I went to the Osaka Motor Show! (I was in Japan last week, back in Shanghai already though.)

This was my first motor show, but it was basically what I expected. A geeks paradise. Cars, girls, lots of guys with cameras, and an excuse to point your camera at anything and take 100,000 photos in one afternoon. I even saw this one Japanese guy with one of those dual holster side strap sling things so he could have his two DSLR cameras ready at a moments notice. Hardcore.

I put my photos on the usual social photo sharing locations. Check out my Picasa Album here. You can also get to my Flickr via the thumbnails at the bottom of this blog.

Here are some of my favorite shots.

U-POHS had the most popular booth... and no cars.

There was one hilarious booth in particular that wasn’t even promoting a vehicle, but they had three girls. Two of the girls were wearing bikini tops and cutoff jean shorts and they came out every few hours to sing and dance and pose for all the cameras. This show attracted a bigger crowd than any of the other booths. The company was U-PohS and the girls are called the U-PohS LipGirls. Apparently the company provides a service where they will give you a quote free of charge for the used car you are considering selling to them.

This is the LipGirls dance I never saw because the crowd was so thick. Luckily it seems that one of the lucky guys up front made this video and put it on YouTube! Enjoy LipGirls! When they start to sing the harmony part you might want to turn down the volume… ouch.

How about a bit of language fun to try to keep this a bit intellectual?

The girls who work at these car shows are called “companions” コンパニオン and “campaign girls” キャンギャル (shortened to kyan-girl). I believe that the “companions” are down on the show floor passing out pamphlets and answering questions, while the “campaign girls” are usually the more elaborately dressed models who are up on stage posing with the cars.

There is a Chinese expression: 香車美人 (xiāng chē měi nǚ in Chinese, or I guess きょうしゃびじん : kyoushabijin in Japanese) which basically means beautiful cars and beautiful girls. 香車美人 is a real phrase, though it seems to be more common in China and not so much (if at all) in Japan. (My wife didn’t know it.) It’s real though. See?

If you search Google and YouTube for “大阪モーターショー2012″ you can find a lot of other photos and videos from the event.

Car Research article Page 1
Car Research article Page 2

A Japanese blogger on the scene.

Here a YouTube video that is a collection of the Campaign Girls at the event:

Here is a slide show of what must be every single girl at the show… This guy really made the rounds.

That’s all! Remember just Google “大阪モーターショー2012″ if you want to see more of the show.

Well, another Japan blogger has beat me to self-publishing! (I really need to get on that.)

Baye from Loco in Yokohama has finished his book! His blog is extremely popular so I’m sure his book will be enjoyed by many.

His book is called “Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist” and it’s available on the Kindle! Check it out.

Loco's Book! Read it on your Kindle.

I have a friend who is about to head to Japan for the first time, and he wants the Maid Cafe experience. I have been to maid cafe’s before, but not anytime in the past 5+ years or so… so I’m way out of the loop.

This youtube introduction of Royal Milk is pretty good, and the host actually speaks Japanese which is a plus.

Have any of you been to maid cafes? Any recommendations?

Also while we’re on the subject, if you are going to go to Akihabara as a tourist I strongly recommend also visiting NAKANO BROADWAY Shopping Arcade. It’s like Akihabara but with more focus on the anime/maid/figure side of otaku culture rather than the electronics. I haven’t been there forever… and I can’t believe I didn’t blog about it when I did go… but it was great, and my tweeps assure me that it does indeed still exist. Danny Choo has a great piece on Nakano Broadway here you can check out.

Back to the subject of maid cafes, I went to e-maid cafe in Osaka back in 2006 with a quite otaku Japanese buddy and had a fun time. You can read that old school JapanNewbie e-maid cafe blog post here, and you can check out e-maid cafe official site here.

e-maid cafe in Osaka circa 2006

Let me know if you have any maid cafe recommendations!

I’m still living in Shanghai – and I’m still enjoying Japanese food whenever I can! Today I checked out an Okonomiyaki place with my wife and her friend… and her friend’s 5-year old who happened to sleep on the floor throughout the entire meal… the slacker.

Okonomiyaki at Takenosuke in Shanghai

The name of the shop is Takenosuke (武之助). They serve Okonomiyaki in Shanghai and play old school Japanese music on the sound system, like Ishikawa Sayuri, Inoue Yousui, Okamoto Mayo, Yumi, and Uemura Kana (hope I got all those names correct). The place prides itself on being a Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki shop, so you can get the Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki that is filled with noodles, and the place has Hiroshima Carps baseball team photos everywhere.

No Carps stuff in this photo though...

It took forever for our three okonomiyaki orders to come, but we all agreed that it was solid okonomiyaki when they finally showed up. Note, my wife is from Osaka, so her standards for okonomiyaki are pretty high.

If you sit upstairs you will take off your shoes and sit in one of those low tables where the floor is also also depressed so you don’t have to cross your legs. This type of table is called a horigotatsu…shiki (掘りごたつ) table. Hori is to dig. Kotatsu is one of those indoor heated tables… These are not heated, of course.

Unlike they would in Japan, this restaurant doesn’t give you extra aonori (青のり seaweed flakes) or katsuobushi (鰹節 dried fish flakes) or sauce at your table, but that wasn’t a big deal for us. Also, you don’t cook the okonomiyaki yourself a hotplate, they’ll completely prepare it and bring it to your table.

One fun thing was that they had some examples of Hiroshima dialect and other random things on the table.

takenosuke031

It also seems that they have a sort of system set up where Chinese speakers can get an automated explanation of the menu items… it had something to do with a scanner device and special tags embedded into the menu. Looked pretty interesting, but we didn’t try it.

If you’re in Shanghai and need Okonomiyaki be sure to check out Takenosuke!

Japanese post Takenosuke
Address
上海市長寧区古羊路537号
古羊路 near 宋园路
guyang lu near songyuan lu

What do these people have in common?

Michael Jackson, birthday: August 29, 1958
Bae Yong Joon (Yon-sama), birthday: August 29, 1972
John McCain, birthday: August 29, 1936
Charlie Parker, birthday: August 29, 1920

Right! Their birthdays are the same!

But what about their birthdays is special and interesting to those of us studying Japanese language and culture?

Here’s a hint… it has something to do with Tsuruhashi in Osaka…

Yes you got it! Korean BBQ!!! Let’s break it down. (Wut?)

Yakiniku - August 29th Diagram

The Japanese word for Korean BBQ is basically 焼き肉 (yakiniku).
“yaki” means to be cooked, and “niku” means meat.

Let’s jump to the birthday link.

The birthdate in question is August 29th.
In Japanese August 29th is 八月二十九日 (hachi gatsu nijyuukunichi).

The number 8 is “hachi” in Japanese, but the same character can also be read “ya” As in 八つ (yatsu). This “ya” sound matches up with the “ya” in the Japanese word for BBQ, 焼き肉 (*ya*kiniku).

The number 2 is “ni” in Japanese, and you hear it right there in “29″ which is “nijyuuku.” This “ni” sound matches up with the first syllable in the Japanese word for “meat,” 肉 (*ni*ku.)

The number 9 in Japanese is “ku” or “kyuu.” You can hear it in “29″ which is “nijyuuku,” or “nijyuukyuu” for that matter.

So now you can see that YAKINIKU has all the components to spell out August 29th in Japanese if your twist your mind around this crazy Kanji game.

Ever heard anyone say that if you have to explain a joke it isn’t funny? I guess I just destroyed that one…

I came across this Yakiniku thing again because I asked a new friend when her birthday was… and she responded, “yakinikunohi.” She was also then able to tell me that Yon-sama and Michael Jacksons also were Korean BBQ Birthday Boys. Awesome.(?)

Some Charlie Parker for you on the way out:

Somewhat Related:
Tsuruhashi for Korean BBQ