watashi to tokyo

Ah Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom

The cherry blossoms are really beautiful in Tokyo now. Maybe this weekend will be the peak and next weekend they will be gone. The reason why Japanese love cherry blossom so much is because the life of them is very short. It would be related to our Mono no Aware feeling.   Many cerebrated poets made a lot of poetry about Cherry Blossoms. Especially Saigyo Houshi (Waka poet) who is well known as one who really loved Cherry flowers.  This is his famous poem.

願わくば
桜の下にて春死なん
その如月の
望月のころ

Negawakuba
Hana no moto nite haru shinan
Sono kisaragi no
Mochidzuki no koro

This beautiful blog translated it like this.

If I have my wish
I will die beneath the boughs
laden with blossoms
Spring, the night of the full moon
second moon of the new year

I think this and this English site would be good to understand these feelings from the point of view of foreigners.

By the way! I will have Ohanami Party (Cherry blossom viewing) with my friends tomorrow. I won't have time to cook Ohanami Bento, but I think we can buy some special foods at the market and I would love to get some Japanese sweets and special cakes too. And of course a lot of alcohol :-). (ah I wrote the same thing last year...orz) I seriously started thinking maybe it would be difficult for me to live in Texas because of this law, he he he. I think Japanese people aren't embarrassed to be drunk in public, and I don't have such a bad image of drunks. Do you remember this article I wrote before? It's ludicrous but many would read the article with a wry smile, it would not be 100% of antipathy or annoyance.

Actually you may find many drunk people in public in Japan. For the Japanese, it is a common scene. But for North American people, it would be unusual and funny. And there are some "drunk Japanese collectors". This guy has many good posts about drunk Japanese, here, here and this is funny "drunk standing sleeping".

This is links of Cherry Blossom LIVE camera in Tokyo. Please check some. You will see the great pink world.

Funny real estate site

In the Shinshu area, the policemen go skiing with "Wanted" prints of Tokyo subway sarin attack. They are of course serious about it, but I am bothered by a feeling of strangeness.

Anyway the super small room and Japanese castle have not been rented yet. I must tell you I have a fixation on architecture/buildings. Of course I love beautiful buildings (PRADA Aoyama. I love the building, but I have no interests to visit the inside.), but also strange ones (Umemboshi and POOP on Google map).

realtokyoestate is good site to find nice apartments and house for rent and sale in Tokyo. Wow it would be nice to live in here, or here. But I am caught by them because they have many funny place too. I like my thin building collection, and I want to add this one to them. This room is very thin too, the width is about 5.6 feet (172cm) or so at most. Japanese call this type place eel's bed. Do you know this building in Canada holds the Guinness records of "the narrowest in the world"? It is about 178cm, but that was much narrower! And for me this building in NY has much impact.

Sometime high-designed apartment (in Japan, we call it "designer's apartment") make me disappointed, artistic and eccentric is different. Do you want a bathroom in the center of your house like this? I won't like a bathroom with glass walls.

The other good point of the site is their dialogues, which are so real and funny. For example, they call this "amusement room" because of the thrilling feeling (actually if you are weak for ship, you may get it they say) caused by the badly slanted floor. The former inhabitant had good sense to have yellow and white light. From things left behind, it seemed to be GAIJIN (foreigner), ha ha ha funny. For this room, they talk honestly "the selling point is the very bad taste of interior". Hospital, Cat house, they have funny rents. Please check it out!

Related Post
#Thin Building collection
#The Ugly Building
#Thomason what is that?
#Can you live here?
#Do you want a Japanese castle?

Japanese TV show "TV champion"

The time that I watch TV is decreasing more and more. Actually I hardly watch it now. Does this happen to only me "the addicted Internet"? I can't return the life that I need to fit my schedule to TV show time, have to be patient to TV ads. I want to know the end, but have to be waiting for almost 55 minutes to see it. I will watch TV when it comes on PC, so that I can watch it whenever I want, skip the boring parts.

One of a few TV show I watched was "TV champion". I wrote a little in this Depachika post. Shortly I can tell TV champion is the show we can see various master of the genre. The most famous fight of this TV show is the food fight series. The Nathans Hot Dog champion Takeru Koabayashi appeared first in this TV show.

I personally have to like Otaku type fight. You may check back number in this page. This is "figure Creator fight". You can see their works by clicking small blue click mark. The First round is four guys remake the same. Then 30 Otaku in Akiba voted which one was best. The second round is "let's make moe character by TV talents" who it's very hard to feel moe. The first woman is Yasuko Mitsura. Wow you can moe for real her or her figure? The winner was this guy who made a made playing curling.

There are many nice and funny fight like, cardboard arts fight, Wagashi (Japanese sweet) fight (this is the winner), Kitty knowledge fight, Origami fight, Dall house fight  wow cute!), Akiba fight (they compete how they are deep otaku), Crane game fight. That's ridiculous? Yes! So they are fun. 

I like this one "the manipulation fight". They have to create and control very small things, Miniature bowling, I must to have stiff shoulder just to see they control very small stuff.   

This is "the food sample artists fight". Looks delicious? By the way, Like you see they are all old guys. In old Japan, food samples made from wax were displayed in front of restaurants. But most restaurant don't have it, actually it is bad old image for us. If you have interesting to them, you can see and buy them at Kitchen Town Kappabashi near Asakusa, you can buy small key chains or magnet of food samples. 

I found only one movie in You Tube. The show went to Denmark and two Japanese and two Danish guys have "LEGO fight". It was slow so I recommend to let it go through once and watched it later after you get catch.

My fovirite book store in Tokyo

If you are a foreigner in Tokyo, would you buy your book at Amazon Japan? If you want to visit a real shop, would it be Kinokuniya? My friends say Good day books in Ebisu is a nice second book store. What and where is your the best store in Tokyo?

For me, the Aoyama book center is good, I like their selection. I like Yurindo too. When I buy paperback, it's because their free book jacket are very colorful and lovely. I heard it is interesting for foreign people, therefore Japanese people hide book covers with jacket. Doyou think so too? When you see someone's book shelf, you would know her/him more. I am a little embarrassed to show the book title in the train as if I show myself... A strange feeling?

And another favorite "daisuki" book store of mine is Village Bangurad. For American people, Village Vanguard would be the mecca of Jazz. But in Japan it is a very funny book store. You can buy books over there of course, they have good selections for culture, art and manga books. And they also sell various miscellaneous goods. Here is their online shop.

This is 2channel Kaomoji Cup, I don't want it though. As a character item, they have the life sized version of Astroboy (Too big!), 190cm of Mazinger Z. They sold 1.5million yen of R2D2 before. Until it was sold out, people wrote the message on the page. I like the one with "he will cook?". They have nice costume selections too. I think these would be good souvenirs - Goku suit and Saiyan wig. No?

It is funny to see their erotic joke goods. This condem is named a safety suit Condom. Yeah yeah, the good points of Village Bangurad is we can read many yellow recommendation message for each products. They use the card on this online shop too. Then there is the message, "will go! ---wait a minutes before you go, take this one." I can tell you this, when some says "will go", 98.34% (at least the people around ME!) of young Japanese know what it means. It is Amuro's most signature of lines "Amuro, Ikimasu!" = (E) Amuro will go! Some said Gundam is a sort of a religion for Japanese?! for the Japanese?!, actually it's crazy.. But Village Banguard use such a test word which catches ourheart. By the way, you may ask your young Japanese friend, what is the Char's the best line. He will reply "Boya Dakarasa"(J) = "Because he was a spoiled brat". I am sure.

Oh I love this one. Super mini size baby figure. The naming is great "Shake flake baby". Shake flake is Salmon flake for rice. They say you don't know if babies are mixed in here. Yeah maybe not.

Pan is Japanese bread

I love bread, even though it is still hard to find a good German bakery in Tokyo. I could add new shops into my favorite list. Recently I often go to this AUX BACCHANALES, and TOKYO FREUNDLIEB , then I want to try this shop today Backarei Tokutaro. As you saw, I like hard bread, German bread and bagels. Soft and sweet, white breads are delicious but they are kind of sweet for me. I like anpan but I won't eat it as my lunch.

Like anpan, melon pan, there are many pan = bread Japanese made. I wrote about Amashoku before. Curry pan is one that an amount of curry is wrapped in a piece of dough, I heard it is a Japanese original. There are fried type and baked type. Jam pan (he is eating Jam sandwich still now!?) and Cream pan (custard) are very classic sweet buns. Yeah I haven't eaten them for a while. How about Katsu sand? Katsu is pork cutlet, sandwich of pork cutlet and cabbage with Worcestershire sauce. I really recommend to try this Maisen's one. Oh maybe I can tell canned pan is Japanese bread too. By the way, they are okay, but some Japanese bread would be strange for other countries I suppose.

Mentaiko is a Japanese delicacy made from the roe of the pollock fish marinated in chilli. Mentaiko France is a baguette with Mentaiko and mayonnaise. Yakisoba pan and Spagetti pan are rolls of Koppe pan that is a kind of soft baguette (maybe it would be the same as Hot dog bread) with those pasta. And because of healthy trends, we have bread with Japanese traditional food like Okara pan (Okara=soy pulp), Hijiki pan (Hijiki). Strange?! But they are selling at bakery shops and we can see them many shops.

Sometimes we must find shocking bread even for Japanese. This Nikkei special food page has many interesting article about Japanese food. Then they wrote about some wired bread looks very mazuso (bad!!). This is Shako pan, bread with Shako. This is Onigiri pan, bread with Tsumire. This is Takuan pan, bread with Takuan and mayonnaise.  Hmm what is the purpose of them?  Eat with rice will be much better. Don't misunderstand, we like it okay?, they looks so bad for me too.

Nothing special

Next June it will be two years since I started this site. Now blogs are widely used and I have a lot of favourite sites to which I'm addicted. But sometimes I have to have "no topic day". All my favourite sites say "nothing special". Today is such a day, I can't find any good ideas to write today. So such day, I will tell dullsville things which I liked.

The article came to Japan all the way from overseas. It's "Cat high up in tree 8 days finally takes 80-feet plunge". : Hmm not only me, Japanese media run out of new things to say!?

Aoi-ku in Shizuoka Prefecture released their new character designed by Kotobuki Shikiagari : Well, I think their choice seem to be wrong. People like it?

Daikon is Japanese radish, which Japanese eat very often. I don't know why Daikon is used for some negative images. Daikon Ashi means women's fat legs. Daikon Yakusha means bad actor and actress. But we also love such negative and the common touch of Daikon. Then of course there is Daikon character in this country. Here it is Aokubi Daikon. By the way Daikon love to make over. Here are Jumbo Daikon, Rope Daikon, Heart Daikon, She Daikon (her name is Monro chan), Foot Daikon: Well each farmers who have Daikon have cute smiles.

Occasionally I will pick from a foreign site.
Moose will be watchless animal. Moose in swing, Moose in car, Moose in Snow: Who can blame Moose? We have to love such casual attitude.

Mona Lisa would be the best target for collage in the world. Then is this collage or real? How about this? Is it okay for him to use electric blanket?

Two new animations

The Tokyo Anime Festa has started, but I could not find interesting topic there. At least I am glad to know Production I.G. will make new Kokaku Kidotai (not TV series, it would be one long story). Did you check this English site? It's very cool. I like it.

And one more, Studio 4 made a manga of Taiyo Matumoto into a movie. The movie is Tekkon Kinkurito, alternative title in English is Black & White. You can check a review here. The director of the movie is Michael Arias who is the producer of Ani-Matrix.

This is not animation, it's a game. It looks nice though (trailer), look! He is the Korean actor Lee Byung-Hun. He is very popular with middle age women in Korean boom in last few years. Middle age women will play X360 and moe? (moe moe). Hmm Capcom I can't understand your target. By the way, PLUTO3 has released, please check it out!

Any idea? google map

I am sleepy. We say "春眠暁をおぼえず"(Shunmin Akatsuki wo Oboezu). It means we are sleepy and can't wake up early in Springtime, so we can't see the Sunrise. I feel I need this.

I like this. Could you find Packman? Google map is really fun, you may find ruins, a flying car, mystery circle etc. I wonder how often they update the satellite map. A new apartment is going up next to my apartment and it is almost finished, but on Google map there is nothing yet. The picture is my apartment and I have such big porch, I am thinking of making a sign for Google map readers. Do you have any good ideas? I checked some buildings, this is the building that I think is the ugliest in Tokyo. And this is the poo building near Sumida river in Asakusa. In the Summer season, some places make rice field art in Japan. I wonder if Google will catch it; it will depend on update timing.

I did not go to Omotesando Hills yet. It is very close to Omotesando Station and it is in between Harajuku and Aoyama shopping areas. So I suppose OH will be crowded very much. At that point Roppongi Hills is not connected to Roppongi Station and most of all Roppongi is the night town, not for shopping in daytime. So RH is fearfully celebrated because many shops and restaurants opened and closed soon. It would be hard to operate a shop in such situation and with expensive rent. However, I heard there is always long lines at Cold Stone creamery. They have caught the Japanese Heart? maybe. But I don't think each portion is the same as the US one. Look at this, the US one (the last one) looks much bigger than Japanese one? doesn't it?

P.S. I don't use the top page URL (http://www.mari-selections.com/) anymore, so if you link there, please change it. Thank you.

How to survive

I wrote last time that secret information and dates leaked to the network through by winny. They say some secret information about the Japan Self-Defense Forces was also leaked out. They said they were measures to chemical weapons, alert list, the detail of detonating powder, and such measurable information.

In anonymous message boards, people have been talking a lot about the JSD ranger team text book. Because there is a lot of useful information like mountain infiltrations, how to attack, search for dead bodies, survive in the wild etc. The hottest topic was "insect recipes". The book said the closest insects are edible.

Here are the recipes.
Mantodea: After removing the wings, roast, fry, boil. (uh what should I do with the eyes??)

Japanese rhinoceros beetle/Stag beetle: Roasted beetle larva has a savoury aroma, you will be hooked. Adult insects are better when cooked lightly. (Let's imagine we are addicted to beetle larva)

Long-horned beetles: Fresh is edible, roast is good too. Fresh one tastes like fatty tuna. (Long-horned beetle sushi?)

Spiders: Eat them after removing legs. It tastes like chocolate. (Chocolate! I am not sure if I wanted to know that.)

Termites (ha!): It's very good when fresh, there are many white ants on thick and old trunks. (Are they sour?)

Centipede: It's not delicious, but if you need it, try frying. (It will get stuck in the teeth.)

Wasp larva: You can eat it fresh, fried or boiled is okay too. You have to be careful of bees when you catch them. (Ah this is sold as food in Japan, so it would be okay. But I can't eat.)

Wooly bear on cherry blossom: Frying is good. It's tasty, like fried shrimps. (ahh I will remember this when I eat fried shrimp later.)

Caterpillar: The best way is roasted, when the skin splits open, it is ready to eat. (Hmm it will looks like buget?)

Maggots: It is nice to eat by Tsukudani and they also are eaten fresh. Never eat fireflies, its luminous part has a highly toxic venom. And Slugs are dangerous too, you may have diarrhoea and high fever. (No way, never ever I won't try.)

Are you serious?

A little bit of a busy day today. Here is some wretched joke news.
Maruyama zoo had virtual training for the case of a Siberian Tiger (Amur Tiger) breaking loose from its cage. They created a procedure for rescuing an injured animal and capturing it using a  tranquilizer gun. Here is the scene of the Tiger running away. What a crisis mode they were in. Then they shot the gun and checked to see if the tiger was sleeping by poking it. Well they were serious, so I won't nit-pick it over.

Talking about zoos, do you remember a sweet polar bear? He looks so funny but he is driven to eat, Maybe he is serious. Ha! scary isn't it?