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!

PARC theme day on Boing Boing Gadgets

Hey guys, if you have a sec hop on over to BBG to check out the stories Steven and I are doing on PARC, the esteemed Palo Alto Research Center. Don't miss photos and diagrams of the first ethernet cable in the world, the carpet on which graphical user interfaces were conceived, a mirror that helps you comparison shop, a gallery of caution signs, and interviews about what it's like to work there.

Economy gives rise to a new population of protesting youth

There's an interesting article in the NY Times today about a group of young Japanese who are gathering on the streets to protest the shortage of jobs in the current economy.

Demonstrating in public is not common in Japan, and often has the connotation of a radical, peace-disrupting, unwanted activity. “This is the most significant rise in activism I’ve seen in years,” one Tokyo University professor quoted in the article says. “A movement is brewing among young Japanese.”

Interesting! (Thanks, Brian!)

Dan Osman, one of the craziest rock climbers ever to have lived

Dan Osman was a Japanese-American extreme athlete perhaps best known for the video (below), in which he speed-climbs a 400+ foot tall rock wall without a safety rope in four minutes. (I spent this past weekend in Lover's Leap, the area in South Lake Tahoe that he did this in, and climbed the same rock.) Osman later became hooked on free-jumping, which is kinda like bungee jumping but for much greater heights in much more dangerous conditions on a normal rope that doesn't slow you down at all. He even set a Guinness Record for it. Then, in 1998, he died doing when a rope failed him when free-jumping a cliff in Yosemite. A QA guy from Black Diamond, who made the rope, did an evaluation and concluded that it was a freak accident caused by the rope rubbing against itself &mdash something resulting from human error, a slight miscalculation in the angle at which he jumped.

There's a great story about the life and death of Dan Osman in Outside Magazine.

"Adopt" Bubbles, Michael Jackson's famous chimp

Remember when Michael Jackson brought his chimp Bubbles on the Bad Tour to Japan in 1987? I always wondered what happened to Bubbles &mdash apparently, he is now living in Florida at the Center for Great Apes.Here's an excerpt from his profile page:

Bubbles was born in a biomedical laboratory, but taken from his mother and sold to a Hollywood trainer while still an infant. He was purchased for Michael Jackson and soon gained fame as Jackson's pet chimpanzee. He appeared in television shows, movies, and music videos before he “retired” at age 6 or 7. When Bubbles was only 5, he toured Japan in a promotional tour with Michael Jackson. While there, he sat in on interviews with Jackson and "moonwalked" for the press. But, as he grew too strong to be around people, he lived most of his life at the trainer’s California animal compound in the company of an older chimpanzee named Sam. Both Bubbles and Sam arrived at the Center for Great Apes in March 2005 with a large group of chimpanzees, all from the entertainment world.

You can donate to Bubbles or even adopt him exclusively for a year and visit him at his sanctuary for $10,000. Pretty cool!

Bubbles' home page (via @PerezHilton)

Andrea Innocent's cute Japanese ghost illustrations

Australian artist and TokyoMango reader Andrea Innocent makes these beautiful, fun illustrations of Japanese folklore and culture. She says:

Basically I am a story teller in pictures and Japan is my muse. A couple of my works have in fact been inspired by posts on your site.

So cool! The one shown above is of Kuchisake Onna, a legendary Japanese ghost whom I used to fear when I was a little girl. You can read about that here.

(Photo via innocentgirl's Flickr)

Uniqlo might buy the GAP

One of my all-time favorite stores in Japan is Uniqlo &mdash it's like the GAP, except the styles and cuts are a lot more contemporary and its cheaper. Now we're hearing that Tadashi Yanai, the guy who founded UNIQLO and the richest guy in Japan according to Forbes, might be buying the GAP.

Link

Related:
Uniqlo calendar with stop-motion scenes of Tokyo
Uniqlo to send clothes to refugees
New Years lucky bag: Uniqlo vs MUJI
Uniqlo NY will have robot shopping guides

Gundam decked out in pink jewels

Wow. Someone in China made a blinged out pink girly Gundam with bejeweled armor and glittery flowers on his legs for the robot anime's 30th anniversary.

Link (Japanese)

Billie Jean performed in Tokyo, circa 1987

My friend Alyssa said the first concert she ever went to in her life was this one, MJ's appearance at Yokohama Stadium for his 1987 Bad Tour in Japan.

Michael Jackson Live in Japan DVD came out three days ago

I don't know that much about this DVD, to be honest, but it's called Michael Jackson: Live in Japan, and according to Amazon it was released on June 23, 2009, two days before he died.

Michael Jackson: Live in Japan [Amazon]

Buy a desktop robot that resembles a diapered baby

The cam baby is a cute child robot that resembles a 1-year old human baby in diapers. It has just learned to walk, so it waddles towards you when you clap your hands and say, here baby baby. It makes cute little bot noises while it walks, and its LED eyes flash and go piko piko piko! When it falls, it starts crying. You can own one for $26.

Buy yours here.

Japanese comedy skit from the 80s parodies Michael Jackson's Thriller

I've posted this before, but here it is again because it is, in my humble opinion, one of the best tributes to Michael Jackson originating in Japan. Around 1:58, Ken Shimura, who has just confessed to his girlfriend that he becomes a henna ojisan (a weird middle-aged man) when there's a full moon, jumps out of the bushes and starts dancing to the chorus of Thriller played on a Japanese flute. This clip is from the late 80s, I think, or possibly the early 90s.

Rest in peace, MJ.

Colonel Sanders without his makeup

Remember the story from a few months ago about the Colonel Sanders statue that came floating onto a riverbank after being stolen from a KFC in Osaka over 20 years ago and chucked overboard? Well, here's a picture of him next to a newer version of himself. I think he looks much more approachable without the glasses and the makeup and the white suit. The happy human behind them is the president of KFC Japan, who no doubt eats a lot of chicken... or does he?

via Mainichi

Oishinbo, a famous manga that teaches you all about Japanese food

I read a lot of manga when I was growing up, and so did my mom. She was obsessed with this one series called Oishinbo, a story about a food critic and his culinary adventures across the country &mdash it was so detailed and precise that you learned a ton about Japanese food and how to enjoy it just from reading.

Several volumes of Oishinbo are already available in English &mdash Oishinbo: Ramen and Gyoza, Oishinbo: Sake, Oishinbo: Izakaya--Pub Food, and Oishinbo: The Joy of Rice are some of them.

I can confidently say that, if you want to learn about the intricacies of Japanese food, or if you want to know why Japanese people are so obsessed with white rice (last winter, I went to a restaurant in Tokyo where their specialty was white rice), reading this series is the best and most fun way to do it. The newest volume, Oishinbo: Fish, Sushi, and Sashimi, comes out in July and is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Oishinbo, Volume 1 by Tetsu Kariya

Full-sized LED light sculpture by Makoto Tojiki

Designer Makoto Tojiki's newest creation is a life-sized LED human figure called the Man With No Shadow.

via Moco Loco

Sayonara Mr. Fatty, a magical dieting book for otaku

Toshio Okada is best known for founding Gainax, the famous animation company that created Neon Genesis Evangelion, but did you know he is also the author of a revolutionary dieting book for otaku? Sayonara, Mr. Fatty!: A Geek's Diet Memoir was a huge hit in Japan &mdash a friend told me a couple years ago about how he lost 15 kilos just by reading a book. I bought the Japanese version of the book, but never read it. Now, it's available in English.

Okada used a simple technique to lose weight. An excerpt from the prologue:

I didn't to anything special, or use any special technique. I didn't spend extra money. I didn't suffer. I didn't limit myself to particular foods. I didn't fast. I didn't have liposuction. I didn't go to a gym. I didn't take any special supplements. I didn't buy a fitness machine or a sweat suit. I never visited a health spa or a weight-loss clinic. I didn't eat any diet food.

What he did do, it turns out, had less to do with changing his behavior and more to do with using his otaku-ness to his healthy advantage. A must-read if you're a geek who wants to lose weight, or if you know one, or if you just want to read some literature by Japan's "ota-king."

Get Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! on Amazon.

Video: Cute tabletop robot girl makes coffee

In this adorable YouTube video, a black-haired miniature robot girl named Hina grinds and makes coffee from scratch.

Clockwork main page (Thanks, @Bauldoff!)

Fake taxi meter charges freeloading friends for rides

Maybe you have a secret taxi fetish. Or, you have a friend who mooches rides all the time without ever offering to pay for gas. This fake taxi meter could help you &mdash it's meant to be a jokey room decoration, but when you press the "ride" or "extra charge" button, the yen meter actually starts ticking.

Product page (Japanese)

Reader photo: Commuter at Ochanomizu train station

Reader Joel took this photo at Ochanomizu Station in Tokyo. He says:

Every time I think of Tokyo I think of riding the trains, so, for me, the best pics of Tokyo are all about commuting.

Link

Mysterious tadpole rain has meteorologists baffled

Pink Tentacle reports on a series of strange weather patterns across Japan &mdash tadpoles and little fish have been seen falling from the sky randomly. Meteorologists and scientists alike are baffled by this, as there have been no other known anomalies or disturbances in the weather. Sounds like the beginning of a Haruki Murakami novel.

Link (Thanks, Mat!)

New samurai-themed pedometer lets you pretend you're a foot soldier

On July 18, Bandai is releasing a new toy that has a noble theme and an exercise function. It's a pedometer and calorie counter with a samurai-era storyline &mdash you choose to be a character out of three famous daimyo from the Sengoku, or Warring States Period (circa 1500s) and take your foot soldiers out to the battlefield. Of course, the more you walk, the closer you will get to attaining full control of Japan.

Press release (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Comics feature morbidly funny suicides by surgeons, fetuses

Morbid-funny series of manga about different kinds of suicides by comic artist Shintaro Kago. Above is a surgeon suicide, and below, fetal suicide.

Video: Dog does squats with owner

In this video, an eager dog with strong back legs does squats with his owner in their living room. Awesome! (Thanks, Brian!)

Calendar with stop-motion scenes of Tokyo and awesome music

Clothing brand Uniqlo made this awesome online calendar featuring stop motion tilt-shift scenes of Tokyo, the date, the weather, and music by Fantastic Plastic Machine. I love it &mdash and you can post it into your blog or Facebook page, too.

Link via Pink Tentacle

Renting friends for weddings is a strange new trend

A Tokyo company called Office Agents has a booming business in renting people out for a couple hundred bucks a head as wedding guests. It's a popular service among those who want to impress their spouses with the number of good-looking, amiable friends they have. You can even rent a fake boss or colleague if you're unemployed but need to pretend to you aren't to your spouse's friends or family. Apparently, this service is doing even better during the recession because of this. The Telegraph reports:

At one recent wedding, the groom secretly arranged for all 30 guests to be hired as friends and family members as it was his second marriage and he did not want the same guests present as the first time round.

Stand-in lovers, pretend secretaries and distant relatives are among a colourful cast of popular roles played by the company's army of fakers.

Describing the necessary credentials for his "fakers", Mr Mizutani said: "They are cheery and clean and look like they have regular jobs."

Link (Thanks, James!)

New notebook makes will-writing a breeze with manga

Stationary brand Kokuyo released an interesting new product today &mdash it's a "Will and Testament" kit that guides you through the writing of your will in a cute notebook with manga characters on it. For just under $25, you get a B5 notebook with detailed instructions on how to write a will, four pages of copy-proof A4 paper for the actual will, a non-resealable securit envelope, draft paper, and a storage sheet. Kokuyo collaborated with bengoshi.com (an online lawyer site) to create manga illustrations that explain the legal jargon of will-writing in simple Japanese. Technically, anyone older than 15 can create a will &mdash It's never too early to start thinking about what you would leave to whom. It's like how some high schools have senior wills (I can't remember if I did it, but my mom dug hers up from decades ago once), but a bit more official.

Link (Japanese) Thanks, @matsuu!)

Silence of the Sushi Rolls, an "art porn" film about busting perverts

Last week, I watched a movie called Silence of the Sushi Rolls at the Another Hole in the Head film festival. (The real international title is Sexy SWAT Team 4.) It's a pinku eiga, a genre of soft porn that entails cheesy raunchy plots and a hilariously shameless sense of humor. The director, Mototsugu Watanabe, has done other similar films with titles like Sexy Battle Girls and Amorous Ninja. In Sushi Rolls, he tells the story of a mysterious gadget that makes women orgasm. A female detective who specializes in perverts tries to hunt down the guy who made it, and in the process encounters a weird mad professor type of dude named Dr. Honeybar Nectar who tries to help her with his kinky voodoo and wacked out ideas. Pinku eiga are typically only 60 minutes long and have lots of random sex scenes, so even people with a short attention span or little patience for bad movies can enjoy it. This was one of those really good bad movies, though, like Snakes on a Plane.

BB Video episode from Maker Faire 2009

Maker Faire, my favorite artsy crafty geeky event of the year, was a couple weeks ago. I walked around with Make EIC and fellow Boinger Mark Frauenfelder to check out some of our favorite things. Link

Reader photo: The temple that Matsuo Basho wrote a poem about

TokyoMango reader Martijn Kuik, who took this photo, writes:

In May last year I traveled through Tohoku together with my Japanese wife, at times in the footsteps of Matsuo Basho on a journey he took in the spring of 1689.
I visited a temple called Houjusan-Risshakuji, also known as "Yamadera", near Yamagata city. This temple was founded in 860 by Jikaku Daishi, a priest of the Tendai sect who founded many of the most important temples in Tohoku. After climbing 1100 stairs one reaches the main tempel building and one can't help but be overwhelmed by the magnificent view.

In "Oku no Hosomichi" Matsuo Basho writes:

How still it is here-
Stinging into the stones,
The locusts' trill.

I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of this temple and its surroundings.

Panel to seriously discuss ramen later this month

For those of you in SF who love ramen, there are no awesome ramen joints in the area but there will be a panel discussion, For the Love of Ramen, at the Ferry building on June 24. It will feature a pretty interesting panel of academics and journalists who have given serious thought to the sociocultural and gastronomic significance of ramen.

More info here. (Thanks, Daniela!)

Photo exhibit featuring Harajuku fashionistas starts next week

There's a small photo exhibit at the Japan Information Center in San Francisco featuring the works of Andy Heffernan, who spent four Sundays in Harajuku snapping pics of interesting characters, like this girl in a red jumpsuit, pink Birkenstocks, a fake scar and mustache on her face, perfectly shaped eyebrows, and a Burberry shopping bag.

The exhibit is from June 18 to July 30. It's at 50 Fremont Street, Suite 2200, in SF. Link

Lords of the Samurai, a must-see exhibit in San Francisco, opens Friday

San Francisco's Asian Art Museum has a special Samurai exhibit starting on Friday. It's the private collection belonging to former prime minister Morihiro Hosokawa, who comes from a famous samurai family that dates back 700 years. Hosokawa is the 26th generation.

I went to the media preview and met Mr. Hosokawa in person, which was cool! I remember when he was prime minister &mdash I was a kid, but I liked him instantly because he kinda looks like my dad. He was one of the only post-war PMs who was not a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He also happens to be a talented ceramicist, and has some his art work on display, too.

The collection includes 6,000 items from the Hosokawa clan's possessions, including armor, samurai swords, and costumes from the times of Miyamoto Musashi. In fact, the exhibit includes original artifacts that belonged to Musashi, like his dual-length wooden swords. Amazing.

The museum will also be hosting fun events on Thursday nights starting next week for those of you who want some nightlife mixed in with viewing art. A must-see if you're in SF between June 12 and September 20.

Exhibit main page

New robot is a makeshift sushi chef

Who needs sushi chefs when you have Chef Robot?

Link

USB E-cigarette lights up, emits steam

If you're trying to kick the habit of puffing on cigarettes at your desk, you might want to try this USB e-cigarette from Thanko. One charge lasts you about 2-3 hours, and it's designed to light up at the tip when you inhale, and so you can blow out steam when you exhale.

Product page

Sexpert book teaches men how to find the new G-spot

Adam Tokunaga looks like an ordinary ojisan (old man), but apparently he's Japan's #1 sexpert. And his book, called Slow Sex Secrets, is now available in English. I didn't read the whole thing because the thought of an ojisan teaching me about sex was a little bit... um... interesting. But I did find it highly entertaining and interesting that Tokunaga claims to have found several additional erogenous zones in the female body. They're located kinda near the G-spot, he explains through diagrams and text, and he has called them the T-spot, the A-spot and the Adam G-spot. He writes:

The T in T-spot stands for Tokunaga. I named it this just the way the G-spot is named after the scientist who found it...It is not easy to compare the level of pleasure derived from the T-spot and the G-spot, but there are women who say the T-spot feels better. One woman described the pleasure as a "bolt of lightning shooting from my cervix right into my brain." In other words, this is a hand technique that can literally blow your partner's mind.

To learn more about the hand technique, I guess you'll have to buy the book.

Slow Sex Secrets: Lessons from the Master Masseur by Adam Tokunaga

Restaurant owner gives free meals to students in exchange for dishwashing

Sadahiro Inoue is a restauranteur in Kyoto with a unique policy: anyone is welcome to dine at his joint for free, provided they do 30 minutes of dishes afterward. It's something he thought of after receiving a helping hand himself nearly 40 years ago, when he and his wife moved there and didn't have that much money. When he finally got his career of the ground and opened up shop, he put up a handwritten sign that reads:

Those of you who cannot afford to pay for your meal: eat your fill here.

Dozens of students at two nearby universities come to his restaurant to earn their meal with a half hour of labor. I think it's a neat idea &mdash it works out great for those who don't have time for a regular job, and Inoue keeps in touch with many of his dishwashers, adopting them as family and keeping track of their progress during and after school.

Link

Warrior underwear for men

For $80, you can buy a pair of men's underwear made of classic warrior motifs.

Buy it here via Shibuya246 via Boing Boing

Yakuza Moon, a book about a yakuza's daughter

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a yakuza boss' daughter, Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter is a must-read. The author, Shoko Tendo, tells her story with brutal honesty. We all know how big a role family plays in shaping one's life, and it's amazingly interesting to see how being raised by a volatile yakuza boss influenced Tendo's. She had, to put it mildly, a crazy life from childhood &mdash bullied in school, addicted to drugs and sex and the yanki lifestyle as a teen, and stuck in a series of awful, awful relationships with horrible men throughout her teens and twenties. In this book, she does a great job of relating all these experiences back to her family, her upbringing, and the conflicting desires within her to have fun, to appease others, and to stick with her convictions.

This was a quick read &mdash shocking, but very good.A total eye-opener to a part of Japanese culture that all of us who have lived in Japan have touched upon but probably not given that much genuine thought to. Tendo is a great narrator and protagonist who is easy to like and admire despite her shortcomings. You should read it!

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter by Shoko Tendo [Amazon]

More book reviews on TokyoMango

Man intimidated into admitting murder is set free after 17 years in prison

Disturbing good news of the day: 62-year old Toshikazu Sugaya of Tochigi Prefecture was released from prison after serving 17+ years of a life sentence, when new DNA tests proved that he wasn't the perpetrator after all. Sugaya was convicted of killing a 4-year old girl in December 1991. He claims he was threatened, beaten, and intimidated by the detectives on the case, who told him he would be better off just making a confession. Likewise, during the trial, Sugaya feared that the detectives would be in the courtroom waiting to pounce on him if he said he was innocent. So he pled guilty, even though he didn't do it.

Sugaya was released from prison last night, greeted by flowers and a herd of reporters. He plans on heading back to his hometown to see his family. He won't be able to see all of them, though &mdash his father expired from shock over his son's conviction, and his mother died a natural death two years ago. The person who actually committed the crime is now free forever under the 15-year statute of limitations. Understandably, Sugaya feels like he was robbed of a huge chunk of his life. He said this to reporters on the scene:

I can never forgive the detectives and prosecutors at that time. I want them to apologize to me, and bring my life back to me.

Japan reinstated the jury system this year, which is great, but we need to make sure there are enough protections in place for the accused so they feel safe standing by their word. No legal system is perfect, I know. But 17 years is a long time to atone for something you didn't do.

The first thing Sugaya wants to do with his long-deserved freedom is eat sushi and sing karaoke.

Link

New next week: green tea-flavored coke

If you thought shiso-flavored Pepsi was odd, well, now Coca Cola Japan is coming out with green tea-flavored coke. The release date is next Monday. The bottle is beautiful. It has zero calories, and lots of catechin. Healthy coke! (?)

Actually this probably isn't that bad. I know people that put coke in their tea because they like it.

Press release in Japanese (Thanks, Yushi!)

Brazilian ad campaign of famous colorful monsters

A new-ish ad campaign for Cup Noodle in Brazil features these giant, colorful silhouettes of famous monsters like Godzilla and Gamera and the insides of their bellies. For example, here, you see a little man inside of one monster and a little Pikachu inside another. And a cup of noodle inside of the little man and a cup of noodle inside the little Pikachu.

Link via Pink Tentacle

Colorful self-standing ladels for artsy kitchens

Look at these beautiful colorful ladels designed by Mikiya Kobayashi. They're spoon-shaped, but with flat bottoms so you can stand them up. Smart!

via Spoon and Tamago

Father-daughter team recreate The Pillow Book on silk scrolls to save the embroidery industry

Yoshihiro Kimura, a 65-year old man in Shimane Prefecture, is collaborating with his 41-year old daughter Chizuru to recreate the 11th century classic Makura no Soshi, or The Pillow Book, in embroidery on silk screen rolls. It's symbolic of their desire to keep embroidery alive in Japan, which has been losing sewing jobs to China and Southeast Asia. They expect it will take years. The Pillow Book is a famous piece of literature written by Lady Sei Shonagon, a court lady in the Heian period. It was made into a Hollywood film starring Ewan McGregor in 1996.

Link

TokyoMango on the Wall Street Journal

I was interviewed for the Wall Street Journal's Front and Forward section, which is in today's paper, about 3 tech trends from Japan: virtual boyfriends, augmented reality tourism, wearable remote controls, etc. I don't get the print version of the WSJ, but you can find it here.

TokyoMango on the WSJ

Video: The hen that rides a bicycle

The boy's best friend is a hen named P-chan. The two of them go everywhere together on their bicycle.

via Japan Probe