This is a movie of a robot climbing the Grand Canyon on only two small Panasonic Evolta batteries. The robot is "Robo garage" which is made by robot creator Tomotaka Takahashi.
I bought a pair of used MBT shoes on eBay for around $90, but the size was wrong and it didn't fit me. But fortunately, it can be sold for around double the price in Japan. Hmm｡ﾄ importing used MBTs can be a good business, if you have any interest, let me know. :-) We can be partners!! he he he
Did you see this? Dynamic architecture: Rotating tower in Dubai. It reminds me of the Nakagin Capsule Tower by Kisho Kurokawa, which is a symbolic building of the metabolic streaming of architecture. Kisho Kurokawa died last year and metabolism is the hottest keyword of this year. History has a way of repeating itself.
Ahh, look at this, this stag beetle has a half female and half male body, it's perfectly "androgynous." Hmm it's like Asura on Mazinger Z.
My current job and also my old job don't have company cafeterias and both companies order "delivery lunchboxes" from the same company TAMAGOYA . I can go out for lunch of course, but when I have no time, I can buy a lunchbox at work because they deliver it to us during lunch time. The taste of their lunches is okay, but each lunchbox has over 800 calories. It's too much for me. I just take my handmade lunch to work everyday right now.
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Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Just looking at you.
Most people use chairs usually and don't lie down on the floor, right? I think only Japanese and a few countries' people in the world like this cushion. My friend thinks to buy it seriously.
"Nanashi no Game", it is a new Japanese horror game for Nintendo DS. Here is a game trailer. The game looks like an old roll playing game at once, but it has a completely different world. It looks good. Here is the official site and you can see a movie on the fourth button from the left. Check it out.
Japanese are said to be shy people. I think it is true, we are publicity-shy and avoid standing out. I was (still am ) a shy person, and I feared strangers when I was a kid. I couldn't say hello easily to someone who I didn't know when I was a little girl. We say "HITO MISHIRI" about such stranger anxiety. And they say there are many adults who have such stranger anxiety in today's society and they can't do any eye contact with someone who is talking to them. Last month a strange DVD was released, it's "MITETU DAKE" (just looking). 50 women are just looking at you for a few minutes and you try to look at their eyes. You can watch a sample movie on the eye mark. Hmm, I wonder if this movie can be good training? Why do they need to show their birthday and birth place?
In Japan, without the special ID card "Taspo", you can't buy cigarettes from vending machines. ｡｡Taspo has your name, birthday and photo to prove you are more than 20 years old. But vending machine don't match anything when you buy it, everybody can buy cigarettes with an ID card, even it is not yours, so Taspo makes us confused now. By the say, here is a funny guy who protest the Taspo card system with his strange photo. Of course Taspo center refused to run out the card for him.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Ninja snack
I saw both of them and I guess I picked them before, they are pretty good. Comedy "Shinning" and Horror "Merry Poppins".
10 craziest Japanese products. Some were picked from this book and Yes!! we have crazy ice cream a lot in this country. (Sorry link is dead). This post is funny too "Japan's Most Perverse Video Games". Hmm No1 is "Cho Aniki"! I agree, it's a legendary crazy game. I remember my co-worker used Cho Aniki crazy screen saver at work and I was so annoyed.
I read Noda Nagi's new hair art work in May, Kyle send me her official page. Cute!! I like the rabbit one. ､ｫ､・､､､｡｡Thank you Kyle!!
I mentioned this year's key words are metabolism, saving and ecology. In Osaka, monkeys in the public zoo have a serious metabolism issue and people tried to help them lose weight by light foods. Look at this: their stomachs are ...wow. We can't laugh, that is someone's responsibility.
Tohato has released a new snack "Fuwa maru". "Fuwa maru" is a very soft puff corn snack that melts in your mouth as if a Ninja disappeared suddenly. They had a sales campaign in Shinjuku station with a Ninja (a costumed part-time job worker, I guess). Foreign travelers enjoyed to take photos with him. Tohato is not so prominent a maker like Calby or Glico, but I like their snacks. The caramel corn has the most cute package and I love the Habanero series (my favorite one is Jolokia, it's super sour hot). If you have a chance, never miss Harvest, it's a very light and crispy thin biscuit.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Dungeon
Tomorrow is the summer solstice. We will have a "candle night". In Tokyo, such landmarks as Tokyo Tower and Roppongi Hills will turn off their lights from 8pm to 10pm. And many small events will be held throughout Japan. My favorite bar will turn off its lights and maybe its music too. I will join in at home.
The new Fukutoshin subway line opened last week, but trains were delayed and operations were not good. People are complaining to Tokyo Metro now. One of the reasons for the delay is the complicated connections to other lines from the Fukutoshin line. On the Internet, people started to talk about which station is the closest to a dungeon. I guess Shibuya is a hard dungeon and Tokyo station is the dungeon where you meet the last boss.
Tsukumo Denki will release Windows "Vista Ultimate SP1Z". It's a Vista pack that includes the Windows Live One care trial, Microsoft flight simulator, mouse, etc. The interesting part is that the package looks like the well known biscuit by Glico: "Bisco". ha ha ha Vi and Bi sound almost the same in Japanese, so it's a word joke.
Like I wrote before, the current mood of Japan is "saving," it's far from consuming. Actually I read that coin banks are selling well. In Japan, the most popular type was the piggy bank. Talking about coin banks, the Japanese will image pig still now. Not only cute pigs, there are some parody types now, I like this KISS bank. The weirdest one would be IKEMEN BANK. But at shops, the best-selling product is the ATM type. You need your card and password to deposit and withdraw and you can automatically check how much you have when you do it. This is famous for its "KIMOKAWAII" face, sensors work when your hand is close and he opens his mouth as if he is saying "give me, give me." You can feed him and save your money too. If you have to save a lot of money to buy a car or house, I recommend this one. It's an old Japanese post type. If I buy a bank for myself, I need one with a good design. This is a very nice one from the MoMA store.
I sometimes wrote about "Omu rice" before, it's a Japanese original Western food. Since it's a combination of egg and chicken rice, most people love it very much. It's a simple food, but since you have to wrap rice within a thin fried omelet, I can't say it is easy to cook for everybody. BUT! I found this frying pan today. Wow! Even my dad could cook Omu rice.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Saving, ecology, metabolism
At the end of every year, I write about the ranking of "what was big this year". Since 2008 is half over, Nikkei MJ has released the list of "what was big in the first half of 2008". Here are the results.
No1. Yokozuna
East) Private Brands: Because of rising oil and food costs, the prices of all products are going up and people are sitting on their wallets. Private Brands are a little bit cheaper than regular products, so people are choosing them now. Topvalu is a private brand of the Ito Yokado group. I buy their yogurt almost everyday.
West) Sugar Free Happoshu (fake cheap Beer): Metabolism is one of the hottest keywords this year, so sugar free Happoshu is good for metabolism and good for the wallet too. Asahi Free Style is the most popular one.
No2. Ozeki
East) $500 Notebook PC: I bought a Sony Notebook last year, but it freezes easily and makes loud noises sometimes. If it crashes, I will try the EEE PC 4G-x next.
West) Brand name cell phones: Each cell phone maker sells big brand name cell phones. Prada, D&G, Armani, recently Vertu has released a super expensive one (I am not sure if they are selling it in Japan though). Hmm do you need it?
No3. Sekiwake
East) Carbon Offsetting: I heard about carbon offsetting, but I thought that it would only be an issue for large companies. On this site, I can calculate how much CO2 I make in a month by inputting the price of electricity, gas and water and then offsetting my CO2 by buying an offsetting ticket. This is a good idea. I will try it later.
West) China Union Pay: I don't know much about this, but I guess some Chinese people are getting rich and are using their special credit cards in foreign countries. The big drugstore Matsumoto Kiyoshi accepts the card. I didn't know that.
No4 Komusubi
East) Compact fluorescent lamps: This would also be related to the ECO idea of Metabolism, Ecology, and Saving. Those three are the hottest keywords now.
West) Shower Clean suit: It is a suit that you can wash in the shower. This is how you clean it (ha ha ha). I guess it would make less wrinkles than a washing machine... but it's funny.
After No4, some current topics and items were chosen. They tend to be related to the theme of Metabolism, Ecology, and Saving. Those are the big 3 this year: like the Cross Walker: stomach muscle exercising pants for guys, Wii Fit: My friend said he got bored of it in three days and Electric bikes: The price of gas will be 200yen/L soon.
Other stuff that I was interested in were...
Keshipon: It's a stamp for personal information protection.
Moffule: It's a waffle-like rice cake (mochi in Japanese). The outside is crispy and the inside is chewy. It matches well with sweets and even traditional Japanese foods.
Milk Seafood Cup Noodle: I didn't know this, Nissin released a milk soup type noodle. Hmm since I am not a big fan of milk, no thank you.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
IKEMEN BANK
I didn't like roll cakes before, because they are too sweet and too spongy for me and also roll cakes have an image of being cheaper than regular cakes. But I heard that roll cakes got fashionable and there are many variations and flavors. By the way, this is a small roll cake game, move the cakes with your mouse and drop them with a left click. Cute.
I like the darkness of night and there is only one dark floor light in my living room. But I think that one more small light would be nice. I think this is cute and small enough: "match light." I also like this idea: "Sun Jar". The sun jar is an Eco light that has a small solar cell that captures sunshine and creates energy. It turns on automatically after the sun goes down. It would be nice for camping too.
What ridiculous stuff this is! "IKEMEN BANK". Ikemen means good looking guy. Do you remember when I picked the super weird FUJOSHI game "DUEL LOVE"? In that game, you can meet, date and treat a guy nicely to get his heart in the game. IKEMEN BANK has the same concept, when you save a 500 yen coin, you can choose your type from 5 boys and each time you save another coin, you can grow your relationship with the nice boy. Sometimes he will say "you are so beautiful" or "let me kiss you," etc..........Orz. I can't understand it at all but there would be a market for it so that product exists. Another scary part is that their target customer is in her 20s or 30s. 30s??...Orz I will pick this again when their official site is open.
I sometimes picked Visual Kei before, but fads in bands and styles come and go and since I have no interest in them, I didn't know what is popular now. Yesterday I read that Versailles is hot in Europe. Do you know them? Here is a movie on YouTube. Hmm I had never heard of them, but actually their movie got the attention of foreigners on YouTube and it first debuted in Germany, not in Japan. Interesting.
As of this year, stomach size was added to the checklist of regular health checks. Because of that, there are a lot of "metabo" control goods, methods, ideas, etc. Now I predict that metabolism will rank high in 2008's hot words by the end of this year. But going too far or overreactions will always have to be adjusted into acceptable ways. I guess people will start to hate this tread. I like this site "D30". D stand for "debu" in Japanese, it means "big" and 30 means that their fat rate is over 30. But the site is very fashionable and they look like they enjoy eating, drinking, being themselves. I guess that's much healthier than being stoic about food, exercise, alcohol, etc. Anyway, I prefer big guys to thinner guys who look like their legs are stuck to their backs without any butt, it's not fun to be with a very stoic person.
Monday, June 16, 2008
short note
There is nothing fun to write about. Though I won't update my blog today, I'll leave some small notes.
Hmm it's a very difficult world for me. Do you think it's beautiful? The most beautiful goat in Israel......
My chair at work is very uncomfortable, it's too soft for me and it may aggravate my lower back pain again. I want this one...then I want to work with my computer on my knees...it's the best position to use a PC.
We had strong earthquakes in the Iwate Miyagi area in last weekend, every big network had a special TV segment about it but following their custom, ha ha ha TV Tokyo aired the animation Blue Dragon. I appreciate their local spirit actually. They know what people want on TV Tokyo.
Last month, a guy rented a house with a small shop and opened a ramen place in Tochigi, but he had strange experiences like hearing noises or seeing gray shadows in an empty room. Then he heard from the neighborhood that it was a haunted place. He left the place and claimed $5000 worth of damages with a real-estate office as compensation for his mental damage and other losses. I read this news today; these people enjoy living with ghosts...wow.