watashi to tokyo

Fake Death Note?

This is funny news : a UK girl had a tattoo meaning "supermarket." When you use Kanji characters on your tattoo, please make sure of the real meaning with a native. I had a similar story.

Shonen Sunday is one of the major manga comic magazines. Then one new manga, "LOST + BRAIN," became a big topic because a story was really close to Death Note. （Can you tell which one is Death Note?) A super smart boy is bored with his life. One day he learns a kind of hypnosis that allows him to kill the person whose name he calls during the hypnosis. Hmm, not only the story, the character looks like LIGHT YAGAMI too. When "FAIRY TAIL" was released, we called it a "FAKE ONEPIECE." But "LOST + BRAIN" looks worse for me. We will see what will happen.

Bacteria manga

I picked cute "Cats talking" before. Today I found "Dogs talking." They seemed to be arguing over which one would eat the bone. Cuuuuuuuuute. Such cute movies--I love to find more and more of them, but this made me so embarrassed. I found another crazy "Zuikiin Taiso" English lesson and exercise clip. Here is another installment: I have a bad case of diarrhea..

Many people catch colds, so I use a mask (this wiki entry is interesting) on the train. I don't like it when someone I don't know gives me a cold. By the way, blowing your nose a lot makes your nose dry and damaged. This year, a nice, super-soft, moisture-rich tissue called "Hana (nose) Celeb" has been selling well. In spite of the stupid name, the texture is good and it won't make your nose dry even if you blow it over 1000 times. Here is their official site; they use MAIKO san for their ads. Strange name, strange ads, but the quality of the product is really good.

When I looked for an image of a mask, I found this site. (I wonder if I picked this before....?) I like the Yakuza mask.

I haven't read this manga yet, but it looks interesting: "Moyashimon."the details in this post. (Thanks!) This is the opening theme for the TV show. I know the world of bacteria is deep. The kitchen has more bacteria than the bathroom. Only touching underwear attaches a huge number of bacteria to your hands, etc. Actually, I stopped reading books about bacteria. The more I know bacteria, the more I have to be nervous. I am nervous enough about dirty stuff already.

The Kanji express 2007

This is the open advertising of Tarantino's new DVD. I can't see well but I can't skip it too. This is the same kind of stuff ; "What's Up Chuck" soap. Sorry one more nasty one but this is gougerous. "make your poop gold pill".

Ahh what a fetish! "girl guitar". As an hairy fetish (I really love this), this is moe for me; "Demoniac Babble".

Reuters has the paget "Pictures of the year 2007". I will pick this one "Sumo Open in Los Angeles, April 7, 2007"

Japan Wendy's have released the Super Mega wendey's. ( over 900cal). They said "Mega" food is accepttable in Japan now. It seems to be the same one as triple with cheese in the U.S. Hmm fatal dose for me.

The letter(Kanji) express 2007 was released today, it was LIFE last year and this year it's FALSE. Social Insurance Agency, The Defense Agency, Senba Kicho, Meat Hope, Akafuku, Shioi Koibito, how many official bodies and traditional makers cheat on us. *

Dualis New ads and two Enjyo cases

 

I mentioned about how Tera Pork Bowll became a topic in Japan. Yohinoya said they handed down punishments to two part-time workers. Apparently they fired them. At the same time, KFJ had a similar ENJYO. One part-time worker wrote he fried a cockroach at the shop, saying, "Do you know a roach is hard to kill. They survive for a while in the oil," or something like that on his SNS. It was a bad joke actually, but for me, KFJ case was worse. The boy apologized to the shop soon and the Enjyo was distinguished like Yoshinoya. But those two companies' attitudes were different. Yohinoya said, "Yohinoya will put together an organization to find the appropriate part-time workers and when we find them, we will punish those involved severely...." On the other hand, KFJ said, "Since the person is a minor, we will respond with our best effort for this person's future."

I read an interesting article about those ENJYO on CNET JAPAN. Some people made comments on the topic. And one guy's comment got huge support. "There are white jokes and black jokes. Yoshinoya doesn't seem to know how to react to 'white jokes.' On the other hand, KFJ did make it to even a bad black Joke," etc. I agree with him. Of course we should know what is ok to write on the net and what is NG to write on the net. But we should know how to react to them too. I suppose many people read the reaction of Yohinoya with a wry smile. But people complained to Yohinoya seriously or even half-jokingly. We must see some "death penalty" (we use the words, black out from the cyber world by ENJYO) on the Internet recently. I hate that.

Weird toys

Three funny foreign posts first.　This is a Greenpeace TV ad: "The sun shines out of his arse." I can't get the concept, but at least it's funny.　This is an article in the New Zealand Herald: "Pizza lockdown confuses tourist." Hmm, she needed it so much even in New Zealand. Sounds like Umeboshi for Japanese. (I can tell many Japanese trust Umeboshi to work for stomach problems and some take them to travel.) I remember American families ate Pizza more than Italian families. What do you think? I love Napoli pizza, because it's light, with more tomato and less cheese. My best Napoli pizza place in Tokyo is i-rottah in Meguro. Unfortunately good Italian pizza is expensive in Tokyo -- they cost 1500 yen or so. This is the Japan Pizza Hut's autumn special "ebi puri mayo" (shrimp mayo)...I can't find this menu item on the U.S Pizza Hut site. It's a Japanese original? Looks so heavy:-) I really love this site "Kitty wig." They look more artistic than this cat kitty cosplay kit.

The new movie Speed Racer will be released next spring. Here is the official site, check their trailer. Looks funny. I am not sure why this anime was so big in the U.S. I must say in Japan, it was not so special and actually I don't know the story well. By the way, the theme song of the TV show "Speed Racer" is the same as the Japanese original "Mahha Go Go". The meaning of the lyrics sounds the same. Check it out.

Softbank released the official site of the ZAKU head mobile phone "913SHG". Wow, its texture is much nicer than I supposed. I remember my brother tried to make a purposefully damaged Gundam model. Gunpla (that's what we call Gundam models) was a deep world. BANDAI had the GUNPLA EXPO last year. My friend went there.

Talking about models, I like this "stupid models" collection. Here are my bests.
The Poop of deer: Poops are paper fortunes too. You push his talk and get poop, and the poop tells your fortune. orz...
The mushroom and butterfly: Hmm, fancy? Lovely? Who would buy it?
The wild pig bowling: Ahh, the monkey was scared of it, look at the black wild pig. Weird.
Sushi cars: Boys love it? What was the concept? By the way, I prefer the egg one.
Guillotine: Is that okay? Of course recent violent TV games would be much worse, but since it is too realistic, I don't want it.
Talking about weird toys, this site picked some wired toys and most of them are Japanese!! Maybe the Japanese have a weird sense for jokes.

Japan Probe has a funny post. Which are cuter between Thailand new half and Japanese cute boys. Of course Thailand new half. They made a lot of efforts to be girls. But I realized the size of the neck is the point to tell women or men. Thailand new half has a very thin neck and they are important for beauty.

I will buy on ebay

Cute ad, "John Lewis's Shadows".

I love this, Football plans .

I mentioned Akihabara started a free tour service for foreign people. This is the movie of the tour.

Doshisha University Academic Repository shows some pages of the "Sketches of Japanese manners and customs" (J.M.W. Silver). The book was publised in 1867 and you can read some pages in Google Book Search too. It's interesting. Check them out. And this is a Tokyo Univ collection of old ads from newspapers. I like tthis one. Good smile.

Yahoo Japan and eBay have started the site "Sekaimon." I can buy items on eBay from Japan with my Yahoo ID. Yeah! And also eBay customers in the U.S. will get a channel to buy stuff from the Yahoo Japan site by the middle of next year!! Unfortunately "Sekaimon" is too crowded and I can't access. I will check it later, to see which item is good to buy even if we pay tax, a high delivery charge, etc. From now, Japanese will buy your item :-).

What was big in 2007

SMBC consulting has released "What was big in 2007" ranking.　As usual, they use Sumo Banzuke format (East vs West).

No1. Nintendo DS & Wii (EAST) - PASMO (WEST)
I am using PASMO. Since the card is automatically charged , I don't need to line and buy train or bus ticket anymore. It's very convenient. ODAKYU railway will start a new service with PASMO. When a kid passes a train gate, a notice mail arrives at his family's cell phone. A family can know where their kid is. Good service. By the way, Nintendo DS and Wii got the Yokozuna last year too. Hmm, strong. Sometimes I feel we may turn everything about Japan over to Toyota and Nintendo. I really hate this guy actually.

No2. Premium products (EAST) - Billy's Boot Camp (WEST)
I wrote the Premium beer was trend. After a long recession, finally people started to open their wallets? Before summer, I expected we might enjoy a perfect good economy, but after the subprime crisis, economic recovery seems to be pausing or even back to worse again. I guess Billy will get Yokozuna (No.1) but I missed the tip again. Ha

No3. Eco Bag (EAST) - Design cafe (WEST)
Design cafe doesn't mean various types of fetish cafes , it means concept cafe like Train cafe, Temple cafe, Jazz café. I picked Koyasan cafe in Omotesando.

No4. Mega Mac (EAST) - KidZania (WEST)
Mega Mac led to a boom of Mega food, yesterday I wrote about the fuss on Yoshinoya .　I wish I had KidZania Tokyo when I was a kid. It seems a great place for children.

No5. Tokyo Mid Town (EAST) - Miyazaki brand (WEST)
I hardly wrote about both of them in my blog. Actually I have never been to Tokyo Mid Town. Looks boring for me.

No6. White Plan (EAST) - Josei no Hinkaku (WEST)
White Plan is a mobile cheaper price plan of SoftBank. SoftBank changed the Japanese broadband price already. I expected them to change things for the better on mobile too. I am a big fan of Softbank. Josei no Hinkaku means dignity of women. I didn't read it yet, maybe later. Here is a good article about the author and book.

No7. Sen no Kazeni Natte (EAST) - Frixion pens (WEST)
The original lyric of "Sen no..." is an American poem "Do not stand at my grave and weep." "Senno kaze ni natte" was titled "I am a thousand winds that blow" that is a line of the original poet. It was translated into Japanese and made into a song, and it was big hit since last year end. Frixion series are erasable color pens by the power of friction. Here is the sample video . Wow, great! Since I hardly use pens anymore, I didn't know about his products at all.

No8. MLB (DiceK, Ichiro) (EAST) - cell phone novel (WEST)
I hope Daisuke Matsunaga plays better next year. Some of the best seller books in 2007 were published on mobile phones first. One of them was made into the this movie "Koizora". Like that movie, the target of mobile novels would be young people. I have never read these novels. Oh well, I am not young.

No9. Awa no Chikara (Bubble power) (EAST) - Crocs (WEST)
Awa no Chikara is a bubble dish soap. Here is the TV ad. I didn't use it yet, but I will try. Crocs were big in Japan in good ways and bad ways too. They got to be very popular but also many kids had accidents on escalators , so they got a bad reputation later.

No10. An inconvenient Truth (EAST) - AXE (WEST)
Since An Inconvenient Truth was released in Japan this year, it was ranked in. I wonder why Al Gore doesn't run for president? It is good timing. Yeah, I picked the crazy web of AXE here and here.

What was big in 2006
What was big in 2005
What was big in 2004

Yoshinoya Enjyo "Tera Pork Bowl"

That cat appears in bicycle tire too! DONDAKE!!

Talking about DONDAKE, I missed my tip! DONDAKE didn't get to be one of the words of 2007. The winners are "HANIKAMI OJI" (shy prince) and "DOGENKA SENTO IKAN" (have to do something). HANIKAMI OJI is the young amateur golfer Ryo Ishikawa. On 20 May 2007, Ishikawa became the youngest winner ever of a men's regular tournament on the Japan Golf Tour by winning the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at the age of 15 years and 8 months. He is strong and cute, polite, very shy. Since last year, we have such a "prince boom". And the common part of them is that they are good players and also very polite. I wonder if this would be related to the trend of "HINKAKU" And the other word was a favorite phrase of Miyazaki prefecture Governor "ex comedian" Higashikokubaru. "Dogen ka" means something or somehow and "Sen to ikan" means have to do. It's the dialect of Khushu area.

Enjyo (flaming) is a word in the nominated list of the word of 2007. Enjyo wasn't selected as the word of the year either, though an Enjyo appeared at Yoshinoya (a beef bowl shop). This site gives shape to the Yoshinoya Enjyo. I enjoyed it very much.

Mega Mac sparked a MEGA food boom in Japan. Sukiya is major beef bowl shop and they made a Mega Beef Bowl in this boom. I guess, a Yoshinoya part-time worker was probably bored in his midnight part-time job. He made a big pork bowl as competition for Mega beef as a joke, and recorded it by his cell and uploaded the video on "Niko Niko Doga" (video sharing site that you can add caption and message freely) as "Tera Pork Bowl" on November 30th.

He must not have supposed it would become such a big topic, because he uploaded the movies and left some comments there. At first, people seemed to enjoy the videos and left some light comments. However, after someone uploaded the movie to YouTube, things changed. Some said it was very rude to play with the food. Some said the soup overflowed from his hand and the bowl and fell into the pot again, dirty! Some said it would be a problem he used items like pork and rice for sale and played during the job, etc., etc. The Yoshinoya part time guy deleted the video and other old videos from Niko Niko Doga the next day but it was too late. He was identified as user name "YON" (four).

In spite of YON's efforts, a lot of movies were uploaded to YouTube, and someone built a thread on 2 channel. Yoshinoya got a lot of claim mails. In the real world, people were looking for "YON" and some said it seemed to be "Yoshinoya Okazaki Higashi shop" (Aichi pref). Then some "Snake" broke into the shop. While people were waiting for Snake's report, many Tera arts were uploaded on the Internet. "Tera Pork Bowl" fake ads, T-shirts, wall paper, etc. Someone uploaded the movie to Niko Niko again and it received over 80000 comments. Snake uploaded the report that there were only two middle aged women who worked at the shop, and nobody there who looked like YON. He also tried to ordered "Tera Pork Bowl" but they didn't have it...so on.

Yesterday, Yoshinoya officially apologized on its official site. And today some mass media picked up this Enjyo as a fuss in the cyber world. Yoshinoya said they found "YON." (wow) Of course "YON" will be fired, but since it is not crime, I don't think he would get some legal penalty from Yoshinoya but I am not sure.

Donald taboo

Sorry I have no time to update the post today.  So I picked two pic of Donald.
See you tomowwo!!

Two??                                             Kick??

MAD Get9