TOKYOMANGO

Video: Fukushima residents address government official about radiation

I'm deeply disturbed and saddened by this video, which shows a room full of Fukushima residents asking a government representative some fundamental questions that remain unanswered four months after the earthquake + subsequent radiation leak: Do Fukushima residents have the same right to safety from nuclear threat as the rest of humanity? Will you please do as you said earlier and test our children's urine for radiation levels?

The official's response--blatant and apathetic dismissal of the people's concerns--is simultaneously abhorrent and not surprising. But most of all, it made me really sad that things have gotten to this point.

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Times Square video requests a moment of stillness for Japan

Four months after the earthquake, on July 11, this video was broadcast in Times Square once every hour. Apparently it was made by Dentsu pro bono in collaboration with some US design students. Pretty neat! I wonder if it worked though--did people really take a moment out of their lives to stop and watch the video and experience a moment of stillness for Japan? Probably not most people. But maybe one or two did, every hour, and maybe that has some impact on the universe, somehow.

(Thanks, Catherine!)

Awesome cell phone commercial plays Bach tune with a wooden ball

I think this is the most beautiful cell phone commercial ever made! It's for the Sharp SH-08C handset, which has a wooden frame--keeping with the wood theme, a single wooden ball makes its way down a gorgeous wooden ramp in the middle of the woods, playing a Bach tune with each drop. So awesome.

Link (Thanks, Peter!)

Inspirational post-earthquake bullet train commercial goes viral

Joi tweeted about this yesterday: an inspirational bullet train commercial has been going viral.

It's a 3-minute spot featuring a shinkansen making its debut trip across the southern island of Kyushu on March 12, just one day after the earthquake. The commercial was pulled from TV stations in the immediate aftermath, along with all other advertisements--the stations feared inundating people with commercialism after a tragedy would be inappropriate--and just appeared on air a couple of weeks ago. In it, you see school kids in uniforms, farmers, Power Rangers, cheerleaders, and costumed mascots all cheering the train on as it makes its way across the country.

I love this because it's really representative of Japanese solidarity. It's really unselfish, non-aggressive, and community-oriented. One of the YouTube comments points out that the conductor and the cameraperson were crying the whole time as people ran alongside the train.

Break-up service ad for Adidas by Kosai Sekine

Kosai Sekine, who directed the lovely short film I posted four years ago about the obsessive compulsive convenience store employee, made this awesome ad for Adidas about a guy who runs a break-up service.