"Japan Blogs" via Nick in Google Reader

Conbini alert: Family Mart buys out am/pm

(author unknown) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:00:00 PST

Alright, so one convenience store is buying out its rival in order to "boost competitiveness." Not really a big deal, don't you think?

Well, if you've ever spent some time in Japan, you find yourself building a natural ranking of the convenience stores in your mind based on any number of factors -- selection of goods, cleanliness of their stores, helpfulness of staff and their store brands.

I never particularly liked am/pm -- probably because the only ones I would ever go to were right next to train stations or in Nara, and so they came across as dirty and dingy. Family Mart, on the other hand, maintains this blindingly white appearance, and had some of the best damn melon bread that I've ever bought in a convenience store.

I can still taste it now, even.

am/pm will still be its own set of stores, but hopefully Family Mart will help give it a shove in the right direction in terms of appearance and friendliness when going to the stores. So, this is only a good thing for those of you who are planning to visit Japan sometime in the future. Family Mart is probably my favorite convenience store, with Lawson's right behind them, since it's the only place you can buy some hot meat buns and concert tickets all at once.

Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces promotional video

James — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:02:52 PST

An old PR video for the JGSDF, narrated in English:

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Japanese company creates Barack Obama pyramid

James — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:02:41 PST

Matsuura machinery made this pyramid with a tiny Barack Obama face etched into its top to celebrate the American President’s first official visit to Japan:

The company gave it to that news reporter in the hope that he might have a chance to give it to Obama. He didn’t, but at least the guy mentioned the company’s name on TV and said some good things about its technological achievements.

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A U.S. military air base? Not in my backyard.

James — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:01:40 PST

A short Fuji TV report about Takehiyo Toguchi, a man in Okinawa who is fighting to prevent the construction of a U.S. military base in Henoko Bay[this aired a few days before Obama's visit]:

In 2006, the Japanese and U.S. governments signed an agreement that would relocate USMC Air Station Futenma from the middle of a city to a less populated area of Okinawa. That less populated area happened to be in the bay next to Toguchi’s home town. For years, Toguchi and his family have participated in protests and held candlelight vigils and protests against the construction of an offshore airfield. Now that the DPJ is in office and wants to make a new base relocation plan, Toguchi and his cause have gotten a lot of media attention.

In this video you can see the Toguchi family holding candlelight vigils outside of Camp Schwab, appearing on radio shows to talk about the evils of the base relocation plan, and giving a speech before a crowd of anti-base protesters. He also takes the Fuji TV reporter to the campus of Ryukyu International University, where a American helicopter crashed in 2004. No Japanese were killed or injured in the accident, but that didn’t stop locals from erecting a monument on the spot of the crash [the burnt remains of a tree that lost its life that day are at the center of the monument]. Noguchi talks at how heart-wrenching and terrible it is to think of the loss of life that might have happened if the timing of the crash had been a little different.

Noguchi wants President Obama and Prime Minister Hatoyama to not build a new airfield that would destroy the environment of his beloved hometown. He doesn’t want his children’s future marred by the presence of such a base.

During Obama’s visit to Tokyo on Friday/Saturday, talk of the Futenma relocation was avoided in favor of discussion on easier issues that both countries could readily agree upon.

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Laughably stupid ghost photos

James — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:01:23 PST

NTV’s “Surprise Surprise” variety show featured some photos last week that have ghostly figures in the background:

The first image shown, which I have included at the top of this post, reportedly shows a “headless” man. It seemed pretty obvious that it was a man in a white cap looking downwards at something, but just in case you can’t see it, I borrowed their technique and drew some red lines to highlight the shape of the person.

The other images show people-like shapes or parts of people that were supposedly not visible when the photo was taken. As most photos like this can be easily faked, they’re pretty much worthless. At some points, even the celebrity panelists didn’t seem to impressed.

Side note: You may remember paranormal studies expert Bintaro Yamaguchi from his prior appearance in the “Kappa Attack” post.

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Clothes suggesting chat-uppable girls at dating parties

Ken Y-N — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:01:10 PST

What an ugly headline, but quite an interesting ranking survey from goo Ranking looking at what clothes make guys at dating parties think they should make a move.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 24th of September 2009 1,156 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.8% of the sample were female, 10.1% in their teens, 20.8% in their twenties, 30.0% in their thirties, 23.4% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 6.4% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. This does seem like a rather unusual demographic spread for goo Research.

Earlier in the year I did another survey with the same theme but a different setting.

I personally would vote for this.

Ranking result

Q: What clothes make you think you ought to make a move at dating parties? (Sample size=418, men)

Rank Score

1 Sleeveless top 100

2 Denim mini-skirt 76.6

3 Hot pants 70.2

4 Wide-necked top that shows collar bone 66.0

5 Loose v-necked top 63.8

6 See-through white blouse 48.9

7= Fluffy girly one-piece 46.8

7= Short pants 46.8

7= Fishnet tights 46.8

10 Short, tight T-shirt 42.6

11 Low-rider jeans 38.3

12 Loose-fitting ethnic one-piece 21.3

13= Tight dress with front slit 19.1

13= Tube top 19.1

15= Legging that show ankle 12.8

15= Skinny jeans 12.8

17 Snug-fitting turtle-neck 10.6

18 Slim trouser-suit 12.8

19 Off-the-shoulder number 6.4

20 Puffy-sleeved dress 4.3

Looks good enough to eat!

Ken Y-N — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:50:46 PST

Here’s a short but often sweet survey from goo Ranking looking at what foods people choose from the outside appearance more than the stuff inside.

Demographics

Note, most of the links below are affiliate links trying to sell you cute cellphone charms…

Ranking result

Q: What foods do you choose from the outside appearance more than from the stuff inside? (Sample size=1,156)

Rank Score

1 Melon bread 100

2 Tai-yaki 88.2

3 Tempura (batter-fried bite-sized fish and vegetables) 78.1

4 Choux cream (cream puff) 72.0

5 Waffle 63.6

6= Pie 55.9

6= Fried chicken 55.9

8 Chinese steamed bun 55.1

9 Dora-yaki 47.4

10 Crepe 45.8

11 Imagawa-yaki, Oban-yaki 45.1

12 Tart 42.0

13 Gyoza 41.0

14 Daifuku 39.1

15 Spring roll 36.6

16 Curry-filled roll 33.1

17= Fried fish 31.1

17= Hamburger 31.1

19 Manju 28.6

20 Monaka 26.3

Customs and traditions of Japan - Shichi-Go-San

Muza-chan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:30:48 PST

Shichi-Go-San ( 七五三 - seven-five-three ) is a festival marking a Japanese traditional rite of passage for 3 and 7 year-old girls and 3 and 5 year-old boys. Because it is not a national holiday, it is held on the nearest weekend to November 15th.

In the old times, the day of November 15 (the 15th day of the 11th month) was considered auspicious and it was permanently associated with the Shichi-Go-San festival when the Shogun Tsunayoshi Tokugawa organized the rite for his son on this day.

photo credit: James Alexander Jack

My Week in Tweets 2009-11-15

Danielle — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:59:00 PST

URGH! The word "pronunciation" has 2 'O's NOT 3. Seriously. There is NO worse word to mispronounce! kthxbai #
Okay, grabbing a coffee then aiming for #writegoal of 1k before hubby gets home in three hours. SURELY I can manage that! #
Nearly made #writegoal of 1k in 3 hrs: 836 wds net. Would have made it if I hadn't done a scene re-write Good thing I'm not doing #nano #
Yes! "They don’t stifle creativity, they enable it and give it a framework, a place to play." The Rules of Art Matter http://bit.ly/4aj3mG #
Something icky about "special offers" and coupon ads/mails "in honour of our boys" on Remembrance Day. Poor form chaps. #
heehee RT @dhewlett: Shooting just around the corner from the hotel…people keep stopping me and asking for directions…stupid uniform! #
Have unsubscribed from each shopping newsletter which sent me a "for the boys" Remembrance Day sale email and told them why. Over-reaction? #
LOL! The two companies with the highest employee morale in the UK are (apparently) Mills & Boon and MI5!! #
Noooo @wilw has tweeted a vetday coupon code! Mate. Seriously? /sigh 1 in 1.5mil makes no diff but I'm a woman of my word. He goes, too #
Loving my new computer but switching over is laborious. I use so many apps!! Will be so worth it when it's done #
Awesome! Just found the notification alert sound advanced options for tweetdeck – now it only beeps for mentions, DMs and certain groups! #
Been at it for just over 8 hours and the new computer is almost configured. Whew! Worth it though. Liking Win 7 so far. #
Big congrats and support to everyone still doing #nanowrimo! Nearly halfway there! You can do it! #
GOD I'm loving my new audio card. I can only guess that people with onboard sound don't know what they're missing. Or are used to iPods lol #
Remember this one? Ah… when brass and bass were king http://songza.fm/~k5gky3 #
#ff @inkyelbows @Alex_Carrick @danish_novelist @kellybarnhill @Donna_Carrick @markdavidgerson @Patti_OShea @david_hewson & #writechat! #
Okay, turning off the social media and getting to today's #writegoal just going for another 1k today. Nice and gentle See you later! #

Shibuya Streets Vol6

shibuya246 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:02:46 PST

Jimmy Choo with H&M at the Shibuya store

I started my Sunday walk in Shibuya having a look at Yamada Denki and then checking out the H&M Store that opened recently.

Looking out of the Tokyu Honten elevator back down towards Shibuya Station

mmmm, looks like there is more than one Choo in town making news this week.

I had heard about the new NIKE store opening thanks to TokyoFashion.com and decided to go and check it out. Since Harajuku is just one stop away on the Yamanote line, I set off on foot. It takes about 5-10 minutes to walk down and on the weekend there are plenty of people out.

On the way I passed plenty of brand stores and took a few snaps of some.

ZARA are about to open a new store near Shibuya Station right next to Marui

Marui currently have nike, adidas in their store, but with concept stores popping up, how do these small stores in store keep going?

Marui City also has many small and large designer brands in store

There were plenty of people around, but too close to snap really. My zoom lens would probably have hit someone in the face if I pointed it at them. Never a good thing to happen when you want to get a photo taken. ^_^

Decided to show this picture in black and white, sort of sepia, just to change things up

Crossing the road using the overpass. This is the view looking down towards Harajuku.

Looking back towards Shibuya, the Cerulean Tower stands out nicely against the tree in the foreground. Autumn and its changing colors can be very nice

A few more stores to see

Mountain HARD WEAR for all your winter clothing needs

The Audi Forum Tokyo is quite an interestingly designed building

J!NS

collectpoint

Do you know any / all of the stores above? Some names were new to me.

These 2 girls were wearing exactly the same outfit. Not sure what the outfit was for

This looked like a Uniqlo UT store with lots of New York style jazz

Everyone was taking a good look at this car. Nice set of wheels on this Lexus convertible

GAP, Plaza and food stores. The main crossing at Harajuku, Omotesandori

It was so crowded today, there must have been some events on, or maybe everyone was fed up of being kept indoors with the flu and decided to make a break for it to Harajuku.

The streets were packed out today. It was hard just to find a place to stand never mind walk. No chance of getting down to KIDDY LAND

Takeshita-dori was just as bad if not worse

The new NIKE store which had been my original place to visit was close to Harajuku station. Unfortunately they were guarding the store closely and didn’t want any photos taken. Looks like they want to write their own copy rather than have social media getting in on the act. Sorry, no photos to show you.

Instead here is some more Tokyo scenery to view ^__^.

The DoCoMo building at Yoyogi Station always stands out brightly

Harajuku Station was so busy they had to close the ticket gates every 5 minutes or so and stop people from entering

Since Harajuku Station was packed out I decided to come home via the new Fukutoshin-sen

With NIKE not wanting any free publicity, I thought I would take some photos of adidas.

The adidas store at Shibuya has had a bit of a facelift or wrapper lift

Do you normally take a walk on the weekend? What area do you normally go to see? What sites are there to view along the way?

Giant Squid On The Sidewalk

noreply@blogger.com (Soccerphile) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 07:01:00 PST

歩道のイカ

I have seen some odd things dumped on the sidewalks in Japan, especially when city authorities would pick up sodai gomi (large items of household waste) on specific days for free.

This much-loved practice, which provided the furniture for many a short-term foreigner's apartment and offered up the odd priceless antique, has now come to a sad end and you must contact your local ward office and pay for them to collect any bulky refuse.

As this type of free refuse collection has become a paid-for service, some people now drive out to a quiet, usually scenic area, and fly dump their stuff to save a shekel or two.

Just near my house, adjacent to Nagoya Agricultural Center is a wooded hill kept as a conservation area by Nagoya city. It was here I saw a giant cuttlefish half stuffed into a plastic bag hanging over the storm drain at the side of the road. Bizarre! The decomposing cephalopod was covered in flies and already beginning to stink on this warm and sunny day. I'll return in a week or so to see what state (of decomposition) the thing is in by then.

Phone the toll-free number 0120-758-530 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm if you have a large dead marine creature to offload in Nagoya. Human cremation is free and one of the perks of living (and dying) in Nagoya.

Items such as bicycles, furniture and kerosene stoves cost 500 yen. Carpets, futons and small electrical items such as vacuum cleaners and CD players cost 250 yen.

Nagoya city does not collect air conditioners, TVs, refrigerators, or washing machines which should be recycled under the Law for Recycling Specific Kinds of Home Appliances enacted in 1998).

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Gomi Nagoya

the unrush hour

noreply@blogger.com (the englishman) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:20:00 PST

In Japan's larger cities, the rush hour might well involve a bloke in white gloves shoving you onto a carriage till you're so far in that your face squashes up against the window while someone's briefcase rides up your backside as you try to make sure your hands don't touch anyone lest you be accused of groping.

Outside the big cities though, the situation is somewhat different. The rush hour might involve a train pulling in to the station, the doors opening, you stepping on to the train in a style of your choosing, walking to a seat at a steady pace and sitting down.

Your main concern will be finding a position which you deem suitable.....

...so that you can kick back and relax....

...and once you're nice and comfortable, you can happily doze off....

....having taken your shoes off first, of course.

Buddha of Kamakura

Billy — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:40:01 PST

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were washed away by a tsunami tidal wave in the end of the 15th century, and since then the Buddha stands in the open air.

With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second largest bronze Buddha statue in Japan (the largest is located in the Todaiji Temple in Nara). Source for Buddha info: japan-guide

Photographs taken with a Canon 5DMKII camera and Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens... with the Singh-Ray Vari-ND Filter 77mm (below).

Singh-Ray 77mm Vari-ND Filter - lets me continuously control the amount of light passing through my lens by as much as 8 exposure stops! No need to change your shutter speed to control the exposure. Stay at the f-stop you want for your depth of field of choice. A very nice piece of gear - works great for both video and stills. Available for purchase on Amazon.com

make it viral, share it !

Ojiyama Park, Sasayama

David — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:18:59 PST

Last Sunday I drove my Mother-in-law up to Sasayama so she could meet and have lunch with some of her friends. Sasayama is the first big town outside of the Kobe-Osaka-Kyoto metropolitan area on the JR Fukuchiyama line. As my Mother-in-law had lunch at Sasayama-so, a combination hotel, onsen and restaurant, I took a quick bath (of course) and then took some photos. Here are some photos of the Ojiyama park which Sasayama-so is located in.

A picnic table.

The trees are starting to change.

Be careful with fire says the chipmunk.

Torii leading up to a jinja.

Another view of the torii.

Sake of the week #032: Shichihonyari Junmai 80% Nama Genshu

Te-chan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:32:28 PST

Shichihonyari 80% Junmai Nama
Genshu with pewter chokko

It wasn’t long ago that Et-chan waxed rhapsodic about Shichihonyari, but I couldn’t resist coming back to them this week. The fact that we had two bottles in the fridge that we had ordered after Tomita Shuzo’s recent visit to Takase-sensei’s benkyokai helped.

At a milling rate of just 80%, this doesn’t qualify for ginjo, but that doesn’t matter. Tomita Shuzo takes great care on their brewing and they have a strong direction. This bottle will give anyone a good, if very big and bold, grounding in their style of sake. First, it is made from local Tama Hikari rice. They take their roots and their traditions seriously. Second, it is quite clean has an excellent balanced finish that lingers just enough. Third, the rich sweetness at Nihonshudo +7.5 is complemented with a strong acidity to yield a truly satisfying sip. I opened this one for a refreshing break from slaving over an overheated laptop and poured into my special pewter chokko for an indulgent end to the day. Time to look for something to snack on too, but nothing handy as the cupboard is pretty bare tonight. Too bad I can’t take this across the street to our local steak house and try that match up. I’m sure it would go nicely!

Tokyofodcast Et-chan and Te-chan eat Tokyo by Tokyofodcast Et-chan and Te-chan eat Tokyo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
(Digital Fingerprint: dc1c50001a56c8211df19353a85abbf6)

Top 10 Malice Mizer - 9th place, Garnet ~Kindan no Sono E~

Muza-chan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:00:36 PST

The 9th place in my Top 10 Malice Mizer: Garnet ~Kindan no Sono E~

Obama and Hatoyama masks in Tokyo

spamfromjapan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:14:15 PST

I saw these masks for sale in the market surrounding the temples in Asakusa, Tokyo and managed to snap a quick photograph.

TOP LEFT: Miyuki Hatoyama is a former member of the legendary Takarazuka Theatre Troupe who claims to have been abducted by aliens from Venus while she slept. In the cartoon, she says to the alien, “Let’s go to Venus in the spirit of friendship!” In the background, Hatoyama races after her shouting, “Take me too!”

TOP RIGHT: Yukio Hatoyama is the current Prime Minister of Japan (as of November 2009) and characterised as being connected with ‘peace’ in this cartoon. That might be because of his name (’hato’ means pigeon or dove), but either way he’s riding a giant dove and shouting “All right! Attack!”

BOTTOM LEFT: Michelle Obama says, “I’m the SUPER LADY! I ♥ OBAMA.” Obama clutches her arm, shouting “Honey~!”

BOTTOM RIGHT: Barack Obama is President of the USA and internationally renowned politician. If I need to explain who he is, you might as well give up on this post. In any case, he simply says, “YES WE CAN”. In English.

"Personal information law hindering right to know"

noreply@blogger.com (visual gonthros) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:34:00 PST

A recent article from the Yomiuri On-Line discusses the so-called personal information law and several of its problems. As I discussed in earlier posts dealing with the ethics of photographing in public in Japan, the law seems to have been over-interpreted by many to the point of making them paranoid about providing even the most basic information. This is not an easy or healthy environment for anthropological fieldwork. Full text article appears below:

The Personal Information Protection Law was meant to do exactly what its name suggests--protect people's personal information--but it has also led to excessive restrictions on the flow of information, something Cabinet minister Mizuho Fukushima is aiming to fix as she spearheads efforts to review the law.

The state minister in charge of consumer affairs and the declining birthrate, Fukushima recently instructed the Consumer Affairs Agency to thoroughly review the law, including the question of whether it should be revised so this country does not move further toward becoming an "anonymous society" stifled by the law's rigidity.

All parties concerned should conduct serious discussions about government organizations and businesses' refusal to release information due to their overreaction to the law's stipulations on guarding people's privacy. The proposed review should lead to truly effective measures that ensure the public's right to know, the very foundation of a democratic society.

The task of reviewing the Personal Information Protection Law, which took effect in April 2005, will be undertaken jointly by the Consumer Affairs Agency and the Consumer Commission, a Cabinet Office watchdog organization charged with consumer protection.

"I've instructed [relevant officials ] to carefully scrutinize cases of overreaction to the law's requirements," Fukushima told a press conference on Oct. 27.

At a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee in 2006, Fukushima called for the release of information concerning amakudari, the practice by which retired bureaucrats secure high-paying jobs at companies or organizations in sectors they formerly oversaw. Specifically, she demanded that information be made public about the retirement allowances received by former high-ranking officials of the defunct Defense Facility Administration Agency from agency-linked entities where the officials acquired postretirement jobs.

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Excessive self-restraint

However, Fukushima's demand was turned down by the government, which said the facts she sought represented "personal information," and the law prevented their disclosure without the consent of the individuals involved.

That bitter experience led Fukushima to resolve to change what she called the "structure of concealing information" at ministries and agencies.

The biggest problem involving the personal information law is this country's continuing march toward becoming an anonymous society, with people finding it more and more difficult to obtain information they need in their everyday lives.

Immediately after the enforcement of the law in 2005, many people lodged complaints with offices of the National Consumer Affairs Center, an independent administrative institution with branches across the country.

One typical complaint came from a woman with a daughter in middle school. She said a list from her daughter's school of students' names for use in times of emergency did not contain either the addresses or phone numbers of the students' homes.

"I worry about what could happen in an emergency," the woman said.

There actually is no problem with distributing such information--students and their parents only have to agree to it--but school authorities were nervous and went to excessive lengths not to violate the law, center officials said.

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Scandals repeatedly covered up

In 2008, the administration of then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda carried out a review of the law. It ultimately did not make revisions, saying that overreactions would end when the public came to be well informed about the law. However, coverups of scandals involving government organizations have continued endlessly.

There also have been more than a few cases in which the press have been hindered in their coverage of the news.

Any measures to improve the application of the law--without getting to the heart of the problem by revising the legislation--likely will fail to stem this country's progress toward becoming an anonymous society.

"The current law does not strike a balance between the need to protect personal information and the value of personal information to the public," the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association said in a statement issued in March.

In the statement, the association demanded the law be revised to include provisions giving "special consideration to the value of personal information related to news organizations' activities in support of the public good and common public interests."

Masao Horibe, a professor emeritus of Hitotsubashi University who specializes in the freedom of information, said: "The law should be revised to change the current state of affairs in which disproportionately high importance has been given to the protection of personal information."

The forthcoming discussions on reviewing the personal information law under the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama should focus on how to devise measures that safeguard the people's right to know.

(Nov. 12, 2009)

Why Naruto should be over

(author unknown) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:00:00 PST

After writing my article on why Haruhi should be over, I realized that I like telling people that their favorite series should take a dirt nap. I don't know why; it must have been something in those formative years.

Naruto may seem to be a strange choice because it's so mainstream; what's the point of criticizing a mass-market show meant for kids? However, I maintain that Naruto was once a good show- albeit one in the rather uninspired "I like to hit things and I want to get stronger so I can hit bigger things" genre- but it is a good show no longer. While the same thing has arguably happened to Bleach, I think in general that show has been on a more even keel, so Naruto is in much more dire need of ceasing to exist.

UP [2009] review

Jason Collin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:10:29 PST

“They’ve done it again,” should be the official tagline for Pixar animation studios because with 2009’s UP, they have indeed done it again. WALL*E was a perfect masterpiece of a movie to me. I can still feel watching it. The premise for UP did not have me believing Pixar could even get close to the mastery of WALL*E and I was left wondering how UP would awe and entertain me. I was blown away after the opening scenes.

The score for UP is perfect. Michael Giacchonio did a wonderful job of composing just the right amount of nostalgia with modern adventure. One of my biggest concerns was including a chubby kid as a main character, but there is not a single overt fat joke in the entire movie. Nothing gross either. These things are what elevate Pixar films to masterpiece level.

The plot is set in motion by a scene of pure fantasy that does not take much to go with. An old man tying thousands of balloons to his house so he can fly away…I had no trouble with that. I just wondered what he would do for the rest of the movie? My worry was quickly alleviated as the adventure that followed was solidly rooted in what the old man crossed his heart to one day do. One could believe with such motivation a man of such long years could find the energy to will himself into accomplishing his dream.

UP also contains the best 5-minute romance I’ve ever scene, and one of the best on screen romances of any length. The twist was what got me on board the movie immediately.

UP is not in the WALL*E stratosphere because of a somewhat violent ending. Despite the many fantasy scenes the viewer has to just accept, a final scene with small airplanes I did not buy and did not think needed to be in the movie.

Other than that, there are just so many small touches that make the movie a masterpiece, like how the old man’s stubble grows as the days press on. I do not think I have seen that in an animated character before. The animation itself is of course the highest level. They way Pixar animates the weight of objects is outstanding.

It comforts me greatly to know that a consistent level of greatness is being achieved in Hollywood. That one movie studio is not being infiltrated by gimmicks. Pixar is just simply, doing it again, and again.

Rank		Score
1	Sleeveless top	100
2	Denim mini-skirt	76.6
3	Hot pants	70.2
4	Wide-necked top that shows collar bone	66.0
5	Loose v-necked top	63.8
6	See-through white blouse	48.9
7=	Fluffy girly one-piece	46.8
7=	Short pants	46.8
7=	Fishnet tights	46.8
10	Short, tight T-shirt	42.6
11	Low-rider jeans	38.3
12	Loose-fitting ethnic one-piece	21.3
13=	Tight dress with front slit	19.1
13=	Tube top	19.1
15=	Legging that show ankle	12.8
15=	Skinny jeans	12.8
17	Snug-fitting turtle-neck	10.6
18	Slim trouser-suit	12.8
19	Off-the-shoulder number	6.4
20	Puffy-sleeved dress	4.3

Rank		Score
1	Melon bread	100
2	Tai-yaki	88.2
3	Tempura (batter-fried bite-sized fish and vegetables)	78.1
4	Choux cream (cream puff)	72.0
5	Waffle	63.6
6=	Pie	55.9
6=	Fried chicken	55.9
8	Chinese steamed bun	55.1
9	Dora-yaki	47.4
10	Crepe	45.8
11	Imagawa-yaki, Oban-yaki	45.1
12	Tart	42.0
13	Gyoza	41.0
14	Daifuku	39.1
15	Spring roll	36.6
16	Curry-filled roll	33.1
17=	Fried fish	31.1
17=	Hamburger	31.1
19	Manju	28.6
20	Monaka	26.3

"Japan Blogs" via Nick in Google Reader

Conbini alert: Family Mart buys out am/pm

Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces promotional video

Japanese company creates Barack Obama pyramid

A U.S. military air base? Not in my backyard.

Laughably stupid ghost photos

Clothes suggesting chat-uppable girls at dating parties

Demographics

Ranking result

Q: What clothes make you think you ought to make a move at dating parties? (Sample size=418, men)

Looks good enough to eat!

Demographics

Ranking result

Q: What foods do you choose from the outside appearance more than from the stuff inside? (Sample size=1,156)

Customs and traditions of Japan - Shichi-Go-San

My Week in Tweets 2009-11-15

Shibuya Streets Vol6

Giant Squid On The Sidewalk

the unrush hour

Buddha of Kamakura

Ojiyama Park, Sasayama

Sake of the week #032: Shichihonyari Junmai 80% Nama Genshu

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