Mari - diary

Ah YMO!!!

I found this YMO video on youtube. Wow I liked it very much. The guy on drums is Hideki Matsutake of logic system. 　He is a pioneer of Systhesiezer in Japan. I worked with him several years ago for some reason. Now I remember, that was good memory!! !!

This is my favorite : Rydeen in oyaji in Onsen style. I liked their sense.

Metal Gear seriese will over in this 4? It will be released on June. Here is the trailer. I have never played it but since I picked it on my blog so oftne. I am a fan of Skake now :-)

Kitkat "soysouce taste" is released in Tokyo. They say it soysauce and chocolate taste like caramel. I will try.

Orita sensei

This is a cute "Aquafresh and tomato ketchup" font.

I wrote about Orita Sensei on my blog before. He was the first president of Daisan High School, which was the predecessor of Kyoto Univ. But his statue was often the target of a vandalism? Finally, the univ removed his statue. But during entrance examination season, Orita Sensei came back in various styles :-). Last year he was POKO chan. This was appropriate because we had the FUJIYA scandal and POKO chan is FUJIYA's mascot character. Two years ago, he became the character Maruko-chan. Three years ago, he appeared as Buddha. And finally, this year he appeared again in this style. Oh! Donburi man from Anpanman. I hope there are more surreal ones next year.

Arte Luise Kunsthotel is a theme hotel in Germany. Each room is designed by a different designer and each has a unique theme. This is "107: Mammels Traum", this has a bit of a scary mood : "106 Endmor ne Berlin". I don"t think I couldn relax here : "411 Standby". This room is called "306 Comic". The description reads: "A characteristic touch is that every corner and angle is outlined with a thin, hand-drawn, black line whether on the ceiling, on the bed, or around a plug. The result is a dollhouse-like, comic book room with papaya green walls, a sunny yellow rug, a lilac bed and a pink cupboard. Graphics and decorations by the artist complete the design." Outlines make things look like a comic? I found a great post on my favorite site Nifty portal z. He draws outlines on everything and he found that outlined faces could be comical and are very similar JOJO's posing. (their strange poses are well known right?) ha ha ha funny...

from youtube

This is the new Akihabara website "akibana" for foreign people. That's good. I think Akiba should have more English information and sites available.

This is an old Japanese animation. Fake "Mickey Mouse" and "Felix the Cat" cartoon characters appear. Wow we shouldn't laugh at China!!

Damn! It's rocks! "Smoke on the water - Ancient Japanese style"

Ultra arts!

Autumn and Winter Paris collections have started in Paris. This is COMME DES GARCONS... strange clothes... I would believe it if someone told me that this was one of the collections. Actually their thin bodies and straight eyes are cool. I'd prefer fruit Katyusha to a onepiece attached to a small dress.

Ohhhhhh 超かっこいい cool: "Ultrart". The monster collections of Ultraman. This is "DADA", maybe it's named after Dadaism. This is "Jamira." He was a space pilot, but he ended up with such a gruesome appearance because of a space accident. It was a very sad story. This is Kemure, he appeared on Ultra Q. Now I know how he took those Frickr photos. They were not scenes from TV. Composite photograph?? Anyway I am surprised that I can tell the name of each alien and monster from the Ultra series. How addicted I am...:-p (even now?!)

Brian sent this BEANS art topic to me before. Here is more of his BEANS works. Beans Batman, Beans Kamen Rider (head is dango). Beans cell phone. Ha ha ha weird but cute.

We call the Tokyo and Kanagawa area "KANTO" (関東). KAN means border and TO means east. In the old days, there was a border in the Hakone area, so KANTO means east of Hakone. The Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara area is called "KANSAI" (関西), that KAN border refers to the one between Shiga prefecture and Kyoto prefecture so that KANSAI means west of Shiga pref. Those two similar words don't refer to the same border, it's a small bit of trivia.

In Kansai, there is Kansai university. The professor of the univ made a machine that measures laughter by checking diaphragm movements. The unit of laughter is the "aH".  Aha ha ha ha, it's funny.

By the way, the Kansai area is also called "KINKI". I read funny news: "KINKI university" will change their English name because foreign people often laugh at their name: "sounds like Kinky!" Actually when students introduce themselves to foreigners and say "I am a Kinki college student," foreigners would say to them "good joke!". Their college T-shirts were popular with foreigners. Hmm…Do you want a "Kinky Univ" shirt??

This is very hard to explain with my poor English abilities: "Apollo Poseidon Concept 2025". It means that they will try to make bio fuel from seaweed from the Japan Sea. (it's not a simple process, but basically that's the idea) I think it is really great! Japan is not blessed with natural resources, but in 30 years we can be rich like the United Arab Emirates and Tokyo will be like Dubai!! (kidding).*

Cat day

Nara prefecture will have a commemorative event celebrating the 1300th anniversary of Nara Heijo-jo Capital. Their mascot character is hot on the net. Here it is...orz, so weird. Buddha boy with deer horns on his head. It's a combination of Daibutsu and the deer of Nara park. I've said many times that the Japanese love mascot characters, but sometimes characters made by local regions or local events are of such low quality, we call them "yuru chara". In many cases characters are poor in quality because of low budgets (or make no sense like this), but I read it cost 5 million yen to make that deer Buddha! Ahh waste of taxes.

It's Feb 22th "222"and they say today is cat day. Why? In Japanese, 2 is read as "NI"; (like knee) and cats make the sound "Nyan". So somebody decided that today's cat day. (I don't think it's close, but I can easily accept that Jan 11th "1111" is Pocky day). My friend loves cats but she can't have a cat because of her apartment's rules. She said she visited a cat cafe and enjoyed touching and playing with cats. On my blog, recent cat topics were Hello Kitty costume and these crazy costumes. (I guess it will be hard to make a cat wear it.) Cats are pretty cute just the way they are, so I can't understand these clothes.

In the old days, people had an evil image of cats, like the cat monster "bakeneko". Look at this, this a bakeneko in Ukiyoe. My favorite Ukiyoe painter Kuniyoshi draws cats as his motif too, but he would love cats very much, they are cute. This site has a lot of nice cat Ukiyoe and paintings, it was interesting to find that Kabuki had "CATS" already. Check it out.

Kansai Yamamoto is a Japanese fashion designer, his works are very Japanese but 70's style. He made very avant-garde clothes and David Bowie wore his designs on the stage like this and this. An exhibition of his works will be held in Tokyo. I think I will go check it out.

Akira will made into real

Colorful cauliflowers could be healthier for you! Those colors remind me of RENOVA though.

It's destiny. Sweet story "Couple was born, died on the same day".

Alice sent me this news "Marc Jacobs made copy of swedish scirf." Wow, that's too bad.

This escape game "VISION" is really good. It's a Japanese game originally but they have an English version. Try it. Nice graphics, nice story and also a good balance of hints and difficulties. It is good to enjoy on your Friday night with a glass of alcohol. I did it on Wednesday night though. (Mari drinks too much recently orz.)

Finally AKIRA will be made into a film. Ruairi Robinson has been hired to direct and Leonardo DiCaprio will produce the film. I am happy that Hollywood will do it. Talking about Katsuhiro Otomo, do you know Genma Taisen?　That was the first movie where I knew Otomo, he designed characters of the movie and I remember I felt the characters were NOT handsome or cute like in older animation. I must saythe movie is not so great.(NSFW)  You don't need to see it.

This is the XBOX official site top pages. Left top is the US, center one is India. Which one is the Japanese site???.....orz. Ah, Japan did that.

This is a very old Japanese medical book. The first one is the human body and the next 5 pics were imaginary insects and animals that people thought caused sickness. Ah cute. I like No.4. I will make them my cell phone wallpaper.

small topics

Some animal topics. This is an old one, but we saw this posteverywhere in the Japan for the last few days: "Lab Rabbit Strongly Recommends Cover Girl Waterproof Mascara For Sensitive Eyes". This isa funny site: "obey the purebread". I want this: "Shiba inu evolution T-shirt". I must say this is creepy: "transformer pet". It lookslike a dead body.

Here are "Seven of the deadliest delicacies." They picked 7 deadlyfoods. Wow, we Japanese eat three of them! How brave we are... ButI recommend adding mochi to the list. I think at least 10 people died during the New Year.

Only people who can read Kanji on their PC will see this, a newKaomoji collection. I like both.
(-公-；）...annoyed
m9（￣Д￣）...pointing at "you."
If you like them, ha ha ha, here is a plug-in for kaomoji and this is "How to turn the words to Kaomoji".

I read the average updating period of Japanese blogs is 38.2 days.Only 25% of blogs survive for 60 days. Wow, short! I check someblogs every day as my new source; they keep their blogs for a longtime. (I never miss checking "Gorilla Boots" : I like her sense for picking photos. It's very fetish and addictive. She is good atpicking news for the site; unfortunately, it's all in Japanese.) Butmaybe most blogs will have disappeared before we find them on the net.Since I have been writing my blog for about 4 years, I must acceptrunning out of topics (yap! excuse). But I found this post, too : "top 100 blogs have an average age of 33.8 months". :-) Hmm. Perseveranceleads to success, right? I don't need to be a big blog though; I willkeep blogging as long as I enjoy it.

By the way, I found some very nice blogs about Japan and Japan Life. Check them out!
Pink Tentacle
Japan Q&A
Japan now and then

natural sweets in winter season

Wow, maybe he has to be shaved because of skin trouble. Funny....

Did you check wikileaks? Since last week the main site was blocked. I can't access it but I still can read this this mirror site. There are not so many Japanese topics yet, but I am very curious to read this site. 2ch has a similar thread and I read often before about my company too. But since 2ch is a public message board, sometimes they are just complaining.

I think I wrote about this, but I found the original file : "2004 global sex survery report" by Durex. Japanese think the sexiest feature is the breasts. (European people tend to think "it's eyes". Romantic!) Frequency of sex in a year is 46 which is the lowest in the world. (The top is French, who have 137 times.) And we have unprotected sex more than average. Wow...Sounds like a very plain animal, we Japanese are.

He just played Metal Gear Solid to take a picture of "ha ha ha good timing!" of enemies. Here is 1 and 2.. I don't play the game, though I understand he set everything very carefully and they would be miracle timing.

It's cold. Actually it is the coldest season in Tokyo now. Usually I have over 45 minutes walking at night, but it's too cold to go out so that I have to be careful not to gain weight. When I need something sweet, I try to choose natural sweet stuff. Dried Sweet Potato (hoshi imo or Kanso imo) is nice. Like other dried fruits, potato gets to be sweeter. If you can't find it at the store, you can cook it by yourself. Steam thin sliced sweet potatoes and dry them. That's all! Or another one is roast orange (Yaki mikan), cook a small orange in a pan or net. (this is a special roast orange pod!) That's all. The orange gets to be sweeter and its hot juice makes your body warm, and works for your cold too. Try it!

Obama city

Wow it worked in that shape "Wrecked Car Still Driving".

This English site say only anime girlfriend, but the point is that is PC! ; "Buliding an anime girlfriend".

Brian sent me this news ; "Obamas city in Fukui Prefecture support Obama". They sent a fortune Daruma ro win, two pairs of chopsticks etc to him.　I am not sure though Obama will likes to get it from Japan. :-) Obama means a little shore, it might be good for his "change" catchword.

Japanese cafe chain sues over low guide rating. Ha ha! But I won't recomment Veloce actually, I have to say Starbuck is best. If you visit Japan, you don't need to try any Japanese cafe or coffee chain. Starbuck is best in Japan about coffee.

This would be funny ; "Samurai dog armor shows pet armers how it was done in the good old days". I couldn't find any information about that armers, I wonder if would be made while Tsunayoshi was shogun. He issued "Shorui Awaremi no Rei" (Laws for Mercy to Animals)", it prohibitted to kill animals and dogs were taken care very much in Edo.*

Burn out

He likes the tetrapod very much, he says it's form and smooth texture is his spot. I understand a little bit. He made a paper craft tetrapod by himself. It's very cute! I want to try. It will be cool to set on your desk :-) Strange?

Kumano Kodo (Komano old road) is a Japanese world heritage that leads to three shrines in the Ise area. The Ise area is a sort of spiritual place where Koyasan, Ise-jingu and other such major temples and shrines are located. The place has remained unchangd over the centuries. You will feel a holy, spiritual power around there. I found this service"rental costume" on her blog; it will be a good idea to try an old Kimono and take photos there!

Talking about world heritage, I am very sorry to see the news of Namdaemun burning down. I have been there sometimes (I really love Korean food), so it was shocking for me too. The Japanese had a similar experience about Kinkakuji.. In 1950, the pavilion was burned down by a monk. His motive and complex situation were novelized by some writers. The most well known one is the work of Mishima. The main story was the same as the facts but some details are different. If you are interested, please checkJapanese wiki.

By the way, I love Mishima, he is a genius and he is crazy. I really wish he didn't commit Harakiri and left more novels. But I know his novels were so beautiful because of his very complex sprit and so I love his novels. You may find some videos about him on youtube. I found the movie KURO TOKAGE on YouTube. (Did I mention this before?) Mishima produced the movie and starred his favorite actor Akihiro Miwa (That beautiful lady is MIWA). Actually Mishima's sexual orientation still remains a matter of debate. In No10 or 11, you can find MISHIMA in the movie too(as a doll with knife), laguh....

And his movie choice is really great. suna no onna has English subtitles, check it out. It's Kobo Abe's great novel. It's an old Japanese novel like Steven King 's Misery.