The opening song to the Spiderman TV series in Japan, circa 1978.
By the way, you should check out Gizmodo '79 &mdash it's an awesome series of posts celebrating gadgets and the 70s. That's where I found this video.
Fashion designer Issey Miyake wrote an amazing op-ed in Monday's New York Times about having survived Hiroshima. I did not know he was a nuclear bomb survivor &mdash I don't think that many did, in fact, he says in his piece that he deliberately buried this part of his past because he didn't want to be remembered as the designer who survived the atomic bomb. He finally decided to come out in this op-ed to encourage President Obama to follow through on his pledge to rid the world of nuclear weapons:
I have never chosen to share my memories or thoughts of that day. I have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to put them behind me, preferring to think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy. I gravitated toward the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.
Link (Thanks, Gen!)
Reader Natalie Buxton took this photo of monkeys playing in the snow in Nagano. It's getting really hot in Tokyo and much of the rest of the world right about now &mdash hopefully this pic will help some of us cool off.
On my nightstand right now: Barefoot Gen, Vol. 1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima. It's a manga that is famous in Japan for being heart-wrenchingly sad and true. In it, author Keiji Nakazawa tells the story of Gen, a boy who survived the atomic bomb. I am still only halfway through the first volume, and the bomb has not dropped yet, but it's about to. Even the author's foreword is a total tear-jerker &mdash he tells the story of how he survived the bomb with his mom, who was pregnant and had to watch her husband and other child burn to death because she didn't have the strength to remove the debris that was burying them.
Barefoot Gen was actually one of the first manga to ever be published in English &mdash a group of volunteers who called themselves Project Gen took it upon themselves to translate several volumes (there are ten total) in the 70s. Currently, there are eight volumes available in English through Last Gasp. I am looking forward to reading all of them because this is one of those manga that I never read as a kid, but have always wanted to.
Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
Spider pizza was featured on a Japanese TV show recently &mdash it's a real dish that you can order at a pizzeria in Okinawa, owned by the guy who runs an association that promotes insect-eating. I bet if you can get over your arachnophobia it's crunchy and delicious. He makes beetle pizza, too.
via Japan Probe
The AFP has a story about Japan's new marriage craze, whereby young unmarried people flock konkatsu parties and search for viable partners. The story's headline is: Fad or Crisis: Japan's 'marriage hunting' craze. I'm sure the facts in the story are true, but this is kind of like if a very credible Japanese news organization did a huge story about single Americans speed dating or bachelorettes going to male strip clubs and calling it some kind of meta crisis that is plaguing American society. Women have ticking biological clocks everywhere &mdash why is it that when it becomes a Japan story all of a sudden it becomes framed as a giant cultural phenomenon brought on by strained social lives, busy work hours, and an entire nation "getting its mojo back"?
(Thanks, Walter!)
I was at the lovely Get Lost travel bookstore on Market Street in San Francisco just now looking at travel books, and was pleasantly surprised by Urawaza being displayed right by the cash register. By the way, if you've been reading this blog for awhile and you still don't own the book, you should maybe get a copy. It's a great time suck if you need an easy read on a beach vacation.
Urawaza, my Japanese tips and tricks book, on Amazon
Several years ago, a doggie gadget called the Bowlingual made waves in Japan after claiming it could translate what your dog was saying every time she barked. Now, Takara Tomy is coming out with a newer version called Bowlingual Voice. There are several key differences between Voice and its predecessor. First of all, Voice is digital &mdash the original Bowlingual was analog. Voice also has a new and improved translation mechanism that has honed its understanding of doggie language to an even sharper point, and thus facilitates real-time two-way conversations between dog and owner.
Bowlingual Voice goes on sale on August 27th, in Japan only, for $200.
Press release (Japanese, via Impress Watch)
My mom tells me that one of the most popular English-language learning books on the market right now is this "Speeches of Barack Obama" booklet set, which includes a page-by-page translation of Obama's iconic speeches throughout the years &mdash his keynote at the Democratic National Congress in 2004, his battles at the primaries, and his acceptance speech among them. The booklet also includes a CD of the actual speeches by the president. At 1000 yen ($10), it's way cheaper than enrolling in an English lesson taught by amateurs at Gaba, and who better to learn how to speak English than the president in all his motivational oratory glory! Also worth noting that the publisher, Asahi Press, didn't have to pay anybody for the rights to his speeches nor to write original content, so this is just a huge profit-making venture.
The remote-controlled shinkansen (bullet train) Sushi-Go-Round restaurant kit is awesome for several reasons.
1. It's a kit that comes with its own train tracks, so you can build your own route on the table.
2. The bullet train itself is two plate-sized sushi trays.
3. It comes with a remote control that looks vaguely like a control panel for a real bullet train; a forward and back lever, plus four buttons that make real bullet train noises alerting passengers of an oncoming or departing train.
4. The kit comes with chopsticks and fake sushi, so you can use it as a tool to teach kids how to properly use chopsticks and eat fake sushi.
5. It's cute! (Most important aspect of anything Japanese!)
Buy it for $66 on Strap-Ya
Last night, the Gizmodo Japan staff caught giant Gundam in the midst of rehearsing his big launch, which will take place later today. You can see how big he is here, and you also get to hear him speak.
Link (Thanks, Hitoshi!)
A 43-year old dad and his two sons, 20 and 17, are about to see their day in court for stealing 323 rice cookers, 70 electric screwdrivers, 56 electric drills, and 39 TVs from hardware and electronic superstores in and around Saitama Prefecture, just outside Tokyo, since July of 2008. They pawned most of their stolen goods and used the money for food, rent, and gambling.
If you liked Kimiko Yoshida's amazing photographs of herself dressed up as futuristic brides, make sure you check out her other self-portraits, too. LifeLounge calls it "narcissism at its best" &mdash I'm gonna have to agree.
On July 28th, Vertical Inc will release volume six of Black Jack, the amazing manga about a mercenary genius doctor by Osamu Tezuka. I just got my preview copy, and it's awesome.
Black Jack, Vol. 6
Related stories:
Black Jack on MangoBot
Tezuka's Phoenix now available on DS
60s SciFi anime by Osamu Tezuka
The NY Times has a great article with pics about the imminent destruction of Nakagin Capsule Tower, a rare survivor from Tokyo's Metabolist architectural era of the 1970s. The tower, created by architect Kisho Kurokawa, is full of apartment units that are actually factory-made capsules with compact built-in furniture and a giant porthole that, for many residents, faces a busy highway. The writer offers this explanation as to why there isn't a bigger movement to preserve this unique building:
all over the world, postwar architecture is still treated with a measure of suspicion by the cultural mainstream, which often associates it with brutal city housing developments or clinical office blocks. Partly, too, it has to do with the nature of housing blocks in general. They are not sexy investments; they do not feed an investor’s vanity or offer the cultural prestige that owning a landmark house does.
The Telegraph reports that workers on the Keihin Electric Express Railway will soon be required to monitor their smiles using a smile scan software made by Omron. Basically, the company wants all their employees to look cheery on the job, so it's going to take photos of them, rate their smile on a scale of zero to 100, and then show messages of encouragement on the company computer screen so they are reminded of what they should be doing better.
I know this might sound horrific to some people, but I think it's okay. Japan is big on customer satisfaction, and if a simple added gesture can make customers feel better about a company's service, then it's probably worth it. (A cab company called MK Taxi provides super-polite white-gloved drivers that open doors for you &mdash and I always feel like I've lucked out when I hail one.)
Also, smiling is something that the Japanese have been working on for awhile now, and there are even gadgets to help with it, like the oral grip machine and the Beauty Smile Trainer.
Link (Thanks, @Brainopera!)
On July 30, Sega Toys will release the newest of its uber-realistic robotic animal series. It's made to look, feel, and act just like a Norwegian Forest Cat. It runs on four AAs and will retail for about $100. Perfect for cat lovers with allergies or pet-unfriendly apartments!
Press release (Japanese)
The annual Coney Island hot dog eating contest was this past weekend. Once again, the two frontrunners were American Joey Chestnut and Japan's Takeru Kobayashi &mdash Kobayashi had six victories under his belt before declaring he had jaw arthritis and then tying with Chestnut last year. Chestnut beat him this year with 68 v. 64.5 hot dogs in ten minutes. Yeah, gross.
Anyway, this photo proves that, even after all that eating, Kobayashi's belly is still not that huge.
Check out this CNN report on love hotels &mdash apparently, love and sex are recession-proof. Good to know.
To learn more about love hotels, check out these books:
Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan's Sexual Playgrounds
Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan
Check out this ingenious concept for bicycle pit stop areas by Tokyo's Store Muu Design Studio. Basically, anybody riding a bike could just ride straight into one of these tables, which locks the front wheel and provides them with an instant table to rest or snack on. The cyclist can stay on his/her seat and just have a regular seated meal. Japan has tons of bicycles, and parking them has become harder and harder as the crackdown on randomly parked bicycles continues. So this is a great solution for those who need to stop for a bite but don't want to get their bikes confiscated. I can totally see a fast food chain or restaurant wanting to install these, but I can also see it causing huge clusterfucks on sidewalks and promptly being banned.
via Shibuya246
Related stories:
Bicycle rule crackdown!
Video: the hen that rides a bicycle
Giant subterranean bicycle parking lot
Gallery of pimped out dekochari bicycles
This is not the first time I've seen urine-based beauty products in Japan, but calling something a Foot Pee! Pack takes it to a whole new level.
via Tokyo Times
Sega Toys has an awesome new toy called Uchiage. Its structure is similar to a miniature planetarium &mdash it uses multiple lenses pointed towards the ceiling to project light patterns that look just like a giant burst of fire. The cool thing is that it's completely safe, still beautiful, and you can even program it to project customized messages or images in the sky. How much are you willing to bet that somebody will use this to propose marriage? It goes on sale August 1 for about $150.
Product page (Japanese)
Related stories:
Jupiter-shaped planetarium for a starry bath
Homestar planetarium cell phone strap
Sega Toys' touch sensor robot speaks its own language
Sega Toys clock counts down to your final moment
Super realistic robotic animals from Sega Toys
According to the BBC, there's a new subset of British youth that thrives to be just like the Japanese ganguro &mdash you know, the girls with the bleached blond hair, super tanned skin, and crazy makeup. I read somewhere that for Japanese women, making themselves up this way is a deliberate form of rebellion against the traditional aesthetic of jet black hair and pale white skin. I wonder what it means when Caucasian girls with naturally lighter hair pick up the trend.
Big news from my brother in Tokyo! Nike Japan is spending a gazillion yen to transform Miyashita Park in Shibuya into a giant playground with a skate park and a rock climbing wall.
Right now, Miyashita Park is best known for booze, drugs, illicit sex, and homeless people. If all goes as planned and this facility is completed next May, it will become one of the healthiest places in Shibuya. Interesting! A decade ago I would have been pissed that the hub of many of my childhood sins is being disintegrated, but now that I'm older and super into rock climbing and gearing up to run the Nike half marathon, I'm actually pretty excited. Many locals and homeless advocacy organizations are protesting the decision, however. I suppose Nike would have been better off tearing down a bunch of izakaya instead &mdash that way they wouldn't have to displace inhabitants or deprive the city of one of its few peaceful parks &mdash but Miyashita was probably easier to negotiate.
Link (Japanese)
A couple of years ago at a film festival in San Francisco, I watched this movie, The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai
Buy The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai
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.
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 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.
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!
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)
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.
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
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)
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
Oishinbo, Volume 1
Designer Makoto Tojiki's newest creation is a life-sized LED human figure called the Man With No Shadow.
via Moco Loco
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
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.
Get Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! on Amazon.
In this adorable YouTube video, a black-haired miniature robot girl named Hina grinds and makes coffee from scratch.
Clockwork main page (Thanks, @Bauldoff!)
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 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.
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!)
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)
Morbid-funny series of manga about different kinds of suicides by comic artist Shintaro Kago. Above is a surgeon suicide, and below, fetal suicide.
Continue reading "Comics feature morbidly funny suicides by surgeons, fetuses" »
In this video, an eager dog with strong back legs does squats with his owner in their living room. Awesome! (Thanks, Brian!)
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
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."
Send tips to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com
