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This is the song "Cinderella Express" by Yumi Matsutoya. The song was used as background music by JR bullet trains in 1987. There are couples who share long distance love between the two big cities of Tokyo and Osaka. Many long distance couples do this: one leaves Friday night and goes back home on the last bullet train on Sunday night. The last bullet train leaves Tokyo at just 9pm and arrives in Osaka after midnight, so it was called the "Cinderella Express". As you can see in this video, so many couple are sorry to say goodbye.
"Cinderella Express" with English sub:
This is interesting to me: each generation's anime eyes. The timeline starts from the Edo period. We have such different types of eyes in each generation.
Sasebo is a small city in the Nagasaki prefecture of Kyushu. I have been there once before and I was surprised to find out how small the city was. Sasebo is the tenth biggest city in the Kyushu area. Even though it's such a small city, Sasebo has a famous specialty food: the "Sasebo burger". Since there is an American navy base there, there are shops selling hamburgers for Americans and since the burgers are American sized, they've become famous. Actually, we have some Sasebo burger places in Tokyo. The recipe is not so unique, what makes it special is just the size. They're maybe three times the size of a regular McDonald's burger, but for about the same price. I guess to Americans, it's an okay size, but not so special.
Anyways, the small city of Sasebo has another specialty food. It's "lemon steak", which consists of thin slices of raw beef marinated in lemon and soy sauce. Usually, it is served on a sizzling iron plate, and you can choose how you like your meat: rare, medium or well done. Here is the recipe, if you're near an Asian supermarket, you can get the ingredients easily. Hope you try this.
Lemon steak recipe:
thinly sliced beef
thinly sliced onion
thinly sliced lemon
Sauce:
Soy sauce - 6 spoons
Sake - 2 spoons
Mirin - 2 spoons
Lemon juice - 2 spoons
Sugar - 1 spoon
some grated garlic
some grated onion
You cook the beef a little bit, add the sauce, and cook the meat to your liking. That's all.
Gachagacha are small toys that are sold in small vending machines like those that dispense bubble gum. The sound you make when you turn the handle is called "gacha gacha" in Japanese, so we call small toys from those machines "gacha" or "Gacha something". They are so popular in Japan that there are "gachagacha shops" that sell only gachagacha toys. Most toys are figurines of superheroes, characters from manga or SF movies and some are joke items, for example this DOGEZA key chain. (What is dogeza?)
Personally, I have never bought gacha and I don't need any, but tonight I found one that I really want. Kiko+ is a brand for kids. Their wooden products are very unique and even I want some. This is their version of gachagacha.
These are Japanese sandals called "Geta". Geta usually have two supporting pieces below the base board called teeth. But this geta for kids has teeth that make animal footprints. So cute!
Soft ice cream "Whip ice cream" has been released by Glico and Lawson. You can eat it as ice cream of course, but you can also use it as a spread for toast/pancakes or as a topping for coffee. Glico and Lawson created this product because sales of bread tend to fall in summertime. I like this idea, I would love to have this with iced coffee.
I like this: "Smelly Arm Pit Knocks Dog Out Cold". The guy did a live stream on nico nico namahouso (live streaming version of nico nico douga). Then his dog smelled his armpit and the dog was knocked out, but apparently the dog was acting like that on purpose.
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This is what he said:
(to the net) You ask me why did I started live streaming? Because I feel lonely.
(to his dog) What are you doing?
(to the net) My dog fell over. What? He smelled my arm pit, and then he was knocked out?
(to his dog) Please stop acting like this. You act in such a foolish way so I have to admit that my arm pit smells bad, right?
(to the net) No, he're not moving, he is down.
(to his dog) Your eyes are open, you are totally awake, right? Why do you act like this? What? Now you cut a fart! You! You laid a fart, right? Right? Did you? You did it right? I could hear you.
(to the net) This is a bad dog right? He farted because he ate dinner and was lazy after that, then he tried to run away from here then put muscle around here. No, he is not sleeping even though he's snoring now. No no, look at him, he is awake, he is just faking it. What? He looks like me. I don't care about him, he doesn't matter, I don't care about this dog's life.
.... and so on, what a funny guy and dog.
The Tokyo Midtown DESIGN HUB is having a "Graphic Design in Japan 2011" event. The Japan Graphic Designers Association Inc. is showcasing a total of 300 pieces ranging from posters and advertising, symbols and logos, books, packages, interior designs for shops and facilities, to interactive media such as websites. It's a free event, I will go during my lunch time.
You can make your own latte art here. Add milk, draw by dragging, and decorate with chocolate sauce. You can tweet your latte art when you're done.
What the hell is this? Ha ha ha
Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. SOLID STATE SOCIETY 3D will be aired on Ustream between 0:30-3:30 on June 12th (Japan time). Since the movie has an expected attendance of approximately 100,000, the director, Kamiyama, will speak at a special screening. Ustream will broadcast it from Shinjuku, you can watch it at this page without a user account. Check it out on the 12th in Japan Time.
Speaking of live broadcasting, Takanobu Horie, the former president of Internet company Livedoor Co, will be going to jail, and he will appear in a live talk show before going behind bars. He may insist that he was the scapegoat for new generation in the economy and maybe it will be true; "THE NAIL THAT STICKS OUT GETS HAMMERED DOWN" in this country.
I like this post from Nifty Portal Z. Make YUKIMI DAIFUKU with Baskin Robbins ice cream. The blogger said that it was very hard to wrap the ice cream in thin mochi sheets because the ice cream melted quickly. But I want to try this once, it would be fun to make my own flavor of mochi ice cream. Anyways, Baskin Robbins has green tea and sweet red bean flavors in Japan, have you tried them?
I went to Katsuura in Chiba in this weekend because I got 50% off a Ryokan ticket on Groupon. The place was called Hinodeya. I stayed in a room with a kind of private roten buro and had a good seafood dinner and breakfast, all for only 80 dollars, so it was a pretty good deal. Thank you Groupon!