« March 2010 | Main | May 2010 »

April 30, 2010

Video: All you need is one leaf (NSFW, maybe)

Joi Ito just sent me a link to this amazingly happy video; I think I may have posted it before but it is well worth a second visit.

Yatta! It's Friday. All you need is one leaf (that's part of the lyrics of the song).

Baobab flavored Pepsi

Baobab-pepsi190x

The newest flavor of Pepsi in Japan is Baobab. Yep, as in the tree. No idea what that'll be like. If anyone gets to try it before I do (the release date is May 25), please leave your two cents in the comments.

via

April 29, 2010

Darth Vader campaigns for DoCoMo

Looks like it is Darth Vader in a docomo commercial. Softbank might find that extremely funny since they would probably cast themselves as Jedi Knights fighting against the evil NTT docomo empire

Shibuya246 points us to a new DoCoMo campaign featuring Darth Vader.

April 28, 2010

Japan Airlines eliminates direct flights to Amsterdam, San Francisco

Bad news for frequent flyers on JAL: starting in September, the airline is cutting direct flights between Tokyo and Amsterdam, Rome, Milan and San Francisco, and between Osaka and Guam, Hong Kong and Beijing. It's too bad, I really liked JAL and frequently fly between Tokyo and San Francisco.

Update: JAL will, however, be flying from Haneda to San Francisco. Which is actually better. Yay.

Link

April 27, 2010

Apartment building in Kyoto has leaf-inspired design

Villa Saitan Building

Check out this neat design for an apartment building in Kyoto. Link

About

Lisa Katayama's personal blog.
My Photo

My Bio

  • I write articles about culture, technology, and human rights for Wired, Popular Science, Fast Company, and the New York Times Magazine. I also produce radio segments for PRI's Studio360 and am a Correspondent for Boing Boing, one of Time Magazine's five most essential blogs of 2010.

    In 2008, Chronicle published my book: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.

    I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.

    Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!

    Follow me on Twitter
    Become a Facebook Fan
    Read some of my published magazine stories

    Send tips to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com

MY BOOK

  • My book, Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, was published in April 2008. Get it now!

TokyoMango on Twitter

we love unko