watashi to tokyo

new street computing style in Akihabara

New AKihabara phenomenon...Standing typing style is called "Koike Style" they said, cause Mr.Koike started it first. Anyway, why they don't use iPhone?
 

Finally Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested today. His photo after cosmetic surgery was pretty shocked to us, all Japanese looked for him.

Anothere Japanese curry fan's post, she writes her recipe too. She cook curry udon but penne or such macaroni or chinese noodle is good too. If you make curry a little bit thick with less water, it will be good for bread too, you can make hot sandwich. Curry is really good at chilly winter night, try it.

 

Lipton tea started new sweets collection. This is 7th series and they collaborate with DAMEL. When you buy a bottole of Lipton tea, you can get one of those key chain sweets. Since they are exquisitely designed, Lipton sweets collection is very popular series and there are a lot of collectors.
The 1st series was Pierre Herme.
The 2nd was The westin Tokyo tea time.
The 3rd was sweets collection.
The 4th was Pierre Marcoline.
The 5ht was sweets collection 2.
The 6th was Delray.
It can't be good free souvenirs :-).

This is funny site "do the phrase about face with real face". The upper right one is "eyes get to be round" it means "marvel at" in Japanese. You may catch the nuance of the phrase with face? Eyse go to bo dots has almost same meanings. How about this? We say "beneath nose part grow down", it close to the meaning "be soft on women" or "think something ecchi!".

Axolotl bowl

Ferrari will open a theme park in Dubai in 2010 and this is the design of the park. I, along with many other Japanese people, think of the Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion when I look at that design. Apparently it's the seventh Angel, Israfel, right?   

 

   

I love monjya yaki. I know, it looks like quot;puke" (sorry), but it tastes very good. It's a little bit sticky, so we use a small flat paddle to serve it. I heard that a monjya yaki izakaya opened in Shimokitazawa, which is my favorite town. I will check it out soon.

We sometimes have animal booms in Japan. In the past, we’ve had had a chihuahua boom, a red panda boom, and then a frill-necked lizard boom because of this TV ad:

Axolotl were also very popular in the 1980s. Because of their funny faces, they became popular as a kimo-kawaii character. Since we have an international trade regulation, there are axolotol that are bred within Japan. In the 1980s, one axolotl cost about 15,000 yen or so, but now the price is only 1/10 of what it used to be. So a breeding factory started to market them for edible consumption. This is an axolotl donburi. They say it tastes like chicken. Hmm, I am not sure I would want to try it.

 

This is a funny (or serious) list of Google suggestions. When you search the word "husband" in Japanese at Google Japan, Google suggests the popular search terms "husband, hope he dies," "husband, hate," "husband violent with words," "husband, fired," "husband, die, pension," and other negative phrases. On the other hand, when you search for the word "wife," the first suggestion is "wife, birthday gift" and the next is "wife, birthday gift ranking." Husbands are looking for gifts for their wives! Hmm… what a sad reality for Japan.

things that young people are turned off in Japan

When animals smile

Solid Alliance released these funny earphones. The screw type is called “Franken,” and the Banana one was probably inspired by this:

These are the things that young people are turned off by in Japan. I agree with this list because I am also turned off by these things:

Television: I don't watch much TV either, maybe a total of one hour a month. The quality of dramas and documentaries in Japan is not as good as ones from the US or UK.
Travel: I am not sure about this part, but I heard that young people love to save money because they have never experienced a booming economy in their life. They are more thrifty about money than older generations.
Car: Cars were important for dating before. The HONDA Prelude and the Mazda Familia were so popular that they were called “dating cars.” But now, young urbanities don't ride in or buy cars. Trains are cheap and convenient enough and young people hate to waste money on cars they don’t need.
Drinking: My generation enjoys drinking, but I heard that young people think drinking is bad and uncool.
Newspapers: I don't buy newspapers either, because I can read news on the internet, so why would I pay to read it on paper?
Tobacco: I quit smoking, though nowadays few young people start the habit… because of  ill effects of smoking works fine.
Science courses: I am not sure about this one either, but this might be related to the decline of science-based companies and the unglamorous image surrounding research jobs.
Professional baseball: No more stars like Ichiro or Matsui :-)
Love and Relationships: Because we are a dying nation!
Magazines: I can get more information on the internet!
CD: Download them, of course!
Game centers: Use the internet!
Pachinko: The internet is more fun!
Watch: Just use your iPhone or cell phone to tell time.
Sports: Hmm… people enjoy a variety of hobbies now. Also, indoor activities are really fun.

Here are some interesting pictures (warning: some are pornographic or grotesque) that you may use for handouts or information. I like these: names of beards, face list of real yakuza, military meals. The meal pictured in the upper left corner is served by the Japanese self defense forces, the next meal is from the US, then Holland and Canada. The gorgeous meal in the upper right corner is Australian. This picture compares the height of robots. I didn't know that Gundam is such a small robot. Can you find it?

Nice videos

Nice videos. Kyoto cruise and Tokyo cruise.

superalloy Apollo 11

Do you think this is real? "Geo-engineering Moscow Mayor Promises No Snow This Winter." We don't need snow! So let's have it fall in Alaska, he he he. If this can come true, the world will fight over rainclouds versus sunshine.

BANDAI will release this "Super Alloy Apollo 11 with Saturn V." Its total length is 76 cm. It’s constructed the same as the real Apollo 11; divided into 9 parts so you can reenact all stages of the Apollo as it traveled from the earth to the moon. Cooooooooool! I want it but it costs around $500! What do you think?

When I started my blog 5 years ago, there were not many good blogs about Japan, but now we can find really interesting ones like Pink Tentacle, Tokyomango, tokyololas. I found a new one today: "Michael Mckinlay.com" It's really fun to read! I like this silly Japanese shirt post, it's very true. Actually, one of my American friends collects silly English T-shirts. But I will say that foreign Japanese tattoos are the same. I can't understand why this guy would want the word "tomato" on his neck. By the way, when I found such great blogs about Japan, I realized that "introducing Japan" is no longer my role and it would be fun to change my blog into something new. I don't know yet what would be good though.

This is the new book "Otacool worldwide otaku rooms." If I search for the words "Otaku room" in Japanese, we can find some Japanese otaku rooms. It would be torturous for me to have to sleep in such a room.

Sachiko Kobayashi is a Japanese enka singer and she is well known for her super big electric dress on the Kohaku Utagassen (here is a photo of last year's dress). By the way, she came from Nigata and a 7.4m tall doll of her serves as part of a tourism campaign for Nigata. Since Nigara is famous for its "Koshi Hikari" rice, she is depicted on one knee, holding a rice paddle. Ha… how silly.

This country doesn't lead people to become happy

Great pop-up Lego Kinkakuji! I think he is a creater of this Yamato.

This is today's Googole Japan logo. Today's is in commemoration of Ranpo Edogawa's birthday, he is a pioneer of Japanese mystery novel. Nice mood logo!  By the way,  Ranpo Edogawa is his pen name, which is a Japanese version of "Edgar Allen Poe" (if you read his name backwards, western style: Edogawa Ranpo)  

I laughed a lot to read this ariticle. "A Saudi woman is seeking a divorce after discovering her husband had nicknamed her 'Guantanamo' on his mobile phone.". I remember my female friend had been nicknamed "Boris Yeltsin" but she never knew she had such nickname.

Do you have an image of Japanese people as being rich? Today I read some pretty shocking news. The rate of poverty in Japan went up to 15.7% in 2006. This group is people who live on less than half the average annual salary. And that 15.7% is the 4th worst in 30 countries of OECD. Since the Japanese average annual salary is 4,400,000yen ($44000). 15.7% of Japanese are living on less than 2,200,000yen ($22000). 180,000yen per month....hmm it may possible if they are single even in Tokyo but it will be a tough life. By the way, the point is not the money actually, we said "all-Japanese-have-a-middle-class mentality" before but now the gap between rich and poor is widening. This country doesn't lead people to become happy.

The houses in the world that you can buy 5 hundred thousand dollars

This is good.

This is really great job! You can read Japanese without any knowledge because font pronunciation is IN katakana font! "johnson banks:phonetikana"

You can see "how high the cost of living in Japan is". The houses in the world that you can buy 5 hundred thousand dollars. First one Thailand, then Bali, Chicago, Costa Rica, Brazil, Spain and the last match box is Japan. Of course location will be center of Tokyo though...it will float in the pool of other countries's house. But in Toyama prefecture, you can buy this size house for $200,000. Even in Tokyo, you can find this size of house in the far west Tokyo area (2 hours from the center of Tokyo) for less than $500,000.

Rikishi seal

I picked up "weird sumo wrestler face seals" a few month ago. It a mystery someone put seal of two faces of sumo wrestlers everywhere in center of Tokyo. Actually I saw it a lot around my job at Roppongi. Now the mystery became famous as "Rikishi seal". This Japanese blog "Ginza-spy" has the details of Rikishi seal.

What?: The rikishi seal has some type, with frame or without frame. with some beige color or just white.

When? :It was said early 2008 it started.

Where? : Most seals are in Chuo, Taito, Koto wards and they tend to be close to the station. So we can guess IT will move by train.

Why?:On the Internet, people guess the purpose of this seal. And there were 7 widely-accepted theories.
1. Artist appeal their art.
2. It's major prank like BNE or counter plot to BNE.
3. Cult or some religion.
4. Yakuza's territory demonstration
5. Curse?

Who? : Who do this? On the Internet, An artist or an artist group called "QP" was said "they may be IT". This is the poster of QP's art event, I will agree it has the same "touch". But when we search about QP, we found another artist "Almond". This is almond's art. The top log art has Rikishi seal mood and this is almond's page of an art magazine! Hmm almond might be IT too. Actually in the Ginza area, there are some writing " アーモンド" (almond) near Rikishi seal, it is called "BOMB" that artists write their name near their arts on the streets.

But we can't say only almond do it cause QP and almond seem to have connection, there are their name on the same art magazine "Dumb Magazine" and like I wrote there are some variation in Rikishi seal. By the way, those kind of stuff is fun because it has mystery. we can leave it without finding IT.

onigokko (tag) rader for iPhone

Nice stuff I found in foreign sites: "15 creative business cards to play with." And I want to this: air fan with no blades: "Dyson air multiplier."

And ugly stuff I found in Japan: new chindogu from Japan...orz. Those shoes are useless but that toilet paper on the head depresses me more... Just in case you like useless stuff like that, check out my old post.

There’s a new application for the iPhone from Japan. It's the Onigokko rader (tag rader).
1. Decide the play area.
2. The person who is “it” sets a virtual bomb inside the area. Only the “it” can see the bomb, other people don’t know where it is.
3. If you touch the virtual bomb, the iPhone sets off alarms and vibrations and the place where the bomb was is shown to all the “its” (when you are caught by an “it,” you become an “it” too).

4. You can see where someone is, but you can't know if he’s an “it” or not.
5. When the “it” catches somebody, he quickly sends his photo to all the participants.

Sound like fun, right? Actually this page was hot today in Japan, they played virtual onigokko in Akihabara. A guy said "let's play virtual onigokko" in an online chat and 18 strangers came to Akihabara to play. By the way, if you want that application, search for "鬼ごっこ"

Real size Tetsujin 28 go

14 years ago, Kobe area had big earthquake. 6,434 people were killed and around 300,000 left homeless. Damage was huge, over 200,000 building and highway were collapsed. Kobe city build a real size Tetsujin 28go, as a symbol of recovering from the earthquake and development to the future. They choose Tetsujin 28go cause the creator of Tetsujin was born in Kobe city. (but I guess they choose real size robot to compete to real size Gundam of Tokyo)