodiles more.

Comments

[stuz]

About the Mac ads:.... just the stereotypical view:

- speaking of "Times Square" in Tokyo in front of Shinjuku st - but what is that, a kind of a joke?
- No, it's a name a of a department store
- But Times Square is Times Square because the old Times Tower was there. The New York Times doesn't have a building in Shinjuku does it?
- Japanese think using names like that is cool
- Well it's not cool, it's embarrassing. Japan may have lost the war, but that was a long time ago now. Why keep imitating America

.. kind of describes the Japanese mac ad in a nut shell..

(.. would be surprise if smeone wasn't able to recognize the book I quoted above text from :D )

[Marco]

I want to visit Depachika! (^_^)V

[Heidi]

I found your site after reading about it on Japan Times online - your Eigo is great! Writing in English is difficult at best for native speakers, and your written English is better than that of most Americans'! Youku dekimashita ;)

This site is great for people like me who are interested in Japan and Nihon no bunka. You include so much information! Thanks for all your hard work and openess!

I visited Japan (stayed in Urawa and Akita)for two weeks in April 2005 (at the time of the big densha crash) to meet a pen-pal (who now lives in Yoshikawa) I had been writing to since we were in the 7th grade! It was the trip of a lifetime for me and I can't wait to visit Japan again! (maybe 2008)

I live in a rural area of Minnesota in the US and I was TERRIFIED of visiting such an uber-big city like Tokyo - and I stayed in the suburbs in Saitama! ;) Where I live, there are no commuter trains, buses or subways - just miles and miles of rural highway and gridlocked freeways. I was terrified at the thought of having to take commuter trains (densha to chikatetstu) to get around, but after I got there and rode around on the trains for a few days (even at rush hour packed in with all the salarymen), the thought of having to go home and drive everywhere was unbearable! Never take your amazing public transportation system over there for granted! Even the @ss grabbers on the chikatetsu are nothing, and far more tolerable than the kind of nasty behavior that happens on US public transportation, and especially on the freeways!

As far as the "depachika" at Isetan, I went to the Urawa Isetan depachika for hirugohan everyday for five days while staying in Urawa and it was just as you have described - filled all kinds of exotic foods (for me anyway) and the prices were very similar to prices at "depachika" in US department stores, like Nordstrom. In exploring all the shops in the area, I found a "depachika" in another department store in Urawa, Corsco, connected to Isetan by an underground walkway. The food there was just as fabulous - but very inexpensive! All Nihon no tabemono and all totemo oishii!

I also did some clothes shopping at both stores and loved the styles (much better than in Minnesota!) and found some great stuff on sale!

There is a great difference in fashion/clothing styles in the Tokyo area from Minnesota - H U G E difference! Japanese people are sooooo amazingly beautiful (perfect skin and hair!), both men and women, and everyone dresses so chic! The climate here in Minnesota is totemo samui (like Akita) for 9 months of the year so fashion takes a definte back seat to function - staying warm. I knew before I came to Japan that people dress very well there, and I did bring some nice clothes for dining out, but otherwise I live in cheap jeans, sweats and polar fleece, and that is what I wore nearly everyday in Japan. I felt like the biggest dork on the planet - a total hick - compared to all the beautiful people around me! Even the 80-year-old obasans were dressed more up-to-date and stylish than me! :(

But my most immediate and lasting impression of Japan was how clean the streets and sidewalks are! You could eat off 'em! I have visited many places in the US and have never, ever seen any urban landscape so well-kept, litter free and sparkling clean as Japan! Also, it was sooooo nice that everyone in Japan text messages on cell phones instead of talking loudly on them everywhere like nearly everyone does in the US (I HATE that!!! - especially when people use the phone while driving - totemo kowaii (@ - @) Also, I have never seen cell phone charms in the US - they're adorable!

If I ever get the chance to get back to Japan, I will try to take a couple of days to spend some time in and see the big city - Tokyo - and hope people don't stare at me, point and laugh... "baka gaijin!" because my hairstyle and clothes are so "Minnesotajin" ;)

p.s. Is there a website or list of Japanese emoticons so foreigners can learn them?

Dozo yoroushiku! (^ - ^)

[Jon]

The Apple TV ads in America show that Apple computers and the people that use them are supposed to be more fun and more creative.

The PC is supposed to be more boring so if you don't want to be boring, you should buy a Mac.

That is what they are trying to say.

[Sutanai]

Please let me complain a bit more (hope other readers and the blog owner will not get annoy after I posted a pretty long and perhaps aimlessly comment below),

Thailand has blocked Youtube website because some politic matter (Jesus!). I guess those links about Ads that Mari want to show are linked to Youtube. So I cannot see and comment about what I think toward those Ads.

Anyway.

[Adam]

69 / 71 marks the half-way point. So you park on either side of the bridge, walk half way, and jump. Most people jump from the east side because the two parking lots are on the east side. What surprised me was the number of people who jumped onto land, not into water. But I guess if you're going to jump, any place is as good as another. Oh, but what can you see from 69? On a good day, Alcatraz, Angel Island, the East Bay, Fisherman's Wharf, the Bay Bridge... pretty much everything worth seeing.
マリさん、来て見てください。

[Sutanai]

Please let me complain a bit more (hope other reader and blog owner will not get annoy after I posted a pretty long and perhaps aimlessly comment above),

Thailand has blogged youtube website because some political matter (Jesus!).
I guess those links about Ad that Mari want to show are linked to Youtube. So I cannot see and comment about what I think toward those Ad.

Anyway.

[Sutanai]

Japan market is one of the most important for every corporation who wish to enter. Each industry in Japan has extremely large market;
- Japan has the largest console game market in the world.
- Their automobile is ranked in the second behind USA, definitely USA has a much huger area & population)
- 7-11, Starbuck, and Macdonald each have a thousand (hundred) branches in Japan.
- 80% of Louis Vuitton revenues are from Japan market.
- Japanese eat more than 50% of Tuna catched from around the world.
- ETC.
These are some reasons, in my opinion, why Japan always has some unique products which cannot be found in other countries
- Toyota Japan has to most vary car model compare with USA Toyota, China Toyota, Thailand Toyota (the forth largest market for Toyota)
- Special louis Vuitton bags in their showroom
- I heard Starbuck is going to sell food, like pasta in Japan.
- In Japan Nike, Converse, Adidas and other shoe companies have a very very cool types of shoe (certainly those cool models are designed only for Japan Market- I am really envy about this!)
- ETC.

As a result of the Japan market size and special products, then companies advertising are also customizing made only for the market.

Advertising is usually made based on market research, customer perceptive which differs from market to market, and also each different country culture.

--Anyway, each person has a right to like or dislike an adverting.

This hypothesis, however, cannot be implied for every product in Japan Market. Like Macdonald and Coca-Cola sometimes they launch the same product around the world and use some same marketing strategy.

Macdonald used “I’m loving it” as a campaign to regain their customers backed after a huge wave of healthy eat trend flood around the world.

I am really failed in love with Depachika, it is one of the most favorite place to go when I was in Japan. There are always beautiful and delicious Cakes, special Japanese sweets, and more state-of-the-art food. Yeb but it is expensive and sometime it is incredible expensive for me. But I am still willing to go and pay for some reasonable price food at Depachika.

I had a very nice Gelato at a Gelato store in Shinjyuku Isetan Depachika a couple of years ago. Don’t know whether it is still existed after renewed or not, anyone staying in Tokyo please kindly check it out for me if you visit there.