watashi to tokyo

Good interior and design in Aoyama

In case you couldn't tell, I like pretty much all aspects of design, and espeially interior design. Recently I was watching Verner Panton's pantop lamp on Yahoo Japan's auction site. but I could not get it. Since I hardly ever see the pantop in shops, I was so disappointed. Now I am stuck looking for it on foreign shop sites and auctions. It is very difficult for me to navigate the Danish sites.

In Tokyo, Aoyama and Harajuku, (animation in English) are areas for finding furniture and interior design shops(map). The big brand names like Cassina or Allessi are in this area. (IKEA will come to Japan in 2006; yes we do not have an IKEA yet.) Sensible interior desing shop like hhstyle.com, Francfranc, pour annick, day by day, Time & Style Galleria, Laune etc,. etc,. are also there.

For imported daily products  and nice select shops, F.O.B corp's French selection, H.P DECO's used selection, and Torico's new designer's selections are very popular. assist Onhas many good PC accessory design, I like that flower print mouse!  Speaking of smaller items, both afternoon tea and Lazy Suzan have stationry products and desktop items.

So which is my favorite shop? That is a difficult choice, but I think it would have to be "idee". Like this articles said. Main shop is good, and inside idee pacific and idee flowers, the atmosphere is tranquil and very relaxing. I think a good interior desing shop has a kind of healing quality. I could spend a long time there. If you are interested in visiting some design shops in Tokyo, this page has some good information and maps of interior design and furniture shops in Tokyo. Check it out.

Play games during Goldenweek!

I do not play video games, I almost got a PS2 recently. Because a lot of my co-workers say they have fun rolling a ball on Katamari Damacy every night after work. I envy them! However, I passed up the temptation once again. (If not I would be home at this moment.) 
From the end of April until early May, Japan has it's Golden Week. The GW is a collection of four general holidays in one week. On a lucky year, we can have pretty nice, long holiday in combination with the weekends. This is 2005's golden week. Hmm not so bad. It depends on each company, but in the best cases people can have 10 days of holiday this year. Since I have to visit Stylish wave 05 Live which features many visual bands and a radio recording of D for an independent band web site. I'll have 6 days of holiday. Not so bad. I am a happy person now. I had planed to get a board game or a card game before the golden week. You know, I do not worry about becoming addcited to those kinds of games.

I researched several board and card games to find a good one. It was an interesting search that I have never done before. In regards to video games, Sony, Nintendo, Sega (this week they are in the news because of this ) such Japanese gaming manufactures are big. Speaking of Card and board games though, some fan sites and shops say the "Spiel des Jahres" ( German for Game of the Year ) is a good standard for picking interesting games. Germany also has another big award "Deutscher Spiele Preis "(German for German Game Prize). Germany seems to be enthusiastic about board and card games. The interesting part is that as hot as the German borad game industry is, its history is not so old. Basically board game culture was developed in the U.S first, then while the U.S moved into arcade games and Nintendo made family computers, Germany went into board and card game production.

This time, I bought the 6 Nimmt and Were wolf card games. And I cannot wait to play this Bluff (an American board game). Ah actually the U.S. About choose Bluff as No.2 in their Top 6 dice game. Since I was getting board with Grass and Trivial Pursuit/Japanese version. I am very happy to get three new ones, but they cost over 4500yen in Japan. Import games are always expensive. Regarding Japanese board games, I don't think we have any interesting ones. A famous one is Takara's Life game, you can play it as a Play Station2 game.　But I can tell you it is boring. you will have so many twins and big family. Strange game :-p

Kaiyodo, they are synonymous with otaku culture

Shokuganare toys that come with junk sweets. For example, ChocoQ is a popular sweet for acquiring Shokugan. But Shokugan have become very hot collector's items, so now adults buy the sweets for the shokugans. Here is a huge Shokugan collection site, you can have a look at the various Shokugan by clicking on the yellow links in the nav panel to the left. They have Japanese animation and hero collections like Gundam, foreign movie and hero collections like Star Wars, history collections like the world heritage, a culture collection like American meals, and even a detailed food collection like this Ekiben (compare it to the real one?). You can get this Takashi Murakami collection with candy at a convenience store, but not at the Louis Vuitton shop. and since Shokugan is going to the so detail and Otaku culture, look at this Kurosawa collection.

The market size for Shokugan is said to be about $8,000,000 annually. Kaiyodo is one of the biggest and hottest producers in that market. Their obsession with creation/design brought them notoriety around the world. From their modest beginnings as a small modeling shop, Kaiyodo has now become synonymous with Otaku culture. In 2004's Venice biennale, the Japan pavilion introduced some Kaiyodo items as Otaku culture. On their web site, you can check out the new items. The Dinosaur Expo is now being held in the National science museum. Sue the T-Rex is visiting Tokyo from the U.S :-), so Kaiyodo made an official figure of her. Kenshiro stands tall at 40cm ; on the other hand this Dim Sum is so tiny. I do not collect Shokugan because I know it would turn into an addiction. I stopped collecting my bottle caps because I knew this kind of thing could go on forever.

Anyway today I read this article about an exhibition of their history at the Art Tower in Mito. (They do not have this in Tokyo!!) You can enjoy a virtual tour on the fifth link. try it!

Edokko, Being Stylish!

What is Edokko?
Edokko are Japanese people who were born, bred and can trace their family history in the Edo time period. Edo was also the original name of Tokyo. Strictly speaking, Edokko need to have at least three generations of family memebers born and bred in a certain area of Edo (Tokyo). In the Edo era, there was a Edo castle in the center of Tokyo, now it is not there anymore, but Nihon Budokan is there instead of castle. Only the people who lived in the east area are considered, when Tokyo was divided by the four cardinal points as centered around the Nihon-Budokan.

Generally, Edokko people are shy, head-strong, short tempered and obsessed with cleanliness. They are also single-minded and we have an old proverb that says "fire and fighting make a prime Edo" Edokko has curiosities about fires and fighting that usualy happens at a festival. Although, they are sharp-tongued, they forget things the next day. In Rakugo (a Japanese sit down comedy), have many stories about Edokko's short temper and bluffing.　Here is the site you may see old news paper /pictures (Kawaraban ) to tell about fire in Edo. Very interesting to see.

Being stylish! Edokko's priority
Okay here is another old expressions to describe Edokko.
"When Edokko get money, he will use them up only one day, Edokko don't save money," .....because Edokko think saving money is uncool. And Edo had big fire every 6 month, saving money was very meanless. Also there is not bank, it's hard to keep money. So many Edokko thought spending money is much better than lost.
"Edokko likes to eat first food (primemur) of season".....because Edokko think it is stylsh.
"Edokko try take HOT bath patiently".....because Edokko think add and make it colder is not cool.
"Edokko eat Japanese noodle soba with a little sauce"..... because Edokko think eating soba with a lot of soup is not stylish. Of course using a lot of soup is more delicious.  Edokko patience with a little soup becaus they want to be cool.

Yes Edokko's criterion of judgment is simple, "it is cool and stylish, or it is not cool" for them. In Japanese there are a lot of expression to describe [cool] for Edokko, like "IKI", "INASE". It would be good proof how they cared about it. Of course For other people, those thier priority might sound strange, acutually they seemed to bluff only. For example, as a joke, they say when season comes, Edokko eat bonito (Hatsu Gatsuo) even he put his wife in hock. Who can understand this! But for Edokko buffering is much better than "not cool". Here is another funny old joke, One edokko left the words when he dies, "oh yes I wanted to eat soba with rich sauce once"

Since Edokko a title requires a firm definition like above. there are not so many REAL edokko in Tokyo anymore. And There is no such a way to explain the character of people who live in Tokyo. because People live in Tokyo came from other different side of Japan, hardly have similar characteristics.

About Edo, please check my old articles Edo in Tokyo1 and Edoin Tokyo2 .

Compared to Shitamachi ( east Edokko area), west area is called Yamanote area, and my family was lived there for long time. yes more than three generations. Here is episode, there is a very old statue called faithful dog Hachiko in Shibuya. Hachiko picked up his master everyday at the Shibuya station. Even after master died. My grandmother used to give Hachiko a bun with red beans after her junior high school. She says Hachiko was very dirty. Our family have been lived in Tokyo for such long time. Yes I am a Yamanote Tokyo girl.

My chicken and rice soup recipe

Tonight I cooked Korean chicken and vegetable stir fry and chicken and rice soup. I got this very easy chicken and rice soup recipe from my mom and I will introduce it today.

The toppings consist of chicken, egg, Nori , long green onions, shiitake mushroom, "Misozuke" (daikon radish pickled in red miso [soybean paste]). In lieu of lieu Misozuke, you can use sliced "Zasai" (a kind of Chinese pickle made from a round root type vegetable), and sliced Lemon peel. These are all topped off by hot chicken broth.

1. How to make the hot chicken broth
Boil a piece of chicken meat in hot water. Leave the chicken meat inside the water for a long time to infuse the good chicken taste into the water. When the soup and chicken cool down, take out the chicken and tear the meat into strips along the grain of the meat..

2. Toppings (Clockwise from the top)
Shiitake boiled in soy sauce and sugar
Nori Strips
Misozuke (Daikon: this Japanese radish is best, the orange one on the right side of the pic) 
Chopped Green Onions or Chives
Boiled chicken strips
Thin omelette strips
Thin strips of Lemon peel (this is the main flavouring for this dish!! )

That's it! 
Put some rice in a bowl, put each of the toppings on top of the rice, and after heating it up, ladle the soup over the toppings and rice. It is kind of similar to "ochazuke" or Korean "bibimba" with soup poured over it.

an an's most popular guy ranking 2005

an an has released their list of the most popular guy in Japan for 2005. Kimutaku gets No.1 again. He's holds this title for 12 years. Even though he is not my type, I have to say this is a great record, I think in some way it shows how Japanese women have changed a little in recent times. Before Kimutaku, young and single were important factors, but Kimutaku is in his 30s, married, (his wife, hmm a kind of a mystery...Why her?!) and he has two kids. Does that mean, we can say "before Kimutaku" and "after Kimutaku." BK and AK? :-p

Anyway even with such good news, we cannot see his face on an an's pages because of Johnny's rule. Look at this! That stramge gray  shadow is Kimutaku's picture on a real magazine cover. This is the cover page of another an an, which was a special on " sex works for love". The picture was Junichi Okada of V6; I wish I could show this sexy nude.

But that crazy Johnny's rule seems to be changing little by little. I was surprised to see Kimutaku's face on Mainichi waiwai (Japanese media!!). However I found another one in The Japan Times too. Hmm I wonder if Japan'S media -in English- are allowed to show their faces on the Internet now?? No No No not only in the English media, because look at this year's NHK Taiga drama web site. This year it's Yoshitsune, (last year it was Shinsengumi),  Another member of Johnny's group, Hideaki Takizawa ( Google search ), plays a main character named Yoshitsune. You will see this face on Top page in big size even though it is just a moment! (ah ugly Takky:his nickname, they really should pick a nicer one...picture and nickname). Why does Johny allow this? Because this is a Flash page? Because this is the biggest drama in Japan? hmm probably yes.

Anyway here are the result of the 2005 list.
The best
No.1 Kimutaku---Korean Actor Won Bin looks like Kimutaku? Don't you think so?
No.2 Masaharu Fukuyama---I heard he is a nice guy, my friend worked with him.
No.3 Junichi Okada---Along the same lines, I prefer Matsujun of Kimi wa Pet.
No.4 Tuyoshi Kusanagi---??? Why him?  O giess tjeu meeded someone to round out the list?
No.5 Shingo Katori---He reminds me of a sort of dog. Down boy!

The worst
No.1 Teturo Degawa---He gets very little media exposure, but he still manages to win every year. Great Job. Soon you'll catch up to Kumutaku's record.
No.2 Junichi Ishida---The love affair is culture!! That's what he said when he got devorced.
No.3 Monta Mino---a little too greasy tele-evangelist.
No.4 Hosei Yamazaki---A bullied child?
No.5 Takaaki Ishibashi---We have the impression he has a mean bone.

Monster going to Film in Hollywood

Monster is going to Film in Hollywood.
Monster is a comic which has sold more than 25 million copies in Japan, and also found a strong following throughout Asia and Europe. Naoki Urasawa created it, if you check for in Google; you may find a lot of links in various languages. That comic was previously adapted into an animated Japanese television series and has spawned 18 volumes as a manga series. I have read them all and watched the TV series too.

The story is not so simple, it is a kind of psychological thriller about an orphan in East Germany.--- A young doctor, Tenma, who saves the life of a little boy named Johan -but the doctor later finds out that he has saved the life of a brilliant killer. Why does Johan have to kill people? What happen in his childhood in orphanage? The doctor must then track down the young killer and solve a larger conspiracy.

I hardly eve read manga/comics, but Naoki Urasawa is one of the manga creators who I like to read sometimes. This site tell alot about him. His most famous manga is probably "Yawara" which is a happy Judo girl story. However I recommend his "Twentieth Century boys", "Master Keaton" (This is the English DVD site) , or "Plute" (Originally created by Osamu Tezuka :Astro boy) for good entertainment. Urasawa's good drawing and interesting plot is nice for adults to enjoy. Actually Monster aired around 1am, because the story is too dark, political, and difficult for children to understand. You can check some scenes on TV series website. Here is a opening music. David Sylvian (a member of "JAPAN" ) sings a ending title, you can chech out a lot of the trailers here , here and more.

If you want to know the entire story, here is a translated version of the story. It was no small task either; there are 162 chapters in this sotry. He made the smae effort to translate the 20th century boys too. Great.
Now the North American Amazon sell comics now, please try before the film.

Urban Challenge!! Yamanote walk

Look at this
JR east train map. Green smack dab in the middle of a Tokyo train map is the circular Yamanote line, running through twenty-nine stations including Tokyo, Shibuya, Harajuku, and Shinjuku. Yamanote has no beginning and no end, but runs in a continuous circle. During the morning rush it runs in two-minute intervals. When an accident occurs every train has to stop dead in its tracks, hence conductors operating on the Yamanote line are said to be of JR's elite group.

Not too long ago, my co-workers and I walked the circumference of the Yamanote line. Some people try this as a sort of small challenge. You may find some internet sites have reported that completing the journey around the Yamanote circuit has been considered somewhat of a 'small feat'.
"Why walk around Yamanote?". Hmm because I want to test my endurance, youthfulness, and see if I still have the guts to pull it off. Actually, two years ago it took me 12 hours to complete the Yamanote challenge. This next time around I want to break my own record.

Yamanote Walking Rules
Yamanote line has 29 stations, about 40kms way. We start and finish in Shinjuku. There are no specific rules or routes to take, but you must take pictures of each station along the Yamanote for proof, and stay as close to the railroad as possible. I found this interesting site which you can watch every Yamanote station wiht direct 360 view. Good tool for guide.

On April 3rd at 7:08am, wedenesday morning
The participants are "Prince excel" (he loves MS excell) and "Miho" and myself. On April 3rd at 7:00am we met at Shinjuku station and headed for Yoyogi station.

7:08 - Shinjuku
Departure from Shinjuku station. The early morning view of the skyscrapers were nice. Miho smilies. She said it would be no problem to walk around Yamanote line, " I am tough enough, make it less than 10 hours! ". Okay if you say so....

7:24 - Yoyogi
Yoyogi area is famous for Yoyogi park and some prep schools.

7:45 - Harajuku
Fashion city. And I would say it's toy box.

8:07 - Shibuya
Young people's town. At Shibuya station stands a statue of the loyal dog Hachiko, who waited for his master everyday in front of the station, even after his death, some seventy years ago. Hachiko has become synonymous with Shibuya. Actually, when my grandmother was a schoolgirl she watched Hachiko everyday.
On the main street Centre-Gai Yamamba girls(or gangro) in horrifying make-up loiter about. Not long ago this trend faded away, only recently has it risen from the dead.!

8:54 - Ebisu
Many foreigners are seen here. Near the fashion shops of Daikan-yama, Ebisu also has many terrific restaurants, bars. I always make a point of stopping in Ebisu.

9:27 - Meguro
Meguro is the nearest station to my workplace. The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum's art deco building is a sight for sore eyes. We ate a bagel breakfast at the news Deli.

10:21 - Gotanda
Meguro-gawa which is the dirtiest river in Tokyo, flows between rows of cherry trees in full bloom. Recently the river's condition has improved I heard.
Tokyo desing center is in this area

When we walked, the drink was a key point. I choosed to drink this 903. New sports drink which Kirin made with Adidas Japan. It works for lactic acid. Lactic acid is the reason of for muscle fatigue. This seemed to be a good choice for me, I would know it later.

10:43 - Osaki
Sony's head office is located in Osaki. There was nothing before, but now Osaki area is developing. Osaki Gate City is nice place to eat, there is small Irish pub.

11:15 - Shinagawa
During the Edo period, the most important way to link Tokyo with Osaka was 'Tokaido' that starts from Nihonbashi, and the first post station was here, Shinagawa. There were 53 posts calledTokaido 53Tsugi on the way to Osaka from Tokyo. The Shinagawa area still retains traces of the era. In last a few years, Shinagawa has changed. In side station, there is ecute. And next to the station there is atre Shinagawa which has many restaurants and big supermarket.

11:55 - Tamachi
Keio University is nearby.

Around Tamachi, Prince Excel began to feel some pain in his knees. He could hardly make it down a flight of stairs. "Come on man, we've barely begun". This had just begun, still there was long way to home !

12:22 - Hamamatsu-cho
Haneda airport monorail departs from here, the World Trade Centre building is here. Hamamatsu-cho is one of the stations nearest to Tokyo Tower.

12:51 - Shinbashi
Yurikamome, the monorail to Odaiba, leaves from Shinbashi. Shiodome is one of Tokyo's newest area which has spectacular skyscrapers accommodate many offices, the headquarters of Nippon Television and a large variety of shops, cafes, restaurants, theaters and hotels.

13:20 - Yuraku-cho
Yuraku-cho is the closest station to the Ginza district infamous for shopping, with an abundance of well-established shops and department stores.

When we walked, only the time to eat was a sort of pleasure. We wanted it after we walked over half of the way as a "Reward for a good job". So we did not take lunch yet. But is was past 13:00 already. We knew we were so behind schedule.

13:34 - Tokyo
Tokyo station is a charming old building made from red brick. The main station consists of 10 platforms, serving 20 tracks, and they have Shinkansen too. This is the largest in Japan. In the shop you can buy various type of Ekiben, even special one of local area. The Imperial
Palace is only a 5-minute walk away.

14:10 - Kanda
An area notorious for its main strip of second-hand bookstores. Sushi item of Kanda Edokko Sushi is the sushi shop I used to go. Each item is very big.

14:32 - Akihabara
The wold wide famous electrical town. We call "AKIBA". Recently Akiba become a paradise of Otaku. But it is very difficult to tell what is Otaku now, Otaku has been changging. Japanese have some negative imagie of otaku, but it may be changed in the future.

15:22 - Okachimachi
An old and very powerful market "Ameyoko" town. But I don't like this town because it's always crowed.

After 3pm, we were so behind the schedule. Maybe to get train tickets at on each station as proof would take time. Prince Excell's leg was getting worse. He was worried he could not complete it this time. However, quitting on the halfway point was really difficult. All of us know if we quit, we would be filled with self-loathing. So, our speed was a little slower than before.
We missed the timing to eat lunch. Okachimachi, Ueno, and Akihabara were was so crowded, and it seemed a loss of time to find a good place for lunch. The first-half round was already tough for us. ha ha ha

15:36 -Ueno
The National Science Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, The National Museum of Western Art, and the Ueno zoo are there. In spring season Ueno is famous for its beautiful cherry blossoms and Ohanami party, butI passed Ueno park by this time because of the crowds.

16:01 - Uguisudani
Kan-eiji Temple, nearby, is home to the resting Tokugawa shoguns. Take a pleasant stroll from here to Negishidani and take in the rich atmosphere of
old Tokyo. Here is good guide site for this area.

On the way to the next station we took in a late lunch at a Korean Restaurant. Miho drank beer, I drank water. Talking to beer, in Japan fake beer = Happoshu is popular.

17:06 - Nippori
From here to the next station has some uphill climb. Around this area, you can find some very old candy stores. This is because there was a wholesale candy store market before.

17:35 - Nishi-nippori
You can see the next station Tabata from this Nishi-Nipppori. This must be the shortest distance between two stations on the Yamanote line.

17:38 - Tabata
At last the apex of the ascension from Uguisudani; it can only get easier from here on. Tabata is the place where many great authors lived.
The most famous author would be Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who wrote Rashomon.

18:11 - Komagome
Seifukuji has nice avenue of cherry blossoms and it's birthplace of the world famous Somei-yoshino cherry trees. All the cherry trees in Washington have their roots here.

18:26 - Sugamo
This place is often referred to as Grandma's Harajuku because many elders turn out to visit the plethora of stone Buddhist statues, togenuki-jizou. Here's the red underwear store that I wrote about before.!

18:46 - Otsuka
This is the junction to the TOEI Arakawa line (street car), a short line for splendid sightseeing. One of the historical places among this line is Zoshigaya Kishibojin. It is the Temple that has a God who "ate" children. Here is the story.

Miho's soles began to hurt around here, she said "I have never felt pain in my soles!" She tried cooling them down with a patch, but to no avail. It was getting worse and we had to walk slower. Dusk was beginning to come.

19:32 - Ikebukuro The Sunshine 60 was the highest building in Japan for long time. It has an aquarium, planetarium, shopping area, restraunt area, and a small amusement park named Nanja Town. Nanja town reproduces a "downtown in the 1960s"feel. There also is a "Fried Dumpling Studium" and "Dessert republic". By the way. I was working in this building befeor. Sometimes families visited the office area using office elevators, to save money on the entrance fee for observation. Ha ha ha, don't do that. :-)

20:06 - Mejiro
Gakushuuin University is in front of the station. The Imperial families go to this university, basically.

Miho and Prince Excel's condition finally really got worse, actually they looked like Frodo and Sam on the last mountain. :-p To reenergize ourselves we ate dessert at Jonathan's Family Restaurant. We three were gloomy, fatigued, and quiet. Maybe looked queer.

21:07 - Takadanobaba
Takadanobaba is a colleget town of Waseda University. My American friends can say "Takada no baba". It is hard to pronounce?

21:28 - Shin-okubo
Around the station is a Koreatown. Sometime I went there and get some Korean food items.

Shinjuku's skyscrapers are just ahead! In such night, they looked remarkably beautiful...! That was one of the reasons we started and ended in Shinjuku. The finish line was within our sights, it gave us energy.

21:54 - Shinjuku
This time "the Yamanote challenge" took 14 hours to complete. We bought tickets at each station and friends' legs and feet condition were deteriorating (especially around the 5 last stations), those would be the reason of delay. But it is okay. This gives new motivation for the next Yamanote challenge. Miho's tired face also had a sense of satisfaction on it.

I could have continued on for three more stations. I have no major wounds except for a couple of broken blisters. Miho and Prince Excel said they could not go out the next day. But I went to the gym and did one hour of exercise. Some call me the Terminator at work. Oh yes, yes, actually, I just replaced my eye and my right hand last month! :-)
Women are judged not only by their charm, but strength too. I hope so.

Ohanami! enjoy cherry blossom and chuhai?

It has been raining everyday since last Monday and it've been very cold. I regret very much I wash my long coat. I thought I would write about Ohanami, Japan's "blossom viewing time", however because of this long cold rain, most of the cherry blossoms in Tokyo have alreayd fallen. It was just three days of blooming, like a pink bomb.

Ohanami is a big spring event for the Japanese; in this season there are so many Ohanami sites on the Internet. This year of course there are some good blogs too. and they introduce good spot recommendation, famous spot, weather reports, good recipes (JP) for those Ohanami bento, Cherry blossom special sweets(JP), (AH I love this!) Cherry blossom goods(JP), live cameras etc. You can also find some good Ohanami English sites like this, and this.

I had an Oahanami party with my friends last Sunday.  I really enjoyed the full bloom of the SAKURA!  And of course we enjoyed a lot of alcohle too!!  We mainly we drank canned Chuhai! Chuhai is a kind of Shochu cocktail which blended Shochu + some type of Juice. In the last few years we've had a big shochu boom. Shochu is usually cheaper than Nishonshu, we usually enjoy it "blended with something", and it has fewer calories than some other types of beverages, and many people say thye do not get hangovers from shochu. Unfortunately because of this boom, the price of some shochu brands has risen drmatically. Mori Izo is sold by drawing lots at the brewerey (KURAMOTO). Whoever wins has the regular price sets at less than 4000 yen. But for other online liquor shops, the going rate could be around 35000yen or so!!. Crazy. Shochu is interesting topic, I will write more about it in a Japanese food magazine later.

By the way, during Ohanami I drank a lot of canned chuhai. Calorie is Suntory's chuhai, which has 50% fewer calories than the regular version. Very good stuff. Of course I could drink twice as much as usual because I don't have to w orry over the amount of calories. Ah! Now they has funny TV commercial. Please check it out.

A colorful house

Ahhh Spring! I am so Sleepy! We have a proverb "春眠、暁を覚えず". This is pretty much the same as "In spring one sleeps a sleep that knows no dawn" in English. In such sleepy day, I would rather introduce easy, or funny pages to look at. For such cases my favorite site,"Nifty Portal Z", is always useful. I do not always get a big laugh from their page, but their "playful spirit" is so nice. I cannot live without a sense of fun! The last two times were yami-nabe, and a natto restaurant. Since both were food topics. This time I will pick a non-food topic.

Actually I love this post "dye and tints house". Shortly they collected images of vividly colored houses just like an experiment in real estate landscape terrorism :-p. In your country, are these colors normal? Are they easy to find? For Japanese, it is hard to accept!! I do not want to have a Bill Gates colored house. Yes they call it the Bill Gates color because MS office set this color as their default in Power Point. Next one is yellow houses,like the site says, I wonder if this could be related to Dr.Copa's feng shui telling. He says "Yellow is money"!! I've heard that his commercial brand of feng shui is far different from the original Feng Shui ideas. The long recession seems to have made people crazy for fortune telling and feng shui geomancy. At any rate, surely they must have some reason for picking Blue and Pink as paint colors for a house? If so, I have no idea what that reason might be. Anyway I suppose they look nice they are on display like this.

Anyway I could not help showing this food topic (>o<) from Portal Z. So useless but so funny. She loves quail eggs, so she ate, ate ate and ate, then she tried to hate even look at them. I love quail eggs too, so I left an egg like this as dessert too!! I don't know how many she ate, but finally it seemed that she could not look at another quail eggg for a while. Ha! I want to try that.