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Man selling New Years postcards at Omotesando

Happy New Year everybody!

As you all know, it is a tradition to send nengajyo, or New Years postcards, in Japan. It's the busiest time of year for the national post office, and also an opportunity for them to make a few extra bucks to compensate for the lack of business that things like email and text messaging has bestowed upon them. At Omotesando station the other day, I encountered this dutiful post office employee selling blank new years postcards in front of the cool bathroom sign. I love the contrast between old Japan and new Japan, the busy modern Tokyoites stopping at this neon-lit bathroom wall to buy these archaic 500 yen-a-pack postcard sets with coins from this balding, determined government worker. This photo was taken by the talented photographer Mr. Tetsuya Miura.

The iPhone is doing great in Japan

Turns out those of us who expressed skepticism about the iPhone's success in Japan were wrong — it's huge here. It's conquered nearly half of Japan's smart phone market, according to this Fast Company article. Someone told me last night that it was 7 out of 10 now. Either way, a combination of great marketing, difficult-to-use Japanese cell phones, and other factors have made the iPhone a big hit, and not just among geeks anymore. Case in point: My brother has one, my dad just got one, and my mom is getting one.

Video: Girls taking cell phone pics of boy band drama ad campaign

At Omotesando station last night, dozens of women were lined up taking photos of these giant posters featuring five topless pretty boys. It appeared to be an ad for an upcoming drama series called The Last Promise, but I still didn't understand why everybody was taking photos. I finally asked one of the women, who told me that this was a limited edition ad campaign that ran only from 12/28/09->1/3/10. For that period of time, FujiTV had bought out all(?) the ad space at Omotesando station and pasted these provocative photos of the five guys — who, by the way, are from the popular boy band Arashi and are making an appearance together for the first time in a decade — on all the walls and poles. I don't know for sure, but it looked like some of the women had come all the way from out of town to take pictures of it.

The Chihuahua-mobile

This person really likes chihuahuas.