watashi to tokyo

new street computing style in Akihabara

2009-11-11T22:13:57+09:00

New AKihabara phenomenon...Standing typing style is called "Koike Style" they said, cause Mr.Koike started it first. Anyway, why they don't use iPhone?

Finally Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested today. His photo after cosmetic surgery was pretty shocked to us, all Japanese looked for him.

Anothere Japanese curry fan's post, she writes her recipe too. She cook curry udon but penne or such macaroni or chinese noodle is good too. If you make curry a little bit thick with less water, it will be good for bread too, you can make hot sandwich. Curry is really good at chilly winter night, try it.

Lipton tea started new sweets collection. This is 7th series and they collaborate with DAMEL. When you buy a bottole of Lipton tea, you can get one of those key chain sweets. Since they are exquisitely designed, Lipton sweets collection is very popular series and there are a lot of collectors.
The 1st series was Pierre Herme.
The 2nd was The westin Tokyo tea time.
The 3rd was sweets collection.
The 4th was Pierre Marcoline.
The 5ht was sweets collection 2.
The 6th was Delray.
It can't be good free souvenirs :-).

This is funny site "do the phrase about face with real face". The upper right one is "eyes get to be round" it means "marvel at" in Japanese. You may catch the nuance of the phrase with face? Eyse go to bo dots has almost same meanings. How about this? We say "beneath nose part grow down", it close to the meaning "be soft on women" or "think something ecchi!".

Axolotl bowl

2009-11-10T21:38:29+09:00

Ferrari will open a theme park in Dubai in 2010 and this is the design of the park. I, along with many other Japanese people, think of the Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion when I look at that design. Apparently it's the seventh Angel, Israfel, right?

I love monjya yaki. I know, it looks like quot;puke" (sorry), but it tastes very good. It's a little bit sticky, so we use a small flat paddle to serve it. I heard that a monjya yaki izakaya opened in Shimokitazawa, which is my favorite town. I will check it out soon.

We sometimes have animal booms in Japan. In the past, we’ve had had a chihuahua boom, a red panda boom, and then a frill-necked lizard boom because of this TV ad:

Axolotl were also very popular in the 1980s. Because of their funny faces, they became popular as a kimo-kawaii character. Since we have an international trade regulation, there are axolotol that are bred within Japan. In the 1980s, one axolotl cost about 15,000 yen or so, but now the price is only 1/10 of what it used to be. So a breeding factory started to market them for edible consumption. This is an axolotl donburi. They say it tastes like chicken. Hmm, I am not sure I would want to try it.

This is a funny (or serious) list of Google suggestions. When you search the word "husband" in Japanese at Google Japan, Google suggests the popular search terms "husband, hope he dies," "husband, hate," "husband violent with words," "husband, fired," "husband, die, pension," and other negative phrases. On the other hand, when you search for the word "wife," the first suggestion is "wife, birthday gift" and the next is "wife, birthday gift ranking." Husbands are looking for gifts for their wives! Hmm… what a sad reality for Japan.

poor bear

2009-11-09T23:30:30+09:00

I love to play cards. I wish I could play cards with my friends sometimes on the weekend, but it's hard to find card fans around me! My favorite card game is Daihinmin (Rich Man Poor Man), and you can play it on the Internet here. Try it.

I was surprised to see this because I thought it was a new type of creature, but it's just a poor hairless bear... He would love this bear sleeping bag.

I often read that this country doesn’t make people rich or happy at all, this is a good article by Asahi: "The poverty rate in Japan."

Koakuma Ageha is a magazine for bar hostess type girls. Generally, they wear dresses and have big "mori" hair like this. And this month, Ageha recommends a new type of hairstyle that features big hearts made of braids. Really, are they serious? Insane...

Ahhh… I was hooked on this strawberry ice cream bar that looks so gorgeous! It's a special available at "Circle K," a convenience store. In winter, expensive, high quality ice creams sell better than in the summertime. Actually, I tend to choose creamier, heavier ice creams in winter when I crave flavor, not the chill. My favorite three ice creams in the supermarket are: Yukimi Daifuku, Choco-flake bitter and Choco-Zaku (chocolate with crunchies in a puffed rice shell). I love this mochi ice cream with red bean one too.

tracing collection

2009-11-06T21:09:16+09:00

This post is a collection of old Japan maps from around the world. The first one is Belgian and was made in 1595. What a good job! How did they figure out the unique shape of the land in the old days? I can't understand it at all.

These pictures are different but very similar. We call a phenomenon "tracing" in internet slang. This is a tracing collection that I enjoyed during my lunch today.

I love this. I don't know why, but it's close, right?

This is hilarious! Booty and onigiri!

I know, I know that having bad teeth is looked down upon in foreign countries. However, in Japan, many people think that it’s kind of charming in girls. This site celebrates “vampire toothed” girls. What do you think?

Alice sent me this interesting article: "Girly men of Japan just want to have fun." Sometimes when I read such article about Japan: girly men, guys and 2D love, Japanese boys wearing skirts etc. I think… these are true, but of course it's just some phenomenon, not a real tread.

Tokyo metro manner poster

2009-11-05T21:37:09+09:00

The new Tokyo Metro manners poster for November is a good one. Ha ha ha… good before and after pictures. By the way, my American friend said that he doesn't care if women put on makeup on the train, but I feel that doing makeup in public is wrong because for me, putting on makeup is related to getting dressed, so personally, I wouldn’t do it in public. Maybe many people feel the same, because we had a similar "makeup" poster in May 2008 too. Which of these do you agree with and which seem strange? (I mean which activities seem strange, not which have strange English, he he)

Wow this is the meat towel for meat lovers. The packaging is good too; in the past, we used bamboo leaves to wrap meat (sometimes meat shops still do this).

The line and dot notebooks ranked among this year's hit items. Japanese people like quad-ruled notebooks very much and I read some funny news about it: an American engineer thought it was crazy when he saw Japanese people using excel as a quad-ruled sheet. For example, he made this great diorama and he used the grids on excel to design it. We usually use excel like this. Is this strange?

Ahhh, what a good idea! I want these origami teabags. Speaking of tea, Gogo no Kocha (afternoon tea) is the most popular bottled tea brand in Japan. I like their double tea leaf milk, which is dark and sweet.

It is 35 years old birthday for her

2009-11-03T23:39:00+09:00

November 1^st is the birthday of popular Sanrio character Hello Kitty and this year is the 35^thanniversary of the creation of that world-famous cat. This is a collection of artwork to honor the occasion: "80 Contemporary Artists Do Hello Kitty."
Hello Kitty was born in 1974 and became popular along with other Sanrio characters like Patty and Jimmy and Kiki Lala. But by the end of 70s, the popularity of those characters, including Kitty, diminished. I think that people had a childish image of those Sanrio character and only kids liked them. However, in the 90s, Japanese pop star Tomomi Kahara said she liked Kitty very much and a new Kitty boom started. After that boom, Hello Kitty’s popularity spread throughout the world, with products now available in about 60 countries. A variety of branded items have appeared from a Fender guitar, a PC and cars, to even a house with Hello Kitty designs all over it.

I enjoyed reading this article: "Interview with Keita Takahashi," who is one of the creators of "Katamari Damashi." I like the world of Katamari, but unfortunately I can't play it because it gives me motion sickness.

I was impressed by this news: "Some troops have a sixth sense for bombs." The Gundam New Type was born and he is different, I mean of a different gamer generation.

Hit items in 2009

2009-11-02T00:47:00+09:00

Crazy news from Asia! One is from China: I often saw this happen on comedy shows, but this guy did it for real. He he he: naked love rival flees furious husband. And another interesting story from India: "Man sues over lack of 'Lynx effect.'. An Indian guy is seeking ￡26,000 from Unilever for the "depression and psychological damage" caused by the lack of a “Lynx effect.” Ha ha ha, crazy!

This is the site "Hotaru-san." “Hotaru” means firefly in Japanese. Enter a message in the blank. I made this one: "watashi to tokyo." You can see those hotaru-san in Tokyo in this movie. They seem to be updating the contents, I will check to see what is next.

The magazine "Nikkei Trendy" has released its list of "Hit Products of 2009." It's already time to discuss this kind of topic? Wow! Time has shot by like an arrow.

No.1 Toyota Prius & Honda Insight: eco cars. Since I have never wanted to buy a car, I don't know about any of the details. Actually, if I keep living in Japan this way, I won't ever buy a car in my lifetime.

No.2 KIRIN Free: Non-alcoholic beer. I am not a beer person, but I drank a lot of beer in this summer (... a lot).

No.3 Dragon Quest lX: I will try this if I can play it on the iPhone on my way home.

No.4 Anti-flu items: I was worried I had the flu last week and got a checkup at the hospital. I thought I was supposed to get a shot, but nurse just stuck a long Q-tip into my nose. That's all! About 20 minutes later, I was told I tested negative for the flu.

No.5 National treasure Ashura: I couldn't go see it because last year, cultural stuff like Japanese castles, Samurai, Buddha statues, etc. were very hot in this country.

No.6 Kokuyo line and dot notebook: Very simple idea, but I understand that it's very useful.

No.7 UNO Fog bar: We can see four popular actors in these ads.

No.8 Digital notebook Pomera: This is not a PC. It’s used for typing memos, which are saved on the memory. I like this idea because I hate writing by hand.

No.9 Steamless rice cooker: Rice cookers are really important and can affect the taste and texture of rice a lot. But Japanese rice cookers are made to suit Japanese rice, so if you eat rice from California or from another country, I am not sure if this rice cooker would work as well. I am thinking of buying a newer, nicer model. My target is this "odori daki" (dancing cooking method). It cooks rice by stirring them up using steam, as if they are dancing, which makes the rice sweet and plump.

No.10 990yen jeans: Not just UNIQLO, but several other companies have released low priced jeans.

Welcome to Hatsune Miku

2009-10-30T21:38:16+09:00

These are photos of Japan in the 1800s. Only 200 years ago!

I caught a cold and I have been home for three days now. Yesterday and today, I went to the clinic, got checked for the flu and got tons of medicine. It cost 5000yen in total. I hope I can go to work tomorrow.

This is fun. Stare at the red dot for 30 seconds, look at a wall, and blink!

This is a news article about a false marriage which may be tied to a serial killer. A 34 year old woman scammed several guys for about 1 million dollars. Six of those guys died in mysterious ways. If she really did kill them, she would be the second most notorious female killer in Japan (the worst is Hiroko Nagata, a Japanese leftist radical). She and her deceased boyfriend had some blogs, so now people are trying to amass a cache of their blog posts on 2ch. Anyways, this incident will surely have an impact on single men and women interested in konkatsu (marriage hunting).

This was a little bit funny: Google’s translation tool uses different ways to translate text, sometimes using a statistical machine translation (I guess). So the system focuses more on the popularity of a translated word rather than its correct meaning. When you translate “miku” from English to Japanese, Google translates it as "Hatsune Miku" (a popular vocaloid character). So when you translate miku restaurant’s website into Japanese, it says "Welcome to Hatsune Miku!"

Seto is a Japanese design group in Kamakura. I found their unique bag. You fill in the dots using colored pens and make your own uniquely designed bag. I like this idea.

46 crocodiles escaped in China. And the government announced, "find them, we don't mind if you eat them!" I don't know how you feel about this, but I like it. It’s their Chinese power.

"Revoltech Expo 2009" is going on now. You can check out Kaiyodo's newly released items.

Ramen burger and weird Kit Kat

2009-10-28T07:40:00+09:00

This is a part of TV show to intoroduce some local B class groumet. They show ramen burger. And it looks very delicious to me. Ramen dough will be crispy, barbecued pork will be soft and they will match to chicken soup jerry. What do you think?

This is a post that Japan has some seriously weird Kit Kat flavours. Here is wikipedia that tell the detals of Kit Kat flavours and here is Japanese Nestle site.

Until I check those pages, I didn't think we would have such weird kitkat but maybe yes...I found they release "ginger ale Kit Kat". And of course we love green tea "variation" like Maccha tea, Maccha Kyoto special, Uji Maccha tea, Maccha Milk houji tea,, etc,. And of course red beans "variation" too like Azuki, Azuki sand wich(what is that? It is just sandwich of sweet red beans), Oshiruko(sweet red beans and rice cake soup) etc,.

And we can find more unique one in Japanse local special kit kat series. This is Yuzu kosho kit kat(Yuzu citurs and pepper paste). This is Miso kit kat, since we have miso, of course we have soy sauce kit kat too! Actually it is Tokyo special.(I have never eaten before though...) Which one you wanna try? :-)

Did you read this news? Finland tops global prosperity index and is followed by Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Canada is 7, U.S is 9 and Japan is 16! I know...this society is stessful, city area is so crwoded, rash train in the morning is hell, prices is high, the gap between rich and poor widens...Butit's sad to know such low index we have.

things that young people are turned off in Japan

2009-10-27T21:17:47+09:00

When animals smile

Solid Alliance released these funny earphones. The screw type is called “Franken,” and the Banana one was probably inspired by this:

These are the things that young people are turned off by in Japan. I agree with this list because I am also turned off by these things:

Television: I don't watch much TV either, maybe a total of one hour a month. The quality of dramas and documentaries in Japan is not as good as ones from the US or UK.
Travel: I am not sure about this part, but I heard that young people love to save money because they have never experienced a booming economy in their life. They are more thrifty about money than older generations.
Car: Cars were important for dating before. The HONDA Prelude and the Mazda Familia were so popular that they were called “dating cars.” But now, young urbanities don't ride in or buy cars. Trains are cheap and convenient enough and young people hate to waste money on cars they don’t need.
Drinking: My generation enjoys drinking, but I heard that young people think drinking is bad and uncool.
Newspapers: I don't buy newspapers either, because I can read news on the internet, so why would I pay to read it on paper?
Tobacco: I quit smoking, though nowadays few young people start the habit… because of ill effects of smoking works fine.
Science courses: I am not sure about this one either, but this might be related to the decline of science-based companies and the unglamorous image surrounding research jobs.
Professional baseball: No more stars like Ichiro or Matsui :-)
Love and Relationships: Because we are a dying nation!
Magazines: I can get more information on the internet!
CD: Download them, of course!
Game centers: Use the internet!
Pachinko: The internet is more fun!
Watch: Just use your iPhone or cell phone to tell time.
Sports: Hmm… people enjoy a variety of hobbies now. Also, indoor activities are really fun.

Here are some interesting pictures (warning: some are pornographic or grotesque) that you may use for handouts or information. I like these: names of beards, face list of real yakuza, military meals. The meal pictured in the upper left corner is served by the Japanese self defense forces, the next meal is from the US, then Holland and Canada. The gorgeous meal in the upper right corner is Australian. This picture compares the height of robots. I didn't know that Gundam is such a small robot. Can you find it?