Mari - diary

Kamen Rider

Look at this 'Collector Spotlight: Yexel's Toy Museum'. Hmm, is he a son of a rich family or something? He has everything from Micky to Tomorrow's joe, everything! This and this is the web site of Kotobukiya he mentioned.

I didn't know that the TV series of Kamen Rider 'Kamen Rider Dragon Knight' has started in the U.S. Here is the trailer. It will be remade from Japanese 'Kamen Rider Ryuki'. Kamen Rider is a very long series that had started in 1971. You can see all Kamen Riders in this video on Youtube. It is such a long series, though the most famous one would be the first Rider. The main actor was Hiroshi Fujioka, but since the first series got to be such a big boom in this country, I must say he had to be typecast for Kamen Rider as a 'tough friend of justice'. And it was getting to be a 'Tough, straight sports guy having a muscle brain'. Here is a long TV ad of Sega Saturn where he appeared. And recently he is on ads of beer. Ha ha ha, see? You know such an image. I picked Kamen Rider in this post before 'Trauma and Shockers'. Now kids are becoming adult enough to sense the sorrow of enemy shockers.

I found this site today. He took photos of bridges over Kanda River that is the dirtiest river in Tokyo. Over middle age Japanese have a certain type of image for Kanda River. 'Young, Poor, Sorrow'. Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary had much effect on Japanese folk singers before, in the early days Japanse folk songs had the character of protest songs but they became more pop and more popular music later. One of the categories of Japanese songs is 'Yojohan folk'. Yojohan means four and half tatami room and Yojohan folk means a song about life, love, dreams and collapse of poor young people who live in such small rooms. Kandagawa (Kanda river) is a representative example of Yojohan folk sung by Kaguya hime. It's a song about a couple who are living in a three Tatami room around Kanda river, meaning they might be students of Waseda Univ. Here is the video from Youtube. 'Don't you remember? We went to the public bath together covering our necks with red towels instead of mufflers'...orz. It's not my taste, though I guess the bridge site looks nice when you know such background.

SAC cafe

Ha ha ha, this sumo match looks like a super fight. But I can tell real sumo is really great, it doesn't need any special effects. I don't like entertainment fights like Pro-wrestling or recent show-type matches in Japan. Look at this, that giant guy with dummy is an ex-Yokozuna (sumo champion Akebono). Hmm, pitiful.

These are just cooking toys for kids, but they look very nice! 'Home Sweet Doughnut' makes baked doughnuts with cake mix in your kitchen microwave. Non-fried, they can't be called doughnuts, but it's much better about calories. And this is good too: 'I love chips'. You can make chips in the microwave without frying. That's lower-calorie, too. Potatoes, apples, any veggie would be good. Did you know lotus chips are really good, too? Try it.

Mitsuya cider is a clear cider (soda) that I loved when I was a kid. Since I drink non-calorie Coke or Pepsi only, I hardly ever drink it now. I found their web site has some recipes with cider. I knew and wrote that you can cook delicious pork with coke in your rice cooker. Since cider is clear, there are more variations. I like the cider salad dressing idea with lemon juice, salt, pepper, mustard and olive oil. I guess kids would love to eat salad with that. Cider pickles is good too, boiled vegetable pickle in cider, vinegar and soup stock. Try them with some clear cider.

Ah! talking about clear cider, we have KIRIN LEMON too.  Last year, Production IG made their TV ad. Here it is. There was another version in this series that got a TV ad award in Holland; I am still looking for that one. By the way, Cure maid is a maid cafe in Akihabara. They sometimes have event weeks, last one was Evangelion week. They serve Misato curry or such eva-related food. This time, it will be Ghost in the shell stand alone complex; they will serve laughing man hotcakes, Tachikoma Jelly, etc,.and sell SAC items. Now Japan's official SAC site shows a 'TACHIKO MAP', you can see many Tachikoma in real life, click next and new on the snap memo. CUTE!! I love Tachikoma.

Strange fujoshi game

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The names of actors and actresses of the movie 20th Century Boys were released. Wow, nice! They are similar in appearance to each character.

I read some guys would love to try a men's bra, Like this one? I understand some pepople like to feel tight on the chest. They might feel easy, the heart part is protected or warm. Don't you think so?

I picked some great artistic mom's handmade bento(lunch box) like this and this. They are called 'chara ben', it stands for character bento and usually their bento motif is cute characters or anime characters (ah, moyashi mon!) which children would love to see and eat. I found another type of artistic bento. She made bento from a CD jacket! Wow, great job.

Do you know Fujoshi (腐女子)? The word is written 'rotten girl'. It is the internet slang that means otaku girls who like anime, manga, games, mainly those of Akiba culture. Fujoshi in different kanji (婦女子) means 'female', so it is a sort of a play on words. By the way, a new game 'DUEL LOVE' that Fujoshi would love was released and it became a topic on the net. There are nice looking boys and you take care of them. Here are some captures of the game. 'Wipe his sweat', if you can do it nicely, you can send him into ecstasy. If you do it rough, he will get angry. 'Blow the steam from the shower room'. Blow the steam inside the shower room with a touch pen so that you can see him nude..............orz....weird.　きもっ

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.

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).*

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.

Tommy Lee Jones in Akiba

This movie got good ratings on YouTube, please check it out "JapEn - Japanese Collaboration Video".

Japan Pen Spinning association and Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy make a ball point pen for pen spinning "Pen's Gear" (of course you can write with it). Its barycenter is on the center of the pen.

Some more topics. I laughed to see this photo, "free hand head gear"...ha ha ha ha. And this is an art project "Layer Project" for uniform fetish and sentai mono fetish. And the funniest one is this. I wrote Tommy Lee Jones appears on Japanese canned coffee TV ads "Boss Rainbow" sometimes. In the latest version, he goes to a maid cafe and experiences MOE world, here it is. This guy collects (thank you!) the series of TV ads, unfortunatelly they will be deleted from YouTube sooner or later, don't miss it. :-)

Night Head

Here is TV animation series version of Night Head Genesis with English captions. That manga made into the movie. I mentioned Etushi Toyokawa would play Tomodachi in 20th century boy. He acted Naoto on Night Head.

Murakami arts

MOCA (the museum of comtemporary art LA) has @Murakami, that is an exhibition featuring more than 90 works of Takashi Murakami. This is funny news, a panel of the exhibition was jacked by Eklips AWR/MSK. They did the same to Puffy before too. I like it! Do you know Murakami learned Nihonga "Japanese-style paining", his flat work based on his such knowledge. I found this interesting article "How Japanese style Illustration works", the guy talked about Murakami's flatness and Ukiyoe. Check it out.

I found Yuji Moriguchi on pingmag too. His Showa mood, erotic illustrations are interesting. He would be influenced by erotic Ukiyoe ; Shunga too. Moriguchi draw octopus often, octopus used as motif in Shunga. This is Japanese specters by Morigushi, nice! By the way, his "lovely" sliding doors are すごいね。

Death Note one shot & miserable Gundam

Death Note will return this Friday as a one-shot story on Weekly Shonen Jump.  It will be a 44-page short story. I think I will buy the magazine. :-)

Do you know the PS real movie game "0079: War for Earth"? I heard about it before but I have never seen it, Today I found a blog talking about it and they show movie on the YouTube........Sorry, but so bad, especially Char!!.
GUNDAM 0079 The War For Earth
GUNDAM 0079 The War For Earth Part2
GUNDAM 0079 The War For Earth Part3
By the way, that Char has a chin like him. Those types of chins are called "Ketsu ago" in Japanese slang. Ketsu means butt and ago means chin. Hahaha, I think such a chin is sexy, but Japanese guys hardly have it.

Japan Muji has KUSO (imagination ) MUJI where people send product ideas and also vote for good ideas. If the item gets 1000 votes on the site, it will be a product in  MUJI stores. Transparant sticky note had 1000 votes and finally started to sell in the store.. I like this so I voted to this extention code, very cute and match to interior. Now this mirror message magnet board got 280 votes, that's good idea too.*