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Ken Alley, a book collector who found stashes of post-WW2 Occupation era letters by a 30-year old woman named Betty Ryan, sent me this rare piece of holiday memorabilia—it's a menu of what was served to the US Occupation forces and staff on New Years day dinner in Japan in 1948. Turkey and cranberry sauce. Yum. Must have been a rarity in the East back then.
Continue reading "Menu from 1948 US Occupation New Years day dinner" »
New Years is one of my favorite times in Japan. People party, of course, but it's a lot more than that. It's a time to reflect on the year past, and think ahead to the one in front of you; it's a time to get together with family and pray, not in a religious way, not even necessarily in a spiritual way, but by getting in touch with your most sincere wishes and desires for yourself and the world around you. And it's a time to eat.
I'm not in Tokyo this winter, and chances are you aren't either. But here are a few things you can do anywhere in the world to have a taste of a Japanese New Year:
1. Stick some bamboo in the bush in front of your house to create your very own kadomatsu—a traditional new year decoration.
2. Send nengajyo—postcards with well-wishes for the New Year—to all your friends, business contacts, and acquaintances. The Japanese post office works their ass off for the couple weeks before January 1 to make sure these get to their destinations on time, on the morning of the 1st. My dad gets hundreds every year!
Continue reading "5 ways to have a Japanese New Year anywhere in the world" »
If you are a Japanese flan—or purin fanatic, Giga Purin will be a great investment for you. It's basically a giant bucket-shaped mold that lets you create abnormally enormous Japanese purin. Check out their not very appetizing commercial above. The people in the commercial dig into the gigantic pudding with such happy gusto, I kind of feel like trying it. The moral of the video is: you can be one of those smiley people in the commercial if you eat puke-able amounts of purin. (by Emily Co)
I hung out in Shibuya a lot during middle and high school. It was just the place to be—cheap food, Tower Records, sticker pictures, karaoke, and yes, before any of that stuff existed, there were the video game arcades. My favorite was a five-story little building in the middle of Center-Gai on the left side. I don't remember what it was called. It was tiny and narrow and smoky but that was where most of my friends and I met, so that if somebody was late you could just play games until they showed up.
Fellow Wired writer Brian Ashcraft and blogger Jean Snow have a new book out called Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers
People always ask me where they can buy the quirky Japanese gadgetry that I feature on my blog. Like, the alarm clock that you have to shoot with a gun. Or the hungry piggy bank that eats your coins. Well, guess what guys. You can buy these and a whole bunch of other fun TokyoMango-esque toys at Gizmine, a new online shopping site reminiscent of the Rakuten back catalog, except it's in English and you can pay in dollars and they'll ship to the US, no hassle. Great place to buy yourself a belated Christmas present.
Ever wish you could stroll into a bowling alley and not ever worry about waiting for a lane? This bowling alley in Aichi Prefecture is probably your best bet—it has 116 lanes, all on one floor, because the guy who runs it believes that bowling should be a unifying sport that everyone can do together. How lovely! If I had a space this big, though, I think I'd make it into a small dog run—that is, a giant dog run for small dogs, so Ruby and Malcolm can run around like crazy.
via Japan Probe
Educational publisher Shogakukan is slated to release an iPhone app that teaches people all about sushi. They already have a kanji app and a mushroom app (yes, there are many many kinds of mushrooms in Japan, and you can up your intelligence by knowing all of them).
I have a lot of trouble translating names of fish, so I may use this under the table to impress my friends when I take them out to a Japanese restaurant.
via Asiajin
Kisha clubs, or Japanese press clubs, are exclusive associations of Japanese journalists from various news organizations. A recent report by NPR's On The Media reveals the biases and restrictions of Japan's press clubs. Government entities and corporations have close affiliations with these kisha clubs, allowing members access to press conferences closed off to outsiders. This kind of stuff happens in many countries, but it's a little different here. For example, organizations have their very own kisha clubs installed right in their office buildings. One other unique characteristic is that members of the kisha club develop deep and interdependent relationships with political figures.
Takashi Uesugi, a former kisha club member, was interviewed in the segment, and I found some of his comments interesting:
Strangely enough, if a reporter started out covering Mr. Aso when he was Foreign Minister, basically the same reporter follows Mr. Aso for the rest of his life. As your pet politician rises up the food chain, so does the reporter who follows him.
If the reporter gets some information about this politician's rival scheming or something, he would warn him. You see? If your politician has a big downfall caused by a scandal, you have a downfall too, maybe getting assigned to some remote area. Then you can't write anything.
They like the convoy system; no one should stand out. If you are the only one who gets the scoop, you are given the cold shoulder. If you are the only one who doesn't write it, then you are condemned by your company.
The full transcript is available here. (by Emily Co)
Japan's one of the few countries that still allow smoking in restaurants. NYC city banned smoking in bars and restaurants a few years ago; even Paris no longer allows it! But in Tokyo, folks are still puffing away while you cook your okonomiyaki or slurp on ramen. A new survey, conducted by Pfizer, showed that 70% of Japanese are bothered by smoke in restaurants. Will this lead to a nationwide ban on smoking indoors? I don't know. I kinda doubt it. Especially not based on research conducted by a US big pharma company.
Interestingly, certain wards in Tokyo do ban smoking on the streets. My friend James got fined in Akihabara for it. And they're trying to tighten restrictions against underage smoking, too, with things like the ID and face scanner on cigarette vending machines.
Last month, McDonalds launched this cool viral marketing campaign for the debut of the Quarter Pounder in Japan. At one of the McDonald's chains in Osaka, 1,000+ customers were seen lined up in front of the store, some from midnight the night before opening. Well, we just learned that the crowd was also part of the fabrication. Apparently, McDonalds Japan had hired 1,000 part-time workers via a temp agency to kick off this line. The Mainichi says:
Fullcast recruited part-time workers on the Internet, describing the job with an hourly pay of 1,000 yen near Shinsaibashi Station as "Easy work, just waiting in line to buy a new product and eating it."
Lining up for openings is not uniquely Japanese, but something that instantly ups credibility of any store or restaurant—especially in Japan. If you want to see this in action, go to any major shopping district in Tokyo on the day after New Years, when they start Lucky Bag sales.
I just found this video from a variety show few years back in which Ai Iijima talks about a famous fortune teller she saw in Taiwan. The fortune teller told Iijima that she would disappear in three years. When Iijima asked what she mean, the fortune teller said: "When you die, you can't take anything with you," and started crying. Iijima tells the audience: Maybe you can use this video in three years. I'm curious to see what happens.
Iijima was found dead in her apartment in Shibuya on Christmas Eve.
The very elegant businessman Haruka Nishimatsu is the CEO of Japan Airlines. He was featured on CNN last month because his humble salary and way of living is in such stark contrast to the excesses enjoyed by his US counterparts. When the economy tanked, he cut his own luxuries and salary first. It's definitely true—in Japan, the companies themselves bear the brunt of hard times and try to cushion the employees from it as much as possible. That's just how Japanese employment law and corporate culture works.
I am shocked to hear about the sudden and mysterious death of 36-year old Ai Iijima, a former porn star-turned-activist celebrity who portrayed a type of resilience, boldness, and femininity that is rare among Japanese female celebrities.
Her cries of "Iku! Iku!" (I'm coming! I'm coming!) made her 80s porn videos famous, but it also let women know in a very public way that it was okay to feel good during sex. After leaving the adult video industry, she made it up the ranks of the Japanese celebrity scene and maintained a regal presence on many a variety show stage where she talked frankly and surely about issues like sex, AIDS, and women while other women celebrities just looked cute and giggled. She was an important icon for female empowerment in Japan, whether she meant to be or not.
Emily wrote this about the incident:
Continue reading "R.I.P. Ai Iijima, famed porn actress-turned-AIDS activist " »
Happy Holly-days! Where are you? I am in Lake Tahoe skiing it up through Christmas. It's been snowing a lot. The Internet is slightly uncooperative. The dogs are nestled under a blanket. A bit of winter trivia:
- In Japan, Christmas is for couples and New Years is for families.
- You will no longer be able to buy cold medicine on the Internet come June.
- Emperor Akihito turned 75 yesterday. He's been sick a lot, but managed to make an appearance in front of the people. After that they went to an Imperial party. I wonder what that was like!
I'm hitting the slopes in about a half hour, and then, weather permitting, headed up to Reno to visit some high school friends who happen to be in town.
These dogs are definitely much more patient and well-trained than my two minpins. If anybody knows how to train dogs like this, shoot me an email. I'm dying to find out. OMG, and the monkey. Wow!
Nioibu.com is a website created by smell fanatics attempting to mark Japan's smelliest spots on Google Maps. Each smell has a short description, the source, intensity and the occurring date of the stink. After a strong odor inflames their nostrils, Nioibu users will hastily scramble back home, eager to record their stinky experience on Nioibu. Their listed sites range from the smell of the sea to gas fumes. (by Emily Co)
This hilarious video calendar features a very cute, super-patient cat that poses as everything from a snowman to a Japanese school boy.
Apparently, there's a fashion/lifestyle magazine in France that is themed around video games. It's called "Amusement" and includes beautiful editorial photography of things like modern consoles and scenes from MMORPGs.
via PingMag
Tony McNicol sez:
credit crunch? commuter crush!
He took this and other great photos of rush hour human train traffic in Tokyo, found here.
This is a very common foot massager in Japan. I think my parents have one. My former colleagues used to have them under their desks so they could take their shoes off and relax while they sat at their computers. Now the company that makes them is issuing a formal warning because at least three people died trying to massage their neck with it. One woman in her 50s took the cloth safety cover off and put it to her throat when her shirt got caught in it and strangled her. Just goes to show that, when used the wrong way, even the most common gadget can turn into an evil killing machine.
via Japan Probe
There was a really sad story on Yahoo! yesterday about a Japanese man who died because of a freak accident at his retirement party. He worked hard until age 60, but when his colleagues threw him in the air as celebration, nobody caught him on his way down. As a result, the man damaged his neck and back bone and lived the last 10 months of his life completely paralyzed. The wife is filing a gross negligence claim against the 40 coworkers who were there at the incident.
Call me a boring old person, but I don't really understand why people like to celebrate milestones in such big, messy ways. My friend James took me to a male strip club in New York City last week, and there was an elder woman who seemed to be celebrating her retirement there. Her friends paid $50 to get her on stage, where a bulky hunky male stripper threw her on the floor and started humping her face. We were seriously afraid she would suffer from either whiplash or a heart attack. For me, 21 was the last year where I felt like I should go wild with celebration. For my most recent birthday, I ate a lot of cake and went on a hike.
via Boing Boing
Hey guys! It's December 17th and that means that the TokyoMango Holiday postcard contest is official over! I got lots of letters from all of you, thank you. I picked 20 readers at random to send holiday cards to. Those should be getting to you shortly...so keep an eye out!
More importantly, you all sent me emails saying what Japan-themed holiday present you wanted this year. It's an amazing compilation of all the great things people miss or desire from Japan.
The TokyoMango reader holiday wish list:
- fresh, hot takoyaki (Tracy from Towson, MD)
- a black shoji table...or a USB humidifier (Jeff from Reseda, CA)
- ski trip with onsen and amazing Japanese food (Rachel from Taipei, Taiwan)
- reconnect with exchange program tutor circa 2005 (Atte from Tampere, Finland)
- a visit from the amazing and yummy Tadanobu Asano! (Amanda from Statesboro, GA)
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
Guidespot.com has a fun little illustrated tutorial on how to be a Harajuku girl in LA. It comes with fashion tips, simple philosophies (be bold.embrace artificial beauty), and addresses of Harajuku girl hot spots.
It's pretty funny how an American web site is transposing an entire subculture based on a specific neighborhood of Japan onto LA. Yes, Gwen Stefani had a lot to do with it. But I still find it pretty odd.
"Sports Noodle" is a type of instant noodle that promises to beef up your guns. The red one on the left is chicken-flavored, and comes with 300 mg of L-carnitine-- a supplement used in bodybuilding that burns fat. The blue one on the right comes in a creamy flavor, and contains 4000 mg of soy peptide, a type of protein that speeds up recovery of your muscles after a hard workout. (by Emily Co)
This video gives us a brief in-depth look into why the Tsukiji Fish Market decided to ban tourists for its busy season this month. The first segment features a group of drunk Londoners touching and licking the fish; then a couple blocks street traffic by taking photos; then two white guys ride around in the vehicles used to transport fish around. The Japanese guy interviewed makes a valid point: he says they allowed tourists here because they thought it would be an interesting learning experience to see how the fish market operated; but at the point where they are blatantly disrupting operations, its time for an intervention. More info on Japan Probe.
At the world's first Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital in Yuanlin, Taiwan, patients will be bombarded with images of the mouthless cat stamped onto everything from nurses to birth certificates. The Huasheng clinic was built in 2006 with a capacity of 30 beds, and its Kitty theme has been officially approved by Sanrio. Hospital director Tsai Tsung-chi told Reuters his reasoning behind this madness:
I wish that everyone who comes here, mothers who suffer while giving birth and children who suffer from an illness, can get medical care while seeing these kitties and bring a smile to their faces, helping forget about discomfort and recover faster.
A fourth grader in Osaka recently discovered a 130 million year old shrimp fossil while digging around as part of a fossil hunt hosted by a museum. The kids were allowed to take the fossils home, but when the girl took it back to the curators to be examined more closely, they realized that it was a new kind of shrimp in the genus Hoploparia that was previous unknown.
The species was named after the girl, whose name is Natsumi Kumagai—it's called Hoploparia natsumiae.
I just came back from watching One Last Note, a film by director Kaneto Shindo. It's part of a Japanese film festival at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive.
Shindo literally wrote and directed hundreds of movies in his career. His heyday was in the 1940s; One Last Note was his final movie, created in 1995 when he was 82 years old. I went to see it with my great aunt and uncle, who are both in their 80s, which made the watching experience a little more meaningful.
I expected it to be a slow burn, a contemplative look at old people, but it was actually pretty upbeat. The protagonist, Yoko Morimoto, is an older woman, a theater actor who likes to spend her summers at her mountain house near Karuizawa. She has great character—she's confident, funny, driven, and kind. She hangs out with her housekeeper, a softer, more soft-spoken lady who ends up to have a much more complicated relationship to her boss than we initially expect. The two are visited by an old friend, a former actress who often shared roles with Morimoto—she's going senile, though, and her husband has to walk her through every step of everything. Nonetheless, the four friends have a really fun time together for three days—they sing, they dance, they fight an armed robber, and they win an award from the local police department. I won't say any more. I'm not exactly sure where you can catch this film next, but it's definitely worth watching.
The Coast Guard office in Takamatsu, in Kagawa Prefecture is deploying these DIY lifesavers made from used plastic bottles. It's a cost-saving scheme: while new lifesavers cost up to $200 if purchased, these only cost $2 to make. The flotation device apparently works just as well. The idea came after a bunch of middle school kids on a field trip saved somebody's life by throwing him a raft made of 16 plastic bottles.
Link
Dear TokyoMango Readers,
Happy Holidays!
This year, instead of just putting up a bunch of silly Santa posts on my blog, I've decided to send out personalized Holiday Cards to my readers. Last Gasp and Chronicle Books (the guys who published Urawaza) are two smart, creative book publishers who also have these amazing Japanese art postcard collections by artists like Ai Yamaguchi, Nara Yoshitomo, Hideshi Hino, and the guys at Gama-Go.
Since I can't send out postcards to everybody, I'm going to have a little contest. All you need to do is email a short letter to tokyomango [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "TokyoMango Holiday Card" telling me what Japan-related thing you want for Christmas. I'll pick 20 entries at random to send these very special postcards to, so don't forget to include your mailing address in the email!
Those of you who don't win...keep an eye out for a blog post around Christmas with a giant list of everything TokyoMango readers want for Christmas. Feel free to send images too. Contest deadline is Wednesday, Dec 17th.
Thanks for reading!
Love, Lisa
The Emperor is stressed out. He's turning 75 this year, and bad relations with his son and heir, Crown Prince Naruhito, has him plagued with worries about the fate of the Imperial Family, causing rumored stomach problems that may keep him away from the spotlight this New Years. Since World War 2, the Emperor of Japan has just been a figurehead—its greatest role in today's Japan is as the favorite subject of fluffy rumors and as the symbol behind the Japanese dating system—since his reign started, we entered the Heisei era (Hirohito's time was Showa). Despite his lack of political power and the fact that most young Japanese people don't even know his name, though, I think he still plays an important societal role, maybe. Whose babies will we collectively fuss over as a nation if we no longer cared about how the Emperor's granddaughters look as they commute to school?
COACH is teaming up with mobile phone company KDDI to release this limited edition branded Christmas edition cell phone. It's kinda pretty. $200 for the cover and accessories in addition to the standard handset retail price. There are less than 2000 on the market, though, so be ready to fight Shibuya gals in line if you want to get your hands on one.
via Wireless Watch
By the way, if you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet, and you don't want to spend tons of money on stuff you don't know if people will like... my book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan
Look, it even has a Christmas-colored cover!
By the way, I'll be doing a holiday card giveaway contest later this week. Make sure you check back in for a chance to receive an awesome Japanese pop art postcard from yours truly.
Takara Tomy released this commercial of their new 5 megapixel xiao TIP-521 camera pooping out a picture. This constipated little guy weighs 294 grams, and comes with a Zink built-in printer, a 2.48-inch LCD monitor, and a 4x digital zoom. He also measures 149.5mm x 74.5mm x 25mm while his "poop" measures 2×3 inches. While he's furiously trying to take a dump, he tries to sell himself in a strained voice:
"Yup! I took the photo, and I'll burn it for you. But sometimes, don't you forget to do it for years and years? So print it right away!"
Maybe I've been here too long, but I really don't think it's weird at all. It cleverly combines Japan's two favorite elements--gadgets and poop. (by Emily Co)
In Japan, we have a tradition of giving omiyage—little gifts—every time we see someone or go somewhere and come back. When I went to Tokyo with Studio360, one of the producers asked me what she should bring from NY for her Japanese interviewees. And I gave her this list, which I thought I'd share with you since it might serve useful. If you're not from NYC, you can substitute NYC with almost any city or town:
1. Cookies or chocolate from a famous hip store in NYC.
2. Small coin purse or other portable accessory from a famous hip store in NYC. For 1 and 2, make sure you mention that it's from a small hip store in NYC.
3. If your giftee has never been to the US, even a cheesy Times Square t-shirt will do.
4. If they're techies, a sticker for their laptop with the Studio360 brand (if you guys have one) is good too. They all put stickers on their laptops.
5. Something with the Studio360 brand is okay. I sent my fixers Wired t-shirts once after reporting a story in Japan, and they loved it—because you can't buy it, it's like a collectors' item.
6. If you know they use Macs, iTunes gift cards from the US are a godsend because you can't buy American content on Japanese iTunes with a Japanese credit card.
Alyssa took this picture at a Chinese restaurant that she went to in Japan. According to the brief description on this menu, fried scorpion can bring you energy and increase longevity. Would you pop a whole scorpion into your mouth for $20, if it promised you such grandiose things?
Giving a child or dog a foreign baby name is totally in right now. My Italian-Japanese friend has a beautiful baby girl with a Persian first name and a Jewish last name. My dog, Ruby, has a Hawaiian middle name. I'm sure some of you might be interested in giving your child a Japanese name. Here's a list of the most popular Japanese baby names of 2008. I decided to throw in the kanji spellings, too, because those are important to know in case your kid grows up and decides to get his name tattooed on his back, or something:
Girls:
1. Aoi 葵
2. Yui 結衣
3. Hina 陽菜
4. Rin 凜
5. Yua 結愛
Boys
1. Hiroto 大翔
2. Ren 蓮
3. Yuto 悠斗
4. Yuto 悠人
5. Yuto 優斗
Emily found a YouTube video of a guy playing Angels We Have Heard On High on a broccoli head. It looks like he made the instrument himself; his wife is accompanying him on an electronic keyboard.
Do you ever feel so angry that you just want to smash a plate against the wall? I think a lot of people do—but they don't do it because cleaning up broken plates is a big pain in the ass. This little truck, called A Place for Venting Anger, is a special space just for smashing and throwing plates. The sign advertises that it's 200 yen per session for the ultimate stress reliever. I think you can close the door, too, so that you can scream and cry and be alone with your demons. Alyssa took this photo on her recent trip to Tokyo.
What global economic meltdown? A jewellery store display in Osaka laughs at the so-called "world recession" with their 1.6 million dollar 24k gold Christmas tree all blinged out with diamonds and pearls. It's decorated with over 240 priceless gems. The store attendant justifies this extravagance:
Economic sentiment is sluggish. But, at least in this store, we want people to feel a gorgeous atmosphere.
Link (by Emily Co)
Humidifiers are great for dry weather, especially in the winter when your skin gets chapped and your throat can dry out easily. One of the more compact, subtle, and economically efficient humidifiers I've seen is this USB-powered ultrasonic green tea can-shaped one by JTT.
via Impress Watch (Japanese)
Step aside America's Next Top Model, these seven sizzling Poms have you guys beat. They are the feisty models for the fashion segment of the 5th annual Inulympic Games (doggie Olympics) held in Yokohama a couple of weekends ago. (by Emily Co)
Link (Thanks, Vatche!)
No, this isn't beer made from the mashed-up remains of aliens. It's beer made from barley grown in the International Space Station's backyard garden. There's only a 100 liters of this space brew available, and Sapporo Breweries Ltd picked 30 lucky samplers by lottery to participate in a January tasting. The barley is apparently a third generation space-born-earthling plant. The beer has already been animal and human tested, so there are no dangerous effects (other than the usual inebriation).
Link (By Emily Co)
Tsukiji fish market is one of Tokyo's favorite tourist destinations. People get a kick out of seeing the giant freshly caught tuna being auctioned off and cheap super-fresh toro to eat. Some mornings rack up up to 500 tourists in a single morning. But local fishermen and other staff are now complaining about insensitive tourists causing more trouble than the publicity is worth. The auctions are supposed to be off limits to tourists, but since the auctioneers only speak Japanese, they can't tell foreign tourists not to watch. New Years is one of the busiest seasons for the commercial market—so to avoid unnecessary traffic then, the government decided to ban all unbuying spectators from Dec 15 to Jan 17. That'll suck for tourists who planned their trips already and were banking on seeing this, but I think it's ok to protect local industry from tourists sometimes.
Daito Manabe is a thirty-something year old artist/programmer/composer who is best known for his "electric simulus to face" test—he hooked his face muscles up to electrodes that were synced up to some electronic music he created himself. Every new beat electrocutes a different part of his body, making his face do a crazy twitchy dance.
Link (Thanks, Angela!)
What's the point of having a piggy bank that isn't also entertaining? This little gadget is basically a portable Tetris and Arkanoid machine, but it also stores your extra change. It has a joystick and two buttons, just like the old school arcade classics—a little smaller than the original, but apparently still very maneuverable.
Buy it here.
Related posts:
Piggy bank plays Yamanote line train music
Piggy bank turns saving money into an interactive RPG
Ticking bomb piggy bank explodes if you don't feed it
New piggy bank eats your money
PingMag did an interview with Katsura Moshino, an illustrator whose works are iconic of the 80s disco era in Japan. He did cover art for musicians like DJ Krush, Mondo Grosso, and—more recently—The Orb. This one is called World Famous Final—it's an event poster from 1999.
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