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!

Couple makes sushi with creepy crawly insects

There's a couple in Japan that makes beautiful sushi rolls made out of dead insects. Tony McNicol visited them, but he doesn't say whether he tried one or not. Was it yummy Tony? Do tell.

Link

Man dedicates his life to carrying lots of beer

Add this to your list of restaurants with quirky waiters in Japan: This guy can carry 20 jugs of beer at once. He's been doing it for 15 years, ever since he saw some guy at school carrying multiple beer jugs in one hand. That's so cool, he thought. So he did it better and made it into a profession. The moral of this story is, if you're really passionate about something, do it, and do it well. Do it better than anybody else in the whole world, and you might end up on TV one day.

Related post: Restaurant has monkeys as waiters
Link

Zen gadget design article on Gizmodo

On Gizmodo this week, I wrote a feature that explains why Japanese cell phones, despite their proliferate use and fancy shells, are not very useful.

Japan is the epicenter of Zen, a concept with deep religious roots and a mandate for simplicity of appearance and lifestyle. But when it comes to native gadgetry, Zen is only skin-deep. Japanese cell phones are sleek on the outside, but once you open the clamshell, the interface is a complete mess. While American-made phones are leaning more and more towards simple interfaces and clean design, Japanese gadgets continue to be plagued with feature overload and nightmarish interfaces that are totally impractical.

Read Why Zen Software Design Does Not Come From Japan

Mario corset top = sexy?

My friend Jenna found this on Etsy:

A supercute corset made from alternating RARE & vintage Super Mario Brothers and red & white polka dot print fabric, topped off with bias tape flanking the bodice, a delicate sweetheart-shaped bustline, two polka dot ribbon bows, crude contrast stitching and silver metal grommets in the back so you can lace up! FULLY boned for support.

It's custom-made and takes 3-4 weeks, so it's too late to order for Halloween. Company Christmas party maybe? (Thanks, Jenna!)

Keychain looks like roach killer home

Gokiburi Hoi Hoi is Japan's most popular roach killer. It's a cute little red-roofed house made of cardboard and lures roachies inside with tantalizing odors. I think it's like catnip for cockroaches. Once inside, though, the roaches can never get out because the floor of the house is super sticky and they just die there, with their feet stuck on the ground forever. It's hugely popular in part because it uses no airborne chemicals.

Anyway, I found this funny keychain that looks just like a Gokiburi Hoi Hoi. So random.

Product page

The crazy chihuahua lady's decked out ride

You know the crazy cat lady? Well, I think I found her chihuahua counterpart outside a Tokyo pet store complete with a chihuahua mobile. Check out the personalized decals of her chihuahuas pasted all over her car. The back and the front seats of her car were fully occupied by very comfy looking doggy beds. Lucky little yappers. (by Emily Co)

DIY grilled beef restaurant's silly how to manga instructions

Hahaha. This yakiniku restaurant in Japan comes with manga illustrated instructions plus an explanation in Japanese and English. It could have just said, put the meat on the grill, but instead it says:

Spread the meat to the grill with fizzle to the sizzle.

Link

Graphic doggy poop poster

It's just a classic pick-up-after-your-dog poster, but one Osaka town decided to use a real pooping dog as its poster boy. If you look closely enough, you can see the little bit of poop that's coming out. He looks humiliated. (by Emily Co)

Another ridiculous UFO catcher scenario

And while we're on the topic of silly food you can win from a UFO catcher, here are some fake fried fish (or is it squid?) cakes made to look like the non-existent 100 million yen bill.

Ice cream UFO catcher

It makes sense (kinda) to go to a video game arcade and spent 1000 yen (ten bucks) trying to win a stuffed Pikachu. But this takes claw catchers to a whole new inexplicable, nonsensical level. Why would you spend more than 100 yen to try to win an ice cream cone that you know is 100 yen at the store across the street?

Hair product that makes men cool & wet & wild

My mom and I found these amazingly versatile hair products for men at a convenience store in Roppongi. Not only is the packaging beautiful and the price ridiculously cheap (263 yen, or about $2.50 each), but each promises to give you a completely different kind of Asian boy band look. Want to look three-dimensional? Buy the purple one called Wild Shake. The orange will give you a Loose Shuffle, the sky blue will make you Cool & Wet, and the gray is for bad asses who prefer the Grunge Matte look.

5 Japanese monsters on MangoBot

This week on MangoBot, my Asian futurism column on io9.com, I wrote about 5 Japanese monsters I encountered before I turned 20. An excerpt:

When I was in elementary school somebody told me the story of Kuchisake Onna, a superhuman madwoman who lurks in dark alleys and asks you death trap questions. The former beauty wears a surgical mask to hide an Ichi-the-Killer-esque gash on both sides of her mouth inflicted by a crazed relative when she was a kid. She spent her whole life in utter misery and gradually developed a serious complex about her appearance. Eventually, she turned into a monster. Legend has it that she asks passersby if they think she's pretty. It's a trick question—if you say YES, she takes off her mask and says "Even now?" and kills you. If you say NO, she gets mad and kills you. If you run away, she'll run after you at lightning speed and kill you.

Read the full story

Me at the FCCJ, tired. Hungry.

That's me after my talk at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Monday. 30-40 people came, an interesting mix of journalists and my parents' friends and some others. I think it went well! I talked about the challenges of writing about Japan for a US audience. I didn't eat the chicken-and-avocado dinner that was served to me before the talk because I didn't want to be bloated while I talked.

Women's sweet tooth dates as far back as 10,000BC

A team of anthropologists in Niigata made an interesting discovery about why Japanese women love sweets. By studying the teeth of nearly 300 dead people from the Jomon period (10,000BC to 400BC), they were able to find evidence of an unusually high level of tooth decay (8% in Jomon peeps compared to a worldwide average of about 1-3%). The anthropologists believe that the Jomon diet was high in starch—and that Jomon women were especially crazy about cookies made of acorns and chestnuts.

Japanese women today seriously love sweets. I have never been to one, but there are all-you-can-eat dessert cafes all over the place and if you walk in, it's all young women. And the other day, my mom bought a bouquet of flowers that looked like a slice of cake and came in a little cake box with a ribbon. Japanese cakes aren't sweet the way American cakes are, though. They're less sugar-y and a lot bit easier to eat in large quantities.

Parents to blame for "Child Porn Kingdom"

Major web portals OCN and @Nifty got into trouble recently for selling ad space to Imouto Club, a web site portraying photos of girls under 15 posing in bikinis.

An article in this month's issue of Cyzo magazine discusses how common the depiction of children in sexual or semi-sexual situations is, and how most often it's the parents who push their kids to get famous this way.

"They're just after the money," says one talent agency executive. "They come here selling their kids to us because they want $1000-2000." Another source claims it's not uncommon for ordinary child actors to have had photos of them at even younger ages eating bananas in bikinis or showering with their legs wide open.

For shame, parents, for shame.

Prime ministerial red bean buns

I found these funny manju packages on a street corner last week. The pink one features ex-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. It's called "Sayonara Jun-chan Manju" and you see Koizumi waving with a smile. The three guys holding hands in the bottom right corner are his three successors to date, Aso, Fukuda, and Abe.

The package on the left is called "Birth of Taro-chan Manju," ad it features Taro Aso, the current prime minister. He's sitting on an executive's chair saying "I will make Japan brighter and stronger!" and if you look closely, you see ex-PM Jun-chan waving goodbye in the background.

The art of plastic food displays

My friend Tony McNicol recently wrote a really interesting article for ANA's inflight mag about his visit to Maiduru, the biggest plastic food display-making company in Japan. The fake food-making process is so intricate, apparently, that "chefs" use real kitchen knives to slice plastic meat and real curry powder to color the plastic curry. I had no idea!

Link (Image)

Was Kazuyoshi Miura murdered?

Was Kazuyoshi Miura's apparent suicide in a LA jail cell a conspiracy? An American lawyer investigating the case of his death shortly after arrival in the US earlier this month came on TV yesterday and announced that they're investigating the possibility of murder. Miura, accused of killing his wife in an LA parking lot in the early 80s, was found hanging in his cell shortly after being extradited from Japan. He was being held in Saipan for about six months prior to coming to LA.

Anyhow, they took his body down and found that he had been hit in the back and found strangle marks on his neck. They're looking into it. There are some strangeties about the whole case—weird that it was so suddenly resurrected, brought out of Japan, and that he promptly died as soon as he was no longer in a safe zone. Hmmm. I'll keep you posted on what they conclude. 

Cosplay photo gallery on Wired.com

My photo gallery of cosplayers at Tokyo Game Show was published on Wired.com this past weekend.

Read Japanese cosplayers keep fantasies fresh (with Febreze)

Metro man wig = modeled after Jason's haircut?

Way back in Feb 07, I did a blog post about man wigs for guys who aren't blessed with beautiful boy band hair. I was at Donki last week with a bunch of friends, and that's when I realized that these wigs must have been modeled after my friend Jason's hair. Either that, or he just has the kind of hair that every Asian man desires. Lucky guy.

Soy sauce and salt-flavored candy

My mom found this bag of candy in the combini. It's very Japanese—the flavors featured inside the wrappers inside the bag include yuzu, green tea, sweet soy sauce, salt, and plum. Yuzu sounds yummy. Sweet soy sauce, not so much. We did not buy it so I can't tell you how they taste.

Where to sell used otaku goods in Tokyo

Last week, I went to Nakano Broadway—the real mecca for geeks (critics say Akiba has become tourist heaven)—with moot, the mysterious guy who founded 4chan (yes, I did meet him, you can believe me or not believe me, I don't care). We just walked around for a couple hours, I bought a superhero Gachapon and he bought a lighter and a figurine. I felt like taking pictures here would disrupt the otaku safe-haven-like atmosphere, but was fascinated enough by this kaitorisho—where people can sell everything from used manga to old cosplay costumes to random toys found in their home—to take a couple of quick photos. How in the world do they put values on things here? It's so interesting. For example, the sign below claims that Peko-chan goods will sell for very high prices. The girl in the pink wig was selling a ton of random stuff.

Prime Minister Aso to be featured in an erotic video game

A new erotic video game that's coming out next year called "Love me seriously!" is rumored to have a character modeled after our new Prime Minister Taro Aso. As you can see here, he looks a lot like the guy, and his height (175cm) and hobbies (shooting guns) also match the PM's profile. I think his job is specified as prime minister, too.

Of course, there's a disclaimer saying that any similarities to real characters are pure coincidence. Fair enough. But this rumor has triggered a lot of buzz on 2channel, and I think it's fair to say it surprises nobody that erotic game makers would want to celebrate the anime-loving politician in this way.

Link (Japanese)

Man wins shouting contest (again)

Every year, Yufu City in Oita prefecture hosts a shouting contest where people are invited to vent their frustrations at the top of their lungs while judges measure how loud it is. The winner two years in a row has been Eizo Ito, a 49-year old whose rant was 111.4 decibel loud. We don't know what he said, but apparently some of the other participants said stuff like: "I want to eat safe rice!" and "I'm going to cut your allowance because stock prices are down."

I'm trying to think what I would have yelled if I was in the contest.

Link

Ugly sneaker-sandals generate power as you walk

On Thursday, NTT announced that they had made this strange water-filled, electricity-generating sneaker-sandal.  Every step you take puts pressure on the liquid-filled sole, which in turn triggers a small turbine generator and can create up to 1.2 watts of electricity—enough to power an iPod continuously while you take your daily stroll. Which is kinda cool, but really, who wants to be wearing this ridiculous contraption on their toe? The design is also pretty ugly and I don't know that I'd trust a phone company to make me a good pair of kicks. I think I'll stick to the AC adapter.

via Japan Probe

The Ginger Tree, a historical novel about a Scotswoman's affair with a Japanese soldier

I just finished reading The Ginger Tree, a 1977 historical novel by Oswald Wynd. The entire book is written as letters and diary entries by the protagonist, a young Scottish woman named Mary Mackenzie who leaves home by ship to marry a British guy stationed in China. Mary ends up spending most of her life in Japan, though, as a result of an affair she has with a good-looking Japanese guy who lives on top of a mountain and writes her a sensual poem that sweeps her off her feet.

The takeoff was a little slow—I impatiently trekked through the winding descriptions of 20-year old Mary's quabblings, waiting to get to the adulterous affair part—but I immediately took to Mary's character. Even though she's from a good Scottish family and she has her values intact, her mind is rebellious and rational and you see her metamorphose from a good mama's girl into her own person. By the end of the journey, she admits that she's turned into someone entirely different, and by the time she hooks up with the Japanese guy, she's not even surprised herself at what she's done. The part that follows the affair is a lot more up-tempo, and once she's banished from the Western community in China, Wynd takes us to early 20th century Japan, which he portrays much more colorfully than he did China. (Wynd—who is Scottish—was born in Tokyo, and spend three years as a POW in Japan during WW2.)

I'm a big fan of historical novels. When done right, you get this awesome combination of exciting fiction and educational history. (My all-time favorite: Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, about a little Hawaiian girl who gets sent to a leprosy colony.)

The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd = 4/5 stars

(Check the TokyoMango Books tag for more recommendations.)

My afternoon at Monkey Net, a halfway house for otaku

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself with two hours to kill and an itch to do something meaningful in Akihabara. I sat down at Mister Donuts with a French cruller and American coffee, reading the Cool Japan Akiba guide book that I had half-jokingly bought the day before at Nakano Broadway with Moot, the founder of 4chan. I tried checking my email on my iPod Touch but had no luck. There's this crazy building on one of the side streets that I was dying to check out. It has, one on top of the other, a Gundam bar, a military-themed cafe, and a imouto maid cafe where they call you "big brother" and "big sister" instead of master and mistress. I walked over. Gundam bar and military cafe were closed, and I just couldn't imagine walking into the imouto place by myself, so I left. I tried checking my email on my iPod Touch but had no luck.

Finally, I decided I was tired of walking around and checked myself into Monkey Net.

Where to buy maid glasses in Tokyo

Candy Fruit, a shop in Akihabara, specializes in maid glasses—that is, frames that make you look like a geeky-subservient French maid.

Children of the Dark, a controversial movie about child trafficking

Children of the Dark is a controversial film by director Junji Sakamoto that brings light to the problem of child trafficking and prostitution in Thailand. Too bad neither country is keen about the movie—some Japanese think it's biased against their own country, laying all the blame on the demand side, while the Thai pulled it from the lineup of films shown at this year's Bangkok International Film Festival in late September.

I think both countries should just show it. Human trafficking is a real issue, and just because you don't watch the movie doesn't mean it will disappear.

One of the oldest stereo stores in Japan

I took this photo at Radio Kaikan, a popular multi-story department store in Akihabara. It used to be full of old music and electronics stores—now, many of them have been replaced by figurine windows for rent. This was one of the few remaining super old stores. That old lady who works there must be as old as the building itself. They had some awesome new speaker systems there, though, which I can't tell you much more about because my long-term memory is seriously suffering these days.

Related story:
Mangobot: How to buy figurines in Tokyo

Come to my Urawaza talk at the FCCJ in Tokyo next Monday

I've been asked to talk about my book, Urawaza, at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan's Book Break on Monday, October 20th in Tokyo. I am planning to talk about the book a little bit, but also about why writing for magazines is sometimes harder than publishing a book, and about blogging and writing about Japan and all kinds of other fun stuff. Since I'm pretty sure I will run out of things to talk about after a half hour or so, I'm hoping to turn it into a discussion on writing about Japan. So please show up if you can!

Get more info on the event and on how to sign up on the FCCJ Web site. 1850 yen includes dinner.

UPDATE: I just found out that you need to be on my "guest list" to sign up. So if you want to come, email me with the subject line "FCCJ Guest List" and include your name and phone # and commitment to pay 1850. I'll email back a confirmation. Thanks!

Last week on MangoBot: Tokyo's most dynamic 3D planetarium

Last week on MangoBot, I wrote a first-person narrative about my experience at Synra Dome, a newly opened 3D theater at Tokyo's national Science Museum that totally blew my mind out of this world. It was truly amazing. For details, please read:

My Virtual Journey on a Ribosome Spaceship and to the Far Ends of the Galaxy

Gamer geek mob at Tokyo Game Show

I think it was just bad timing, but when I walked into the second hall of madness at Tokyo Game Show on Saturday, I got stuck in a mob of gamer geeks. It took about 10 minutes to walk past Pingu's Wonderful Carnival. A few minutes later, the lane was empty. I have no idea what happened at that moment when I walked through, or why.

Giant potato chip bags for major munchies

After a huge teppanyaki dinner in Roppongi last night, we were still hungry, so we went to Donki and found giant bags of chips. From left, it's Mia holding cabbage-flavored cheetos-like puffs, Brian holding something called "Heart Chipple," and Jason holding corn soup-flavored potato chips. Yummy.

Tokyo restaurants are more dog-friendly than San Francisco

After spending the last month in Japan and Europe, I have come to the conclusion that, comparatively speaking, you can't take your pet anywhere in the US. Tokyo—as I found out from my friend Mai and her Chihuaranian, Jaky—has tons of dog-friendly restaurants and cafes that serve excellent food. This is a picture of Jaky and Ruby at Enzo in Nishi Azabu. They got to run around while we ate homemade sausage pasta and thin-crust Italian pizza. And in Amsterdam, people were walking in and out of restaurants with their dogs and everyone was riding around in bicycles and mopeds with puppies running alongside them.

While I am horrified by the pet industry in Japan (kill shelters everywhere, backyard breeders breeding for pet stores, pet rentals), I do wish I could get a meal in San Francisco without having to leave Ruby at home. In the US, live animals are not allowed to be in places that serve food because of the health code.

Piggy bank helps save money while being romanced by a hot virtual boy

Too busy dreaming about hot anime guys to be worrying about your bank account? This awesome little toy piggy bank by Bandai will help you. All you have to do is pick one hot anime guy, put in a 500 yen coin, and the guy will start asking you out on dates and sending you flowers every time you feed him more money. The goal is to save 50,000 yen ($500)—and win the guy's heart over completely—as quickly as possible.

Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Japanese OJ Simpson commits suicide in California

Kazuyoshi Miura was called the Japanese O.J. Simpson because the suspicion that he killed his wife caused a huge media frenzy. The 1981 death of his then-28-year old wife appeared to be the result of a gun robbery in a LA parking lot. Then, a former mistress came out and said that Miura had asked her to kill his wife multiple times. The US Air Force had returned Miura to Japan, where he was convicted of attempted murder in 1987 but set free in 1998. He was arrested again in Saipan earlier this year and extradited to California on Friday to face trial there again for the same murder.

Later that day, he hanged himself in his cell. Maybe he got scared. He was having a hard time calling his lawyers in Japan and he also complained that he didn't have a reading light. I just can't stop wondering what his baseball cap in this photo says.

Link

Flying back to Tokyo today

I'm flying back to Tokyo this afternoon after 10 days in the south of France and Amsterdam. Highlights from my agenda when I get back:

- Korean BBQ with the parents.
- Tokyo Game Show.
- Muscle Park (again)!
- An otaku in Akiba symposium.

Stay tuned!

Flowers transform drink bottles into watering cans

These pretty plastic flowers are actually attachments that snap onto the top of a pet bottle to turn it into a watering can. Smart. I found them at the Tokyo Int'l Gift Show earlier this year.

Restaurant has monkeys as waiters

Wow, I really want to go to this restaurant! It's in Utsunomiya, just outside of Tokyo proper, and it has two monkeys that serve beer and warm towels to customers. (Thanks, Vagrant!)

Potatoes that look like hands

I wonder if they taste good. Saw them for sale near the waterfall in Karuizawa.

Kouichi Okamoto's modern multifunctional household objects

Tokyo designer Kouichi Okamoto makes crazy cool lamps and other household objects inspired by everyday objects like lightbulbs, balloons, and flat screen TVs. The umbrella stand is really neat—it has a little patch of grass on the side that feeds off of excess water that drips down from the umbrella. And that white mountain range-like thing on the left is a soup plate that simulates the topography of a mountain range.

Kyouei web site via The Japan Times

Alarm clock stops only when you shoot it with a gun

Bandai has a new alarm clock coming out on November 15 called the Gun O'Clock. It looks like a normal rectangular alarm clock, but it comes with a gun and target. When the alarm stars ringing, you have to get up, grab your gun, and start shooting. Every time you pull the trigger and miss, you'll feel the blowback—if you hit the target, the alarm will stop and you can wake up refreshed and satisfied. You can choose from Normal or Hard mode—the latter requires you to hit the target five times.

I wonder what this does to you psychologically, to have to get up and shoot something right away.

Press release (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

New prime minister appeals to web-savvy with video messages

In an effort to better connect with the young, apathetic, often non-voting population, new PM Taro Aso is sending out video messages to supporters via email called the "Taro Channel" (quite possibly a parody of Nintendo's Wii Channel.) The first one was sent out on Thursday with the theme Stronger, Brighter. I wish I could find a copy of it on YouTube, but I'm in the south of France and for some reason YouTube is blocked here—or at least at this hotel.

Robotic plant nods enthusiastically when you talk

Sega Toys has a new robotic plant that nods when you speak. Lonely types or people who like to talk to themselves might find this less freaky than a robotic animal but better than rambling into thin air.

Buy it here.

Fancy cars and Japanese tea garden in Monaco

I'm in Monte Carlo right now, at the beginning of a one week trip in Provence/Cote d'Azur. Monaco is a gorgeous little principality surrounded by France and the Mediterranean Sea. Grace Kelly is the big royal local hero here—the Academy Award-winning actress became Princess Grace of Monaco in the 50s. I snapped this photo of Monaco's Japanese tea garden today on my way back from the aquarium. Did you know Monaco is less than one square mile total? It's tiny! Also, all the cars here are ridiculously expensive. I have never seen so many Ferrarris, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, and Ferraris all on one block as I did today in front of the Hotel de Paris.

Beautiful Japanese lamps made out of recycled material

The Tokyo American Club has these awesome lamps by artist Shoichi Sakurai. He and his American wife make beautiful lamps and other furniture using recycled materials, like the breastplate of broken Edo period armor and old rusty pipes.

SJF seeking American prince: excerpts from the Tokyo classifieds

I love surfing the Classifieds in the Tokyo weeklies. I find the intersection between serious fetishism and gross stereotypes in many of the ads very interesting. Here are some of my faves from last week's issue of Metropolis:

American boyfriend. Very pretty and glamorous Japanese female, in great shape, with sense of humor, seeks manly American male for serious relationship. I like men in uniform, so US Military gentlemen are welcome. lady-xxxx@yahoo.com.

JF? Missing hot passion? European male, warmhearted, healthy, kind, well-educated, blue-eyed, would like to share passionate touches, massages, kisses, and body communication with you. xxxxsuki@livejp.

Ice cream! Black socks, short skirt, and a sweet cute smile when eating ice cream... I think that's so sexy. I want to see you looking cute and sexy eating ice cream! green.teaxxxx@gmail.com.

Very attractive sexy JF is ready to start an incredible journey with a wonderful partner. Would you be a successful executive white American, over 35, MInato-ku area? xxxtokyo@yahoo.com.

Cowgirl in Tokyo, 27, Gemini, seeks older gaijin men, 35-70, for no-strings-attached fun around Shirokanedai. I'm beautiful so no ugly people please. Relationships are a dance between two people, so let's tango. xxxxxtokyocowgirl@ yahoo.com.