TOKYOMANGO

Get your hand-printed limited edition TokyoMango t-shirt now (2 weeks only)

My friend Ben and I made a test run of TokyoMango t-shirts on Saturday. They're really nice, do you want one? If so, you can buy one here. Below are the details:

- All shirts are 100% cotton.
- Each t-shirt will be hand-silk screened by me and Ben on his Yudu machine. The shirt logo was custom-designed by Ben. Mango design courtesy of my web designer James.
- The Women's tees come in a t-shirt style (pistacio and white) and a spaghetti strap ribbed tank (yellow).
- The Men's tees come in orange and white. In the pic above, Ben is actually accidentally wearing a girl's tee, but you get the idea... the sleeves will be more manly on the one you get.
- You can choose a custom colored tee for $25. Just shoot me an email with your preference after you place the order.
- The sizes tend to run a little big (except for the tanktops). They might shrink in the wash.
- Some of you will receive a free surprise Japanese toy or gadget with your t-shirt! I'm just gonna randomly stick them into bags, so keep an eye out.
- We're taking orders over the next two weeks only, at least for this first printing. They'll ship at the end of those two weeks, when Ben & I will silkscreen them by hand.
- Last day to order is Monday, October 5th.

UPDATE: T-shirts are no longer for sale. Maybe we'll do another round sometime!

Miniscule Toilet Taken With Electron Microscope

Do you really need more proof that Japanese people love toilet jokes? This photograph, taken by nanotechnologist Kaito Takahashi, won the Most Bizzare Award at a conference on electrons, ions, and photo beam technology a couple years ago. He took it using an electron microscope at 15,000x magnification while working at a lab in Shizuoka. And even though it's actually a photo of an integrated circuit, he decided to call it "Small Toilet."

Link

Golden Hello Kitty Cards Costs $5K

Are you a serious hardcore Hello Kitty fan? I'm not. But if you are, and if you have $5K you want to spend on the ultimate Kitty collector's item, you can get these solid gold playing cards starting October 3 via Sanrio's online store. They're pressed to 7 microns with Mitsubishi Materials' precision rolling technology, etched with royal mouthless feline kings and queens and jacks, and then sealed with a protective laminate. Crazy! But then again, after seeing the Hello Kitty Wedding Video, I don't put anything past the hardcore fans. I mean, imagine how much THAT cost.

Link

Onitsuka Tiger Namesake Dies

Kihachiro Onitsuka, founder of Asics and namesake for its popular sub-brand Onitsuka Tiger, died today at the age of 89. Asics was originally founded as Onitsuka Co in 1949.

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Photo Of Killed Japanese Journalist

Check out this Reuters photo of demonstrators in Burma (Myanmar). Here, security forces shoot at the demonstrators, who are fleeing. The guy lying on the floor is 50-year old video journalist Kenji Nagai. This was taken shortly before he died from the bullet wounds that have him lying on the ground. He was 1 of 9 that died in Yangon that day.

Link

New Nissan Rogue Ad

Check out this new Nissan Rogue ad from Chiat Day (ad agency in LA). Apparently they spent 8-months—which included a photo shoot in Mexico—to perfect it. You've probably seen it already if you're a Heroes fanatic like me.

Do you guys remember this tilting marble game? It's really hard for a marble, imagine what it's like for a SUV maneuvering through crowded city streets.

Anyway, the ad is awesome and you should watch it.

Watch the ad

Eva Popiel, Korean Celebrity

Apparently, this girl—whom I swear was in my brother's middle school class in Tokyo (can anyone confirm?)—is a celebrity in Korea. Here she talks about sex ed and Korean chicks.

Mix-Like-A-DJ Instant Noodles

Ch-ch-check out these new instant brothless noodles from Maru-chan. Not only is it yummy, but it's been premixed and remixed by this professional DJ.

Link

Toilet Stickers Help Men Target Their Pee

Check out this genius invention intended to help men with wandering pee issues target their urinary flow much, much better. These stickers, which can be placed strategically inside any toilet bowl or urinal, change color when peed on. When such a fun target is placed in front of one's face, he can't help but to try to hit it head on. The result? No pee stains on the floor and no wet trails on the rim of the toilet seat.

According to the Asahi news, these were recently installed in toilets at the airport in Aichi Prefecture, which has been voted "cleanest airport toilets in the world" two years in a row.

Link (via Seihin.com)

Yasuo Fukuda Is The New, Very Old Prime Minister

Guess who's filling Abe's resigned shoes as PM of Japan? Yep, this 71-year old grandpa, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda. His father was prime minister, actually, from 1976 to 1978—he's the first 2nd gen PM of Japan.

Too bad Taro Aso lost. That could have been the ultimate otaku revolution. The guy's a known manga maniac and proponent of having Gundam be the next ambassador to the world.

Link

The Hamster Wheel Pedometer

Worried that your pet hamster's not getting enough exercise in his cage? This pedometer is actually a hamster wheel attachment that measures how many times the wheel rotates and then gives you an exact measurement of how much distance he's covered in any one stretch of time. Pretty crazy! But then again, if there's a pedometer for dogs, why not one for hamsters?

Link

 

Deluxe Potato Chips Taste Like Fondue

For a limited time only (September and October 07), convenience stores nationwide are selling these deluxe potato chips that taste like cheese fondue.

Do they really taste like cheese fondue? I don't know. I haven't tried them. But the guys at Gigazine did, and according to them, there's real emmental and cheddar cheese generously slathered onto each chip. Yummm!

One more pic after the jump...

Adjustable Garbage Can Caters To Different Sized People/Trash

This is the coolest garbage can ever! Not only is it simple and chic in the IKEA kind of way in orange and white, but it has three different size gradients, so you can adjust it depending on how much trash you have. If you're having a lonely dinner at home, you'll probably only have enough food garbage for the 1st tier—but hosting a big dinner party will require a much bigger trash can. This one is the ultimate all-in-one.

Product page (Japanese)

Ruby Hotel Story in Wired

A couple months ago, I put Ruby in a pet hotel in San Francisco as an experiment. Here's a screenshot of her, and my write-up of it appears in this month's Wired:

Room Z5 is empty except for a faux-suede floor pillow, a 14-inch flatscreen TV, an IP network camera, and a 9-pound miniature pinscher sitting motionless by the steel door. After a few minutes, the pooch gets up, walks across the room, and settles on the pillow, almost covering the white letters that spell out w-a-g. Kitschy dance music wafts in from the hallway. A dog yelps in the background.

Read the full story.

DIY Octopus Ball Making Kit

Japanese people love octopus balls, so much so that there's an entire museum devoted to them in Osaka. Now, you can make your own delicious octopus balls at home with this wonderful kit from Sugiyama.

All you have to do is get some takoyaki mix and sauce at your local Japanese supermarket, some octopus, scallion, ginger, and put it all together in this machine. Yummmm. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

If you haven't tried octopus balls, you're totally missing out.

Product page (via Impress Watch)

 

Little Chinese Girl Rocks Out On Xylophone

This little Chinese girl, who makes an appearance here on a Japanese TV show, is really good at playing the xylophone. And she's having so much fun!

(Thanks, Cherlyn!)

Statetris: Tetris Game Tests Your Geography Skillz

How well do you know your prefectures? Try your hand at Statetris Japan, the online Tetris-meets-geography game. It's really fun! As you can see from my feeble attempt above, I am having trouble figuring out where Saga Prefecture is supposed to go.

Play the game (Thanks, Raymond!)

The Scarecrow Family

A 60-year old farmer in Kagawa prefecture got sick of wild boars eating his crop, so he carefully created 10 scarecrow characters—a family, with babies in strollers, kids on tricycles, etc—to keep them away.

Link

The Store That Specializes In Poop

I know this just looks like any old storefront sign, but it's not. That is because it says the following on the right-hand corner (from top to bottom):

Super Unchi
Chinese-style Unchi
Japanese-style Unchi
Healthy Pig

Yep, it's the ultimate Unchi store! Unchi = poop.

Link (Japanese)

Maid Taxi Offers Otaku Paradise On Wheels

You're a big geek going to Tokyo for the first time. Why not make the most of it by hiring a Maid Taxi to take you around? These cabs come equipped with PS3s, a deck of cards, and a sexy Japanese girl in a maid outfit to pamper and please you. Rides start at 1200 yen, and for an extra 200, you can play competitive games with your ridemate—if you beat her, you get to win some special items belonging to her! No, not her panties, you pervert. Or maybe. I'm not sure. She'll even go to dinner with you. This is a great, great service for the cosplay fetishist—or anybody else who wants a little bit more entertainment than the tacit white-gloved cab driver of times past.

Maid Taxi homepage (via News on Japan)

Chicchi, 9yo Guitar Prodigy & Hard Core Ventures Fan

The biggest guitar sensation right now in Japan is a little girl named Cicchi. She's cute. She's underage. And she can play any Ventures song on request.

The Ventures are a 60s instrumental rock band from Seattle, famous among surf music fans, that had—still has, in fact—a healthy following in Japan. Little Cicchi got to meet them this summer. Look how happy she is!

 

Check out the video from their 1965 Japan summer tour after the jump:

Rotating Golden Globe

Tired of your house looking bland and provincial? Well go global and shiny like Donald Trump with this golden globe that sits on a silver mirror and automatically starts to rotate when placed on a flat surface. One AA battery will take you through a month of global orbit time—long enough for most people to get a good sense of the world without leaving the comfort of your home. It's about 14cm in diameter.

Product page (Japanese)

Guardian Angels Launch System for Catching Sex Traffickers

The Guardian Angels of Japan are working with cops to implement a 100,000 yen reward system for anyone who provides credible tips on how to catch sex traffickers. To date, most initiatives to combat trafficking in Japan have been pretty ineffective or not very well thought out. For this plan to work, for example, there should be measures providing tipsters with legal protection—a lot of the people involved in trafficking rings are in Japan illegally, and they won't want to speak up/claim their reward if it means that they're going to be deported.

For more about sex trafficking in Japan, you can read my February feature in Metropolis or this previous post about a trafficking victim arrested for visa violations.

Link

Designer Bathtub Looks Like A Giant Glass Pipe

Check out this crazy bathtub designed by Tetsuya Nakamura. It looks like a glass pipe you can purchase at a smoke shop on Haight Street, but it's actually made of reinforced plastic. This is one of many furniture items that the artist designed for his Premium Unit collection.

Link (via Pink Tentacle)

Dumped Bicycles Reimagined for Free Commute

Looks like Nagoya's gotten one step closer to becoming an awesome city like Amsterdam. No, not coffee shops with good weed. Bicycles! A professor at a local university's environmental studies department is setting up three bicycle stations throughout the city for people to dump their wheels, or to pick one up when needed.

This kind of arrangement would never work in a city like San Francisco, where bicycles are stolen left and right, but the project's planners are optimistic about its success in Japan.

Link

The Girl Who Chopped Up Her Father With An Ax

Yesterday, a 16-year old girl chopped up her sleeping policeman father with an ax. How? Why? What the...? The details of the crime make it all the more interesting. Here are some factoids from the Mainichi news reports:

1. The girl allegedly crept up on her sleeping father past 4am on Tuesday morning, and chopped him in the neck. She lived with her father, mother, and sister in Kyoto.

2. The night before the murder, the girl had gone to bed early, around 9PM, after eating a bento.

3. Right before killing her father, the girl changed into a black dress.

4. At the time of her arrest, the girl admitted to the crime, saying: "I hate my father."

5. She bought the ax a couple days prior at a hardware store near their home.

6. Suspected motive is her dad's extramarital affairs.

7. In response to this incident, a Kanagawa TV station cancelled the last episode of an anime that featured a teenage girl lashing out violently.

Link

Sang Dae's Drunk Birthday Toast

This is my brother's friend Sang Dae on his 27th birthday. Apparently, he likes to get drunk and be silly and make happy toasts. (Who doesn't?)

Even though Sang Dae is ethnically Korean, this is a very Japanese gathering—the motivational speech before the shot, the passive participation of the bartender, and the well-deserved slap in the head at the end.

Translation:
"Ike ike go go" just means "Go go."
"Ikki" means you have to drink it all in one go.
"Kampai" means "Cheers."
"Lalalalai" doesn't mean shit. I don't know why he keeps saying it.

Photo Exhibit: Gay Men in the 70s Making Out Behind Bushes

Back in the 70s, Kohei Yoshiyuki used to hang out late-night in Tokyo parks to watch and photograph illegitimate couples—many of them gay—make out in the dark. Now, for the first time ever in the US and after 27 years of gathering dust in the now-commercial photographer's collection, you can see these grainy, voyeuristic photos at the Yossi Milo Gallery in NYC.

What was most interesting about it was the number of people who, instead of joining in the sexual acts themselves, were actually just milling around watching. There'd be, for example, a photo of two guys kissing by a wall, and then two more guys peering into their faces, and another two guys a few feet away, just staring. It's a subculture from the past that I didn't know anything about until I saw these pictures.

Exhibit's on until October 20th.
Link

Hairdryer Looks Like A Gun

This is not a gun. This sleek, silver 100V hairdryer turns off and on every time you pull the trigger. Yep, after your next shower, you are to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. Wild.

Product page (Japanese)

Exhibit Leads You Through Dark Scary School

Need a good scare this summer? The Dialogue in the Dark exhibit kicks off in Tokyo for its seventh year this time at a pitch dark school in an abandoned elementary school in Akasaka.

The exhibit is actually a tour, led by blind guides, that gives you a full sensory experience minus your vision. So you walk through the school and hear, smell, and feel as if you're there—except you can't hear a thing.

Sounds creepers and cool.

Link (via Mainichi)

Next Prime Minister?

Now that Abe's gone, will it be this guy:

Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda

Or this guy?

Ex-Foreign Minister and manga maniac Taro Aso

Cast your vote!

Monkeys and Dogs Doing Sit-Ups

The average Japanese boy can do 19 sit-ups a minute. But what about the average monkey, or the average bulldog? This hilarious video, featuring Pan the Monkey and James the Bulldog, investigates.

I love how there are real kids seriously trying to set records right on the same mat.

Sushi-Rolling Machine

Having a sushi party? Check out this cool toy that came out this summer from toymaker Bandai Namco. It's an automatic sushi roller--just put seaweed, rice, and your ingredients of choice in the little orange machine, turn the rollers, and voila! You have perfect, tightly rolled whatever-makis in a matter of seconds.

Press release (Japanese)

Where is Lisa? In NYC

If you're wondering why the hell I'm not updating my blog as often as I should, it's because I'm in NYC for the week. I am traveling with the family and working remotely, and running around town trying all the different new ramen joints that have opened up here since I left 3 years ago. I promise a roundup when I return from my urban scramble this weekend, plus a review of the 70s gay sex scene photography exhibit in Chelsea, more crazy new products that will make your life much easier, and my two cents on the prime minister's resignation.

So stay tuned!

Prime Minister Resigns!

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just announced his resignation. His popularity was plummeting, and people were questioning his ability to lead the country. And now he's gone.

Being prime minister of Japan must be really hard. I remember days where we had like 10 prime ministers a year. None of them stayed. Ok, maybe not ten. But a lot of guys have had a really hard time sustaining this job. Abe's not the only one, though he is being noted for not putting up a fight before folding.

Link

Home Soba Maker Toy

Check out this cool new toy from Takara Tomy, slated to arrive on the market in late October. It's a home soba maker. All you have to do is put soba powder and water inside the red bowl, and turn the crank on the right side. The crank then mixes the water and soba powder at just the right consistency to produce perfectly even, delicious-to-eat soba noodles.

More pics after the jump...

Video: Yosuke Ochi, Reigning Air Guitar Champ

Last Friday, Japanese air guitarist Yosuke "Dainoji" Ochi won Finland's annual air guitar championship for the second year in a row. Here he is, clad in a sweater with a giant tiger on it, "played" Offspring's Keep Em Separated. What a guy! Love his hip movements. I wonder what he does when he's not playing air guitar. 

Sony's Tiny Egg-Shaped Portable Speaker System

This is Sony's new tiny little music player, It's shaped like an egg, has ears like Mickey Mouse, and blue and green lights on it. The Rolly has stereo speakers, directional sensors that let you control the volume level, and 1GB of flash memory. It costs a little under $400 and will go on sale in Japan at the end of the month. The battery life is about 5 hours, so it's perfect for a day at the beach or a hiking trip, where you don't want to be carrying too much shit around.

Link

Korejanai Robo USB Drive

Remember when your parents bought you a robot for Christmas, thinking it was the new Gundam toy everyone's talking about, and it was so not the right one? Many Japanese kids have had this experience, and all over the nation you could here kids wailing, "Korejanaaaaaaaaaaaaaii!" (This is not it!)

So then a company came up with the Korejanai Robo, a toy robot that is so not the one that you wanted. This parody item gathered a cult following of its own, and today you can even get a Korejanai Robo USB drive. Seriously. This robot is cool to have. Even though it's so not the one you originally wanted.

Inmate-on-Inmate Murder in Fuchu Prison

You don't hear much about what goes on in Japanese prisons. Today, though, Fuchu prison made the news when a 27-year old prisoner beat a 52-year old cellmate to death over a stupid argument. Last month, I saw a movie by Ichi the Killer director Takeshi Miike called Big Bang Love: Juvenile A. It was about a murder that occurred in prison—a whodunnit but portrayed almost as a play, or a David Lynch movie, or something equally theatrical. And strange.

I used to volunteer at a women's prison in California, and every once in a while you'd hear of inmate-on-inmate murders. Yes, women beat the hell out of each other when they're angry, too.

Air Musician = Megahouse's New Portable Air Guitar Game

OMG! I'm not entirely clear on how this game works, but toymaker Megahouse is releasing its first Air Guitar player at the end of the month. It comes in three colors combos—silver and pink, blue and white, red, and gray—and has songs like Lenny Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way and Deep Purple's Black Night on it. How cool is that? It's only $15. I want one!

Product Page (Japanese)

New Toy Cameras with Cool Filters

From Transformer creators Takara Tomy comes a new toy geared towards women in their 20s, these colorful, cubic, 35mm plastic cameras called "Tolne." (A play on the phrase "toru ne" which means "I'm gonna take your picture, ok?") It comes with cool filter sets that let you take pictures that look like they're part of a movie reel, or put your face inside a pink heart. You can choose from frames like "dramatic frame" or "deform" or "cross light." They're cheap plastic and cost only $35, but they'll produce some of the most fun photos you've taken in a long time.

They come out November 29 in Japan.

New Red & Black DS Lite

Look! A red and black Nintendo DS Lite, coming October 4th.

Product page (Japanese)

Will You Marry Me, Hello Kitty?

Wow, this is embarrassing. I've heard of Hello Kitty weddings but this is the first time I've actually virtually attended one. How did the bride get the groom to agree to this? This is one of the biggest mysteries in my life to date.

(Thanks, Jason!)

The Girl who Killed with an Ice Pick and the Man Who Died for Beer

Two interesting murder stories headlining the Mainichi Daily News today: In the first, a 40-year old supermarket manager in Chiba unleashes his fury at an anonymous beer thief, beating him to a point of no return. Meanwhile, in Shizuoka, a 15-year old girl walks into a police box saying she had stabbed a man. She leads authorities to his dead body on the side of the road. They're investigating whether the girl was defending herself from a perv attack, or if she's just a psycho teenager who carries around an ice pick to assault thirty-something year old men with. Probably the former, in which case I have very little sympathy for the deceased.

Link to beer man murder
Link to ice pick girl murder

Aromatic Humidifier Doesn't Use Electricity

This pretty little thing is actually a very practical, non-electronic gadget. Can you guess what it is? Alright, I guess I gave it away in the headline. This is a portable, foldaway humidifier developed by tech company Mikuni. It comes in pink and white, and all you have to do is moisten the folds inside the plastic casing and place it near you. If you want aroma, the company sells bottles of lavender and bergamot-scented fluids. And it actually works, for those of you who live in dry climates or are preparing for a harsh winter.

Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Dear Mango: How to Find REAL Japanese Food Near You

It's Week 2 of my new advice column. Here's this week's Q&A:

Dear Mango,
  How can I tell which Japanese restaurants are authentic? I live in the SF Bay Area. There are tons of sushi places but they're really hit or miss. Is there a foolproof way of finding the real deal without spending tons of money on a shitty meal? Thanks!
From Oakland Hungry Man

See my response after the jump:

Apollo's Song: A Tezuka Classic, First Time in English

Like all great artists with careers that span decades, Tezuka Osamu's work can be divided into different periods. Most of us have seen or read episodes of Astro Boy or watched Metropolis, both from his early career (late 1940s-early 50s).

Apollo's Song is one of Tezuka's mid-career works, from the manga artist's transitional period. It was completed in 1970, and it's about a boy who has never known love. He was born to a slutty mom, and as a result, every time he sees public displays of affection, it triggers an uncontrollable rage in him. After killing several animals mid-mating, he is checked into a hospital where the doctors put him through an intense and unusual reconfiguration regime. What follows is an amazingly creative and introspective adventure into hallucinations, hypnotic states, and glimpses of the past and future including Nazi soldiers, cyborg queens, and zoo animals on an abandoned island. And at the center of it all, a boy who needs to learn to love in order to be left alone. Pretty amazing.

Vertical Inc—the Japanese publishing house that puts out beautiful reproductions of Japanese manga and other great Japanese lit with awesome covers designed by Chip Kidd—just came out with the English version of Apollo's Song this June. It's a really quick fun read with all original drawings by Tezuka.

Get your copy here.

Creative Man-Panties Makes You Look Well Hung...Sort Of

I've seen undypants that have elephant trunks and pig snouts coming out of them (at 24hr superstore Don Quixote) but these are really something! This one's a half-peeled banana attached to a pair of bright green man-panties. Check out this and more at Rinkya's blog, you big perverts.

Oops I Spilled My Tray French Maid Tissuebox

Following up on the Big Surf tissuebox and the Bloody-Nosed Politician, this creative Kleenex holder features a sexy French maid who just spilled her tray and is crawling on the floor, ass in the air, trying to clean up her mess.

Product Page (Japanese)