watashi to tokyo

Art work with kitchen tool

Sayaka Kajita Ganz is an artist who was born in Japan and is living in the U.S. now. She uses plastic utensils, toys and metal pieces among other things in her art, and she only chooses things have been used and discarded.

 

It's great artwork. Those animals look like they're really in motion, running, chasing and flying. But when you look more closely you can see that they are made from spoons, forks, or ladles and other such kitchen tools, as well as parts of toys.

Orita sensei

Royal astronomer: 'Aliens may be staring us in the face'. Yes I agree. It is impossible to think there is no intelligent something in this cosmos.

Orita sensei appeared in Kyoto Univ. This year's character was Takeshi of Pokemon. It is fun to see paper decorations but I miss real statues.

KDDI's iida series has nice design cell phone itmes, they released leaf charger last year. This year they have birds and fireman and here is another products. I want to this for my iPhone ear phone.

Nintendo Trivia

Sorry about this if you don't like insects. Gummix is another cooking toy that lets you make gummy candies at home by yourself, but the molds are so weird. Would you want to eat pill-bugs or tadpoles? No way! It makes me sick.

I laughed when I saw this page: "I made a dutch wife by myself"... ha ha ha

Here's a little bit of trivia. Nintendo never made a "Go" game. The reason is that ex-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamazaki won't allow one to be released unless the game could beat him. But Yamazaki is a 6 dan (high rank), and also it's hard to create routine Go strategies.

This is a very interesting article: "Shame in Spain: Debtors Get Mocked." If you don't pay up, a man in a tuxedo and top hat follows you everywhere and embarrasses you in public... Wow, so strange and funny. In Japan, using extortionist methods to collect loans is prohibited, so this wouldn't happen here. In the Edo era, we had strange punishments for publicly humiliating criminals. One of the most famous ones was to tattoo the word "dog" on someone.

I read a book

This is a destroyable and recyclable guitar system: "SMASH." You can play it, but it's made to break easily and can be be remade easily too if you send it back to the service center. It costs only 5,000 yen (US$55).

 

 

I read the book "Hinkon Taikoku America (Great American Poverty)" written by Japanese journalist Mika Tsutsumi. She went to college in the US and worked at Nomura Securities in NY and witnessed 9/11 from the next building. She decided to become a journalist and released some books mainly about the US. Her "Ninkon Taikoku America (Great American Poverty)," became a best-seller a few years ago, selling over 300,000 copies. It shocked Japanese people with its insights into the news media. Two years ago, she married Ryuhei Kawada, a Japanese member of parliament who is one of the country's most prominent people living with HIV (due to the "HIV-tainted blood scandal"). It was pretty shocking to learn details about companies who deal in mercenary soldiers. The US doesn't disclose the number of people who died cause it's a private company, but their employees are working under super bad condition for little pay. Recently, the book was made into a manga and "Ninkon Taikoku America (Great American Poverty) 2" was released, I will check it out.
 
I can tell that our medical system is much much better than that of the US. At least we're not involved in a war. Of course we have serious issues in Japan, but I am not sure whether people realize it or not: the aging population, high suicide rate, hikikomori phenomenon, low food self-sufficiency ratio. Japanese people, including myself, seem to have little awareness of such national issues and also politics in general. One problem is the media. According to the research of reporters without borders, Japan ranked 51st in its freedom of press index, while the US came in 53rd place. We placed so low internationally. It's very clear that the American media is controlled and we can tell which networks are close to which party. It's scary of course thinking about the neutrality of the media. However, I am scared to watch Japanese TV shows because they only air meaningless things. TV networks air only stupid TV shows for entertainment. It makes people lazy thinkers, hides what's really going on in this country and draws people's interests away from politics. If Japanese people think that Japan is safe and happy and that we have less issues than other countries, it's because the media neglects Japanese people the most.

Toilet paper making machine

I went to Yakitori place in Roppongi. It's pretty good, BIG and CHEAP! All menu are 280yen including yakitori and drink. I really recommend to try it, after 7pm you will have to wait to get seat though. Here is the shop "Tori Kizoku". There are shop in Takatano baba, Ohkubo,

This is toilet paper making machine "white goat". :-) ha ha ha
 

Bento boom will come in the world? :-)

Starbucks Japan has released a cherry blossom beverage. They say it was really hard to create the flavor without any chemicals. Actually, they only used natural ingredients like dried cherry blossoms. I will try it tonight! :-)

I read that Japanese style bentos are booming in Paris. One bento costs about $10! That's a pretty expensive lunch. :-) But it's good to know that Japanese culture is being accepted by foreign people. Actually, I already can find many English chara-ben sites like this and this. In Europe, the next big trend is Ekiben? It'd be fun to eat each country's specialties while traveling through  Europe by train. Also, how are convenience store bentos in North America? :-)

 I was pretty surprised to hear that American visitor said he didn't like to eat fresh foods like sandwiches or bentos, but every morning, tracks deliver fresh food to each convenience store and the food isn't kept until the next day. I saw a Famima in Hollywood and they have fresh foods, though maybe it depends on the area.
 
Like restaurants, convenience stores change their bento offerings often. This site collects popular convenience stores' new foods information. Because of the recession, they are all pretty cheap, right? In Japan, people think 7 Eleven's bento is the best and actually, I agree with that, but if you can find "bento shops" like "hoka hoka tei" or hot motto, theirs are much better because they are cooked fresh in the shop so that meals are hot. And if you are willing to pay a little bit more, please go to a Depachika. They are food wonderlands! I recommend Tokyo Daimaru Depachika, where you can choose between reasonably-priced, gorgeous, Chinese, Western, or Japanese style bentos there.Check out this page from Nikkei Trendy and their official bento page.

My personal recommendation is here.
1.Maisen, Hirekatsu sand

2.Tenichi Tokusei Tendon

3.Black rice & tofu hamburg

Charisma man

Have you heard of "Charisma man"? It's a comic strip from "Japanezine," a free magazine for foreign people in Japan (actually, I wrote an article for them before).

Wikipedia said Charisma Man" manipulates the superhero genre to ridicule the often unjustified confidence of foreign English teachers in Japan. Although something of a loser in his home country (which in later strips is revealed to be Canada - the home of Charisma Man's creator), when around Japanese people the central character transforms from a skinny nerd into a muscle-bound hunk, attractive to Japanese women and admired by Japanese men.

Ha ha ha, my American friends talk about this a lot, they can't understand why American nerds are so popular with girls in Japan and also, sometimes they're embarrassed by some other KY (can't read the wind) foreigners. Here is the official site for Charisma Man, there are four strips, please check it out. You will laugh and you may think it's crazy, but it's true, this actually happens. You can read some other strips here and here. Ha ha ha, so funny.

Japanese language is worst for love :-)

I didn't get to visit, but I heard that over 60,000 people went to the Media Arts Festival this year. Here is the list of winners. The grand prize went to American artist David Bowen for his "growth modeling device." The "growth modeling device" is a kinetic installation based on the rate of growth and the structure of a onion plant. This system plays the roles of observer and creator, providing a limited and mechanical perspective of a changing living object. It attempts to replicate nature through the eyes of a simple laser device into a base industrial material, turning what was once organically dynamic into a flat sterile reproduction."

The memorial achievement prize went to Yoshinori Kaneda, an animator who died last year. He is a legendary animator who is well known for Kaneda perspective. Here is a TV show about his exaggerated drawing style. Takashi Murakami is also on the TV show and the show host (who appears at the end) is Otaking Toshio Okada.

Did you read this news? "Chile's mint fires boss over 'Chiie' coin typo." Imperfect coins are collectors item in Japan too. Imperfections related to the hole of the 50 yen coin, like unpunched holes or off-center holes are popular. Here is a shop that sells imperfect coins, where imperfect 50 yen coins sell at over 1000 times their original value.

Do you enjoy watching the Vancouver Olympic games? I do very much. By the way, it was fun to read people's comments about the Pedobear story on Boing Boing. So funny! I like this one: "I thought that damn bear had lost the ability to make me giggle after all these years..."
 
This is very interesting: the French word for love "Amour voted world's most romantic word" in a pre-Valentine's Day survey taken by language experts. The survey was conducted by the London-based Today Translations, which polled over 320 of its linguists. They also surveyed the least romantic way to say "I love you." And guess what? The winner is Japan's "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu," which they think is worse than the Klingon "qaparha." Ha ha ha, that's hilarious!! By the way, they're not wrong, but we don't really say "watakushi-wa anata-wo ai shimasu." Rather, it's more natural to say "dai suki" or "suki."

A British Net Idon in Japan : Beckii Cruel

Do you know Beckii Cruel? She is just 14 years old, and from the UK. Nobody knows about her in her mother land but she is a very well known net icon in Japan. She likes Japan and she posts her videos on YouTube under the name "xBextahx". She dances to Japanese pop and anime songs, and Japanese guys called her "TOO CUTE!!!". So she became a famous moe idol on the Internet. Here is a part of Takeshi Kitano's interview of her on a TV show that picked her for an interview.

In Enrote about her like this "Isle of Man schoolgirl becomes an anime star in Japan","Beckii Cruel rules: Isle of Man teenager Rebecca Flint set to top Japanese charts" and this is BBC "Japanese pop song internet fame for Manx schoolgirl". There are two types of British people's reaction. Some said it's nice to hear about her success and some said it is impossible to understand why Japanese guys like such teenagers. I must admit that some Japanese guys are living in anunreal world and can only love unreal girls like animation characters or such net idols.

We will see dark matter

Do you know about dark matter? (cool name isn't it?) It's this invisible stuff in the universe. But finally, Kamioka Observatory, ICRR of the University of Tokyo created an apparatus that allows the naked eye to perceive dark matter. It looks like a golden ball with gorgeous mirrors. Even IF it doesn't work, it can be a nice decorative object for nightclubs :-).

Did you know? "ADE-651 Magic Wand Bomb Detector Is a Fraud, Probably Killed Hundreds" I didn't know that, and it's such a shame. There shouldn't be a matter of money when people's lives are at risk.

In Japan, the topic of marriage fraud was hot recently. This woman MAY have killed at least 6 men. But when we see her photos, we have to say "why?" Sorry about that.

This TV ad from Hong Kong is the best thing I found on the internet today. Funny...