TOKYOMANGO

TokyoMango Two-Year Anniversary!

I just realized it's been two years since I started TokyoMango. To celebrate, I am taking a few minutes this morning to revisit the early days, and talk about why I started it and what I used to write about.

The Creation Story
I created this blog on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I guess I had a lot of things to say but nobody to say it to. Figured I could blabber about them online. I was also I was going to call it Tokyorgasmic, but didn't want to attract porn-seekers. I didn't give the name TokyoMango that much thought. I am from Tokyo, and I like mangoes.The site was hosted on Blogspot until March 2007, when I bought my own domain.The awesome design did not take effect until a few months after that, when I held a design contest and amazingly talented and generous James won and created the beautiful template that you see today.   

The First Post
My first blog post ever was an image-less perspective piece about the baby prince and the divorce rate. I said: "If Divorce In Japan was a publicly traded stock, I would be buying so many shares on e*trade right now." I was all talk. Didn't even have an e*trade account until a couple months ago.

My First Big Trackback
It was from Gizmodo, on a post about a strange digitized log with speakers that's supposed to soothe you with nature noises. Naughty now-editor Jason Chen photoshopped little pictures of my face all over the log, and I was super embarrassed. Remember, this was before I started writing for Gawker blogs myself, pre-Boing Boing guest blog, maybe even earlier than the now-defunct Wired blog Table of Malcontents. I had not yet built up my now-stealthy super armor against mean commenters and libelous content online.

The September 2006 Archives
In a way, my early posts were more fun and fresh and well thought-out than my new ones. That was when I was a totaly virgin blogger, and I'm pretty sure nobody was reading. You write differently when you know you have an audience. I had a lot of personal stories about my friends, train fights with school girls, my favorite ramen shop, my friend Alyssa's YouTube Japanese lessons, made-up dialogue by potential prime ministers, and why American staplers suck.   

Thanks so much for reading, you guys!

Video: Storm Trooper Dancing in Shibuya

Check out this Storm Trooper dancing in the middle of Shibuya crossing. This is actually blogger Danny Choo.

(via Gizmodo Japan)

Best of TokyoMango--November 2006

It's been almost three months since TokyoMango came into existence. As I go back and manually update photos from my archives (they got lost in the move from blogspot), I found some fun posts I invite you to revisit--or visit for the first time, if you're new to the site.

Toyota's stripper scandal
A cell phone strap that detects ghosts
The return of a child killer in thong panties
The world's simplest cell phone
Your very own Japanese school girl on a cell phone strap;
A business card-sized sperm analysis kit
A portable boxing ring gong
Tiny remote-controlled dinosaurs
A special report on how the otakus are going to kick bullies' asses
A nifty microwave egg-boiling contraption
Transparent model household electronics
The W111! whistle
A penguin that likes food shopping
.. and the Top 5 coolest Japanese products from 2006

Check out all the November 2006 archives!

Girl with very hairy fake eyelashes.

This is not a cut from an audition tape for The Ring. Blogger Geisha Asobi was just fucking around after a haircut, and decided to make several strands into fake eyelashes. They fall off a few seconds later, but homegirl didn't grow 5 years worth of hair only to have it cut off and discarded like a heap of trash. Here are some more pics of her having fun with it.

[via Boing Boing]