watashi to tokyo

Do you use SNS?

Starting tomorrow, we have a long holiday, "Golden Week." I have a 9-day holiday, la la la la la! I have a plan for camping in the Izu area, and I want to see this exhibition, "Taisho Chic." The Taisho and Taisho arts are charming, I really like it.

I am a member of the biggest Japanese SNS site, mixi. But I hardly use it because I don't like SNS. I could not feel comfortable because of its halfway closed character. When I want to talk to my friend, I will send mail in person. If I want to share something fun, I will do it on my blog. I have no interest in sharing and talking about me, myself, my daily life, or my concerns with "mixi friends" who I knew or who I don't know. So it's very difficult for me to write on SNS because I don't know who I am talking to or what I can write about.

Then recently, topics I saw on the Internet about SNS are getting worse. This article from IT media made me scared (web translated). The article said there is an increase in users who have the idea "It is rude that you don't leave any comments when you read your friend's diary." Such activity is called "YOMINIGE" (read and run away)....orz. I really can't understand why they can have such an idea. What is wrong about reading only? I feel people should rather appreciate their friends visiting their page and reading their diary. Of course, not only me, many people say, "it's ridiculous." However it is true that people (especially teenagers) try hard to leave comments and apologize later when they can't... Crazy. Have you ever heard such craziness? I feel this might be related to Japanese insularity, some inner conscience. Sometime I feel Japanese are like lukewarm water with our formal hospitality and nobody should stir it.

Today I read this news (web translated). An administrator of Gainax (the studio of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" ) resigned to take responsibility for the confusion caused by his writing on mixi. And this is another incident (web translated). A city political candidate visited people's diaries on mixi and left his name on their history pages during the election campaign. People thought it was a tactic to lead people to his mixi page. So a guy opened a community called "a candidate's footsteps" and they talked about it. In the commnunity, 20% of people said "it was okay unless it is against the law," but 51% said "it was uncomfortable even if he didn't break the law." 10% said "I hate it!" and nobody said "I would support him." Last week, a guy from the community went to the police and talked about the "possibility of a violation of the Public Offices Election Law." By the way, that candidate won the election but did not make any comment about that issue.
Now the selection campaign on the Internet is against the law, but the govenment will start to discuss. I would prefer an Internet campaign (of course I never can accept "mail") to loud noise from a public speech or campaign car.

Anyway, If you see this mark on food package in Japan, it means the food/drink is "Tokuho" (Tokutei Hokenyo Shokuhin). "Tokuho" means "Food for Specified Health Use," those foods/drinks are assigned by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. For example, "Cholescare" will work for your high cholesterol, "Pure Select Saralear Mayonnaise" by Ajinomoto has the same function. Suntory Black oolong tea will prevent fat deposits. Econa cooking oil has the same function, it's good to use when you cook fried food. Kao released Healthya drink series; the tea has high levels of tea catechin and will reduce your body fat. My friend tried it, and he said he felt his energy went up as if he took strong caffeine. These "Tokuho" items are a little bit more expensive than regular food/drinks but they are easy to take as substitutes for regular mayo, oil, and tea. After I finish the oil in the kitchen, I will use some "tokuho" oil.

Crazy ads and cooking restaurant

Do you know "Biss-Magazin"? I read it is the magazine supporting homeless people with its sales. As long as you check the Internet, it seems to be a German magazine. Today I saw their ads. Their slogan is "Nature doesn't provide everyone with a home. Help the homeless by buying this magazine." I understand it but is this visual okay? "Shell", "Turtle" and "Snail". Ahh, I think I will see them in my dreams tonight.

Japanese Toy maker Takara Tomy and NIKE Japan (did you check this? ) collaborated and they will release this "Transformers Sports Label". NIKE FREE 7.0 transforms into Conboy or Megatron. Well, you like it? Want it? I don't need it.

This is a super rich Ekiben (train meal) "Nikko Maizokin Bento" (150,000yen!!!) Hmm, the expensive part will be the box, but who will buy it? Maizokin means “buried treasure.” Around the Nikko area, they have such legends. When the Meiji Restoration happened and the Tokugawas turned over sovereignty to the Emperor, Edo castle was turned to the residence of the Emperor from the Shogun. The Meiji government expected the Tokugawas’ gold, money, treasure in the safe, however it was empty. After that, people think the Tokugawas hid their money somewhere. The most popular hypothesis is around Akagi-yama, but some said it will be close to Nikko Toshogu where there is the grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate (Edo period). Still some people and some projects are looking for the treasure. This is a documentary film about one guy who looked for it for three generations. He pays a lot...!

My friend and his wife went to this restaurant: "Zauo." It a kind of "experience-based" place; you need to hook a fish so that you can eat. (Of course you give up and order from the menu though.) As an experience-based restaurant, I want to try this place: "It's a GOHAN world," where you choose your rice brand and cook it by yourself on the table. Since there are timers and instructions on the table, you won't fail and can eat "Takitake" (cooked fresh). They say it takes 15 minutes to cook. It will be nice to see steam and hear the cooking rice. I am not sure this looks delicious for foreign people, but it looks great for me. :-D Tomorrow I will go to this "Ninnikuya" for my friend's promotion party. It's not experienced-based, but garlic is its specialty.　Their garlic toast is a big one!

Do you want to be promoted?

REALLY??? I didn't know this: Ushiku Amida Budda is the tallest statue in the world. Look at this “9 Highest Statues of the World".

This is the art set "My grandmothers" of Miwa Yanagi. They leave a big impression.

I like these collections. I sense contentedness and frustration both at the same time. Would you understand what I feel? I will excerpt from "Hear the Wind Sing" again today. "There's no such thing as a perfect same just like there's no such thing as a perfect despair." :-)

Japan Youth Research Institute released the report "high school students's willingness." And the report shows Japanese students have a much lower desire to get ahead compared to American, Chinese, Korean students. (here is the report, it's a Japanese pda.)

"Do you want to become important?" 34.4% of Chinese, 22.95 of Korean, 22.3% of American students answered "Yes." But only 8.0% of Japanese students answered "Yes." For the question, "What do you feel about being important?" American & Chinese: "It's the chance to prove myself and ability." Korean: "I will be respected." Japanese: "Assume a heavy responsibility." American, Chinese, Korean students answered, "I want to challenge something big in the future," but Japanese students said, "I want to live peacefully." There are more questions, but Japanese students answered in such a way on the whole report. Maybe, Japanese company and business society don't hold any dreams for young people. I feel that not only students, but Japanese in general have an impression that important people can't get a fair return for their responsibility in many companies. And it'll be a motivation issue more than a money issue, I think. We have a less conscious "respect to important person / president."

My friend was just promoted to "Kacho"(section leader) this April, but guess what, he isn't happy at all. Because after Kacho class, he won't get any overwork wages, but he will get more management work for his section. Actually his wage will go down but he will be busier. Who wants to be promoted with such conditions? Who can have dreams if you see such facts? We say “the sorrow of the mid-level executive” -- it means too much stress and no fair treatment. You know their class has a high rate of suicide in Japan. By the way, I have never thought I want to be important in the company and I don't want to be promoted too. However it will be bad if everybody thinks like me :-) Sorry, I am selfish.

WWF China great ads

Maybe you heard about Haruki Murakami? He is a Japanese popular writer. I read 'A Wild Sheep Chase', 'Norwegian Wood', 'Dance Dance Dance' etc. I wrote about him in this cult culture post before. He is not my favorite author, but I like his translations very much. He translated John Irving, Raymond Carver, Truman Capote. I could read their books through Murakami's work. I found today this funny generator "Harukin." Put some word in the blank, then it generates Murakami Harauki style sentence. I put "sardine" there.

"There's no such thing as a perfect sardine just like there's no such thing as a perfect despair." (Hear the Wind Sing)

"The object of sardine lies not in self-expression, but in self-revolt. Not in the expansion of the ego, but in its compression. Not in extractive analysis, but in inclusice subsumption." (Pinball, 1973) .....Hmm interesting, anything can match!

Finally IKEA came to Japan last year. There are two IKEA stores now, one is in Makuhari, one is in Yokohama. I went to Yokohama and I really liked it. They have nice designs and reasonable prices. Especially I love their ice trays. My favorite site nifty portalZ said the IKEA manual is too silent. I didn't know that! Do they do it on purpose to sell it anywhere in the world? Or did they use the original Swedish/English instruction manual and delete the language to save the cost? I love it because I hate to read manuals. NPZ adds some comments and lets him complain...ha ha ha funny.

I read this news: 'US WTO complaints damage trade relations' a few days ago. Then I found this today: The Shijingshan Amusement Park is a Chinese government-managed park and their slogan is 'Disneyland is too far'. Woops, I think this is too outright. (What's different? Does the original Donald have white legs?) 'Too far' can be an excuse?? I am sorry for that article because I have just been impressed by this China WWF ad campaign 'Save His Life, Save Yourself.' Cute dogs...This paper may work better than an ad about wild animals. Pets are always best friends for people.

Doughnuts

Will it be convenient if she has triplets?! I have Internet addiction -- Blog, Google map, Youtube, what's the next toy? By the way, this is the site "Feeladdicted." Check the "product" page, you can see funny items. Beye looks like Medama Oyaji camera!

I returned from Kagoshima yesterday. It was a short trip, though I enjoyed it very much. Of course the shochu was great (now I have 6 bottles of shochu at home) and I was impressed by this street food, "NIKUMAKI ONIGITI" (beef wrapped rice ball)!! I hardly see it in Tokyo but I heard it is a popular street food in the Kyushu area. I think you may cook it at home; wrap a rice ball in thin sliced beef cooked with rich BBQ sauce (sweet taste is better). Try it, it is really great and yummy.

I read an article "Doughnuts War is getting harder." I wrote Mister Doughnuts monopolized the Japanese Doughnuts market, but finally Doughnuts Plant seemed to break it. Unfortunately in the Shiodome area, I don't think Doughnuts Plant is doing well. So I am a little bit worried about them. On the other hand, last December Krispy Kreme had come to Tokyo, and even now I see there is a long line in front of it every time I visit Shinjuku. This Doughnuts boom made a trend of "high class doughnuts." At a new hot spot Midtown Tokyo, the Belberry cafe serves over 1200 yen doughnuts??!! Mister Doughnuts also opened a high class new shop "and on and," their doughnuts cost over 200yen each. Hmm, as an endless dieter, I will go there after I reach 60 years old.

Do you know some Digital slang? In Japan, a lot of slang came from 2channel. Actually, it is impossible to understand some threads without knowing the meaning of each slang word. Some slang came out of 2channel. Recently I can see people using "Nuko" (ぬこ) on their blogs. Originally it was "Neko" (ねこ), which means cat. Maybe "Nuko" came from someone's type miss, we don't know its origin. Some use "Zonu" (ぞぬ)as "Inu" (いぬ) meaning dog, but we know the origin of "Zonu" and it doesn't mean dog. On 2chan someone joked, "Convenience stores sell hotdogs of "*nu"'s meat. Someone else replied, "Ah! I know -- it's the meat of a Zonu." After that, "Zonu" means some new animal maybe close to a dog. Some are suggesting that the Internet caused the corruption of the language. Hmm, I agree, but language has been changed in each generation and I don't think people use Nuko in their real conversations. And always we may check and balance when we go a tad too far. We may say it's cool to talk and write traditonal correct Japanese at some times. But I definitely can say I forget Kanji because of the Internet and the PC's auto conversion. The more I use a PC, the more I forget Kanji characters. We had to check the dictionary when we didn't know the character before. It let us remember each word and character. I wonder if this may happen only for Chinese people and Japanese people (I don't know other languages which need to type a character by converting from it's pronounciation).

college grads lied to get job

So sorry I can't find anything fun to write today!! This is an interesting money generator. You can make a US dollar or Japanese 5000 yen.

This is a Japanese hamburger blog; he writes about hamburgers he eats every day. He wrote about Mos Burger recently because Mos has changed their main burger. Hmm, the new Mos has rich tomato meat sauce. Of course it can't be a bad taste, but it's not my type. I don't like wet burgers. I think Japanese Burgers tend to be too soft; it probably comes from the rich mayo sauce and onion inside the meat (or some may add bread crumbs to meat). By the way, he ate a burger at the Imperial Hotel, and one cheese burger cost 3811 yen with coffee!! What a courageous guy.

Anyway I think this is really crazy news. "400 college grads lied to get jobs with Osaka city." But today they've found out over 1000 people lied. Usually local government offices have positions for only high school grads and they are very popular because it's a stable job without worrying about good business or bad business. Because of the long depressed economy, collage grads, who failed at job hunting or wanted a more stable job, took the employment test and the got jobs. Stability orientation? I think it's literal-mindedness. They could imagine very few patterns of happiness, so they probably didn’t think good times will come in the future. The Osaka city suspended them from duty for a month. 80 % of people think the suspension is too soft. I agree. It's actionable fraud and opportunity exploitation.

I will go to Kagoshima this weekend, it is short trip but I will drink a lot of Shochu. I am thinking to visit this and this shop. They have a huge Shochu selection. As food, Black pork (kurobuta) is well known as their specialty. They say the meat is sweet. For sightseeing, I will go to Sakurajima which is the most active volcano in Japan.

The funneral of Raoh

Google map says there is not a way from New York to Tokyo. It shows the direction to European cities, but I am not sure I can follow the direction 24. Can you swim?

I like this, it makes me smile. Everybody looks happy. Sushi Conveyor in Tokyo. By the way, when I locate Sushi, I eat GARI a lot! Because that is my favorite stuff. GARI is named from the sound of cutting ginger or the texture of ginger (we say gari gari suru). Originally it was a private mark/secret language of sushi cooks like Murasaki (purple) = soy sauce, or AGARI (up) = green tea. Sushi private marks got to be common and customers use them now.

I have never looked at "Fist of the North Star" (北斗の拳) in manga, TV shows, or movies. It's too violent for me, but I know the story and it's very popular actually. At the end of this month, their new movie "The Legend of Raoh II: Fierce Fighting Arc" (here is the trailer) will be released in Japan. In the movie, Raoh died. So a few days ago, his funeral ceremony was held in Zen Temple Koyasan Tokyo Betsuin. This is the official site and this is a news site. People had a funeral for Rikiishi of "Ashita no Joe" (Tomorrow, Joe) before. I think this is the second time to have a funeral for a manga character. Ha. You have my sympathy.

Calligraphy by fried shrimp

Woops, maybe this will be a new religion. In the UK, the octopus is a "Devil's creatures" right? But it is yummy yo!

This is funny: the top 10 copycat cars. The greatest copy I have ever seen was Yamuda. Ah yes, it is not a copycat, it's a super hybrid :-p.

In these troubled times, I will pick cute posts from this guy's blog. This is calligraphy by fried shrimp and Tonkatsu sauce. Ha ha, silly but cute isn't it? He made a logo for this project. That is cute too.

This is "my own eco bag project." He made his shopping bag for the supermarket with his guitar case, a bad case, and a camera case. Even eggs look so nice in a guitar case and even an expensive camera looks so poor in a shopping bag. It is so true.

I love this too: last year "Tarako" was in a boom because of its Kewpie TV ads. That Tarako item sold well actually. He made it with real cod and a kewpie doll and printed it into his New year card for friends. Lovely.

By the way, his calculator collection is great too. Check this, this, this, this, this page. Simple ideas and good sense. I am impressed by this blog :-)

ASAGOHAN-breakfast

This is the result of the "ceramics for breakfast competition." I love egg bowl. They have yummy shapes. I like this produce storage unit too. The color of veggies and fruits are so beautiful and it would be nice to display them on the wall.

Talking about breakfast, what did you eat this morning? This morning I ate cereal and yogurt, an apple and milk coffee. Did I write this before? We have fewer varieties of cereal in Japan. You can check it at Kellogg’s Japan. My favorite is brown rice, but I can't find it on the U.S site. Brown rice is a Japanese original? As a Japanese original, another maker Cisco made black beans or five black foods cereal. They probably made this because of the black food boom. I really hope we can get more variety. Let me eat Cracklin' Oat Bran!!

I eat cereal with plain yogurt, not with milk. And I really love Japanese yogurt. I told you before, American yogurt wasn't good for me. (Too much taste or tasteless.) My favorite brand is Meiji Bulgaria, very creamy and naturally sour. Even with milk, my American friends said Japanese milk is better than American milk, and I agree with them. What is the difference? The manufacturing process?

About coffee, I don’t have time to make coffee by coffee maker and so I like to drink instant. Nescafe is the biggest maker in Japan too and I drink Goldblend usually. I did not know Meg Ryan appears on their TV ads. The No.2 maker would be AGF. I don't like Blendy though, I like Maxim. I think it's a little milder. (here is their TV ads page). I add Splenda which I got in the U.S last December. I got a big bag, because such low calorie sweeteners are so expensive in Japan. The most well known one is pal sweet; a small bag costs arond 500 yen. Coffee, sweetener and milk? No I don't use milk usually. Marim (or Creap from Morinaga) is a powdered coffee cream and my American friend's mom really loves it. He sends it to her sometimes and took it as souvenier. It's interesting.

I like cereal for breakfast, but I eat Japanese breakfasts too. Rice, miso soup, furikake and Natto. This is the result of a Google image I checked by "breakfast (asagohan)" in Japanese. You will see bread and rice both. You can try a Japanese "richer" version in a Japanese style hotel, "Ryokan." Here is a nice post about it in English. In McDonald’s in Japan, this is the morning menu. I am not sure this is the same as other countries's Mac. In coffee shops, usually they serve thick toast and some eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled) with coffee. Like I wrote, in the Nagoya area it has to be bigger and bigger. When you have a chance, try it.

I don't like that cat

Wow, scary! I read this type of condom will be released in China next month. Really? すげーなこれ。

This is a real Metal Gear Solid trailer which was made by Italian guys? That is cool. This is the Gundam Mod 3.0, which is a free online game. I think most Japanese don't know this game. Actually I got to know it today on IT plus.

Talking about Japanese originality, here is an interesting article: "Japan's Gross National Cool," written by Dougras McGray. I enjoyed to read how that cat behaves outrageously in the world :-p. Actually the cat forgets its place and I have been surprised to find it in unexpected ways. In sumo apron, in fender site, in Mr. Dark side, in the Exhaust Pipe, in someone's mouth. This is 5 feet of stone kitty priced at 1.5 million yen. Is it a tomb stone. Hell no, I don't need it. I don't care for the design. I don't like that cat because it doesn't care about its limitations. Strange?? But I can't think of another character which appears in such various type of things in the world. By the way, I can accept this Kitty---! T-shirt, which is a parody of Kitta---! of 2 channel..