The Monk defies you not to smile at the "Trololo Song"

From the Russian singing legend Eduard Khil — a.k.a. Edward Hill — comes "Indeed, I am very glad that I finally am returning home," a.k.a. the Trololo Song:





—Mellow Monk

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Hands-free tea pouring

If I told you there was a way to transfer tea from a teapot to a teacup without using your hands, and without even lifting the cup or pot, would you believe me?


Because you should.


—Mellow Monk

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Tea video double feature

Husband-and-wife team The Houston Hill have produced two wonderful entries for the Calm-a-Sutra tea video contest: "The Teacup Tango" and "The Scale of Tea."








—Mellow Monk

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Virtual barbecue site

Some people are missing the point about "Air Yakiniku," which bills itself as a "virtual online barbecue."


The site instructs you to sit down in front of your computer with a real bowl of rice and some tare (dipping sauce) and pretend to eat the strips of meat shown grilling on screen.


The joke is that the economy is so bad that people can only afford a "virtual" barbecue, and that you could actually trick yourself into believing you were really eating actual meat.


Then again, far more outrageous deceptions have been successfully propagated, such as the claim that a can of water, high-fructose corn syrup, and assorted chemicals is actually tea.



Hmm, doesn't it look scrumptious? And the best thing is that it's free!


—Mellow Monk

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Optical illusion redux

In this optical illusion, let your eye dart from one corner of the image to another. The small oval shapes should appear to move



It should look like three cylinders are rotating slightly.


—Mellow Monk

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Amazing photo of our Sun ... and the Space Shuttle and Hubble telescope

If you look closely in this massive image of the Sun, you can see the Atlantis space shuttle and Hubble orbiting telescope silhouetted against it.



caption


—Mellow Monk

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Optical illusion castle

Here is a fascinating optical illusion. When the page comes up, stare at the black dot in the middle of the image, then prepare to be amazed.



If you want to start over, refresh your browser window.


—Mellow Monk

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Optical illusion

In this optical illusion (also shown below), when you stare at one star, others seem to rotate slightly.



Neat, eh?


—Mellow Monk

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Origami paper airplane sets new world record

The chairman of Japan's Origami Airplane Association has set a new world record for longest flight by a paper airplane:





—Mellow Monk

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Green tea latte candy

Well Fed Network's review of Bali's Best Green Tea Latte Candy sure makes them sound scrumptious:

These lil’ discs of goodness may just be my new favorite hard candy.

And the reviewer at Candy Addict likes them, too.


Anyone who sends me some will instantly receive good karma for life. </hint>

Ah, little discs of goodness.


—Mellow Monk

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Calm-A-Sutra tea video contest

Attention, all up-and-coming filmmakers: The Tea Council of the USA is having its third annual scholarship competition, Calm-A-Sutra of Tea, which "challenges college students to create a one- to two-minute video about the positive benefits of black, green, white or oolong tea in order to win a $15,000 scholarship."


Not bad, eh?


Here is last year's winner, titled "Interrogation." It's actually quite funny and very well done.





—Mellow Monk

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Create your own album covers randomly

This is just plain fun: My Album Generator lets you generate, with the push of a button, an album cover with an image, band name, and album title pulled randomly from various sources.


In the time it took to drink a single cup of green tea, I managed to generate these instant classics (click to see the full-size compilation):



If anyone wants to actually form one of these bands, drop me a line.


—Mellow Monk

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Kaleidoscope, virtually.

Have you ever dreamed of making your own virtual kaleidoscope online? Well then this is your lucky day.



Whatever shapes you drag into the small circle on the left show up "kaleidoscopized" on the right when swept by the blue wedge.


—Mellow Monk

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Optical illusion: It only appears to be waving

Check out this optical illusion: Look from one stop to another anywhere in the image and the image appears to wave like a flag.





But this is not an animation, and it only appears to be moving. Interesting, no?


[Source: Pitchforkmedia.com.]


—Mellow Monk

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Tokyo photos ... plus a bonus video

I found a collection of beautiful photos of Tokyo at twilight.



Not far from Tokyo Tower (in the background), a quiet neighborhood is nestled between two lively streets.




Bonus
From the Out of Left Field Department — a video of Richard Dawson losing it on "Family Feud":





—Mellow Monk

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The rotating grid illusion

Here's a nifty optical illusion. First, you start with this single grid:





It's just an ordinary grid, right? But when it rotates, it appears to be comprised of multiple smaller grids each rotating separately:





Read more about it here.


—Mellow Monk

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Olympic highlights performed by puppeteers [video]

—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, the world's most expensive grapes go on sale

In Japan, the manager of a fancy hotel paid over 900 dollars for a pound and a half of premium grapes.


And these aren't just any old grapes, mind you. These are Ruby Romans, a variety that the Ishikawa Prefecture Agricultural Research Center spent 11 years developing as a way to stimulate local agriculture and bolster Ishikawa's image in Japan as a producer of high-quality fruits.


Hey, if they can get people to buy their grapes at 600 dollars a pound, I'd say they were successful.


Ruby Roman grapes are twice the size of Japan's kyoho variety, making them not only Japan's most expensive grape but also its largest.


[Japanese-language source: Chunichi Shinbun



"I know it's a lot of money, but these a REALLY good grapes."



At $26 a grape, they'd better be good.


—Mellow Monk

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Frugal date ideas

Just because money's tight doesn't mean you have to sit around watching the tea brew. Take a look at the items on this list of 30 frugal date ideas. For instance:

4. Art gallery openings. You don’t have to absolutely love art to have a great date at one of these events. They offer free wine, snacks and a place for conversation. Who needs more than that?


20. Test drive cars together. Gone are the days when it was inexpensive to just go for long drives together. Cars can still be romantic, though, and it’s a lot of fun to go test drive luxury vehicles that you’re not really going to buy.

—Mellow Monk

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Top 10 Jackie Chan stunts

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

—Mellow Monk

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Round ice cubes — ice spheres

Responding to a demand expressed by the country's bartenders, a Japanese company has developed a mold for making seamless ice spheres.


The spherical shape has a lower ratio of surface area to volume, so the ice melts more slowly, thereby diluting your drink less. These ice spheres would be great for iced green tea, too.


At least, that's what I thought until I saw that the prices for these ice molds start at around $800. I think I'll wait for the price to come down.



Hey, that's cool! [Get it?]


—Mellow Monk

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A new tongue-twister to try to triumph over

How often is it in the English-speaking world is it that someone comes up with a new tongue-twister?


Well, that's exactly what your truly did after helping Mini Monk with a homework assignment involving such tricky phrases. I was inspired by something I read about the ancient Roman tradition of the triumph, a victory parade in which the soldiers would sing bawdy songs about their general. The songs were short and silly and when sung for Julius Caesar would constitute silly songs Caesar’s soldiers sang.


I defy you to say that ten times fast. If you can, put it up on YouTube and I'll publish it here. The gauntlet has been thrown!



Those guys sure knew how to throw a tea party.


—Mellow Monk

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Record-breaking Coke-and-Mentos experiment

Add this to the list of world records that you didn't even know existed.


A group of 1,500 students in Belgium set out to break the previous record for the largest number of Coke-and-Mentos fountains simultaneously generated.


And of course the first thing I thought upon reading of this attempt was, There was a previous record-holder? What next, a Coke–Mentos reality show?



Hey, kids. Didn't your mothers teach you not to waste food?


—Mellow Monk

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Kumamoto's Bruce Lee

Kumamoto native Takanori Okazaki was in the 5th grade when he saw his first Bruce Lee movie, Fists of Fury. He became an instant fan, making nunchucks out of empty Saran wrap rolls and eventually taking up the study of Bruce Lee's martial arts form, Jeet Kune Do.

Ten years ago Mr. Okazaki joined the Kumamoto branch of the Inosanto Methods Unified Martial Arts Association, founded by Bruce Lee disciple Dan Inosanto.


Today, almost 35 years after Master Lee's death, Ozaki still promotes the preservation of Lee's cinematic, martials arts, and philosophical legacy, all while working at his day job as a clinical technician at the Japan Red Cross Kumamoto Health Maintenance Center in Kumamoto City.


(Kumamoto City is the capital of Kumamoto Prefecture, which also contains the Aso region where Mellow Monk Green Tea is grown.)



Mr. Okazaki says he is the descendant of a renowned Edo period swordsman from the Otokoyama Clan (who may or may not be the same Otokoyamas who started the sake brewery of the same name).


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's most off-the-wall TV show ever—MXC

In the early 1980s, before he made a name for himself in Japan's film industry as a full-fledged director, comedian Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi) hosted a very "physical" comedy show called "Takeshi no Shiro" ("Takeshi's Castle"), in which contestants attempted to navigate outrageous obstacle courses.

Fast forward a couple of decades. America's Spike TV takes "Takeshi no Shiro," adds a yuk-it-up English voiceover—which bears no resemblance to the original soundtrack, a la What's Up, Tiger Lily?—and christens the result "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge," or MXC for short.


If you've never seen MXC, then here are a few clips to initiate you.


Tiny Trike Competition



Frozen Wallbangers



Brass Balls



—Mellow Monk

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Mellowness through strategic incompetence

At last, a business philosophy I can get into: the art of what Steven Crawley calls strategic incompetence.

The most memorable time he brandished his nonskill was when the president at an automotive-parts manufacturer asked Mr. Crawley to organize the company picnic. ... So he began to milk his lack of picnic knowledge for all it wasn't worth. He responded to any inquiries or suggestions with questions and comments such as "How do you do that?" or "What did you guys do in the past?" or even "Help me remember why we're talking about this." Ultimately, responsibility for the picnic was reassigned. Mission unaccomplished.

—Mellow Monk

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"How to Use Chopsticks" (comedy)

The Japanese comedy group Rahmenz previously brought us the satiric short on how to eat at a sushi restaurant.

Now comes another entry in their Japanese Tradition series: The Japanese Tradition: Chopsticks.

Kudos to the Youtube user "gameday" for adding English subtitles.





—Mellow Monk

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Sudoku morphs into a new game: Nurikabe

This is for all the Sudoku fans out there:

DailySudoku.com (my favorite sudoku site) has released a new twist on sudoku called Nurikabe.

Nurikabe (the name means "drawing wall") is like a cross between Sudoku and Minesweeper, in that numbers in squares indicate the number of squares around it that should be filled in. Detailed instructions are available here.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's "mob of 100" prank

A Japanese TV show organized a mob of 100 people to scare unsuspecting marks. Only in Japan!

—Mellow Monk

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Play "Frogger" online!

Finally, the news all you old fogies (like me) have been waiting for: You can play the classic arcade game "Frogger" online!

What the heck. It's Friday.

—Mellow Monk

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T-shirts with accupressure points

The New York College of Health Professions has announced it is released a line of clothing called MyChi—clothing with accupressure points marked on them. At each each accupressure point (called a tsubo in Japanese), a pinch of seeds will be sewn into the clothing, for maximum benefit.

You can download a PDF of the press release here.

—Mellow Monk

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Grow your own square watermelons

Want to grow your own square watermelon? Essentially all you need is the right sized box, as shown in this photo.

Here is a previous post about square watermelons, a novelty that apparently started in Japan.





—Mellow Monk

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Sushi samurai

Distraction time!

Here's an online video game called Sushi Samurai. It's sort of like Pac-Man, but with ladders instead of a maze and evil tofu instead of ghosts.

—Mellow Monk

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