TOKYOMANGO

Bowling alley has 116 lanes on one floor

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

iPhone sushi app coming soon

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

The secret society of Japanese press clubs

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)

Tokyo = the final frontier of smoking in restaurants

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.

Link

McDonalds hired 1,000 people to line up for Quarter Pounder campaign

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."

Given all the creative, not-necessarily-ethical things people do for marketing these days, I feel like it's ok. McDonald's Japan had record sales that month, 10.2 million yen worth of burgers, many of them Quarter Pounders.

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.