I found new Tokyo souvenirs. I wrote about weird museums, one of them was Meguro Parasitological Museum. The Asahi news said their original T-Shirts in the museum shop have good sales. Especially the tapeworm is good because the worm pattern rises and looks very real! I like the one at bottom right.
Ah, the Sushi Police aren't working yet? This is an article from the Chicago Sun Times: "Fish fraud: The menus said snapper, but it wasn't!" Talking about Chicago, the Japanese novel "Baccano" is the story about the U.S in prohibition era. And it will be made into TV animation.
Another manga topic. I read the article: "Death Note" has boomed among children in China. The Note is about 750 yen (wow, expensive!), but about half of the students in one classroom have it and write their classmate's name when they don't like something. The Chinese media took this topic, so it might be another source of Japanese culture or manga bashing, they say. It would be quite shocking to read my classmate wrote the details of my death on his "Death Note." I understand they issued this boom.
My friend recommended the manga "Liar Game." I checked Wikipedia, but they have only Japanese. The manga was made into a TV drama last April. Some English blogs wrote about the drama, so you may check the story there (like here, here, here). It's a kind of psychological game similar to Death Note, so it's interesting. However my impression was it's nothing new. Actually I feel as if I read Isaac Asimov's Tales of the Black Widowers or such traditional mysteries. I think it will be published in English soon, check it out.
someone please help me.. i have been looking everywhere for most episodes of liar game.. http://www.mysoju.com/liar-game/ has 10 episodes.. but i don't think it is finished.. is it still showing in Japan?
Posted by: choco_baby | Sunday, September 02, 2007 at 04:22 AM
i found 10 episodes here http://www.mysoju.com/liar-game/.. anyone know where i can find the rest? is the manga finished?
Posted by: | Sunday, September 02, 2007 at 04:21 AM
hello. thank you for the introductory and the link to the others' view regarding this drama. greatly APPRECIATED!
Posted by: mini | Thursday, June 07, 2007 at 08:15 PM
I love Asimov. Of course I read them in Japanese though. :-) In Paris, there are some Japanese manga shops, I don't read manga so often, but good one is worthy as same as the good book.
Posted by: Mari | Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 11:11 PM
I feel sorry for the restaurants; most likely the fish in question is Japanese "tai." But the fact is it's not at all clear how "tai" should be translated. I've seen it translated in Japanese-English dictionaries as red snapper, snapper, sea bream, porgy, and "Japanese fish similar to..." Maybe a bilingual fish expert knows, but dictionaries don't. Certainly English menus here in Japan don't either.
And even if red snapper, porgy, tilapia, etc are technically different fish, in Japanese they're all kinds of tai (red snapper = akatai, literally "red tai"; izumidai/tilapia I'd never heard of before & seems little-known in Japanese, but I assume it's from izumi+tai ("spring tai").
Restaurants seem to be able to substitute imitation crab meat (pollock) for the real thing at will. This much more understandable, but for one reason or another, this newspaper seems to think it's a nefarious conspiracy.
Posted by: bingobangoboy | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 12:21 AM
Again , I always visit your blog..... Just want to greet you :)
Posted by: Choravee | Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 11:36 PM
Hey Mari, I was estatic to find Japanese commics in my local bookshop (i.e. Borders, Perth, Australia). Hmm...was a happy person that day. :)
Posted by: Catherine | Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 02:49 PM
Mari-san, you have read novels by Isaac Asimov? Did you read them in English or Japanese?
Dr. Asimov is probably best known for his science fiction stories and novels. Did you read his science fiction also?
When I was a child, Isaac Asimov was one of my favorite authors. American science fiction fans say that he was one of the "Big Three," along with Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. When I became a teenager, I also enjoyed Mr. Heinlein's work a great deal (this was mostly because of his idiosyncratic prose, so his stories might not translate well).
Posted by: bshock | Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 05:26 AM