TOKYOMANGO

Foot Odor Fetishist Caught with 27 Pairs of Boots

A hard core boot fetishist was arrested this week for stealing a pair of women's bootsfrom a sports club in Kitakyushu. They were cheap boots--less than $50--but when authorities went to his house, they found 26 other pairs of boots in his house and car. Wow! The guy's name is Kazuhiro Watanabe and he's 33 years old. This is what he told the cops about his unacceptable behavior:

I got excited when I smelled them and fantasized over what the women who wore them looked like.

I think he was more disappointed that the cops were going to confiscate his collection than he was about being arrested. Apparently it took him years to accumulate this many boots.

Link

Tokyomango Blocked in China!

Is your blog blocked in China? Mine is. A friend is in Shanghai for work this month, and he just told me so on gchat. (I guess gmail is not blocked.) Hmmm. We all know that China has a massive firewall, and that the Great Firewall is kinda patchy and not very consistent and hackers are always trying to figure out how to get around it, but I wonder if there's anything you can do about individual blogs being blocked. Ideas?

Oxygen Capsule Makes Skin Clear, Takes All Day

My brother and I saw this oxygen capsule at the Tokyo Int'l Gift Show. We asked the guy if we can go in, and he said yes. But then he told us it takes at least 40 minutes for one beautifying cycle to complete itself. The oxygen capsule works by slowly releasing oxygen at high pressures inside the tank. Apparently it has extreme health and beauty benefits.

I like to look pretty, but I can't be spending all day in an oxygen tank. My brother, well...he doesn't need to be any prettier.

Apparently, these are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. There's a photo of a sexy model in white boots in a similar one on Mainichi.

I Fought Gamera and Won

I ran into Gamera the other day, so I decided to fight him. He weights a lot more than I do, and his arms are a lot thicker, so I just stood there screamed in his face. I knew he could only blow flames from his legs so as long as he stayed on his stupid wooden platform I knew I would win.

"I thought you're supposed to be able to fly," I said.
"GAOOOOO," Gamera replied.

Artist Draws Humans With Flowers as Heads

 

I love this piece depicting these strange flower people that I saw at at the Media Arts Festival in Japan earlier this month. In this artist's universe, we are all born from flowers. And the flowers sometimes turn a little bit weedy.

Does anyone know the artist's name? It's not in the press kit they gave me.

Tomoko Sawada: Artsy Cosplayer from Kobe

This is Tomoko Sawada. She's a Japanese artist who likes to dress up in different Japanese female roles and take pictures of herself. Pretty awesome stuff—it's super creative, yet it evokes the spirit of the PuriKura culture—the majority of young Japanese girls who document every single moment in their lives with sticker pictures. Here's how she explains her work:

I was bound by an inferiority complex. When I started to take pictures, I loved my image taken in photos, which looked attractive and cute. I could make myself look like a model or an actress in pictures. As I looked at my pictures again and again, the gap between my real image and my image in a picture widened. In other words, my appearance could be changed easily, but my personality did not change.

Danish Geeks Throw Mario Party at Campus Bar

Did you know there's a Mario-themed bar in Copenhagen? I guess it was only for one night, but students at the IT University in Copenhagen went all out and made Mario brick decorations, cocktails named Yoshi and 1UP and Big Mario Shot, and jumped around all night with one fist up in the air saying "poing!"

(Thanks, Kris!)

Pittsburg Boy Tears Up Japanese Country Music Scene

Jero is a 26-year old African-American enka singer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's a quarter Japanese, and he promised his now-deceased Japanese grandma that he would become a famous enka singer. In 2003, he moved to Tokyo and started entering singing contests. Soon enough, he got picked up by a record label and some really famous songwriters helped him kick off his career.

Here, he performs his debut single, Umiyuki, which broke the record for debut enka single on the famed Oricon charts this week with 3.5 million copies sold.

TokyoMango is a Snack Stand in Ueno

OMG! I had no idea I had haphazardly stolen the name of my blog from a snack stand at Ueno station. (Or did the snack stand steal the name from me?) From this picture a reader sent me today, it looks like Tokyomangoes are actually  limited edition mango cookies and wafers. Yummmmm. I think I have to quit blogging and go work here.

(Thanks, John-Mark!)

People Squeezing into an Elevator

These people really want to catch this elevator going down to the Tsukuba Express platform in Akihabara. You'd think they'd give up because they obviously won't fit—but in Japan, we're really good at fitting more than the human eye may deem possible into really small spaces. This scene was a good portrayal of this concept, so I snapped this photo.

113-Year Old Grandma Dies

Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113 years old, died yesterday from old age. Born in August 1894, she was the oldest living person in Japan. The last 12 years of her live were spent in a nursing home in Kochi Prefecture.

Wow, 113 is really old. The lady had five children, and I don't know if they are still alive, but if they are, they're probably in their 80s and 90s. I would feel extremely lucky to live until I'm 90, and even luckier if my mom was still alive then.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Toyonaga!

 

Link

Spotted in Akiba: Dolphin-Shaped Laptop Cushions

While I was hanging out with Stormtrooper in Akiba last week, I spotted this happy French guy selling these strange dolphin-shaped blow-up thingys that he claimed were useful for propping up laptops.He tried to sell me one, but I said no.

I Met Cornelius! (And Video Commentary on MangoBot)

One of the coolest things about being in Tokyo this time around was that I got to meet Cornelius. I think if I had to choose one musician to represent Japan in the summer Olympics or something, I'd pick him. Or the Southern All Stars.

We met at his studio in Nakameguro and hung out for a bit, and watched mash-up videos people made with his music.

He also gave me live commentary of his Fit Song video, which I put up on my io9 column today.
See it here!

Oh! And I decided to call my io9 column Mangobot. 

Mouse Doubles as a Vacuum Cleaner

This funny-looking mouse transforms into a vacuum cleaner at the flick of a switch. Put it in mouse mode, and you can use it to navigate your desktop. Put it in vacuum mode, and you can start sweeping up bread crumbs and eraser dust off of your workspace. After you're done vacuuming, you can just open its butt and empty out the junk you swept up.

Product page (Japanese)

Handmade MacBook Air Case Looks Like a Plain Brown Folder

Japan's tech industry is abuzz with word of the thin-as-a-document MacBook Air. To find out whether what the TV commercials said were true, reporters at Daily Portal Z went to a crafts store and bought yellow and red leather so they could make a perfect replica of a standard A4 sized folder and see if the Air would fit.

MSG is Good for You

An article in the Feb 25 issue of Forbes Magazine argues that MSG (monosodium glutamate, or ajinomoto in Japanese) may actually be good for the world. In the US, health nuts avoid it like the plague, but in many parts of Asia, it sits on the table along with salt and pepper to enhance the flavor of meals. Kunio Torii, a leading expert on MSG and senior scientist at the company named Ajinomoto, insists that a definitive link between MSG and headaches, etc has yet to be proven. Further, his own research has shown that hospital patients who have lost their appetite were more likely to eat their meals when sprinkled with MSG. This, he postulates, could help elderly and sick people improve their appetites, get the nutrition they need, and live longer.

Other things he's studying: The nutrient absorption effect of MSG (putting MSG in bland diets available in impoverished countries could make starving kids healthier) and using MSG to fight obesity (
injecting MSG in a green pepper will make it taste like a hamburger).

Japan Needs a New National Anthem

Nobuo Uematsu, composer of the Final Fantasy theme song, thinks Super Mario Bros should be Japan's new national anthem. As much as I love Mario, I have to disagree. First of all, Mario is Italian. How could a song about an Italian represent Japan? Second of all, the Mario song is fun and exciting, but it doesn't have the "for the land of the free" climax moment that, say, the US national anthem has. We need that. Obviously, the current song, Kimigayo, isn't really cutting it. I think the government should hold a contest. There are so many talented musicians out there right now, I bet Ryuichi Sakamoto or Cornelius could whip up a better one in a few hours.

1up via Boing Boing (Thanks, Brian!)

Seriously Shiny & Expensive Cell Phone Bling

If you thought Japanese nail art was over-the-top, check out these immaculate blinged out cell phone covers that I found in Odaiba last week. For just under $300, you can turn your handset into a diamond-studded American flag, or a happy place with rainbows and peace signs. The one in the bottom row with the cupcakes is kinda crazy.

Subterranean Vault Under Bank District Teaches Kids How to Farm

Inside an unused bank vault under one of Tokyo's busiest bank districts is a square kilometer of subterranean farm growing rice and providing part-time jobs to dozens of jobless youth who'd rather be farming part-time than working for a big company that will own them forever.

Pasona O2, as this facility is called, was built as a training facility for kids who might want to consider agriculture as a career alternative. Hey, why not? Could be better than working at a combini.

Pruned via Japundit

Pretty Silver Jewelry Featuring Cool Moving Parts

We spent the weekend in Tahoe with friends Spencer, Christine, and Ken. Christine is a jeweler, and she makes beautiful silver-based pieces with a slightly Japanese touch that I love, like these dangly earrings with cranes on them. (I don't know if they're really cranes. I don't know my myna birds from my pigeons. But they're pretty birds.)

A lot of her designs have cool moving parts, like wings that flap or amethyst flower petals on rings that move when you wave your hand.

Christine Uemura main page

Obama Wins Japanese Primaries

The verdict's in: Americans living in Japan love Obama. For the first time ever this year, the primaries are being held globally. Obama won 83% of votes in Tokyo, 80% in Kyoto, and 70% in Nagoya. More votes are expected to come in via online and fax, but those won't be counted til Thursday.

The image on left is from Daily Portal Z, a creative online magazine owned by Nifty known for its creative, humorous, and not necessarily politically correct reporting. Here, a reporter goes to a town called Obama in his best Obama disguise.

Link

Kim Jong Il Poster in an Okinawa Bar Bathroom

A reader found this intricately captioned illo of Kim Jong Il in a bar bathroom in Okinawa. The letters above his middle finger say: "I am the last dictator of the 20th century. Fuck you!"

(Thanks, Bryan!)

Inside the Bizarre World of Japanese Pick-Up Schools (Story on Wired)

Last spring, I met Satoshi Fujita, one of the most famous pick-up artists in Japan. My brother came along, and we sat down at a coffee shop with four of his students for two hours, listening to the men talk about their extremely manipulative and effective techniques for NANPA—the Japanese art of picking up girls. It was the most entertaining reporting I'd done in a long time.

The story I wrote about it—along with a beautiful photo gallery of all the master and his horny disciples—is featured on Wired.com today:

Satoshi Fujita is not a good-looking man. He has oily skin, beady eyes, short legs and a boy-band wig to cover his balding head. But that hasn't stopped him from becoming Japan's most sought-after dating coach for geeks.

Fujita's Pickup School for Men Who Can't Get Any teaches geeky, insecure men of all ages how to gain confidence, score dates and get laid -- all based, he says, on a proprietary "science" he discovered after a decade of careful research.

Continue reading...

Urawaza: How to fix a scratched CD using toothpaste

My friend and occasional Mango contributor Ryan shows us how to fix a scratched CD using toothpaste. This is one of the tricks from my Urawaza book.

I Heart Ramen & Liver T-Shirts

So much more interesting than I (heart) NY or I (heart) SF t-shirts. There were a whole bunch at the Tokyo Gift Show but I had to put my camera away before I got in trouble.

Pretty Yummy V-Day Cake

My mom bought this pretty V-day cake for dessert last night. It had chocolate cream inside, and the hearts are made of "nama-choko" (raw chocolate) and the strawberries are glazed with sugar and it was really yummy.

Dried Sardines: A Sexy Alternative to V-Day

 

Got a flyer in Akiba telling me that Feb 14 is actually Dried Sardine Day, not Valentine's Day. An excerpt from the sensible flyer:

These days, the utter disregard of the people of Japan towards dried sardines is finally being recognized. Women give me cacao bean products during this time, taking out massive loans with 200% interest to give the now-popular "triple return" to their men.

Dried sardines ask for neither this triple return nor the heartbreak suffered when you don't get one.

The captions under the different dried sardine body parts are explaining how sexy and seductive a dried sardine is—slim legs, curvy body line, piercing eyes.

My Last-Day-In-Tokyo Combini Binge

On every last day before I leave Tokyo, I stop by Meguro Station and go to three places: the bookstore, MUJI, and the local convenience store. Today, I bought a book for Brian, some swag at MUJI, and the stuff pictured above at the combini. Here's a quick explanation of each awesome snack shown above (clockwise, from top right):

- Koeda chocolates. Yum yum crunchy sticks of chocolate and almond fun. Like most things Japanese, it comes neatly packaged in 12 little packets inside a rectangular red box.
- Aloe Yogurt. This will change your view of yogurt forever. It has aloe-flavored little jello thingys inside.
- 3 Bikkuriman snacks. If you were a kid in the late 80s in Japan, you'll remember how incredibly popular these things were. Each packet of wafered chocolate comes with a Bikkuriman card.
- GABA: The chocolate for the stressed out workaholic. This will end up being a gift.
- Meiji Rich Strawberry chocolate, made with 77% real strawberry fruit.
- Super soft steamed chocolate pudding. This is nothing like the jell-o fake pudding crap they sell in the US. You gotta try it.
- Pucchin pudding. The classic flan-in-a-plastic-cup. My brother loves this stuff.
- Tropicana grapefruit juice. I don't know why. I just wanted to drink something tangy.

Spotted in Akiba: Pachinko Ball Afro

Pachinko parlors are everywhere, and in busy places like Akiba and Shibuya, shops are becoming more and more creative as to how they market their shop. This one, called Everyday Fever, re-imagines the Pachinko ball as an afro.

Video: Stormtrooper Cosplayer Dancing With Hot Japanese Girls

I hung out in Akiba on Monday with some peeps I met and their friends. First, we watched these two very good looking Japanese girls dancing on the street with Stormtrooper, aka Danny Choo. It's kinda like that cosplayer Haruhi dance that was all over the Internet last year—except this one didn't end in a police raid. Then we followed the two girls to another location where we took a bunch of pictures with them. Then we sat down for coffee at a large cafeteria that monitors your health. Pics after the jump.

My Friends Like Cat Paws

On Friday night, I hung out with three high school friends in Roppongi. We spent an hour in Donki buying random shit like head massagers and toothbrushes and cat paws. Then we went to Sei's house and played Wii.

Garlic Chocolate For Stinky V-Day Lovers

Garlic chocolate is the newest thing this Valentine's Day. A company in Aomori is selling a little chocolate that's made of local fermented black garlic and cocoa powder. Word is that it tastes kinda like prunes. A box of 3 is 600 yen.

Little towns in Japan often make mashup versions of their local specialty food to promote their region. Takko—the town in Aomori that makes garlic chocolate—is one of the top garlic regions in the country, so this is probably a similar experiment.

Link

I Was Forced to Watch a Morbid Video to Get My Driver's License Renewed

I went to get my Japanese drivers' license renewed yesterday. It took forever! Let me explain.

Japan, like the US, has a point system where you get penalized on your driver's license if you do something illegal. In the US, you get points for things like moving violations and drunk driving, but never for parking your insurance goes up. In Japan, you get points for everything including drunk driving and parking illegally, and they make you watch a morbid video when you're due for renewal.

I had two points on my license: one for parking on the street while I was getting a haircut, and once for turning left from a no turn lane. Plus I had inadvertently let my license expire because I live in the US and I wasn't here on my last birthday. So, after taking two different sets of ID photos, filling out some paperwork, and paying a bunch of money at ten different windows, I had to take a two hour class with the other delinquent drivers in a classroom on the third floor of the Samezu DMV.

Mystery Phallic Gadget @ Tokyo Gift Show

I found this mysterious phallic gadget in the household goods section of the Tokyo International Gift Show. What could it be? My guess: a humidifier. 

My Tetris Brain: Feature on io9

Did I ever tell you guys how I was a total Tetris addict as a child? I wrote a feature about it for io9:

At a young age, my brain was hijacked by the game of Tetris. Now it helps me navigate through life. When I was in the sixth grade, my friend Chiyo and I used to play this addictive puzzle game--developed in 1985 by a Russian engineer--for hours on end with a single 100 yen coin at an arcade in Tokyo. We probably should have been doing homework or at least pretending to, but instead, there we were, every day after school, sitting side by side executing crazy maneuvers with our joysticks. The mantras that I repeated in my head while playing the game at max speed as a pre-teen are totally in sync with some basic tenets of Asian philosophy.

Keep reading!

I Met Mario

It's true. After decades of helping him save Peach and watching him jump on mushrooms and listening to him say: "Here we gooo!" I finally met him yesterday. He was just chilling by a concrete wall at the buyers' trade show, cool as a cat despite the chaos going on around him. He didn't even flinch when I came by to tell him how big of a fan I was. So we took a couple of pictures together, and then I decided to let him be. After all, he's one of the gaming world's biggest superheroes. I'm sure he needs his rest before he goes off on his next adventure.

Silver Heart-Shaped DS Stylus for the Fancy Gamer

Are you a glamorous-at-heart game addict who wishes there was a little bit more flair to your console? I've seen people put fake diamond stickers all over their DS Lite, but this silver heart-shaped stylus takes fancy to a whole new level. You have to admit that the light blue box with the off-center heart and leather strap is reminiscent of a gift from Tiffany's.

I Went to the Tokyo International Gift Show

The Tokyo International Gift Show is on this week at Tokyo Big Sight, and my brother and I decided to go check out the newest and best random-shit-from-Japan at the invitation of Tomo from Strap-Ya. Here he is, talking on his cell phone in front of the shop that makes the solar charger cell phone strap I posted about earlier this week.

Stay tuned for more awesome, innovative products from the show. I have tons of pics, which I will be posting this and next week.

This Bottle of Water Costs $100

Fillico Beverly Hills is a super glamorous bottled water brand from Osaka that costs $100/bottle. It's double that if you get the silver or gold crown, or the golden wings. The frosted glass bottles are decorated with Swarovski crystals and etched with gold paint. Amazing! It's being distributed at schmancy places like the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo, and is a huge hit among the indulgent I-wanna-feel-rich crowd. I got a tiny sample cup today. It's good, but nothing special. Despite the misleading brand name, the water is from a spring in Kobe, not LA. That's probably a good thing.

Cell Phones aren't Bad for your Brain

The verdict's out: You can't get brain cancer from using cell phones. Scientists at Tokyo Women's Medical University did a study with brain cancer patients and healthy people, and ound out that regular cell phone use didn't have a major effect.

I still don't believe in sleeping with your cell phone next to your head, though. If only because I don't think sleep should be interrupted by people drunk texting you.

Link

Naked Horse-Headed Man Eats Mushrooms

Here, a Japanese performance artist wearing a horse's head and a mankini cooks and eats a magic mushroom. The video is set to a tune from Final Fantasy. WTF?

via 3yen

Mini Solar Charger Cell Phone Strap

This little cell phone strap from Strap-Ya is actually a small solar cell that can store energy and charge your phone. Smart! It can be charged up to 500 times--and if it's cloudy, three hours on an AC adapter will give you a backup battery anyway. Comes out Feb 9th.

Product Page (Japanese)

Bubble Bath Filled With Cash

Ever fantasize about swimming in ten thousand yen bills? This month, Bandai's releasing Bubbly Bubble Bath, a bath product that looks like money. These are actually 100,000 yen bills (they don't really exist) and they smell like fresh wood—very relaxing.

Link (Japanese)

Mini Wooden Cube Speaker Cell Phone Strap

This tiny little wooden cube is more than just a cute cell phone accessory--it's a real working speaker that can hook up to any MP3 player, cell phone, or iPod. The sound quality, according to the product site, is surprisingly loud and clear. The design is simple—no buttons, no power source necessary—it just turns on when you plug it in.