watashi to tokyo

tatoo generator

If you check YouTube often, you would have watched this one already.

This is a nice tattoo in Japanese maker, you can put your name in the blank, so they will pick a nice tattoo for you. I put in my name and they showed 'right bending'. Ha ha, it will mean right handed guys who always use their right hands for masturbation, so that IT bends toward the right' :-) I won't need such a tattoo though

Dentsu is the biggest ad agency in the world. And Hakuhodo is the number 2 in Japan. This is their site named 'Brand Design'. You pick three labels that inspire you, the the site picks the phrase that best depicts 'you as a brand'. Mine was 'soothing dreamy magistrate'. Ha ha ha

This news made me really feel Japan has changed. '55% believe women can be happy without marrying'. I am glad to know this fact. In our society, uniqueness and difference from standard should be accepted more and more.

Autum is coming

FINALLY I got home and I am eating dinner. I got off my work around 7pm, but Odakyu line was stuck again because of an accident (tonight it wouldn't be suicide though). I was packed in a crowded train and waiting to move for one hour. orz.... I am tired.

I bought a hamburger lunch like this. Talking about hamburger, Japan McDonalds will start to sell a Tsukimi Burger from September 1st. It's a sign of Autumn. I can sense Autumn because I can sense cool breezes in the morning, and I hear only evening cicadas, not other kinds of cicadas. The train must be crowded more because summer vacation is over, students are back to the school. I saw chestnuts and Matsutake and Sanma in supermarkets. Some beer maker starts to sell Autumn beer like KIRIN AKIAJI. (here is the TV ad, autumn beer ads are always good), sweets makers also start to sell Autumn sweets too.  Mostly we can sense Autumn from foods in this country.

It is not shrine

Wow, did you see this Usain BOLT game on Puma's website? It is funny, I couldn't win. Try it.

Ha ha ha ha, did you read this? 'Fox Considering Scrapping Dragonball Movie?' I wanna watch it to see how terrible it is. Fox can make a campaign about how they almost scrapped the movie.

Sometimes I write about religion, my opinion is that the Japanese are not irreligious; we just don't have a strict definition of God or religion. I picked the topic of Saint Young Men last week. Like I said, people from other countries may get pissed off by the manga. But in this country, it's no problem and at any rate, we don't think the manga is insulting of those two Gods.

I am not sure that this can serve as proof that we are not irreligious. Yesterday, I found this news: 'Kyoto subways put a picture of TORII on the wall.' Torii are traditional Japanese gates commonly found at the entrances of Shinto shrines. So why do they put a picture of Torii in the subways? It's because they are trying to prevent drunk people from peeing on the walls. It's very shameful, but some guys still pee in public (especially drunk people). Maybe it wasn't a problem in the past. Actually, the notable Haiku poet Issa Kobayashi wrote this haiku: 'flying spray, my great peeing'(my translation) in 1814. Of course, peeing is a minor crime and the penalty is a fine, but a few Japanese people still do it. Actually, Google street view caught this scene....orz. But even such guys won't pee near Torii, which are a symbol of God. Torii on the walls work well to prevent public peeing. You may find Torii on the walls in Japan very often. Nifty Portal Z collected such photos in this post. When you visit Japan, you may find such Torii on the walls. Please don't misunderstand: they are not small shrines, they are just there to prevent peeing.

Funny items on online shop

Ohhh, the future we envisioned in the movies will soon be realized. Look at this! 'Wearable Motorbike Makes Batman's Toys Look Pedestrian.' Cool!

I found this post about a Japanese product: 'Flower Fire Extinguishers.' Hmm｡ﾄ it's funny, isn't it. So today, I picked some funny products that I found on Yahoo Shopping. They are not joke items; they are all real (and serious) products.

Nagashi Somen machine: Nagashi Somen means 'flowing Japanese noodle.' To make flowing somen, somen is put in water flowing along a long, open bamboo tube. You catch the noodles with your chopsticks, dip them in a cool broth, and eat them. It's a sort of summer event. But you can do it on the table at home by yourself with the machine. (At any rate, I don't need it!! )

Girls' fundoshi underwear: I picked this item last month. Traditionally, Fundoshi is guys' underwear. When we say 'Tighten your fundoshi!' it means to 'be prepared and do your best.' I don't know why we have these girls' fundoshi this year.

Laundry cover for rainy days: I guess this would be funny to Westerners. Japanese people dry their laundry outside like on the porch or in a garden on sunny days, and dryers are not so popular yet. But people trying to do their laundry got annoyed by the continuous rain. Then this product came along so you can wash clothes even on rainy days! (I don't have a dryer, but I don't need this, I will go to the laundromat near my house)

Eel bones: Eel kabayaki is usually an expensive food in Japan. Eel restaurants always give off very delicious smells! Actually I think there's a rakugo skit in which a poor guy eats a bowl of rice in front of an eel shop so he can smell the kabayaki cooking. We eat eel pie and eel bones as snacks, and we also eat eel offal yakitori-style. Fried eel bones are very crispy and delicious.

Nori cutter for lunchbox: I sometimes picked the topic of chara ben (lunchboxes with character motifs) before. I thought that some artsy moms made such lunches for their kids, but chara ben has become more commonplace (yes, kids always want the same ones). So this cutter can cut Nori into heart, bear, and star shapes for garnishing lunches.
This is another chara ben item: 'Nori Tsukudani Pencil.' Nori no tsukudani is Nori paste mixed with soy sauce. We usually eat it with rice. This is a Hello Kitty chara ben kit, which includes a mold, a nori cutter and a vegetable cutter.

T-shirt folding pad: This is a funny one. You can fold all your T-shirts into the same size with this. You know, the Japanese T-shirt folding video is well known on Youtube. I guess that Japanese people like to fold T-shirts neatly.

We have more and more strange stuff on online shops: Sushi cooking box, Jumbo Takoyaki machine, 3way relaxing cushion,
Japanese Arita style mousepads etc. etc. I will pick more products on another day.

Festivals in weekend

Wow...Corpse kept upright for 3-day wake. It was his testament, but a little bit creepy.

The Last Guy is a download type game for Playstation3, it uses real-life aerial maps of 14 cities around the world for its levels, including Asakusa (Tokyo, Japan), Los Angeles, and London. Within a set time limit, the player must save mankind from the zombies that are taking over Earth. Here is the detail. From the28th, PLAYSTATION stores will start to sell a 'full edition of Last Guy'. This site has information and a preview video. Check it out.

This weekend, there are many festivals and Yatai in the Tokyo area.
Azabu Jyuban festival: This one is very international, because Azabu is an embassy district. But since it will be so crowded, I don't think I will go this year.
Koenji Awaodori festival: You can see Awaodori (originally it came from Tokushima), it's good but it's not so pomp like Rio's Carnival.
Suwa Reitaisai: You can see Mikoshi in this festival.

At any festival, there are many yatais (a small, mobile food stall) and you can enjoy some foods. Typical yatai foods are Yakisoba (fried noodles), Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza), Takoyaki (octopus ball), Teppanyaki (iron griddled food), Oden, Corn with soy sauce. And also you can play simple games like Ennichi!

In Shibashi, model maker TAMIYA opened the TAMIYA model factory in September. They display and sell over 4000 models and also events space on 4 floors. The target customers of the shop are guys from 20s to 50s. It's not for kids at all. I want to visit once.

No good topic today

This American girl is hot in Japanese Internet. She does cosplay of Hatsune Miku. Very cutel

Look at this! "Meet Yoda the cat with FOUR ears" .

Talking about cat, this is famouse cat photos in Japan. It is called "YOSHIDA".
First pic.
Left cat: "oil is leaking!"
Center cat: "wow it's so bad"
Right cat: "hmm we should take off tires?"

Second pic.
Left cat: "take off your side quikly!"
Right cat : "No no! It's impossible without tool"

Third pic.
"Yoshida!(name) give me a wrench!!"

Fourth pic.
he is Yoshida

Garbege house

My American friend was so persistent about making me watch 'American Beauty.' Though finally I watched it, it was not my type of movie. I think I should give him this as a present, ha ha ha. Or this is good too: 'Star Wars Japanese towels.'

We knew that the video of cell phones cooking popcorn was faked. Then I found out how to do it! Wow, they did that in such a dangerous way.

I wrote about 'can't clean syndrome' before (many links are dead). We had a very negative image of those people before, but now, many wrote about their dirty rooms as a joke and some wrote about the process of cleaning and it was published in a book. Here are the image results when I searched for 'dirty room' in Japanese. I can't stay in such room for even just a second!

However, if they like it and if they don't harm others, maybe I must say just it's their choice. The worse case is gomi yashiki (garbage houses) like this; the people living around him have to suffer things like bugs, smells, etc. In Osaka, Osaka city ordered a resident to leave his city-provided housing, because he filled up his room with a mountain of garbage and it spilled out from the windows...This is the first time that they evicted someone for this reason.
I wrote that the comedy manga creator Fujio Akatsuka died, his gag mangas were well loved, but it's hard to find his manga items in Japan. Actually, Comme des Garsons has released Osomatsu kun shoes only in France. But finally I found a nice item in this shop: 'QUOLOMO'. It's a Bakabon's papa T-shirt. I may wear this Creamy Mami one as a joke. They have Naruto too!

Detroit Metal City

Detroit Metal City is a comedy manga. Soichi dreams of being a pop star with a cute love song, but for some reason, he became the singer of a metal band with strange costumes and makeup and they got to be very popular. Soichi wants to quit and restart his real dream of writing cute love songs, but...... Matsuyama Kenichi who was 'L' on Death Note will star as Soichi, and Gene Simmons of KISS will play the American band guy.

Another movie topic: Tokyo is a 2008 omnibus film by three directors, with each segment shot in Tokyo, Japan. Michel Gondry of 'The Science of Sleep' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,' Leos Carax of 'The Lovers on the Bridge,' and Bong Joon-ho of 'The Host' each directed a segment. It looks pretty good.

Saint young men

Saint Onisan is a very funny popular manga in Japan, though I am not sure it will be in published in western countries (especially in the U.S). It's a story about Jesus Christ and Buddha. Wiki has only a Japanese page, here is the web translation.  Some English blogs wrote about it, here and here are good.

I translated wiki some.

Jesus and Buddha came to the earth from heaven for their vacation. They live at a cheap apartment in Tachikawa, Tokyo and speak Japanese like natives.　Jesus wears a crown of thorns (angels put a GPS inside the crown to know where he is always). When he feels stress, he bleeds from stigmata on his forehead and when he is so happy, also when he is super sad, he can makes miracles. But he can't control it by himself, it causes some troubles. 　He likes to wear underwear after keeping it in the refrigerator. He can't swim at all, he can't even open his eyes in the water. It was a very tough time when he was baptized by John in the Jordan river. Since he has a beard and long hair, he looks like Johnny Depp, and when he picks up chicks, he speaks English. He has the habit of wasting money, he sometimes buys uniforms of SHINSENGUMI (he is a fan of SHINSENGUMI) and gets scorched by Buddha.　He writes a blog and finally got number one in a blog ranking. His symbol is not a cross anymore and he thinks it will be a note PC. When he went to Akiba for the first time, he prayed with tears. He likes virtua fighter very much, though he is too bad and has never won before.  When he went to a public sauna, he saw a Yakuza who had a tattoo of some god of Buddhism. He misunderstand the Yakuza was a devotional Buddhist and talked to him, but accidentally they could be good friends. Now he earns some respect from lower Yakuza. He really likes Japanese style stand up comedy 'Manzai'(Takeshi Kitano did it), and he made a duo with Buddha. The name of the duo is 'Punch and long hair'.

The Buddha came to Japan because Jesus asked him to go. He can speak Japanese as a native too. Like we say 'Even Buddha may be upset if his face is hit three times', when someone makes him angry three times, he will get a terrible thing. In such cases, he becomes luminous.　He has long long ear lobes and short rolled hair (this type of perm is called 'punch' in Japan, Yankee or Yakuza love that hair style). His cell phone is Docomo and his Nintendo DS is a gross silver color, it was a present from Jesus. He washes his hair in Asience and he likes cleaning, washing and cooking. He is a vegetarian but he cooks some meat for Jesus's lunch box.  When he takes a shower a long time, he almost reaches to the truth of the cosmos. He is very good at swimming and he is called 'the rumble fish of the Ganges'. He is a specialist at fasting, he can fast until he becomes bone and skin only. He is a very economical person and cautions Jesus about wasting money. But when he read 'Buddha' of Osamu Tezuka in a manga cafe, he was blown away with tears and got serious for once. After that, Buddha respects Tezuka like a religion and he started to draw manga too. Jesus read his manga and made a miracle because he laughed so much. But the manga is a joke of heaven, nobody can't understand it usually. He can get microwaves from Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting, and they watch TV with his power. His hobby is making silk screens, 30% of their T-shorts are his handmade, they are simple but sometime so bad joke.

Do you think 'Saint Young Men' can be published? I guess some will say the manga is disrespectful. :-)

This time worst uniform in olympic

I enjoyed this New York Times 'Olympic Uniform talk'. In the last Olympics, the Japanese team wore cheap old pot like clothes, then this time it's so so, nothing unique, nothing good or bad.

Japanese gag cartoon creator Fujio Akatsuka died this month. It was big news in Japan though I thought his cartoon (manga) is not known well in foreign countries. But I found this topic, Comme des Garsons released his manga 'Osomatsu kun' motif shoes in France and it is said 'cool' in France. You can find it at Street > Men's shoes on this cool site. Hmm interesting. I don't think it will be released in Japan, though it can be cool in French.

Ten Even More Weird and Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks. I can say even for Japanese, some of them look strange. By the way, in Japan green tea is the most popular soft drink. I read tea is getting a big market in the US too, but it means sweet tea, not green tea or Chinese oolong tea. If you want to lose weight, I recommend green tea and oolong tea, not only are they not sweet, they have effects to lower your weight.

This summer is very hot in Japan. I usually don't need AC at home, but I had to use it on weekends this summer. I read in over 30 degree C days, shaved ice is sold well. And for under 30 degree C days in summer, regular ice cream is sold well also. I read before the most popular one is Gari Gari kun that is a stick type crushed ice. It has various flavors and big size, so young people love it much. As ice cream types, Yukimi Daifuku (here is the TV ad) or Choco Monaka (crispy puff covered ice and choco bar) will be unique to Japan.