watashi to tokyo

It's fetish

Thank you to Japanzine: my blog is selected as one of "Japan on the web".

I really enjoyed reading this article, (and a great photo on this Japanese page). It's funny to find such sites as "carstuckgirls.com" (love for girls who are stuck with car trouble"). Do you know what is the most popular fetish in the world? "on land," I really love this opal color photo. Sky and Sea melt into each other, and the concrete breakwater seems to be floating.

In the photo blog

I enjoyed this escape game "Sphere." Of course I could get out of the room. They have an English version; it's nice for a weekend night.

Crazy PC items

I liked to get gimmicky toy in my school days. Pencils turned to Mouse, paper changed into PC, so I like to see (not want) gimmicky PC tools. In that post, I like medama oyaji camera and fried shrimp USB. I checked the solid alliance site today and I found their new crazy PC items.

This small squid USB is added as new food item. Then I realized many won't think this is food when you see it. As a Japanese, I thought it would be a new item of sushi series quickly. he he he The squid and this sake USB would be good gift for big drinker like me :) :) :).

I think this looks cool but it will be hard to use. They had a helmet mouse before, new one is a oil tank. Ah! How about this? plus yeah! drive (for hitchhike) and this Omamori bag one (Omamori = Japanese amulet), then all are good gift for travel lover...no?

This is strange one ; a omelet rice mouse cover...(we love omelet rice!!). Well it is so cumbersome as same as a pasta USB cable.

And this is crazy a dong in heat USB...orz Here is a movie of its USB. I can accept a chameleon one though.

Then this time, this one made me laugh most, a meat name card case. It would be good wit for American if you have a chance to meet Japanese business man.

The best underground transfer system

This is interesting news: Virgin Vacations decides the Top 11 Underground Transit Systems in the world.

No.1 is London, England. It's Europe's largest metro subway system and is the world's oldest underground system. No.2 is Paris, France which is a the second oldest in the world. No.3 is Moscow, Russia! (really!) It has the biggest ridership of all metro systems throughout the world. Hmm I wanna try it. No.4 is Madrid, Spain! (really!). It's the second largest underground system in Europe. Then No.5 is Tokyo, Japan. It carries approximately 2.8 billion people per year to 282 subway stations. Hm, okay. BUT I can't agree with the later part! In addition to underground subways, the Tokyo transit system consists of the Toden Arakawa light rail line (one train car!) and the Ueno Zoo Monorail (run between only two stations!). What? Where is JR, auto driving train Yurikamome, and other major railways? Actually I have never ridden the Ueno Zoo Monorail (monkey train!) . Strange article...orz.

Anyway when you use the subway in Tokyo, to choose a transfer point is very hard. On the train map, you can see two lines are connected to each other, but sometimes you have to walk very long to transfer. And you need to be careful when you use Oedo line and make an appointment. Their stations are built in very deep and you may take 10 minuste returning to the ground after you get off trains. Here is an English train route finder. It will help you when you come to Tokyo. By the way, talking about the Tokyo subway, some will remember this Sarin attack. I remember the day because my mom called me at my job to ask, "Are you okay?"

New weapon for roach

Ah, is this a French company's work? These Ripolin posters are great: 'our walls deserve a paint which will age well.'

Tokyo is so warm. We didn't have any snow this winter and pollen allergy season has come earlier. The cherry blossoms will bloom and we will find bugs soon. Do you find cockroaches at your home? Do you use any roach control product? Usually people use roach traps or toxic baits. But it is very hard for people who hate roaches to check or touch those traps to throw them away. So a few years ago, home products maker Hakugen had released "Gokipao." (We call roaches GOKIBURI ) A slogan for the product was "you don't need to see roaches." It's a bubble jet spray. You can wrap and stop roaches by bubble and you can throw it away when the bubble gets harder. It was great for people who hate roaches but the bad part was you couldn't use it on rags or tatami because the bubble was sticky and couldn't be removed from rough surfaces. Then this year another new weapon has released from the lion. It's a super refrigeration spray. You can freeze roaches in an instant with -40C air. It has no poison or sticky stuff. Although you have to see roaches, that's the way with most chemically-inert products. I will report when I find some reviews on the Internet.

Kombcha

Very cool, Japanese artistTakashi Okada's official site.

These are the 10 best movies of good old family cocmpter TV ads, No.10 is Takeshi no Chousenjou; Takeshi Kitano was so young.

It is interesting to read this article.(web translated) They said in the U.S, "Kombucha" tea is popular for health conscious people. Actually a chef of the Google company cafeteria makes his original Kombucha tea. Wiki said the first confirmed evidence of the existence of Kombucha is Russian origin and dates from the Early Modern Age, when tea first became affordable in Eastern Europe.

In Japan, Kombucha means Kelp tea, it's a little salty warm tea like this square type or powder type. And we refer to foreign Kombucha as "Kocha Kinoko (tea mushroom)". Japanese wiki said some confused mushroom teas with kelp tea, and so it was called Kombucha in some areas.

The tea mushroom was boom in the 1960s in Japan, when many people make thier own mushroom in jars. But it was very short food fad. I think it is very hard to find someone who makes it in this country now. After that we had a very similar food fad for "Smetana". Wow! I did knot know the yogurt has such cultural name like classical composer. It came to Japan in 1986, and it was called "Caspian Sea yogurt" in this country. The boom is over, but we can buy it at the store still now. But I must say "mushroom tea" and "Caspian Sea Yogurt" are a little bit embarrassing key words in Japan as a kind of cults buzz. Is that same in your country?

We have always such health foods fads always. After that, we had Tokoroten boom and Natoo boom. Even though we had such stupid news, I predict I will write about some new foods fads in this year. I can predict.

Small topics

Japan Stocks fall again, a heavy new week start again.

Yesterday, I went to Kamakura and walked on the (from Kenchoji to Zuisenji ). It was a beautiful warm day and I enjoyed the nature of Kamakura . It's plum blossom season and maybe one month later, cherry blossoms will bloom. From Tokyo, you can go there in 40 minutes or so. It is nice to visit on the weekend. This site has a lot of beautiful photos.

This is a BMW TV ad aired in only Japan. Ha, don't be so cheap, why you don't help him? This is not a Japanese ad. Since we have a rich image of BMW, this is wholly unexpected.

This is the comparison movie of The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell・I found on YouTube. Check the comparison site too. Very interesting.

This is a nice art site "Gyukotsu kun (cow bone)." Check its animation and how it works. Very philosophical?! :-)

Ha! Pretty family computer guitar.

Japanese relationship

He made great Gundam models and one of them were sold for over 1 milion yen in Yahoo auction.

The Rahmens is a comedy group, now some member appears on Apple Japan's that ads "Mac and PC". Sometimes they made strange comedy English videos, I picked Sushi and Dogeza before. Today I found their another (I am not sure, I feel I wrote about this once...though) video "Kosai" (relationship) 1, 2, 3, 4. Check them out.

Sorry for short, I am sleepy tonight :-)

My erokawaii

"Plutoed" Voted 2006 Word of the Year. In Japan, we had two words. One was "Ina Bauer" which is a move in the field element in figure skating. It was a hit in Japan because of Shizuka Arakawa who got an gold medal in Olympic. The other one was "Hinkaku" which means dignity. It came from the hit of the book "kokka no hinkaku."

Some words I picked last year, "A prince of handkerchief", "Tarako Tarako", were ranked in the Top 10. Erokawaii is another word ranked in the best 10 too. Sometimes I wrote about "Kimokawaii," which means "weird but cute." So erokawaii? Yes, it means "erotic and cute." This term "erokawaii" was first made popular when used to refer to Japanese singer Kumi Koda. If you are a gamer, you may know her from Final Fantasy X2's theme song "real emotion / 1000 no kotoba." (I don't know if they were used for other languages・FF12 though.) If you are an animation otaku, you may know her as a singer of the movie Cutie Honey. In 2006, she released an interesting world fashion series "12 singles collection," then her fashion style "erokawaii" was a kind of trend last year.

I am not sure her fashion is erotic and cute. I think Jennifer Lopez's fits the term "erokawaii" more. Then I found sites that made me think "this is the Erokawaii for me." This is a great online shop, "lochers com." On the face of it, they are girly, pretty clothes but their messages are great. I want this. This is a Japanese illustration site 48s ways....hmm walking a thin line between too bad and funny. Is this joke funny and erotic, "cold sore seal?" ha ha ha.

By the way, erotic・can be produced consciously, but cute・would be to ooze charm from character. What do you think? At that point, I like Fujiko Mine. She is an erotic diva for me.