watashi to tokyo

The Great English menu

Wow this English menu in Chinese restaurant is so great. Of course Japanese can't laugh, We do the same, like this and this.

Disappeared manga writers

One of a few manga I enjoyed, "The 20 Century Boy" by Naoki Urawasa concluded the series on Big Comic Sprits. I did not read it yet, but many many people say, "No way, stop kidding". I read we can't know who Tomodachi is and it leaves many questions unanswered. And the funny thing is that there is a message saying "Thank you for reading regularly for 7 years" and there are two more follow up manga pages. Then in the end it reads, " In 2007 spring, the last chapter will come! (Shinshun Saishusho Tojyo)". Under that line is "This is a jawbreaker. Please read it three times"...orz I can't understand what they mean.

People have a variety of discussions about "20th" on the Internet. Some said Urasawa lost motivation and can't write anymore. After the "thank you" part of manga was made by the editors of the magazine, perhaps they will persuade Urasawa to rewrite the last part.

Hmm what happened to the 20th? Trouble between Urasawa and the comic? Is he having some trouble? Urasawa's other manga PLUTO was published and updated recently. But we don't know when it was written. Actually, I understand many people suspect Urasawa lost motivation and went wrong because there are many precedents of manga writers who had a "mental breakdown". Actually, a book "disappeared manga writers" was published before, then we knew a lot of such case.

If you ask me "who is your favorite manga writer?" I will say "Tsubame Kamogawa". I loved his "Makaroni Horenso" (Maccheroni Spinach apartment). The story's theme is the common meets the freaks. One high school boy "Soji" moves to an old apartment named "Makaroni Horenso". In that apartment, two guys are living: 25-year-old Toshi-chan and 42-year-old Kindo-chan. They are also Soji's classmates. These two guys and people who Soji meets in the new place are really strange. He used Rock, military , and cool cultural motifs a lot with detailed drawings. His gags were completely new and anarchic but very rhythmical. Actually some said it was a very musical manga. Not only me, many fans love the manga, so I can find figures of it still now like this, and this. At the peak of Makaroni Horenso, the amount of information on just a page was so much, and his drawing was so great too.

But maybe he wore himself out making it, or there is a fine line between genius and insanity. He broke. I remember in the last few episodes there were only four or five panels in a page: a few lines, no background picture, no story. It was a piece of work by someone who had something wrong with him. After Makaroni Horenso, he published a few but finally disappeared from the society. If you have interest in manga, you may buy at this site.

Last year many books and sites chose this "Shisso Nikki (Disappearance Diary)". The writer is a well-known manga writer Hideo Azuma. He wrote some cute girlish manga. But finally he lost motivation for his job, his life everything, and disappeared. I read the diary. It was a record of the fierce misery and survival life of the homeless. But he talked (wrote) in a halting way, and it made me scared too. This site writes about it too. You can buy it at this site .

Two topics from today's news

When I was reading the news, I was hooked on two new products.
One is "Nude Sandal". You would know "nude bra" (I like this "let's make nude bra" post.) These sandals have no thongs, they attach to your feet bottoms. Wow, amazing. Hmm, I want to see them. I suppose while you are walking, hairs, dusts and sand will attach to the sandal too, then it will lose adhesion. Don't you think so? Hmm, I want to try once, I will update when I find them in the market.

The other one is this. Glico is the sweets maker that is well known for Pocky and Pretz. For many Japanese, talking of Glico brings to mind Caramel's bonus (the origin of Shokugan culture) or the "Glico Morinaga case." By the way, Glico has started a new service "Office Glico"; it means "stock sweets and ice cream at your office." They leave asmall box or small freezer atyour office. Workers can eat anyitem by dropping 100yen into the mouth of the frog. Once a week a Glico worker will come and restock new sweetsi n the box. Wow, what an analog! But you don't need to have the big space and electricity expense for a vendor, and is seems the box has a greater number of items than a vendor. In these days, I have avery fresh image for the service. Then Glico says this analogue system can makea profit.

Jontalent appears on the Internet (only stream). I wrote about GatchamanTakuya Kimura with und the ground people on FMV. Shingo Katori appears on Meiji chocolate. Maybe things will be changing.

Guttari....orz

Ahhhh.....q4iojwa;rjf;ldskja3490trui34q:;@*`*{`!~~~=#)"
ぐったり～, I am slumped...orz. Too much paperwork I have to do now.

So I will just pick some interesting stuff I found recently. <(_ _)>
Sushi Sudoku : Sudoku puzzle sushi version.

Sexy Darth Vader.

Ema of Edo generation : I am proud of Japanese joke sense. (What is Ema?)

TV ad of Body Shampoo Naive : Ha! Cute his part is kelp in the sea.

The conditioned parking: Yeah pretty hip.

I will make ramen post.

Ramen seems to be getting popular rapidly in the world. I can find really nice blogs and sites, and also many ramen shops in restaurant guides of other countries. I am not a big ramen fan, but as an "persistent" otaku, the Ramen world looks very interestingly deep. What is ramen? Why are so many guys addicted to ramen so much? Where is a nice ramen shop in Tokyo? I will write about ramen a bit at a time. Then I will update it all into my food theme page. (I have not written for a long time)

When you talk about Ramen, the type of soup and noodle is the most important information. Actually, many ramen sites categorize ramen by them. Today I will write about this very basic part.

What kind of soup?
Each shop has its own soup recipe, but basically we can categorize it like this.
Shoyu (Soy sauce)
Miso (Beans paste)
Tonkotsu (Pork Bone)
Shio (Salt)
Tonkotus & Shoyu (Pork Bone and Soy sauce)
Tukemen (Depp type)
Goma (sesami)
Others.

What kind of noodle?
There are main two types, straight and crispation.
And also we can break down its size: very thick, thick, regular, thin, or very thin.

Anyway, I found many English Ramen recipes on the web. When I eat ramen at home, it's instant ramen. I have never cooked regular Ramen at home, and I think most Japanese do the same. I will say Ramen is the dish we eat at shops.

I will pick some of "my favorite ramen shops" when I update ramen post. Today's one is this.
Nakano Aoba : Soy Sauce /Tonkotsu base, straight noodle. Usually there is a line in front of the shop. Aoba ramen has very sophisticated soup so that I won't be tired. Ippudo : Tonkotsu Soup, straight noodle. Their Tonkotsu is not too oily for me. I ate in Kyushu first but they have a branch in Tokyo area. I will try it again soon.

Related links: Nice Ramen site
the official ramen home page
Ramen Blog
the world ramen net
Ramen Museum.

What surprised you most about Tokyo?

This is a questionnaire for people who came to Tokyo from a local area.  "What surprised you most about Tokyo?".  Since I am a Tokyo girl, I could not tell the difference well. So at some points I compared Tokyo and Kagoshima(far south of Kyshu Island) where my aunt is living. Because I remembered, she called me and was surprised "there is nothing!!".

"What surprised you most about Tokyo?".
1. Too much people : The population of Tokyo is 12,544,205, 1,753,000 in Kagoashima.
2. Water tasted bad :Hmm it would be true. But at least we can drink it without any problem.
3. Air is dirty : Unfortunately it is.
4. Rent is expensive : Conditions are "New apartment, center of city, Two room and kitchen." It's about 150000yen in Tokyo. It seems 60000yen in Kagoshima.
5. trains run at frequent intervals : Every 2 minutes Yamanote runs in the morning time, Kagoshima has every 30minutes at most.
6. So many hight buildings : This is the center of Tokyo, this is the center of Kagoshima.
7. So many exits in a station : Otemachi Station has the most exits in Japan. I heard it's 44 exits. There are 2 exits in Kagaoshima Chuo Station.
8. So many platforms in a station : There are 5 in Kagoshima Chuo Sation.  There are maybe 11 platforms in Tokyo station. Wow not so big a difference!
9. Soup of Japanese nooldle is strong : You can see the difference of the soup color: Tokyo area and Kansai area,
10. Cost of wining and dining is high : A glass of beer is 190yen in Kagoshima! Wow cheap! ; This is a Tofu restaurant in Ebisu Tokyo. I think this is the price on average in Tokyo. Beer is 580yen.
11. Town is so bright at night : This is a Night view in Tokyo, Kagoshima is not so dark either.
12. Walk so fast :But Osaka people are faster than Tokyo.
13. Parking charge is so high :100yen/15minutes is the average price in Tokyo. In Kagashima, it is100yen /40 minutes. 
14. Stations are so close to each other : It is just 500m between Nishi-Nippori and Nippori. It is the easiest part of Yamanote walk for me. 
15. So crowded even on a last train : Yes it is, but they can't run all night.
16. Diagonal crosswalk is so huge : Did you watch "Lost in Translation"? That big crosswalk is in Shibuya.
17. Some people wore unbelievable clothes : It's fun to walk on Takeshita street(Tokyo).
18. The last train runs so late : The last train of Yamanote line is 0:55. In Kagoshima, it's 23:53. Not so big a difference, is it!
19. So many earthquakes : Last weekend we had some in Tokyo.
20. Hourly wage of a parttime job is high : The wage of a parttime job in a restaurant in Kagoshima is about 730yen/hour. It's about 1000yen in Tokyo.

Popee the Performer

You tube is really useful and I use it very often. I feel it's a basic necessity for bloggers because I am too tired to fix broken links of old posts, and because many pages and blogs disappear. But I am worried about it a little. It looks lawless when it comes to copyright. I hope nothing will change.

I love Popee the Performer, and today I found 7 episodes on You tube. Super crazy 3D animation. 
Gunman, Acrobatics, Limbo, Fire Breather, Knife Thrower, Magic, Pantomime. Don't miss them!

Did you try too?

Ha! I like this post the closest strange phenomenon"(JP). I think you will know some of them.

this in the U.S. site. ---Ask a heavy person to sit in a chair and get 4 people to lift him or her. Each person clasps their hands and has their thumb and forefinger pointing outwards, then they place their forefingers under the person in the chair's armpits or the back of their knee with 1 person at each part. If you then ask the 4 people to lift, they will struggle. But if you then ask the same four people to put their hands over the person in the chair's head (hands flat with palms facing down and not touching the head or someone else's hands), then try to lift them as before, they have no trouble lifting the person up anymore.--- I tried this and it actually happened.

How about this? Put a wire hanger like this, and then relax your neck and head. Then your head has to turn.

Shut the curtains and turn on a light. Close one eye and open one eye for 5-10 minutes. Then turn off the light, and open both eyes. You will feel as if you have super eye.

When you get a sneezing fit, pinch around between the eyebrows. It will work when you do undercover action. In the case of yawning, attach your tongue to your upper lip.

Touch your forefingers like ET. Put them on a level with your eyes. Don't focus on your finger. Try to see the point over your fingers. You may see a finger sausage. :-)

Sit on a chair and hold your arm out vertically for over one minute. The finger of the arm you held would extend.

Rub salt to your hand, wash with water, and then dry it off with a towel. After 5 minutes, some white-lined stuff will come out from the top of your fingers.

Yuru chara

I won't watch tough, TV champion (check this post too) will air "Yuru chara" tonight. What is yuru chara?

I wrote Japanese love characters. If you have never been in Japan, I can tell you it will be more than you can imagine. The character business is so big, there are a huge number of characters, big name and not big name.  We are especially weak for cute, small　Tohoho chara. You would know Katamari Damacy, Pikmin, and those such game chara. My friend loves Qoo (coca cola Japan) and Pichon kun (Daikin) very much, very much, they are characters of company products.

I will get back to my original point of "Yuru chara". Yuru chara stands for Yurui character, it means "loose character" in literal translation. National and local public entities make their own characters to promote their event or campaign, planning to boost the development of the area or introduce their local special, but most of them are so odd and low-quality that we don't know wether we could call them cute or not.  Here are samples of the central bureaucracy character. This is Koh-chan of National Personnel Authority. This is Mamoru kun and Ayumi chan of The Ministry of Justise. This is Umimaru and Umin of Japan Coast Guard.  Hmm, our taxes were used for that too?  I am not sure they were nessesarry.

Jun Miura named them "yuru chara" first,  He is well know as "the representation of subculture in Japan" (I picked his site in this Yukata post). In fact, he named other things we didn't name, but apparently, we recognized something special "IYAGE  MONO": " Miyage mono" means souvenirs, "iya" means hate, "Iyage mono" meanse souvenirs we are not happy to get like this stuff.  "KASUHAGA" : "Kasu" means garbage, "haga" stand for "hagaki" meaning card,  Kasuhaga means strange, senseless card in tourist place this. 

Comparing it to companies' characters, the distinct profile of "Yuru chara" is that of varied quality, easy naming, special feeling of each organization, and weakness of existence (some characters disappear because of budget ax). So, we can see a strange but powerful aura full of pathos with yuru chara.
Miura had a "Yuru chara Show" before, then tonight TV chanpion will have it. Here is characters entried from each local area. Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Nagoya. Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu,
Hmm salmon Sake taro, half egg Hantama kun , fire work Na chan, orange waka-chan, Sudachi citrus fruit Sudachi kun, Totto chan.... What a cheap world...orz*

Bonsai? Banzai?

はーい。何かめっちゃ忙しいです。もう、日本語で書くくらいサッサと英語がかけたらいいのになぁ。 (Hi! I am busy this week. I wish I could write English as fast as I write Japanese.) I will post some small things I found on the net today.

The National High School Championship is very popular in Japan. We learned of Matsui, Ichiro, such big names first when they played in Koshien. (Most people couldn't suppose Ichiro would be such a super player.) Some high schools cheer their team using colored paper and form a human letter. You can make your own cheer here, over 1000 high school boys and girls in uniform will cheer you.

Ah, the viewer rating for the World Baseball Classic was over 50%, I heard. Here is the article "Japan won" from CBS Sports news. (it's cached). Here is the screen shot I saved. Hmm, is that Joke? Bonsai is this. Did they mean Banzai? (Noun: A Japanese exclamation of joy used on happy occasions.)

This is not a Japanese site, but I enjoyed it very much. I remember I read the book "media sex" (maybe this one?) in my college days. I find Gatorade topics often lately.