TOKYOMANGO

Piggy Bank turns Saving Money into an Interactive RPG

 

In August, toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing this ultimate piggy bank for gamer geeks. It's called BankQuest: A Tale of Savings, and it's a dungeon-shaped vault with a LCD screen that turns your penny-saving experience into the ultimate role-playing game. Every time you feed it a coin, the screen will update you on how much you've saved and tell you what weapons you can buy with that money. The more you save, the bigger weapons you can buy, and the closer you get to successfully beating the Money Monster.

The RPG piggy bank will retail at about $40.

Nana, a Film About Two Unlikely Best Girl Friends

I  just watched a movie called Nana. Based on a best-selling shojo manga that sold over 22 million copies in Japan, it's a cute story about two girls who are total opposites that become best friends. One is a super girly girl who wears lots of pink and will give anything to be with her boyfriend; the other is punk rocker who sacrificed the love of her life for her music career. The two meet fatefully on a train ride to Tokyo, and when they meet again at an apartment for rent, they become roommates. They're both named Nana.

At first, I thought the story sounded really cheesy, but I found myself really enjoying the movie. Both characters are extremely likable despite their shortcomings—Nana the girly girl can be really annoying, and Nana the punk rocker has a bad temper and an attitude but the're both genuine and endearing. You end up falling in love with both by the end of the movie.

Come to my Book Signing at Double Punch

Save the date: I'm having a book signing at Double Punch, a fun Japanese toy store in North Beach (San Francisco) on Sunday, July 13th from 1-3pm. Stop by to buy my book and get it signed, to check out some cool figurines and t-shirts, or to just hang out!

Buy the book on Amazon
Become a fan of Urawaza on Facebook

The Aging Japanese News Reporter

I don't know if it's his job or if he just ran out of hair dye and botox, but this news reporter does seem a lot older now than he did a few years ago.

Link

A Brief Tour of the Japanese Web

When I was in Japan reporting on the feature about Nico Nico Douga, my friend Ichiroo showed me all these different applications on his laptop. All were immensely popular forms of time-wasting entertainment in Japan. (One of the strangest things I heard that week was that Japanese school girls all have the McDonalds web page saved on their cell phone favorites—and every time they reach a new destination, they download a coupon, stake out the nearest McD's, and buy cheeseburgers.)

I wrote a short article about the quirky world of the Japanese web as an online extra to the Nico Nico piece:

I'm sitting in a smoky room on the second floor of a Tully's Coffee in Western Tokyo, looking over the shoulder of Ichiroo Kiyota as he types on his laptop. Kiyota, an executive at Six Apart Japan, is showing me around some of the most popular — and useless — Web apps in the country.

Continue reading A Brief Tour of the Japanese Web

Machine Makes Teddy-Bear-Shaped Pastries

MegaHouse has this new toy called the Konepan that helps you make bread in all kinds of cute shapes—teddy bears, bunny rabbits, a bunch of grapes, a checkered heart. It's amazing. All you have to do is mix the dough inside the little red pot, then follow the instructions on how to make each shape. Pop the dough in the oven, and 13 minutes later, you'll have a collection of the cutest edible pastries ever.

Talking Star Wars Figurine USB Hubs

 

Want a little functional Star Wars action on your desk? Here, R2D2 and Darth Vader double as desktop figurines and USB ports, allowing up to four extra gadgets to plug into your computer. These were introduced at Tokyo Toy Show last week, and they're available for pre-order on Strap-ya. Video of their head-shaking, beeping madness after the jump.

Get Your Goth-Loli Street Snap Taken at Anime-Con

Your chance to be a Japanese amateur celebrity goth girl coming up next weekend, in LA, at Anime-Con. Representatives from Maruione, a goth-loli shopping site affiliated with the Marui department stores, is hosting a photo booth where you can get "street snaps" taken. Kinda like the ones seen in that Fruit book, except this time they'll be shot by a photographer from KERA magazine.

Check out the Maruione web site to get an idea of what kind of look might win you a chance to be featured in KERA mag, and to find out exactly when and where the photo booths will be set up.

Anime-Con is held in LA from July 3-6.

Wall Graphics Turn Bedroom into Mario World

Here's a glimpse into the future: One day, if and when I have a kid, its bedroom will have Super Mario Bros wall graphics. He'll dream about eating mushrooms and tossing turtle shells and poisonous flowers and jumping high into the sky to get coins.

I've already met the future dad.

Link (Thanks, Adora!)

Canon Printer Comes in a Yellow Bucket

I love this little yellow bucket-shaped printer. It's called the Canon Selphy CP770. Our printer at home is huge and bulky and you can't carry it around. This one looks like a playground toy but it's actually a lightweight (less than 5lbs), rice-cooker-sized high-res color printer. The printer itself is actually just the top portion of the bucket—release it from those green clips and pull it out, and you'll find neatly organizing compartments at the bottom for the peripherals.

Product page (Japanese, via Impress)

Another Knife-Toting Geek Makes Headlines

Less than two weeks after the Akiba killing spree, one of the top stories on Mainichi today is about another knife-wielding man who was roaming the streets of Akiba. The article doesn't make it clear why they were questioning the guy in the first place. Was he waving it around? Probably not—it just says "they found a knife in his rucksack." Is it illegal to be carrying a knife around in your backpack? Dunno. Anyway, the cops confiscated the weapon, suffering a few surface wounds in the process. I just thought it was interesting that this was the most popular news story of the day when there really doesn't seem to be much of a story there. Is it insinuating that otakus with knives are dangerous? Again, I just don't know.

I Survived "I Survived a Japanese Game Show"

During lunch yesterday, I watched the first episode of ABC's new reality series called I Survived a Japanese Game Show.

In it, 10 Americans who know next to nothing about Japan get on a plane and go to Tokyo. The day after they arrive, they're taken to a TV studio where a live audience and a game show host await. They divvy up into two teams—the Green Monkeys and the Yellow Penguins—and take part in this silly game where they run on a treadmill and feed mochi off their heads to a teammate. The winners get a helicopter ride; the losers have to work as rickshaw drivers in Asakusa.

While I'm not really one to judge, there were a few things about this show that made me want to barf. Bullet points after the jump.

Some Basic Info on the Japanese Input System for the 3G iPhone

Japanophiles at WWDC probably noticed that Steve Jobs showed a glimpse of the Japanese input system for the new 3G iPhone during his slideshow. A few people asked me how exactly this is going to work, so I did a little research. Here's some basic info:

- You can choose from two kinds of keyboards—the standard QWERTY keyboard and a Japanese cell phone-style keypad.
- You can pick from a muti-tap style kana keyboard or a sliding keyboard. Japanese kana letters are organized in groups of five according to a beginning letter and corresponding vowels (a i u e o), so you can either put in the first letter and then hit the same key b/w 1-5 times to get the right sound, or you can put the first letter in and then tap and slide through to see all five sounds and pick the right one.
- Fully implemented predictive text.
- The ability to write a character on-screen and have it instantly recognized is not Japan-ready...yet.

Pasted above is a rare NDA-breakin' video I found on YouTube of the Japanese input system on the 3G iPhone.

In Japan, the iPhone will Sell Out on Day 1

Why do Steve Jobs and Masayoshi Son look so happy in this picture? Maybe it's because they're happy about Apple and Softbank's partnership on the iPhone's imminent Japan launch. Or maybe they're sneering at you because the coveted gadget, which we now know will retail at 23,040 yen, or $214, is going to be sold out within hours of its release nationwide on July 11. (The 16-gig version will be 34,000 yen, or $316.)

Son, founder of Softbank, made this announcement at a press conference a few hours ago at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho.

Link (Japanese)

 

Wired.com's ASCII Art Contest Winner Gallery

A few weeks ago, I had a reader ASCII art contest on Wired.com. It was a follow up to the story about 2channel and Nico Nico Douga in the June issue of the mag. Two Japanese web experts judged the contest, and the results were published in a gallery yesterday.

Link

Joi Ito's Twitter Feed

Joi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons and a senpai of mine from middle school, high school, and college. Here's an excerpt from his Twitter Feed today. Funny!

Man Mauled to Death by his Own Dog

A 57-year old Fukuoka man was mauled to death by his pet Tosa dog on Monday morning. The dog was being kept in a cage outside the house. It was a 4-year old, 110-lb male. The man's octogenarian dad entered the cage to try to rescue him, and construction workers nearby heard the commotion and called the cops, but it was too late.

I didn't know much about the Tosa until now. Also called the sumo dog, this rare breed is native to Japan and best known as fighting dogs. Some countries, like the UK and New Zealand, have restrictions/bans against their import.

I can't decide how I feel about this. I mean, it's awful—but I can never immediately blame the dog. I spent hours one day reading about the SF dog mauling incident in 2001. It seems pretty obvious that the dog didn't just decide to go bad one day. Also, do you ever watch The Dog Whisperer or read his book? Cesar Milan claims he's rehabilitated every single dog he's treated (I think it was over a thousand!) except for two. They usually go bad because of bad parenting. I don't know enough about this Tosa case to make a judgment, but my condolences go out to the guy's family, and to the dog's family (I presume they put him down).

Link

Facebook Japan Story in The Japan Times

The article I wrote about whether Facebook Japan will make a dent in the local SNS market was published in today's edition of The Japan Times:

Japanese Facebook takes Model T Approach

By LISA KATAYAMA
Special to The Japan Times

Late last month, as part of a rare work-vacation trip to Asia, Mark Zuckerberg made a quick stop in Tokyo to announce the launch of Facebook Japan. Facebook, a social-networking Web site that the 24-year-old new billionaire created while he was a Harvard undergraduate, is one of the most popular online communities in the world. But as Zuckerberg stood on stage at the Aoyama Diamond Hall convention center in his boyish red hair and black blazer, the audience was skeptical.

Link

My Interview with the Dalai Lama's Youngest Brother

Tendzin Choegyal is the Dalai Lama’s youngest brother. Aside from being related to one of the holiest persons alive, TC is a rebellious soul who dropped out of college, spent a couple of years as a paratrooper in the Tibetan contingency of the Indian army, survived alcoholism,and found peace through a blend of Buddhism, lithium, and reading the news on the Internet. When I met him at his home in Dharamsala, India—the Himalayan town that houses the Tibetan government-in-exile—we talked about reincarnation, war movies, Steven Seagal’s crazy outfits, and the preservation of Tibetan culture.

The following is a reprint of my interview with Choegyal, published in Issue 52 of Giant Robot magazine. A feature-length profile will be in the Fall issue of Buddhadharma, which goes to press in July.

A Ringtone That Only Dogs Can Hear

Dwango, the company behind web video site Nico Nico Douga, just came out with a new ringtone that's at a frequency only dogs can hear. How bizarre! I guess it's like having your phone on Silent mode, but you can train your dog to paw at you when he hears it. Or something. I don't know. It sounds pretty useless to me.

via CrunchGear

Shiny Lipstick-Sized Cell Phone Charger

My cell phone always threatens to run out of juice when I go on overnight trips, but I don't like to bring my charger because it's extra baggage. The Jelly Stick promises to fix this dilemma. It's a lipstick sized-and-shaped shiny aluminum adapter that comes in gold, silver, blue, pink, and black, and it gives you an extra hour of talk time with a AA battery that fits right into its body. I know they have extra batteries that you have to charge, but that to me is just like extra prep you need to do pre-trip. It's so much easier if you could carry this around, and you could always buy more AA batteries anywhere if you  need more.

Product page (Japanese)

$500 Pure Gold Hello Kitty Cell Phone Strap

The Hello Kitty craze just won't stop!

A jewelry store in Hokkaido is taking orders for anyone who wants to drop $500 for an 18K gold Hello Kitty cell phone strap. It weights 1.8 grams, and has a special lavender ribbon.

For more Kitty madness stories on Mango, check out:

Hello Kitty wedding video
Hello Kitty for men!!
Hello Kitty Jesus tattoo
$5000 Hello Kitty playing cards

Jesus Diamante, a Store for Princesses

My mom called me last week saying, you have to check out this store called Jesus Diamante. Apparently, there is a subset of young women who believe they are real Victorian princesses. So they dye their hair blond and wear lots of lacy frilly stuff and act like royalty. Here's a quick video clip about two girls, both in their early 20s—one's a mother of a baby girl—who meet online and go shopping at Jesus for some $1000 princess coats.

Mangobot: How Alternate Reality Helped Me Survive the Dentist

On Mangobot this week, I write about my trip to an alternate reality via the dentist chair:

While Dr. Wong was putting dental dam in my mouth, I was watching three hot women singing the penis song in a Chinese restaurant downtown. It happened last Thursday, when I discovered a gadget that can warp my brain to a blissful alternate reality.

Continue reading...

Acoustic Singer Marie Digby is Stuck in My Head

I have a song stuck in my head. It's a cover of Rihanna's song Umbrella by Marie Digby. Digby is a 25-year old half-Irish, half-Japanese acoustic guitarist/singer from LA. She is (or was? -- these numbers are moving targets) also the #2 YouTube singer celeb (after English/Portugese musician Mia Rose). If I have the story right, she recorded this song herself, uploaded on YouTube, and it totally went viral, ending up on MTV's The Hills, on iTunes, and leading to the release of her first album in April.

I spent some time surfing her YouTube channel last week. You can listen to a lot of her songs there, and you can also check out numerous videos of her talking to the camera about how excited she is about her accomplishments and expressing gratitude to her fans. Some of her mannerisms are very Japanese (like how she thanks the fans profusely) and it's kinda cute.

She's actually performing in San Francisco today, at the Alice concert in Golden Gate Park. Ooh I'd love to go but it's gonna be so crowded!

How to Cure Constipation With the Push of a Finger

If you've ever gotten a shiatsu massage, you know that a finger in the right spot can make soreness go away. Many Japanese also believe that the same method—that of finding the tsubo, or pressure points, in your body—can cure everything from eye strain from excessive computer use to constipation. Here are a couple examples. Check out a couple of examples below from my Urawaza book.

Masi Oka of Heroes Writes his own Japanese Dialogue

The LA Times has a fun piece called 10 thing you may not know about Masi Oka, the guy who plays Hiro in Heroes—one of my favorite shows. Oka plays a Japanese otaku who can time travel in the series, but he's actually Japanese-American. Did you know he translates all his own dialogue in Heroes? He says:

It's important to me to translate the English dialogue in a way that I think Hiro would say it. A formal translator would make it too rigid and not colloquial. I've been tempted (to sneak in a Japanese curse word) but I'd never get away with it. I have sometimes mis-translated things on purpose when we're shooting and then there's one person laughing -- the Japanese language coach we work with. So yeah, I'd get caught.

I think that's so great! Hiro is best known for putting both arms in the air and saying: "Yattaaa!!" When he does something cool, like saving the world from mass destruction. It's nice to know that it's genuine.

Link

Video: Wired People Dancing the Uma Uma

Okay, so a couple months ago, I was working on an article about Japanese Internet culture that ran in the June issue of Wired. The main character in the story is Hiroyuki Nishimura, a roguish web entrepreneur whose two web sites, 2channel and Nico Nico Douga, have spawned a huge collection of strange web memes that dominate the subterfuge of the Japanese Internet.

One of the strange web memes is the Uma Uma Dance. Some people thought the chorus of a Swedish dance track called Caramelldansen sounded like "uma uma" or horsey horsey in Japanese, and they made a video of popular anime characters doing this little bunny ear dance to it.

As part of the reporting process, I went to Japan and met dozens of experts and web geeks. I spent hours watching Nico Nico videos, and I even convinced my coworkers at Wired to help me make a Uma Uma video of our own. Then we uploaded onto YouTube and Nico Nico Douga. We got tons of crazy comments on the NicoDou version, which you can't see here—but they said things like: "What is this? An American joke?"

If you have a NicoDou account, you can watch the commented version here. Otherwise, here's the YouTube version for your entertainment, featuring unnamed silly characters from the Wired editorial department.

Hyundai Launches Japan-Only 3D TVs

Korean carmaker Hyundai is releasing a Japan-only 3D TV. The 46-inch LCD costs about $4,000 and comes with two 3D glasses, which you (obviously) have to wear. The programming is limited too—only a couple of cable channels provide 3D content, mostly nature shots from Hokkaido, animals in a zoo, and bike racing. It uses stereoscopic TriDef technology, which produces dual images, one for each seeing eye. Samsung sells something similar in the US, but there's no 3D-specific broadcasting in the US.

Link

The 74-Year Old Male Porn Star

The man on the left is Shigeo Tokuda. No, he's not a retiree or a businessman. He's a porn star. The 74-year old husband and father has turned his old age and knowledge of sex and gentleman-like nature and wrinkly body into a highly marketable commodity. Today, he's one of the most well-known actors in Japan's billion-dollar porn industry. He stars in movies with titles like Forbidden Elderly Care and Maniac Training of Lolitas.

Tokuda thinks he'll be starting in porn until age 80. In an interview with Time Magazine, he says:  "People of my age generally have shame, so they are very hesitant to show their private parts. But I am proud of myself doing something they cannot."

Someone has to watch this and tell me how it is.

via Neatorama

4 Japanese Rock Paper Scissors Games to Teach Your Kids

In Japan, rock paper scissors is called jankenpon. Kids play it for fun. There are also games based on that that are even more fun that we used to play as kids. Here are four of my favorites:

1. The Glico/Pineapple/Chocolate game—like hopscotch, but you can only move the number of squares that correspond to the syllables in the word you won with. (Rock is "gu" for Glico, 3 syllables; Paper is "pa" for pineapple, 6 syllables; Scissors is "choki" for Chocolate, also 6 syllables.)

Researchers Find Possible Cure for PTSD

Researchers in Gunma think they've found a protein that cures PTSD. When tested on mice, the protein ICER was able to block past experiences from inducing fear memory.

To test their theory, the scientists took three mice—one with no ICER, one with lots of ICER, and one normal mouse—and gave them electric shocks after an ominous buzzer sound. The next day, when they sounded the buzzer again, the mouse without ICER reacted much more slowly than the other two. The one who had lots of ICER freaked out much earlier than the rest. We'll see if this leads to anything useful to humans. The research will be published in the US soon.

Link

A Robot Meets a Little Doggie in Goro Fujita's Digital Art

 

Goro Fujita is a Japanese-born German artist who uses digital media to create cool depictions of robots interacting with animals and nature. He has a cube-and-sphere obsession, like me. (I like geometric shapes and things.)

Fujita's web site via io9

Keromin, an Electronic Instrument that Looks Like a Frog

This is Keromin. He's a cute stuffed frog, but he's also an electronic instrument. His name is "kero"—the sound a frog makes in Japanese—plus theramin—the world's first electronic instrument—put together. Keromin "sings" when you put your hand inside of him like an ordinary hand puppet and open his mouth. He can do lots of different voices—12, in fact, ranging from human voices to frog-like croaks to violins and pipe organs. An engineer in Saitama Prefecture invented it as a way to teach kids about music in a simple, endearing way. Check out a video of him singing Amazing Grace after the jump.

Agnes Lum, the Original Gravure Model

In Japan, there's a category of celebrities called gravure idols. The closest Western equivalent would be a swimsuit model, or someone who poses in sexy photographs without exposing her privates or doing anything pornographic. Many believe that Agnes Lum, a 1970s import from Hawaii, was the first gravure model ever. She came to Japan to become a talento, or celebrity, but rather than focusing on singing and acting, she made a living by posing in sexy shots caressing a surfboard or just laying out by a beautiful beach. Her seductive eyes, tanned skin, and luscious breasts made her instant obsession fodder. She had a couple of hit singles, and also appeared in a couple of commercials, including one for a Daihatsu minivan with her two kids.

Check out a fan-made photo montage set to her singing a cutsey Japanese song after the jump.

Spotted in Odaiba: Basketballs as Wedding Memorabilia

There's a company in Japan that'll customize athletic gear for you. Because who doesn't want to remember their wedding by the panels on a basketball?

Bright Red Cubic Label Maker

Sick of using the antiquated P-Touch to make labels for your files? This beautiful bright red cube is a viable, modern alternative to the traditional label-maker—press that little black button and the lid opens up to expose a LCD screen and keyboard. Type in what you want your label to say, choose a font and size, and press print. The sticker comes out of that tiny slit in the side.

Product page (via Impress Watch)

Cherinacherine is the New Hello Kitty

Sick of Hello Kitty yet? Sanrio's coming out with a new character series that looks just like the famous 2D kitty. They're called Cherinacherine, and they're furry fairy friends who live in a cherry forest. Sanrio's launching the brand with plush toys, bags, and stationary kits. Stay tuned for Cherinacherine cell phone straps and other cute, pink gadgetary goods.

Link

Jupiter-Shaped Planetarium for a Starry Bath

From Sega Toys, the company that made the popular home planetarium (and it's miniature) is a new bathtime version called Homestar Spa. It's shaped like the planet Jupiter, and it'll make your entire bathroom into a starry wonder world for just over 7,000 yen.

Homestar Spa also has rose petal mode and deep sea mode for those of you whose ideal bathing experience is not a starry night, but a rose-filled bath or frolicking in the ocean with rare
aquatic species.

Movie: Children of Huang Shi

I just watched a movie called Children of Huang Shi. It's about a British journalist, George Hogg, and his experience in China during the Sino-Japanese War. Pretty early on in the movie, you have this incredible scene where Hogg inadvertently ends up photographing a massacre in Nanking, and then almost loses his head when the Japanese find his film. Shortly thereafter, he gets recruited to go to a town called Huang Shi, which has turned into a giant orphanage for kids who lost their families in the war. Hogg thinks, I don't want to spend my time in China with a bunch of kids! I want to see the real war. And this pretty white lady who works as a nurse there tells him, don't be silly. You want to see the real war? These kids and their predicament are the unfortunate side effects of it. So he sticks around, earns their trust, and ends up being more emotionally invested in saving them than he could have ever imagined. It's a good movie—George Hogg was a real guy, and this was a real war, and the ending is appropriately moving. It's directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Turner & Hooch, Tomorrow Never Dies) and stars hotties Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Yeoh, and Chow Yun Fat. 

Lucky Farmer Finds 21-Leaf Clover in His Garden

A lucky farmer in Iwate found this 21-leaf clover in his garden.

Pink Tentacle reports:

Obara, a former food crop researcher, has been conducting independent research on clovers in his garden for over 50 years. He first became interested in clover mutations after discovering an unusual patch of 4-leaf clovers in 1951. Since then, Obara has been crossbreeding the plants in his garden to research the genes associated with leaf count, color, pattern and size.

The guy is planning to file a Guinness world record app for this clover. He already holds the current record with a 18-leaf one he found on his property years ago.

Link

Video of the Akiba Killer's Crime Spree

Here's a pretty detailed news report about the Akihabara killings on Sunday.

On Sundays, most major shopping districts close streets off to traffic so pedestrians can walk around worry-free on the main roads. Around 12:30PM, a crazy man in a giant truck bulldozed through such a crossing in the middle of Akiba, killing 7 and injuring 10. He had rented the truck in Shizuoka, a couple hours from Tokyo, telling the car rental place that he was moving house. The guy rolled in, ran over 3 people with his truck, then got off the truck and ran around stabbing people until he was arrested. Even if you don't understand Japanese, this video shows the route he took and some photos and clips from the crime scene.

Apparently, the guy premeditated his crime on 2channel. Someone found a bulletin board posting by a person who said he was going to rent a truck and kill people. And maybe even stab some people if the truck wasn't enough. He is also a known Akiba enthusiast who had a collection of anime and manga in the company dorm where he lived. He also had no family.

The 25-year old perpetrator, Tomohiro Kato, says he was just tired of life.

Correction: I made that part up about him not having family. He had parents, they showed up on TV crying. Sorry about that.

Announcing the WoodBot Contest Winner

Thanks everyone for sending me robot jokes for my WoodBot Contest! I had some good laughs, but I have to say, the dirty joke got me. Sophie from Sacramento, I'll be sending you a WoodBot in the mail soon. And here's the winning robot joke:

Two friends are meeting for lunch one afternoon. One shows up to the other's office for their lunch date. As he's entering the office, he notices a hot secretary sitting at the reception desk.
"Hey, bud. How are you?"
"I'm good. Hey, that new secretary of yours is beautiful!"
"Well, I'm glad you like her. Believe it or not, she's a robot!
"No way! How could that be?"
"She's the latest model from Japan. Let me tell you how she works. If
you squeeze her left breast, she takes dictation. If you squeeze her
right breast, she organizes your file cabinets. And that's not all, you can also have sex with her!"
"You're kidding, right?"
"Nope. She's something, huh? Tell you what. I'll let you borrow her."
So his friend takes her into the restroom and is in there for a while. Suddenly, he hears his friend screaming in pain.
The guy says, "Oh crap! I forgot to tell him her ass is a pencil sharpener!"

Slam Dunk Cartoonist Does Historical Manga with a Calligraphy Brush

You may not have heard of Takehiko Inoue, but you've seen his work. I, for one, was a huge fan of his 90s manga, Slam Dunk. It had the best characters and best action scenes ever. He's famous for doing pages and pages of manga where there are no words at all. Just facial expressions and action shots frozen as though captured by a professional sports photographer.

His new manga series, on display at the Ueno Royal Museum, is about the famous 17th century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. To add a historical touch to his work, he used sumi ink and a calligraphy brush. True to his last-minute style, he was working on the giant centerpiece (a 3-meter-tall portrait of Miyamoto) until 3am the day the exhibit opened.

Inoue Takehiko on the Web (Thanks, Mary!)

iPhone Coming to Japan on July 11

I've been following Gizmodo's live blog this morning about the 3G iPhone. It's coming out in Japan and the US on July 11. It has a great Japanese input system designed by the same dude who invented T9 for Japanese cell phones—which is a huge big deal, since most Japanese can type better on their cell phone handsets than their keyboards, even now. I met him once, down by Apple campus.

So anyway, wow. It's gonna be like Japanese geeks gone wild. Maybe. (Don't know if it will be as hyped up in the US, since we already had our first iPhone madness last year. Back then I did ridiculous shit like start a wave in the iPhone line with James Lee. But I didn't buy one because I didn't want to sign a 2-year contract with ATT.)

Anyway...the new iPhone has GPS, Typepad, and a Japanese keyboard. Which means I can update TokyoMango from anywhere and still find my way home. If only they could make a single handset work in Japan and the US, that would be awesome.

Related story

Egg-Shaped Digital Photo Frame

I've always had mixed feelings about digital photo frames, but I love this one. It's a compact, super-cute, egg-shaped thing with a simple 1.5-inch screen and controls and a USB port on its back. Oh, and it comes in this really nice stainless steel tin. Love it!

Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Handheld Nanotech Water Drop Game

Pachinko-meets-drops of water in this silly little handheld "nano-tech" game called Aqua Drop. Not only do you get to test your maneuvering skills, but you also get to see nanotechnology at work. The surface of the game board is coated with a super water-repellent nano-tech agent called Adesso WR. Adesso WR keeps the water from ever changing shape—it just stays as little round balls. The object of the game is to complete the art work commanded by the cleavages in the board.

This product comes out in July and is available for pre-order at Strap-ya.

Kazuo Ishiguro's Time- and Space-Bending Novels

I just finished reading When We Were Orphans, a 2000 novel by British-Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro. Several years ago, when I was a grad student, I read and analyzed The Unconsoled for a literature class. It's not his most popular novel—The Remains of the Day, which was later adapted into an Anthony Hopkins movie, is by far his most famous—but it was one of my favorite reads ever. Ishiguro has a way of conveying human thought and emotion that is really relatable to me. I understand internal battles between duty and desire; I relate to how the zoom lens of urgency can distort time and space.

Sakura-Shaped Waffle Maker

If you want to reminisce about a spring day in Tokyo while eating your breakfast, you should consider getting this electric waffle-maker that makes waffles shaped like a giant cherry blossom. All you have to do is put the batter in there, close it, open it, and voila, done. Also note that you can take the cherry blossom apart to make five heart-shaped waffles, too.

Product page via Impress Watch

Mangobot: Aliens Will Make Contact with Japan First

On this week's Mangobot:

I contemplate 5 viable reasons why aliens might make contact with the Japanese first. Reasons include our defense minister's stubborn insistence that aliens exist, the presence of a real optical signal-seeking observatory in Hyogo Prefecture, and covert operations by Kim Jong Il.

Read about the 5 reasons why aliens will make contact with the Japanese first.

Gachapin and Mukku DS Cases

Last time I was in Japan, I bought these Gachapin and Mukku DS Lite cases at 2am in Roppongi. They're awesomely beautiful shades of green and red, and for anyone who remembers watching NHK's children's programs in the 80s, they're super nostalgic. Gachapin, a 5-year old dinosaur, and Mukku, a giant red Yeti (and Gachapin's former secretary) were two of the main featured characters on Hirake! Ponkiki, which is the Japanese equivalent of Sesame Street.

They also sold matching cartridge carrier keychains and stylus pens, but I thought that would be taking it a bit far.

Restaurant Owner Arrested for Serving Alcohol to Drunk Driver

In Japan, a lot of people are responsible for drunk driving.
The driver, of course. The new law states zero tolerance. It's strictly enforced with cops patrolling the late-night weekend roads, and there are taxi services that will drive your car home for you if you get too drunk.

Passengers who get into a car with a drunk driver are also considered to be at fault.I forget what the exact fine amount is, but you can get penalized for getting in a car with someone who's been drinking.

Restaurants that serve alcohol to people who cause drunk driving accidents are guilty, too. Yesterday, an unlucky restaurant owner in Saitama was convicted to two years in prison when one of his customers left and got into a head-on collision that caused two deaths. I think the same laws apply in the US—I remember learning about that in bartending school a long time ago.

 

What's it like in your country?

Link

Japanese Cell Phones: Too Complex to Use?

A short news/analysis piece on Japanese cell phones I wrote is on Wired.com today:

TOKYO -- Steve Jobs' new iPhone, expected to be unveiled Monday, is headed to Japan by the end of the year. But the device's famed ease of use may actually be a turnoff in Japan, where consumers want features, not simplicity.



Indeed, Japanese handsets have become prime examples of feature creep gone mad. In many cases, phones in Japan are far too complex for users to master.

Read the full story

Man Gets Surgery, Finds Old Towel In His Spleen

A 49-year old man underwent surgery because of a pain in his spleen. Doctors believed he had a tumor. But when they took the thing out, they found that it was a 25-year old surgical towel that had been left there in 1983 when the guy had an operation to treat an ulcer.

The hospital responsible for the painful towel is Asahi General Hospital in Chiba. The towel was crumpled up into the size and shape of a softball when surgeons at the other hospital discovered it. Ouch.

(Thanks, Walter!)

Wired.com's ASCII Art Contest

I'm holding an ASCII art contest on The Underwire. You can win some Wired swag and a chance to have your masterpiece displayed on Wired.com. Rules and more info here.

Otetsudai Networks on The Japan Times

My feature about Otetsudai Networks, a location-based mobile staffing service started by a Harvard business school grad, is featured in the Japan Times' technology section today.

Ryoji Kaneko is always looking for work. It's been six years since the 25-year-old aspiring actor moved to Tokyo from his home in Hyogo Prefecture, and he's still waiting for his big break. He can't get a regular side job because the auditions and the occasional gig require him to have a flexible schedule. To pay for food, transportation and the occasional fishing trip, Kaneko relies on Otetsudai Networks.

Continue reading...

Spoonful of Fried Rice Cell Phone Strap

Yum. Fried rice. You can carry a replica of your lunch (or what you wished your stupid sandwich really tasted like) around with you all day with this fried rice-in-a-spoon cell phone strap.

Get yours here.

New in Japan: Cell Phone Picture Books

Mobile phone novels were hot last year. But reading an entire novel on your cell phone screen, no matter how cool it sounds, can be really tasking. That's why, in March, a Japanese printing company debuted its first cell phone picture book. 

The picture book will be read page by page, like a kamishibai—no scrolling, just clicking from page to page. It will include both popular children's titles and original content. You can buy them online for 100-200 yen each. The company hopes to have 50 titles and 10,000 downloads by September.

Press release (Japanese)

Big books hit Japan's tiny phones (Wired.com)

Customs Official Loses a Bag of Weed in Random Passenger's Bag

Some lucky traveler got 142 grams of marijuana from the Japanese government recently, when customs officials put a bag inside a random passenger's luggage and their drug-detecting dog failed to find it. When the dog came back pot-less, the customs official who hid it realized that he had forgotten which bag he put it in.

142 grams of weed is worth about $10,000 in Japan, according to the CBC. Obviously, the customs official wasn't supposed to put the incriminating drugs inside a random person's bag.

You can get in serious trouble for possession of marijuana in Japan.

Link

3 Geeks Playing iPong While Saying "Pong!"

This is a silly video of three Japanese geeks playing wireless iPong on three iPod Touches. At first, they're just trying to figure out how it works. But around the middle, they become puzzled by why the Touches are no longer saying "Pong" every time the ball bounces back up into space. So they start saying it themselves. Hee hee.

via Asiajin.com

Contest: Win a Limited Edition WoodBot

WoodBots are cute little wooden robot companions that will hang out on your desk while you work or sit on your dash while you drive. If you always wanted a Doraemon but he never showed up out of your desk drawer, this might be a good alternative. (You can just pretend your WoodBot has a magical door that will take you anywhere and a little propeller hat that can make you fly.)

Alexander Shen, the creator of WoodBots, sent me a couple of limited edition WoodBots to give away on TokyoMango. Yay. Each one is handmade and quite fragile, so I'm a little bit worried about shipping it. But hey, Alex got them to me safe, so I should be able to do the same, right?

To enter the contest, just email me your name, address, and a good robot joke with the subject line: WoodBot Contest. Winner will be chosen in a week. Thanks!

Urawaza on Lifehacker

Check out the excerpt of Urawaza on Lifehacker today. I wish I had all those commenters fact-checking my book while I was writing it! It didn't even cross my mind that gook was a racist term, and I had checked the baby frequency thing with one viable source but maybe they were wrong. In any case, I'm psyched to have a segment on my book on the most popular tips and tricks blog on the Internet.

Urawaza on Lifehacker

Are You A Clueless Geek? Quiz on Wired.com

I just posted a funny 20-question quiz on The Underwire about how to tell if you're a clueless geek. It's based on the Japanese concept of KY, or someone who can't read the air. Excerpt and link below:

In Japan, it's a big insult if someone says "You're so KY!"

KY stands for kuki yomenai, or someone who "can't read the air." Think Steve Carell's Michael Scott character from The Office (pictured).

We first tossed out this term in a story about Hiro