The Hopeless Romantic

Karaoke Duets Part Two: Pink Laaaaaady

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:20:22 PST

(the title is a Jerry Lewis reference; please don't look up Jerryoke if you value your sanity)

Today's duet selection, which should get some good smiles--and a partner to sing it with!--around the bar is Pink Lady. Your parents might know these gals, as they at one point had an American TV show (wuuuut?). So I'll show you their first American TV appearance, complete with a song that you can probably use at said karaoke bar. Avoid imitating all hairstyles herein though.

Just like yesterday I feel the need to double up on duets. Here is a Japanese one by them, called Uonteddo (Wanted). Again, avoid hairstyles--and clothing for that matter-- in these videos.

Karaoke Duets Part One: Two Peanuts in a Pod

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:20:18 PST

Just talking about my Yakuza Karaoke new year celebration made me want to do some more karaoke posts. It's about time I introduced duets to you, and appropriately I will have a companion post up tomorrow. So find a friend and enjoy!

Today's group is The Peanuts (ザピーナツ), a pair of identical twins. Fun trivia: in Japanese one always says older sister or younger sister, not sister, even among twins. Of course some people just resort to names, but usually the old hierarchy culture is payed attention to even at home.

Right, the karaoke. Sorry. Here is Koi no Bakansu (Love Holiday):

Twins engenders a doubling of songs today! Sorry, couldn't find a version of this with the lyrics attached, but it's a pretty easy song. The title: Koi no Fuuga (Love Fugue). I like it even better than the one up there.

I just discovered their English version of the same song.

And just for fun, you can see them sing the Mothra song, as they were Mothra's fairies for the first few movies (wut?). The song uses Indonesian, so I'd be surprised if it was in the old karaoke machine. That would be a master-level, katakana-only song if it was there. I hate katakana lyrics. Only thing worse is romaji lyrics.

Yakuza New Years

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:15:44 PST

I hope I don't get in trouble with them for posting this one, but I spent the turning over of the year surrounded by local gangsters at a bar they own while singing karaoke. Unlike Western shady types, they can be pretty amiable and fun to hang out with. And the boss sings wicked awesome, I kid you not.

I have just enough しぶい (shubui, old-school) chops to hold my own at the mic.

This guy is not the boss, but he has a sweet demon tattoo. If I ever get one, it'll be this style.

This post brought to you by the society of bloggers that worry their poor moms.
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This has been a mobile post; click the pic to visit my mobile post album.

It's Christmas... in Japan

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 10:02:00 PST

After I saw the last CiJ collab I tracked down Fatblueman and made him swear to include me this time.

And now to set this post to automatically appear on Christmas day...

Last Day in Niigata: Snowboarding is Not Torture

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:25:40 PST

Forgive the delay on the last day; I didn't take many pics with my iPhone on this day, and so had to get them from my camcorder. Plus, I wanted a little suspense about whether or not I survived snowboarding.

From Niigata Trip

I knew that if it finally properly snowed, my boarding fate was sealed. We woke up to a white Christmas at the Naspa resort [map], then headed to the Gala ski grounds　[map][website]. Both are in Yuzawa, the setting of the famous novel Snow Country.

From Niigata Trip

This is a shinkansen ticket gate right in the Gala building. For about 20,000 yen, you can make a quick package deal journey, with train and ski tickets together, to Gala from Tokyo in a very short amount of time. So if you weather permits, like mine did, you can zip right up to Yuzawa.

From

I was actually a bit anxious because I haven't boarded since I was a gangly teenager. But now I am a gangly man, and a blogger for hire, so I did my duty and went up that mountain. That beautiful, murderous mountain.

From Niigata Trip

But you know what? I did good! I managed two runs without falling that morning! A snow storm came along while I was between runs and provided us with some wicked powder to help too.

From Niigata Trip

After a hard day of boarding, enjoying seaweed-laced soba is a nice reward.
Soon, I will be making videos. Actually, one is rendered and scheduled to be uploaded today. But I hope theses posts come to be of use to people out there that are thinking of going to Niigata. As for me, I want to live in the Uonuma area (where the cool art was in temples surrounded by snowy mountains) now!

Matrix Pachinko

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 06:35:00 PST

I really don't understand pachinko, or why they decided to make Matrix-themed machines for it, but here you go. The Japanese guy is Yoichi Nukumizu, I know that because he appeared in another CM featured on this blog, and a reader was kind enough to fill me in.

In the first one, Yoichi goes down the rabbit hole to eat soba:

And here he tries to catch a seat:

[hat tip goes to Ken on JSOC for finding these and making things easy for me]

That's Some Funny Sh-- uh, Poop.

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:05:09 PST

Hey, I'm in this video, as the guy with the funny hat... uh after the first guy with a funny hat, and not to be confused by the other guy from Saga with a funny hat (Hi, Bobbyjudo!) that appears on youtube occasionally as well. Anyways, watch and learn why cat poop is a cool word to know.

Niigata Day 7: Brilliant Temples

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:50:30 PST

Goodbye, Nagaoka, we hardly knew ye. Hello, Echigo! What have you got for us?

From Niigata Trip

Oh, just the most badass artist ever. Ishikawa Unchō (石川雲蝶) was a guy that didn't let having the character for butterfly in his name tarnish his image. The dude liked his drinking, gambling, and women, so the temple Eirinji, known as a gambling temple at the time, was perfect for him. Don't ask me why there was a gamling temple. Above is a detail of a warrior taking down a 化けた (baketa, twisted and changed) dragon. Hell yeah. This guy's work makes me want to live in this town. Best day of the trip.　This one was at Eirinji temple [map][translatorized website].

From Niigata Trip

Here are some of his Oshikawa's women. The guide-monk said Unchou liked his women sakura-pink, but all his carvings were white.

From Niigata Trip

There are also a few spooky stories he depicted for the Kaisandō at Saifukuji temple [map][ja website]. He filled the whole place with masterpieces. I took lots of video to lavish upon you later.

From Niigata Trip

Then a short train ride later we were in the town and ski resort of Yuzawa [map]. The snow is a bit lacking as of yet; give it a few. The hotel, Naspa New Otani, is pretty fancy. Like, I feel like a ski preppy, and need a ski underdog to pick on fancy.

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Before we ran out of daylight, we made tracks to Untoan temple　[map].

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It lacked the cool carvings and paintings of the others in many respects, but made up for that with moss. I'm a mossophile, and the environs gave me a total mossgasm.

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Moss!

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Untoan is a perfect place to practice zen meditation. This is the zazen room.

From Niigata Trip

We ran into the traditional media again back at Yuzawa station, but this time they weren't content with filming pretty girls in the snow this time. No, they were there to film us.

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Here I act for the local news with a drunken mascot, as one must. The Yuzawa station has a sake-tasting store in its new shopping center, so the statues are there to be like, dude, you know what's around the corner *hic*. They sell 96 Niigata brands.

From Niigata Trip

And then later a stop at a onsen/cafe/hotel on the shopping street, just outside the station. Look at the knockers on our table!

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Finally, a fancy French meal back at the hotel. Quite a good contrast to the washoku (Japanese style meal) feasts of the past week (nice though they were). Snowboarding death tomorrow! Goodnight.

Niigata Day 6: Junkfood is Good Too!

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:14:00 PST

From Niigata Trip

The phrase 海の幸、山の幸 (umi no sachi, yama no sachi) has crossed my mind a lot this week. It may translate as "the happiness of the sea and blessings of the mountains." 幸 is a character used in 幸せ (shiawase, happiness) and other felicitous words.

What comprises the happiness? Seafood. And the blessings? Veggies, mostly. Whatever food you can gather from either, really. I have also heard 海の幸山の恵み (umi no sachi yama no megumi), meaning the same thing as far as I know.

Niigata is covered in this happiness, but you know, there can be too much of a good thing. I and my companions have been eating the best that Niigata has to offer every day, and our tongues need to taste things besides fish.

From Niigata Trip

So today I took in a simple breakfast before we set out for the largest shrine in Niigata prefecture　[map], which is right by the Minoya onsen [map] we stayed at last night. The mountains were cover in wet and still coming fog and snow.

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The shrine likewise.

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The guardians of the gate were a lot more sharp-looking than your average komainu.

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We saw another group of travel journalists of a more traditional-media type. Our snickers may be in the background of this broadcast.

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We hit up a museum at Tenryonori [map][webpage] on the coast. There we encountered yet more gold trade lore. Above is a treasure chest.

From Niigata Trip

We also encountered Ryokan-san [website], a monk from the bygone days that has a very distinctive head. He was waiting for us in Nagaoka station later.

From Niigata Trip

We didn't have much time to do anything else in Nagaoka, but we went to a nearby koi nursery [map]. They'll raise you a pet carp and let you take it home later. Only about 500 bucks. Pictured above are feed cones. I'm not sure if you are supposed to eat them after feeding the fish.

We ended the night with simple yakitory in a dingy bar that is older than the war. After all, to appreciate the finer things in life, sometimes you have skip them.

Niigata day 5: Back to Real Japan

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:00:07 PST

From Niigata Trip

I was so happy to wake up to snow this morning. For you see, Niigata is the yukiguni (snow country), and needs frozen precipitation.

But I had to bid farewell to Sado and its haunted hotels with doting servants for the mainland once again.

From Niigata Trip

As I crossed the sea and gazed upon the undulating beauty of the waves, I felt something that I like to think is akin to what Hokusai felt when he made The Great Wave, though I was on the wrong side of Japan.

We headed to a new city, Sanjyou [map], and were greeted by a new guide. For the past few days we've had older taxi drivers as defacto guides, so it was nice to have a pretty young lady guide us around today. Ow! I just felt the wrath of my gf.

From Niigata Trip

So first we went to Honjyouji [map] [website], a temple that rivals the best that Kyoto has to offer. The monk that guided us around what kind enough to let us in holy areas that people aren't normally allowed in.

From Niigata Trip

For instance, we got to encounter and pet cow statues, carved by my new favorite artist (Ishikawa Unchou, see day seven for pics that do him justice) in a back room. He is buried here too.

From Niigata Trip

We had lunch at a local ramen place. Curry ramen is all the rage around here, so we had that. The funny thing is, I unknowingly invented the same thing a few weeks ago, but the restaurant does it better. I noticed that the noodles were eggier and the curry sweeter than normal and remarked so to our guide. Later the cook came by and mentioned these qualities. Our pretty guide related my observances of these very qualities, much to his surprise. I'm on my way to being a bi-gurume (b [weird] -rank gourmet)!　Here's a map with tons of curry ramen places.

From Niigata Trip

We stopped by a local... Uh... Nailry? Nail-beatery? Something like that. Anyways, I made two nails. We watched the old men there start a knife--one of the products this town, Sanjyo, is known for. I guess that makes it a knife-beatery as well. The town does copper-goods too.

From Niigata Trip

Tonight's feast beat even the extravagance of old haunted onsen land. Tonight's place, an onsen named Minoya [map] in a village removed from Sanjyo by distance and mountains, also wins due to the karaoke rooms. If you want to practice some of the songs I sung tonight, just find the karaoke link at the top-right of this blog's sidebar.

Niigata Day 4: My Sado Ghosts

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:36:34 PST

Today started in Sado too [website].

From Niigata Trip

Last night made for quite a feast at the Ohsado Hotel & Onsen [map][website]. It was outdone, I feel, in terms of pure luxuriousness, by tonight's hotel/onsen, Yamaki [map][ja website]. Above is Ohsado's spread, but below...

From Niigata Trip

Is Yamaki's luxurious feast. However, Yamaki is probably haunted. I mean, the halls are deserted (it is the off season) and have a The Shining type of feeling, the phone is rotary and probably rings in that creepy way that rotaries do, and my pillow appeared while I was at dinner. Oh well, it's a small price to pay to take a bath while viewing the ocean.

From Niigata Trip

Our day started with going along the coast and spotting odd rocks that have been carved by the sea.

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We ended up at an awesome location [map]. Apparently a famous movie was shot there, and I can see why. The sea was a brilliant blend of blues. Truly this was aquamarine!

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After playing with the fish at the aquarium, we hopped in a tub and paddled around. As you do.

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Nearby, we spotted a bridge that I think is famous. Or maybe I am thinking of another bridge. EDIT: yeah, this is totally the bridge that appears on posters. It looks best from a distance surrounded by tub-women.

The water was great here too.

We stopped at what looked like a temple, but was a rebuilt place where important gold-trade dudes used to held court.

Literally, they held court. I was sentenced to die for bad blog jokes. Didn't learn my lesson.

As befits a rainy day on the coast, we next went to a small town that had been around for ages and incorporated ships into its buildings [map]. Just around the corner, we saw this:

From Niigata Trip

We saw this ship in the village museum [map]. It's built the old fashioned way, and boarded it to experience the cramped life of a sailor. There was an attached museum section that held Saga (a prefecture in Kyushu) pottery the ships had brought in days bygone. As a former Sagaite, I squealed at the sight. We Sagaites get that way.

From Niigata Trip

We ended with panning for gold at the Gold Park [map] and I found 8 flakes of gold and had them saved in a card.

Sado is brilliant. I want to be a tour guide here someday... Just gotta find a permanent residency visa first.

Niigata Day 3: Sado

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:37:39 PST

My commissioned trip took me and my companions across the Sea of Japan to Sado Island today.

Sado is an island not too far from Niigata city, and famed for its gold mines. That's where we spent most of the day, but first we stopped at the Crested Ibis preserve in the Toki Forest Park [map] [ja website].

From Niigata Trip

This is a stuffed one; the live ones were a bit removed to protect their endangered nervous hearts, but I got some video and binocular views of them. The thing about ibises (of the nipponia nippon variety, called 朱鷺 [toki] in Japanese) is that they are very rare these days. So this place, the Toki Museum, is one of the few places you can see them.

From Niigata Trip

We had a brief lunch at a small soba shop called tontonsaka (とんとん坂 [map]). It had kamosoba, which is a kind of soba which you mix the boiled noodle water with the sauce after you eat the noodles. The cool thing about the owners is that they are farmers who grow most of their ingredients themselves. Speaking of farms, most of Sado--which is a considerably large and densely populated island--looks a lot like normal inaka (countryside) in Japan, but the houses seem bigger and older. Sado has a long rich history after all. And when I say rich, I can't help but think of gold. More on that later, but first was Myosenji (妙宣寺) [map].

From Niigata Trip

This is the gate to Myosenji . There are many pieces of paper adhered to it. They act as both a sort of "dudes, I totally helped build this" marker, as well as a purifier of the heart. Don't question it! Demons out in the name of Taro Construction inc.!

From Niigata Trip

This is a view from inside the grounds. There is a five story pagoda and a former castle/current temple in this huge area too, but I dug the straw-roofed structure the most. The inside was blackened from years of soot.

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Kodomo-tencho (子供店長) visited the straw-roofed place too, as these photos attest. You can see plenty of him on YouTube if you search.

From Niigata Trip

Our next stop was the　金山 (kinzan, gold mines) [map] [website]. See that cleft in the mountains?

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It's quite an interesting collection of 廃墟 (haikyo, ruins) and tunnels, only unlike regular haikyo, you can legally explore some parts.

From Niigata Trip

This veinly-looking thing is an old map of the mines, which started in the 1600s and were once among the top mines in the world. In total, they produced about 78 metric tons, or one short tour guide's height cubed, but the gold is just too deep to be dug nowadays.

From Niigata Trip

They held masked Shinto ceremonies whenever a new vein of gold was found. I confirmed that there is a relation between these masks an Hakata masks in Kyushu. No word if one of these priests became the first tokusatsu hero.

From Niigata Trip

If a mine tour didn't end with a yuzu (a citrus) and gold-laced, hot drink, I would be outraged. Luckily, they anticipated my need to line the toilet bowl with gold flakes.

Niigata day 2: Crackers and Geisha

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:55:06 PST

My joyful assignment to travel and blog around Niigata continues...

I can already tell that this trip is going to make me get fat if I'm not careful. There is so much food we've tried. Luckily today's first stop was to a senbei (rice cracker) place, and such things probably don't have too many calories.

From Niigata Trip

The place we went to was called Senbei Kingdom [map]. It makes sense that it would be here, considering that Niigata has such famous rice. We got to see the senbei being baked by two guys that constantly turn them over a kiln, producing 3000 a day each. The pic above is from the area where you can make senbei yourself.

From Niigata Trip

We then went to the Furusato Mura Museum [map], which is part souvenir market and part museum. The dude above is twisting straw into rope--rope which they used back in the day to make containers to carry all the good rice.

Rice? Better put some vinegar in it and make sushi!

From Niigata Trip

This feast was set before us in a tucked-away place called Miya-Zushi (宮鮨 [map]). We also ate some shrimp-miso here. Wow, three hyphens in this caption, and I'm not too confident that any of them are grammatically correct.

From Niigata Trip

In recent months on Fridays and Saturdays at our hotel, up on the 31st floor, they hold a little show of the geigi (this region's word for geishas). The one on the left had the whole flirtatious mystique thing down. Naturally some video is coming. The city has a webpage about the geigi here (ja).

From Niigata Trip

The Niigata City Art Museum is holding a show with the theme of water and earth, as behooves a port town. I actually dug these sediment paintings. There is a big bamboo hut that lies on the city river that was made for this show too.

From Niigata Trip

We ended up at a local bar, run by a Canadian, called Northern Lights [link]. The baked apples were really good. They are kind of like apple pies without crusts. Tis the seasonal food, methinks!

Well, it's time for sleep. I must leave the Nikko hotel [map] tomorrow to travel to Sado island. Maybe I'll run into Jenkins (a guy that once defected to North Korea)!

Niigata Day 1: New Rice and Old Birds

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:02:14 PST

As I detailed in yesterday's video, I'm in Niigata as of this morning, blogging on assignment. I'll be making plenty of YouTube vids of the experience later, but for the time being, here's some pics.

Our first day was spent around Niigata city. They have a tourism site in English here.

Shortly after arriving via shinkansen, I met my chaperon (a guy who's a salary-man usually) as well as my fellow blogger in arms (a German woman who writes freelance travel articles).

After dropping our bags off in the hotel in Niigata city, we headed out to the Northern Cultural Museum　[map , vids and pics][website]. It is actually what remains of the estate of the once powerful Ito family. At one point, the land they owned could have contained 300 Tokyo Domes, but eventually a land reform act forced them to downsize.

From Niigata Trip

Here's the view from the entrance to the grounds.

From Niigata Trip

While there, we ate at the in-house restaurant, Misogura. The meal included Niigata rice, which is famed for its taste. I have to agree that it is pretty good. It was also pretty fresh batch. Quite a change from my usual conbini rice.

From Niigata Trip

This is a huge rice cooker from way back in the prime of the estate, when the staff and family ate about 50 pounds of rice a day.

From Niigata Trip

This pic is from later, when we were in Shibata city [map] nearby. A number of stores were participating in a campaign where, for 500 yen, one can purchase a cup and get it filled five times with nihonshu, another local specialty (you just need to find stores with the pretty rabbit sitting on the moon). Speaking of which...

From Niigata Trip

This a pic from a distillery. Until the mid 40s, it was forbidden for women to go through this sort of gate (note the Shinto touches), due to the holy nature of the area. Even now, it is only the men that offer nihonshu to the gods.

From Niigata Trip

This is a pic of hyōko [map], a lake where birds come for the winter. The giant swans and smaller birds battle it out for food. I got some good video footage of the feeding frenzy to upload later.

From Niigata Trip

Finally, this is a small part of the spread from dinner at a fish restaurant [link]. I caught one of the fish myself later in the in-house pond.

Niigata is pretty cool so far. See you tomorrow!

Shweet. I'm Getting Sent to Niigata!

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:55:50 PST

So check out that label as the next week or so progresses, or just sub to my RSS already!

Kiss or get on the Pot

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:39:58 PST

A sweet little subtitled commercial about a couple that really want to kiss... or go to the bathroom. Either one will make you happy, really.

I am awesome at Chinese

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:49:00 PST

You probably often think to yourself, Does Clay speak any other languages? Speak them? Lady, I have babies with them. It's consensual.

I was going to black-bar out the eyes of my unwitting teacher here, but meh, that effect takes too much time!

Flu Mask Santa Installation in Kobe

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:40:00 PST

Zoom/visit original J article

Kobe-- A rather giant santa, complete with a surgical mask that answers to the trend of a swine-flu terrorized populace that loves to wear them, has been installed on an old 異人館 (ijinkan lit. different-person-hall, a place where foreign settlers lived in during the old days). He has a cat hanging from him. In addition, two boxes in the styrofoam Santa's bag are adorned with the words "job" and "tamiflu".

Hey, I found him on youtube too:

If you live in Kobe, you can go there and see it in person, so I found it on the Google map embedded below. The nearby 英国館 has a contest going on: if you can find their hidden Santa, you win an expensive travel voucher.

View Larger Map

Japanese Student Dodging Chalk

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:59:00 PST

A student's imagination gets the best of him when he hears that milk increases concentration. So is the daydreaming he does before drinking ironic? Does he lack the ability to daydream in this way after drinking? I could give you the answer, but I forgot to drink milk today and so will stare at the clouds now.

Awesome Japanese Alpaca CMs

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:39:52 PST

What is Kuraray? By watching these, I get a vague idea that it has something to do with turning people into alpaca slaves to fight wars against aliens.

The best one:

Karaoke: Goodnight Agnes Chan

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:48:35 PST

I usually try to find videos with Japanese lyrics attached so you can perform from the safety of your own home before making your debut at the snack bar, but the translations will have to do this time. It's a pretty easy song anyways.

Fret not! I have one more with lyrics: This is probably her most famous song (i.e. findable in that karaoke machine).

So the singer is Agnes Chan (Japanese: アグネス・チャン). She is actually a Hong Kong-born singer, a novelist, a UNICEF ambassador, and a professor. That all makes me feel unaccomplished, but I can drown my sorrows in singing at least.

The thing about the name is for name with the same character as hers, we say Chen, Chin, or Chan in English, but in Japan the standard is just Chin. She just seems to be an exception to the Chin rule, probably because they used her English name (lots of English singing goes on in Hong Kong and almost all Chinese stars have two names). In Agnes' case, her original name's hanzi is 陳 (which has an on-yomi of chin), the same as one of my Chinese classmates, Chin-kun. I don't know why she chose Agnes for her first name though.]

Another 陳 is Jackie Chan (born Chan Kong Sang), who has many names. Jackie gets to break the chin-barrier in Japan too. Agnes and Jackie sang together at some point, but I have yet to track that song(s) down. I did see Jackie singing with Annie Defranko though.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Richard Yung Ka Tsai, a songwriter and musician that worked with her and collected some of his old works on his youtube page.

A Furry Surprise in the Computer Lab

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:30:07 PST

An exclusive peek into where the action happens, and it's furry inhabitant. Also, a cat is there.

A Sky Full of Bats in Japan

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:18:55 PST

I'm coming at you in HD, with flying friends! This experience happened during the trip that inspired me to write the Get Lost! article at Jibtv.

Not much to say, except I'm not sure where these bats go during winter. They left poo on my balcony to remember them by though.

Sashimi-san is One Angry Cat

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:18:33 PST

I don't know what makes the cat Sashimi-san so angry, but it definitely doesn't like this guy, who is visiting his sister. There are many vids in this series. I made a playlist of a few of them. Don't let the Japanese at the beginning scare you off; funny stuff abounds.

Alternative Forms of Caffeination Available in Japan

claytonian@gmail.com (Claytonian) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:24:00 PST

The convenience stores of Japan have much to offer in the way of that special alkaloid that keeps one up (a.k.a. caffeine). Be it for the purpose of study, clubbing, or work, Japanese people everywhere are always looking for a way to stay up late. Based on a really informal survey that I have been conducting over the years, in part because I am really awkward about finding something to talk about in conversations—"So… do you think America should switch to metric?"—I have determined that the average Japanese person goes to sleep at 3 in the morning and gets up at six. Now that is a grueling schedule! Granted, all the sleeping they do on the train helps, but they need something more to get them through their day.

So caffeine is naturally the go-to ingredient in the arsenal of any warrior against somnolence. Tea is a good source of it, and many people around here have a 10-cup-a-day habit. But the body needs a constant trickle to burn on all cylinders. Thus, a huge market of little caffeinated products fills our convenience stores. For instance, today's blog offering: カフェイン　スナック (literally "caffeine snack", but I call them caffeine puffs).

They come in two flavors, maccha (green tea) latte and macchiato. They both resemble cheese puffs, but don't taste like cheese at all.

Here we have a picture of an corny specimen (on the left), as well as the product in question (on the right). The snack is light and fluffy, and mostly corn. It tastes a bit like maccha.

Caffeine may have adverse effects if taken in excess, so I recommend popping one or two in your caffeination orifice of choice about every five minutes to keep you idling at a steady pace throughout your day and avoid burnout.

Remember to use all mind-altering substances, of which caffeine is one, responsibly to avoid altered states.>