watashi to tokyo

Gundam? No way!

Great Flash shopping site. Check it out!!
A cat couldn't get down from a tree. Finally someone helped him though.... I have never seen a cat with a runny nose. Cuuuuuuute.
Two crazy news stories from Japan.

These guys are trying to prove their 'worth' to their wives by making their vows as public as possible.

I love the trend 'my chopstick.' It means to take your own chopsticks to restaurants and don't use disposable chopsticks. In Jiyugaoka, a lohas shop 'el Manana' released a list of restaurants where you can wash your my chopsticks after eating. I hope this trend can be bigger and bigger. BUT! this campaign can't match such an eco idea?? Look at this 'My Chopsticks' bra. Underwear maker Triumph does such crazy things always. Last time, they made a transformer bra for an eco campaign. The bra changes into a shopping bag.

I wrote the Defense Agency will plan to make a Gundam. I was so glad to have a giant robot to protect our country :-p Today the Defense Agency released the Gundam. Orz........it is just a suit. The suit has a helmet with a small monitor with night vision and Internet viewer function. The gun has a body temperature sense scope, and the suit is a powered one with muscle training function, etc. Hmm, it's high technology but they shouldn't call it a Gundam. Maybe 'Metal Gear Solid Snake suit' would be a better name.

See you tomorrow

This week, I am busy so I couldn't update yesterday and today.

I will leave links I found.

Nice "hand" TV ad.
The womb house.
costumecon Proboscian sippy mask.
Murder Doll House " Visible Proofs".
Fashion collection of Murder Scenes "High Fashion Crime Scenes".
Photos of Underground in Tokyo.

See you tomorrow!! :-)

Taxidermy

In Japan, there are four "Public Sports" that are public-operated parimutuel gambling: horse racing, keirin (bicycle racing), auto race (motorcycle racing) and Kyotei (boat racing). Edogawa Kyotei is the boat racing place in Tokyo and they have a Goat robot to eat lost betting slips. Ha ha ha, good idea. It's funny, that robot looks real like taxidermy. Because of that, people who lost betting won't kick him even if they are in bad mood?

Talking about Taxidermy, I remember well the Wien Natural Historical Museum still now. It was a long, long time ago, I went there alone, it was an hour and a half before closing time on a very dark, cold winter day. There was nobody inside the museum and every floor was filled up with a huge amount of taxidermy: animal, reptilian, insects, ancient stuff. I felt all of that stuff concentrated on me.

These are the photos of the backyard of the American museum of natural history. All pictures are so nice and there in good art in the site. This site has photos of the backyard of the British Natural History museum. They look like artists waiting for a show backstage. Taxidermy photos are attractive and also weird. (especially taxidermy arts like this and this), so I'm always careful when opening these links.

I'll look at photos, but I won't have taxidermy. In auctions, some sell strange wallets like this and this. I won't be able to have such stuff. I would love to have a fake sheet and fake head as a good joke!! This is a little bad joke though. (Inside is too red!)

come back

お久しぶりです、金澤でございます。ちょっと休むつもりが一週間もごぶさたいたしました。申し訳ございません。３年もやってますと、結構煮詰まるのですよ。ネタがないのも事実だか、ネタを探す意欲がないんじゃないかと・・・ふとそう思ったら何だかしばらく休みたくなっちゃったのね～　まだ完全とはいいませんが、これ以上休むともう再開しないんじゃないかと自分への恐れもありますんで、今日からぼちぼち再開します。YOROPIKU

Short post as rehabilitation after one week absence :-) I found a lot of interesting topics on foreign news.

This is the trend of NY? "Mr Spock ear plastic surgery." Or we can say cat ear. In Japan, big earlobes are called plump ears "Fuku mimi," and are especially good for finance. A lot of Japanese Gods have such type of ears.

I am very sorry about the fires in California. Fires burned almost 75% size of Tokyo. In Italy, they think Aliens caused Sicily fires. This means the Italian government admits the existence of Aliens officially, right?

I can find a lot of horror news and topics. This is "Haunted swing," here is the movie someone put up on YouTube. KNBC shows the famous ghost Ghost pictures. I will pick my story again.

A koban is a small police box. This site is a collection of "Small Koban at night." I can sense the silence of night.

Softbank has released Char Aznable model phone and ZAKU head charger. Gundam fans will love it.

a few days

Yesterday, I went to Oyama Aburi Shrine and enjoyed hiking. It was hard course but I could sense very spritual healing power in the mountain.

I will rest my blog just a few day for some reason. See you soon :-)

some topic from the U.S

Sorry for the short post, I was busy today and also I couldn't find good topics in Japan. So some from the U.S.

dondake どんだけ！！Super Groom 2007 , look at this Ninja Turtle, orz so grotesque.

Nice CG. An elephant on a trampoline.

When I went to Taiwan last month, I had to leave toothpaste, sun block cream, etc. I didn't know we couldn't carry that tube paste stuff onto an airplane. Since those were new and expensive ones, I was so pissed. I would love to use this bag next time. Good joke right?

I wrote this post, "can't cleaning" and I found this site, "messy desk." You can see the Nobel Prize winner "Al Gore’s desk." Ah, did you check the fake steve jobs? I agree Al Gore must run in the election.

Osechi Ryori is Japanese New Year special food. Osechi each have a special meaning celebrating the New Year. Also, they are a sort of keepable foods during the new year holiday, because housewives could rest from cooking and the markets were closed before (I think market open on new year after the 80s). My mom cooks osechi but I will buy the box of osechi, I don't have time to cook each one. Since last week, the reservation for Osechi Ryori has started at some shops and online. Here is Pokemon Osechi, small kids will love it.

Topic slump :-) ネタ不足ですね

I didn't know about this "Hybrid image". This site has some sample hybrid images. Wow great.

A small collection of Japan related sites:
Make your desktop wa-fu (Japanese taste)! A Japanese icon set.
Mt Fuji on old post cards. Japan has changed, Mt Fuji hasn't changed.
Noren (Japanese curtain) collection site. Most Japanese food shops and restaurants have Noren even now.
I think I picked this site before. I was born in Tokyo but even for me a "hometown in Japan" means this type of landscape: Rice fields, mountains, small rivers.

I wrote "cafe" are becoming more multifaceted. I read the new trend is "healing" and a new type service is getting popular. It is ear cleaning. You can get ear cleaning service on some pretty girls's lap. I wrote most Japanese have dry type ear wax and an ear cleaner looks like a small spoon. The ear cleaner is a good collecters item. Here is a site; he has collected 2630 ear cleaners. T2 ear cleaner will be a rare item :-)

Ig nobel

Good for next April Fool!! "Anti-Theft Bike/Car Device".

Finally!! I could　watch bravia new rabbit ad on the web. SUGO-I!! KAWAII!

Ig Nobel Prize 2007 was released. Here is the winners list. In the Chemistry part, a Japanese got the awards again : Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Center of Japan, for developing a way to extract vanillin -- vanilla fragrance and flavoring -- from cow poop. Dr. Nakamatsu, Bowlingual almost every year Japanese get some awards. I am very proud.

No topic today anymore...Have a nice weekend!!*

You've Been In Japan Too Long When...

These are some nice ads from Electrolux's "Get rid of foot odor"campaign featuring addidas, NIKE and Reebok.

I love this. I want the gulls and the tree. This is nice, too.Coooooooool. いいないいな。

This is the official site of Japanese artist Ryoko Kimura. She drawserotic art of guys for women. Look at these Japanese PigmentPaintings. Wa! this is a guy's body as a dish like Nyotai mori (bodysushi). :-)

I really enjoyed reading "You've Been In Japan Too Long When..." (Here is another site.) I like these:
-you start thinking canned coffee tastes good. : This is funny, TommyLee Jones appeared in Japanese canned coffee TV ads.
-you develop a liking for Yes, wehave green tea pudding, potato chips, chocolate, candy and Kellog'srice flakes. I ate green tea KitKats today. :) Why not?
-you no longer find anything unusual in the concept of "VermontCurry." : It's an old, popular brand of Japanese curry paste.
-you think one kind of rice tastes better than another kind. : Yes,the most popular brands of rice are Sasa Nishiki and Koshi hikari.
-you get on a train with a number of foreigners on it and you feeluneasy because the harmony is broken. Ha, ha, ha, but I understandthis feeling.

Great Ryokan

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Yes, I have found no good topics today. What a boring day today.

I read this post of Forbes: "The world's most expensive desserts." No1 was "The Fortress Aquamarine" of the Fortress hotel in Sri Lanka. It costs $14,500. The expensive part is jewelry, not the sweets part. But that hotel looks nice. Then I checked the list of the best hotels in the world. This site picked some. The best is Oberoi Udaivilas of India. Actually many Indian hotels were picked in the list. It shows that India is a country of maharaja. But you will see there are no Japanese hotels listed. Maybe because the most luxurious hotels in Japan are Ryokan, not western type hotels.

Yahoo Japan picked deluxe Ryokans in their autumn special page.. They categorize Ryokans in 6 themes. With outdoor private bath, With private annex, Great landscape, History and traditional, New Japanese style and Great cuisine. It would be nice to stay in a Ryokan to see a nice garden, to take a private bath in a private garden and eat a great Japanese dinner and breakfast.　Most great Ryokan locales are not in the Tokyo area, but if you visit only Tokyo and want to try those great Ryokans, the Hakone area is pretty close; it takes one hour and half from Tokyo. There are nice Ryokans like Gora Kadan, Tsubaki, Hakone Ginyu. Those places cost over 30000 yen for one night, though you can enjoy Japanese style relaxation.