TOKYOMANGO

Text Msg Code for "I'm a Japanese School Girl Selling Sex"

Last week, cops broke up a schoolgirl prostitution ring in Saitama and Tokyo, arresting at least five junior high and high school girls who were selling sex online via their cell phones. One was a sixth grader. About 80% of the customers were pedophiles.

The amazing thing is that everything, including detailed ads soliciting customers, was written in code.

Take this piece of seemingly benign code, for example:

IkebLURV1700Yukichi2JC1

Ikeb = Ikebukuro. The neighborhood that the girl is in.
LURV = "I will have sex with you."
1700 = Time: 5PM
Yukichi2 = Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy whose face is on the 10,000 yen note x 2 = I cost 20,000 yen
JC = Joshi Chugakusei (Junior high school girl. JS would be elementary school girl, JK would be high school girl)
1 = Grade 1. In Japan, 1st year of junior high = 7th grade.

Parents are being warned to look out for code like this on their kids' cell phones. It's a sure sign that they're involved in the sex trade, too.

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Mother Hurls Two Boys and Herself Off A Balcony

A disturbed mother threw her two baby boys, aged three and six, off a balcony in Fujisawa yesterday before jumping to her own death in what police suspect is a murder-suicide.

That's pretty screwed up. She really didn't have to throw her kids off the balcony, too. I'd say that's pretty high up there on the evil scale.

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Pollen Bot Army to Help Humans with Hay Fever

If you see little white styrofoam robots hanging out in Tokyo this spring, don't worry—it's not an apocalyptic bot invasion, it's the pollen-fighting mercenaries from Weathernews, Inc. These 2.2lb-heavy bots are just a foot tall and have eyes that glow in five different colors that indicate the level of pollen in the air. (In Japan, it's mostly cedar and cypress that induces allergies.)

200 volunteers will be hanging these bots near their homes. The monitoring units inside the robots will record the pollen levels in the air and send reports, updated by the minute, to HQ, which will consequently zap the info to the pollen map.

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$94K Tiffany Phone Coming in February

Tiffany & Co. teamed up with Softbank Mobile to make this blinged out, diamond-studded handset, which will hit stores in February. It costs about $94K. And here I was wondering why the iPhone is so damn expensive.

The thing has 400 diamonds on it, which totals about 20 carats. I wonder if people are going to start giving engagement phones instead of rings.

P.S. If anyone in Japan sees people using this phone starting next months, please send me some pics. I want to see what these rich bitches look like!

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Real Bricks Shaped Like Game Boys

Hard core gamers might want to consider building their next house out of these meticulously carved Game Boy bricks. Each one costs about $30, but it's the exact same size as a Game Boy. More pics after the jump.

Does Your Neighborhood Sushi Joint Have a Stamp of Approval?

A little over a year ago, the government announced plans to start a worldwide authentication program for Japanese food.

Then, in 2007, it cancelled the program. No precise reasons were stated, but I suspect it may have been because some protested, and some doubted whether this was biased to all those other hard-working restauranteurs who sell "fake" Japanese food.

Today, a revised campaign was announced. This time, the program is being initiated by a non-profit organization with the blessing of the agriculture ministry. And it insists that its goal is not intended to play "sushi police." Starting now in Bangkok, Shanghai, and Taipei and by the end of March in Amsterdam, London, LA, and Paris, government-approved restaurants will have an authenticity symbol—a pair of chopsticks holding a cherry petal in front of the rising sun—stamped on their windows next to the Zagat ratings and all that stuff.

What do you think guys? Good idea? Bad idea?
BTW, Italy does the same thing in Japan.

I love it if only because it will save me that occasional fifty bucks I spend on fake Japanese restaurants that do a pretty good job of pretending they're real.

(Thanks, Sam and Walter!)

Company Offers Paid Time Off for Break Ups

A small women-only marketing firm in Tokyo is offering its employees heartbreak leave.

"Not everyone needs to take maternity leave but with heartbreak, everyone needs time off, just like when you get sick," the CEO says. She's the one who came up with the idea—it's scaled according to age, with staff 24 and younger getting one day a year, and those older than 30 getting up to three days of paid leave.

The reason?

"Women in their 20s can find their next love quickly, but it's tougher for women in their 30s, and their break-ups tend to be more serious."

Link (Thanks, Silicon Druid!)

Video: How to get pen marks off your hands

Here's my friend James sampling a trick from my book—getting pen marks off your hands and arms using tea bags. Check out how well it works with a Sharpie!

Book's not out yet, but once it is, we're gonna be asking readers to submit their own videos too.

Colorful Individual Coffee-Makers

These individual coffee-makers are great for people who not only don't have time to drink coffee at home, but those who can't sit around for it to brew. The drip part is removable, so you can put it away once you're done with it.

Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Rape Whistle for Kids

You want your kid to be safe when she's walking home from school. This teddy-bear-shaped rape whistle doubles as a flashlight and is cute enough to be mistaken for a function-less charm that hangs from her backpack.

Get yours here.

From io9: Japan's Wackiest Inventor Saves the World with Super Viagra

My column on io9 today features a story about our favorite inventor/politician, Dr. NakaMats:

Yoshihiro NakaMats, 79, is Japan's most prolific - and bizarre - inventor. He claims to have 3,350 patents (Thomas Edison only had 1,093), and that several of them are for the floppy disk. "Everyone knows about the floppy disk," he says. "But I also invented the fax machine, automatic pachinko, and the taxi meter." While running for mayor of Tokyo last spring, he announced that he possessed three secret tools that would save the world from mass destruction: a device capable of turning North Korean missiles around in mid-air, a love potion more effective than Viagra that would reverse the declining birth rate, and a new water-to-fuel technology that fights global warming. The weird thing is that he could be telling the truth.

Read the full story here

Kogyal Food Fighter Will Finish Six-Serving Parfait Next Month

Did I ever tell you how much Japanese girls like sweets? They really go gaga over desserts. Well here's something that will probably satiate any sweet tooth—a 2-kg-heavy giant parfait that costs a hefty $35.

If you finish the whole thing, though, it's free.

Kogyal food-fighter Gal Sone is heading over to Kijima Amusement Park in Beppu (where the parfait is located) to try her hand at it. She'll finish it, of course, because she can eat enough food for six without skipping a beat. (Too bad the vids of her eating were taken off of YouTube. She's incredible.)

The dessert consists of 3 kinds of ice cream, pancakes, cream puffs, and fruits. I think I see an ice cream cone in there too, and tons of whipped cream. So far, nobody's finished the whole thing.

I spent a big part of my childhood at Kijima Amusement Park, btw. Beppu is my dad's hometown.

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Astronaut To Throw Boomerang From Space

The Japanese like to throw things from space. First it was paper airplanes. Now it's boomerangs. Astronaut Takao Doi took a break from space travel to take boomerang-throwing lessons from a world champion. He's now ready to throw one down to earth from the Kibo testing room at the International Space Station in March to see what happens.

The fifty-something year old astronaut is doing this at the request of the thirty-something year old boomerang champ. Got anything else you want Doi to throw down from space? Maybe you should ask him.

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Make a Short Video, Win A Free Trip to SF & Tons of Movie Tix

I've covered a lot of local film fests in the last couple years, but the SF Int'l Asian American Film Festival is by far my favorite. It has the biggest, most refined selection of Japanese and other movies from Asia, and it's put together in part by my friend and occasional Tokyomango guest blogger Taro Goto.

This year, the Festival is holding an awesome contest, where you can win 2 free tix to SF, 4 nights at the manga-themed Hotel Tomo, a $500 shopping spree at Macy's, and two all-access passes to all the movies at the festival. All you have to do is make a 26-second video about why you should be the next festival blogger.

As a festival blogger, all you have to do is write one blog post about your experience at SFIAAFF. Easy.
Deadline is Friday, so hurry!
More details and submission link here.

Vivienne Tam's Mickey Mouse Dresses

It's the year of the rat according to the Chinese lunar calendar, and to celebrate, designer Vivienne Tam created these Mickey-Mouse-themed dresses and held a fashion show at Hong Kong Disneyland.. They're very kitschy-pretty. I like the fourth one from the left and the third one from the right. Image by Reuters.

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Doctor Removes Baby's Ovary By Mistake

While operating on a baby girls' tumor, a doctor in Mie Prefecture accidentally took out one of her ovaries, too. The girl was just 9 months old, but she had a groin hernia. The doctor removed a bunch of stuff from her body--some tissue mass, the tumor, and--as they later found out--an ovary. The family forgave him. At least she still has one left.

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How I Know If Someone's From Japan

How can you tell if one group in a crowd of hundreds is from your home country?  I was at a ski resort in Tahoe earlier today, taking a burger-and-chili-fries break, studying a Japanese family sitting at a table in front of me. They were far enough away that I couldn't hear what they were saying, but two tiny signs told me that they were Japanese, not Chinese or Korean.

Anyone who's been asked if they can tell the difference between the three dominant East Asian races has probably taken—or should take—the All Look Same quiz. It's really hard. I always score pretty badly on it. But that's because the biggest indicators of Japanese, Korean, or Chinese are not the facial features, but much more nuanced things like the way their jeans are tapered, or the way they ask for the bill at a restaurant.

Back to the family at the ski resort. It was a mom, a baby, a dad, and another younger woman, presumably an aunt. The dad was talking to the aunt while buckling his ski boots. At one point, he looked up from his boot-buckling and did a slight shake-of-the-head-nod type of thing. That gesture, albeit so small and subtle, was so Japanese! And then I looked over at the mom and the baby. The mom was holding the baby up to her face and talking to him. At one point, she did this thing where she gave the baby a little boost and made a facial expression that was so distinctly Japanese.

In this particular situation, I had very little else to go by. They were all wearing ski gear, which made clothing analysis obsolete, and I was too far away to tell what or how they were speaking. But I knew, because of these two little things.

If you have any stories about how you've been able to tell whether someone is from your home country/culture, please share!

Robot Teaches Kids Traditional Dance

Not that many people these days know Japanese traditional dance. So the best way to teach kids so that the art form doesn't die out is to program a robot to do it and dispatch it to classrooms across the country. From the looks of it, the bot's a pretty good teacher—even without legs—and the kids look happy to be learning from him.

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Origami Airplane to Fly From Space to Earth

The Origami Paper Airplane Association is sending a super-strong, heat-resistant paper airplane from the International Space Station to earth with a message of peace. Read more

Gundam Phone Has Themed Ring Tones, Helmet-Shaped Dock

 

If you're a hard core Gundam fan, then you have to have this cell phone. It's a special edition Gundam-themed handset chock full of Gundam ring tones, cool one-liners from the TV series that can sub for boring message notification noises, and mobile suit screen savers. The best part of it, though, is the Gundam Head dock that glows and moves while it charges your phone. From Softbank.

(Thanks, Bryan!)

Robodol: The Cutest Robot Geek Ever

This is Mayu Ichinose. She loves robots—or, as she states it in her blog subhed: "Robot is love." She's a model, a prolific blogger, and a total Gundam geek. She goes to almost every robot competition, robot convention, and robot show, and she even sometimes dressed up as one.

If you read Japanese,or if you just want to ogle over photos of her, her blog is here.

Nasubi, the Naked Guy who Lived on Freebies for a Year

I totally forgot about Nasubi until this reminded me of the funny naked man with just a room and a video camera who had to write postcard after postcard to magazine giveaways in order to win food and provisions. Everyone in Japan watched him goof off, starve, and get random shit like celebrity calendars and a giant yellow tent. Nippon Television held an audition, Nasubi won, and he voluntarily entered into this room with the goal of raising a million yen within a year in free stuff. He even had to win food in order to survive—he wasn't allowed to bring anything in.

I don't necessarily buy into the morally outraged position that this person takes on the issue, but here's a pretty good recap of the show in its entirety. Yes, it's true that there are a lot of extreme prank TV shows in Japan. But this doesn't just happen to random people. In N. America, we have a gazillion reality shows in which aspiring celebrities whore themselves out to pain and suffering for their minutes of fame. This guy got a year and a half. I'm sure the producers of the show had a close eye on him to make sure he didn't really starve or die or have an irreparable mental breakdown.

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Super-Cute Hand-Crafted Mario Softie & Brooch on Etsy

Some crafty person with extreme talent and a love for Mario made this beautiful Mario softie and four accompanying brooches (a turtle shell, a heart, a bomb, and a star). It's on sale for $100 on Etsy.

(Thanks, Adora!)

Make Your Own Japanese-Speaking Paper Bird

Wanna learn some paper crafts and have a cute little Japanese bird saying "nani?" (what?) for your desktop? You can go to this web site and get one for free.

All you have to do is print it.

Neon Electric/USB Sneakers Made With Rapid Prototyping

A Dutch design firm has created this beautiful neon shoe featuring urban Japanese icons and city names in honor of the Asics subbrand Onitsuka Tiger. Pretty freaking cool. The signs and buildings in the shoe are representative of urban cultures and major cities throughout the country (is that Godzilla sitting behind the tongue?). It was made with a 3D printer.

They also made a matching USB drive that lights up when plugged in. Pics after the jump.

Beautician Molests Woman, Tells Her It'll Help Her Lose Weight

Molesters are sure good at coming up with creative storylines in order to put a woman in a vulnerable position. The manager at a beauty parlor in Sendai was arrested for molesting a woman. He had told her that if she stripped down naked and let him fondle her breasts, this would help her lose weight.

I don't know if the woman fell for it and complied, or if she was coerced. Apparently, the perpetrator had been causing all kinds of trouble with other women, too, and was also a shady businessman who used false advertising to get clients.

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CBC Radio Show About Japanese Internet Culture

I was on a CBC radio show today talking about Japanese internet culture, 2-channel, and other random stuff.

You can download the podcast here.

Sydney Pink's Offbeat Japanese School Girls

Sydney Pink is a an American illustrator living in Tokyo who draws funny school girls being shot by space men and floating businessmen. It's super cute stuff.

Sydney Pink via Jean Snow

Creepy Robotic Cat Speaks Porn Star Japanese

Sega Toys' Yume Neko (Dream Cat), introduced at the Tokyo Toy Forum this week, is more like Creepy Porn Cat. When you pet it or scratch its neck, it says things in Japanese like, "Pet me softly" and "Give me more, give me more." It even has a couple of different variations of sultry giggles. WTF??

US Monkey Controls Japanese Robot With Brain Waves

When a group of human scientists can make a monkey in North Carolina maneuver a robot in Tokyo using neurological signals, you know you've arrived at a benchmark in technological advancement.

Read about it

Kimiko Yoshida's Futuristic Brides

Japanese-born European artist Kimiko Yoshida takes really cool futuristic photos featuring herself. Here are some examples of her bridal collection. This one above is the Pokemon bride.

Dogs in Crazy Fashions Rocking The Runway—Pics!

Why not match your pet's wig with your dress? On Saturday, Tokyo had a serious runway show in honor of Pet Fashion Week New York. The pet industry is currently estimated at a trillion yen. That's some serious cash owners are putting down to make their pups look pretty. Or scary. Depending on how you look at it. More pics after the jump.

Japanese Trains Are Great For Naps

I found a funny photo gallery of Japanese people sleeping in public.

It's true—Japanese people really can fall asleep anywhere. Maybe we're opportunistic sleepers, like dogs—sleeping whenever possible. Or maybe the trains are just too damn comfortable.

Subway Hand Rings for Non-Gropers

I'm one of the few girls I know who grew up in Japan and was never groped by some shameless pervert on the subway (I have a mean glare). You hear about it, you read about it, and it really is that common. Well, now, a mail order catalog is selling these subway rings to men who don't to be mistaken for a pervert. On super crowded trains, standing commuters quickly run out of stationary rings to hold on to, and have nowhere to put their hands. That's probably what inspired gropers to fondle in the first place, but it's also a looming dilemma for non-perverts as to where they can put their hands in order not to be mistaken for one.

This unique product, which sold out immediately, promises to solve that dilemma. I think. I mean, I guess if you were a conniving fondler you could always use the ring to do something totally inappropriate.

via Pink Tentacle

Hello Kitty Jesus Tattoo = Scary

Oh, wow. Somebody actualy has this Hello Kitty Jesus hybrid tattooed on his/her arm. Scary.

Kitty Hell via Japanator

Former PM Abe: Resigned Because of Diarrhea?

It's official—former prime minister Shinzo Abe told the press that the main reason he resigned from his post last last year was because he had really bad diarrhea.

Abe has a condition called ulcerative colitis. It actually sounds really awful and painful—he's had it since the age of 17. Diplomatic trips to India, Malaysia, and Indonesia only worsened the condition, causing frequent urination and painful bleeding. Here it is in his own words:

To mention an indelicate matter, I rushed to the lavatory after having keen abdominal pains and saw the basin all red with tremendous bleeding. Bleeding causes slight anemia. More than anything else, though, you feel depressed as you see fresh blood every time you go to the toilet.

You can never get a good night's sleep as you shuttle between the bed and toilet.

The need to go to the toilet many times a day hampers election and other political activities very much.

Once ulcerative colitis worsens, I would need to go to the lavatory 30 times a day. It would be absolutely impossible to perform the heavy duties of prime minister.

His last straw was when he couldn't remember the lines of his parliament speech in September.

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Teacher and Bogeyman Get Away With Bad Behavior

Two stories on the Mainichi today about people who exploit their positions of authority to lay inappropriate hands on their subordinates. In the first, a 54-year old substitute teacher at an elementary school in Yokohama lined up all her students and slapped all of them on the cheek when just a handful refused to come back from recess.

In the second, a man dressed as a namahage—a Shinto bogeymen of sorts—molested   a group of female tourists while they were bathing. He burst into the bathing room drunk and fully costumed (he was hired by that resort to entertain tourists) and got his grope on.

For some reason, either ended up facing serious charges.
Not cool at all.

Feature About Tezuka's Apollo's Song on io9

I've been asked to write a bi-monthly column on io9 about Japanese culture and sci-fi/futurism. It'll be every other Friday, starting yesterday, and I kicked it off with a piece about Osamu Tezuka's Apollo's Song, a manga about love and sex and clones which is now finally available in English 28 years after it was written.

Read "Can Clones Learn to Love?"...

Lounge Chair Doubles As Exercise Machine

Mizuno just announced this brand new, awesome piece of furniture that doubles as a living room recliner and a sit-up machine. It has a benign, black-and-taupe  exterior and a sleek design, plus those rolly things that hold your legs in place while you strengthen your core...pretty awesome.

This goes on sale Feb 5.

Product page (via Impress Watch)

Bicycle Rule Crack-Down!

Some people think Tokyo is all high-tech and futuristic, but one very blatant way that this isn't so at all is the amount of people who ride mama-chari, or those housewife-y bicycles with baskets on them, around town. People use it to get to the train station in the morning, to pick up their kids from school (kids ride in a little booster seat in the front or back), and to go grocery shopping.

This year, after 30 years of lawlessness, the police department is cracking down on cyclists by banning cell phone use, headphone use, and "triple-riding"—carrying two kids, one in front, one in back, on your bicycle—nationwide. They're also trying to pass a law banning riding on sidewalks, although this is going to be markedly harder to enforce among car-fearing cyclists.

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New Years Cell Phone Strap Giveaway

So, Strap-Ya sent me a 2008 lucky bag full of cell phone straps. Since I only have one cell phone (which, by the way, is totally strapless ever since my smelly peach fell off), I'm gonna have a huge giveaway. Huge!

If you want one, email me your name, address, and what you'd like to see more of on this blog. US only (sorry, I just hate filling out customs forms at the post office) and while supplies last.

Yay!

Ceramic Home Pizza Oven

Sick of ordering Domino's? This new ceramic pizza oven from Hakuho makes perfect 10-inch pizzas in about twenty minutes. The finished product looks—and apparently tastes—almost like real Italian pizza fresh out of the brick oven. It's about $90.

Hakuho via Impress Watch (Japanese)

Related product

Japanese Cops To Attain Superhero Powers in 2008

This year, Japanese cops are getting a major upgrade in their policing skills—they're going to get superhero power equipment to help them fight kidnappers.

The Metropolitan Police Department is buying a Wall Through Radar, which can detect objects on the other end of a solid wall, and 80 headsets with air-activated transmitters that can hear things way beyond the capability of the normal human ear. The MPD is citing a gangster hostage crisis last April as its incentive to amp up its gear.

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Tezuka's Phoenix Manga Now Available on DS

I've always wanted to read Osamu Tezuka's classic manga anthology, Phoenix, but it goes for volumes and volumes and would take up too much room in my bag. Well, now, a company called Compile Heart has collaborated with Tezuka Productions and Nintendo to create a DS software that includes the graphic novel in its entirety. It's in Japanese, of course, but what a genius idea to put novels on a DS cartridge, right?

If you prefer the English version in print, it's been published by Viz Media.

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New: Customizable Game of Life

Starting in April, board game geeks in Japan will be able to order their very own customized Game of Life from Takara Tomy. Several themed boards will be rolled out over the course of the year. The first will be the Bridal Version. You can put a big picture of you and your sweetheart on the board, and decide what 56 of the 99 boxes on the board say.

Example:
"Taro buys an engagement ring for Hanako. Pay $50,000."
"Taro and Hanako have twins. Collect $1,000."
"Taro cheats on Hanako with his hot young secretary. Pay $2,000 for an apology ring."
"Hanako leaves Taro, and takes all his bank funds with her. Taro pays Hanako $100,000."

The release is timed in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Game of Life in Japan—with less board game competition here, it's really pretty popular. The custom board takes a month and a half to make and costs about $350.

Link (Japanese)

Limited Edition Swarovski Crystal M Player

What's scarier than Mickey Mouse? A hot pink Mickey Mouse-shaped MP3 player with Swarovski crystals on it! Disney collaborated with iRiver Japan to create this cutehideous gadget, a limited edition released today in Japan. It actually comes in white, blue, silver, and black, too. The pink one is the Valentine edition. The hardware is the same as the previously released M player, with 1gb of memory, blah blah blah.

Link (Japanese)

io9 = The New Blog I Write For

One of my new gigs in 2008 is as a contributor to io9, Gawker Media's new sci-fi/futurism blog. On launch day a week ago, we got 3/4 million PVs and we're still going strong. I'll be posting there regularly and hosting a bi-monthly column about Japan and robots and futurism and stuff like that. Come read!

You can meet me and the rest of the bloggers here.

io9 Main Page

Shu Uemura Dead at 79

Shu Uemura, the most famous Japanese name in makeup, died on December 29th. Ever since the nameless Hollywood beautician transformed Shirley MacLaine into a geisha for the 1962 flick My Geisha, the demand for Uemura's services skyrocketed. He started his cosmetics line shortly before that, in 1960, opened his first boutique in Tokyo in the 80s, and by now has shops all over London, New York, and Paris.

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Newspaper Deliveryman Arrested for Stalking

A 57-year old newspaper delivery man for Asahi Shimbun named Osamu Sotozaki was arrested today for emailing photos of his penis to a 23-year old subscriber. He became infatuated with the girl when he went to her house to collect subscription money, looked up her info on the publication's database, and started emailing her non-stop on her mobile phone.

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Firefighters Pole-Dancing

In the US, strippers dance on poles. In Japan, it's the firefighters. I must say I've never seen a stripper pull of moves as awesome as these, though.

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