Kit Kat = certain victory

According to one theory, the popularity of Kit Kat in Japan is due partly to its name, whose Japanese pronunciation bears a phonetic resemblance to the phrase kitto katsu, or "You will surely win."



Available in green tea flavor, of course. In Japan, that is, of course.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan’s hip new generation of family farmers

In the Japanese countryside, parents often lament about grown children who balk at taking over the family farm, turning away from what they see as a lifestyle defined by the dreaded "three K's"—kitsui, kitanai, and kiken (demanding, dirty, and dangerous).


But no longer: A new generation of young farmers is striving to preserve the traditional family farm by revamping farm life so that the three K's now stand for kakko yokute, kando ga atte, and kasegeru—cool, exciting, and profitable.


Part of the transformation lies in taking a different approach to farm management. But like all such transformations, a big part is simply taking a different attitude.


And besides, who wouldn't want to work in an environment like this:



A screen capture from one of our "Stringing Tea" documentary videos.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's love hotels beat the recession

There are always profitable exceptions to every recession, and in Japan right now, one of those exceptions is the love hotel.



Love hotels aren't too hard to spot.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's cat cafes

Cat cafes—where you can relax with a cup of tea in the company of the establishment's feline employees—are becoming more and more popular in Japan.


If you have a cat or other pet at home, why not include him or her in your next at-home green tea break—break out some catnip or some other special treat and enjoy the relaxing time together.



A pleasurable, relaxing interruption. (There are more pictures accompanying the article: click on the pic to see them all.)


—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, stressed-out city folk head to the hills for "farm therapy"

Stress-out city dwellers are discovering the rejuvenating properties of a day of farming in the country:






Pounding mochi: The farmer gets a helping hand, and the lass gets some much-needed sunshine, exercise, and stress relief.


—Mellow Monk

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New Year's preparations in Japan

In Japan, getting ready for New Year's is serious business.



Rehearsing a New Year's event at Tokyo's Sunshine International Aquarium.


—Mellow Monk

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Golden Ebisu

A jewelry story in Osaka has put on display a solid-gold statue of Ebisu, the traditional Japanese god of good fortune and other nice things.


If you can't afford the $8 million price tag of this 16-inch version, smaller models are also available, such as a tiny 1-gram charm on a cellphone strap for only $100.


[Source: Sankei/MSN Japan]



Ginza Tanaka's pride and joy—alongside its $8 million gold statuette.


—Mellow Monk

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Real-life robot takes the stage in Japan

Thespians at Osaka University took the stage Tuesday for three performances in what has to be the world's first-ever play to feature an honest-to-goodness robot as one of the characters.


The robot is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Wakamaru, who, if you live in Japan, is also available for rent [Japanese only].


In the 20-minute production, Wakamaru plays a housekeeper robot who loses the will to work. (He probably got too used to the cushy life of making appearances and being a personal shopper.)



"You say you feel unappreciated? Well, welcome to my world!"


—Mellow Monk

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In Tokyo, a giant snake that's safe to sit on

A long, snakelike bench was one of the highlights of DesignTide Tokyo 2008.



It's a snake, it's a bench, it's ... Super Bench.


—Mellow Monk

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World's first truly blue roses on display in Japan

It took them 13 years of research, but Japan's Suntory finally did it — they created the world's first truly blue roses.



The blue color is definitely mellowing, but personally I still find rainbow roses cheerier.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's "banana zombies" strip supermarket shelves clean

The Muzac you hear in Japan's supermarkets nowadays may be "Yes, We Have No Bananas," for dieters there are stripping the yellow fruit off the shelves as the country is swept up in a banana diet craze.



There are more bananas on magazine covers than on store shelves this week.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan embraces its inner geisha. (Yes, this does tie in with green tea.)

Instead of looking toward cities like Paris or New York for inspiration, Japanese fashion designers are embracing their culture's traditional aesthetics, and this trend, some say, is what is driving the global popularity of products containing Japanese ingredients such as green tea.



Misaki Itoh in a Shiseido ad. The tag line reads: "Follow. Run away. Summer gaze."


—Mellow Monk

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The cellphone orchestra

A Japanese video game company has released software that turns ordinary cellphones into musical instruments, which can also be played together in a virtual orchestra:





—Mellow Monk

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Japanese cathouse — the world's most cat-friendly home?

Modern Cat magazine has done a writeup of what could be the most cat-friendly house in the world — Japan's Plus-Nyan home, one of the models offered by builder Asahi Kasei Homes.


("Nyan," by the way, is the Japanese language's equivalent of "meow.")



This could also be the worst house in the world for a mouse. (Cue the song "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide.")


—Mellow Monk

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Feather-duster eyelashes: a new fashion trend in Japan

Fashion designer Shu Uemura offers a wide range of head-turning false eyelashes — including ones that resemble feather dusters — at her his Tokyo Lash Bar.



Like Grandpa's bushy eyebrows, only positioned an inch or so lower.


—Mellow Monk

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The stray cat who became stationmaster and saved a city

No, it's not the plot of a Japanese animated film; it's the true story of Tama, the stray cat who "adopted" a train station in the small Japanese town of Kinokawa.


After word of the cat spread (thanks to a TV appearance), massive numbers of tourists flocked to the town, giving the local economy a much-needed boost.



"Tickets, please."


—Mellow Monk

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Rare birds get a royal send-off in Japan

Japan's Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko recently held a royal "release" ceremony in which 10 crested ibises raised in captivity in China were released into the wild on Sado Island.


In the last couple of decades, Japanese strategy toward a bird that once filled the country's skies have shifted from preservation alone to preservation coupled with active reintroduction.


Fans of our feathered friends might also be interested in this list of nine spectacular flightless birds.



Houston, we have lift-off.


—Mellow Monk

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The $4 million tea room

A golden tea room made with over $4 million in real gold has been mesmerizing shoppers at the Yokohama Takashimaya department store in Yokohama City.





The tea room is a faithful, life-size reproduction of one used by the powerful feudal ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–1598), who often consulted with famed tea master Sen no Rikyu on matters spiritual and military.


The tea room is made with $1 million in gold leaf and over $3 million in solid-gold cups and other accoutrements.


One shopper marveling at the gilded tea room commented, "I wonder what Hideyoshi thought of when he was sitting in there?"


What indeed. Perhaps he thought, "Hmm, do you think I got a little carried away?"


[Source: Yomiuri Online.]


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's teddy bear cellphone

Next time you see someone in public having a conversation with a teddy bear, remember: it could be a cellphone disguised as a teddy bear.





—Mellow Monk

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Beat Takeshi saves the Earth as a 300-foot monster!

Just like Tokyo on the verge of being destroyed by Ghidorah, Japanese cinema's kaiju (giant monster) genre was on the verge of dying out. Rushing to the rescue is director Minoru Kawasaki, who this summer released the decidedly-tongue-in-cheek Monster X Strikes Back—Attack the G8 Summit!


The film revives the kaiju Guilala, who first appeared in 1967.


Lending a hand — several, actually (see photo below) — is famed director Kitano "Beat" Takeshi, who provides the voice and face of "good" monster Takemajin.


Why Beat Takeshi? Director Kawasaki says Takeshi had previously donned monster suits in various TV appearances and "was the only one who could save this dying genre" [source (Japanese)].


Takemajin — who has already started appearing at conventions — also borrows part of Takeshi's name and the meme of the "village guardian deity idol who grows to gigantic size to wipe out the bad guys" from the Daimajin trilogy of the '60s.


See high-resolution stills of the new Guilala flick here. See a trailer here. See a clip from the old Guilala movie here.



Beat Takeshi (a.k.a. "Takemajin") to the rescue! (He looks like he's about to go into his trademark "Komanechi" pose.)


—Mellow Monk

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Mysterious goblin shark caught on video

Ever seen a goblin shark in action? Well, here's your chance — a video of one of the elusive creatures filmed by a Japanese diver.


Note how the shark's entire jaw pops outward to seize its prey. Remind you of anything?


The audio is in Japanese with no English subtitles, so here's a rough translation of what the narrator is saying:

The shark shoots out its jaw the instant the diver moves his arm away, simulating fleeing prey. The shark holds on tightly, but the diver reported feeling no pain. Then, after the diver removed the jaw from his arm, the shark became calm again, as if nothing had happened. This dive team had spent several months looking for the goblin shark. After this brief encounter, it disappeared back into the darkness of the deep.

—Mellow Monk

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Godzilla eggs for sale

In the rural Tsukigata district of Niigata City, an entrepreneurial farmer came up with a clever name for the watermelons he grows — Godzilla eggs.


No word on whether he plans to release fruit based on other Toho Studios monsters. (Ghidorah eggs, anyone?)


[Source: Rakuten]



Has Toho Studios seen this?



Maybe all that fuss was just because Mommy was looking for her eggs.


—Mellow Monk

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Monkey leads Tokyo's finest on Keystone Cops-esque chase through station

Shibuya Station is one of Japan's busiest rail stations. On an average day, the station is used by over 2 million people — but never any monkeys.


That statistic changed on Wednesday, however, when a lone macaque monkey scurried into the station and took up residence atop a sign for couple of hours.


After the monkey refused to show a ticket or commuter pass, station officials called the police, who despite showing up en mass and with nets and despite giving furious chase, were unable to catch the creature, who scurried past enthralled commuters out of the station and into the crowded city streets.


Most likely the fugitive escaped to Harajuku, where an ordinary monkey would never stand out.


UPDATE:
Yahoo! Japan has a video clip [Windows Media Player format] of the chase. Right after the Great Escape, people near the station began reporting fruits and vegetables going missing from their backyard gardens.



"I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque."


—Mellow Monk

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Live in a baseball stadium? Uh, not quite

Let's say you're a baseball fan, and your team moves to a new stadium, leaving the old one abandoned. That's the bad news. The good news is that you could actually build a home — a real, honest-to-goodness house — smack dab in the middle of the old stadium and live there.


Wouldn't that be just too cool?


Yes, it would be too cool, which is why you can't do it.


Rumors spread on the Internet, however, that a lucky handful of people were doing just that in Osaka Stadium in Japan. Probably because of pictures like the one below. But it turns out that although those are honest-to-goodness homes smack dab in the middle of shut-down Osaka Stadium, they're only model homes put there by a homebuilder to show off their wares.


So, you can walk through those homes, but you can't live there.


Because that would be just too cool.


[Source (Japanese)]



"I even tried Febreze, but I still can't get that hotdog smell out."


—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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Sachiko Kodama's dancing fluids

Japanese artist-physicist Sachiko Kodama creates works of art that utilize amazing scientific phenomena. It's not animation or any other kind of photographic trick — it's for real.


In one work, titled "Protrude Flow," Ms Kodama uses electromagnets to make ordinary dirty black oil — a ferromagnetic liquid, or ferrofluid — seemingly come alive.


See this amazing behavior in the video short "Sachiko Kodama: When I Met This Material":





—Mellow Monk

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Alright, which one of you wise guys put the eel in my drink?

In Japan broiled eel is considered a "summer stamina" food — something that gives you energy in the oppressive heat but without weighing you down.


So, for those folks unable to stop by their local unagi-ya, a beverage company created the next best thing: broiled eel-flavored soda, named "Eel Rising" (Unagi Nobori).


Even the name suggests power and energy. Don't you feel invigorated already?



This could be one of those times that you actually hope it's artificially flavored.


—Mellow Monk

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The Bellybutton Festival

Situated at Japan's geographic center, the city of Shibukawa is known as "Japan's bellybutton."


So naturally, every year the town holds a Bellybutton Festival (Heso Matsuri).



"Dad, you promised you wouldn't embarrass me today."


—Mellow Monk

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The Japanese town that wastes not ... at all

The small Japanese town of Kamikatsu has become what could be the world's first zero-waste town. Naturally, this involves a lot of effort on everyone's part:

There are no waste collections from households at all. People have to take full responsibility for everything they throw away. Kitchen waste has to be composted. Non-food waste is processed either in local shops which accept goods for recycling or in Kamikatsu's Zero Waste Centre. There, people have to sort their unwanted items into 34 different boxes for recycling.

Incidentally, Kamikatsu is officially one of Japan's most beautiful villages [in Japanese only, but click on the thumbnails to see wonderful slide shows of Kamikatsu].






Scenes from (officially) beautiful Kamikatsu.


—Mellow Monk

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Honeybees in Japan defend seabirds from crafty crows

Japan's crows are tough — too tough for flocks of terns who spend the summer near Narita Airport after migrating from the southern hemisphere.


One day, a local birder who had watched helplessly each year as the crows picked off tern eggs and hatchlings had an epiphany: Honeybees instinctively attack anything dark-colored that comes near their hive, so why not use that instinct to repel the crows from the terns' nests?



Hang in there, Mr. Tern. The honeybees are coming!


—Mellow Monk

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Floor-by-floor demolition and the 400-MPH hand dryer

First, check out this time-lapse video of Kajima Construction demolishing an office building floor by floor from the bottom up, instead of imploding it with explosives, which I suspect is simply not feasible in the über-tight confines of the typical Japanese city.





Read more about the technique here.


Next, after hearing rumors about the air-powered hand dryer that actually works, I finally got to try out Dyson's 400-mile-per-hour Airblade　when I was at the airport the other day, and I was indeed impressed. It actually dried my hands thoroughly in only a few seconds. No more exiting the restroom while wiping your hands on your pant legs!



Mr. Dyson, I finally forgive you for that noisy, overpriced vacuum cleaner that you sold to my wife.


—Mellow Monk

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From Hawaii to Japan, without a sail or a motor

Kenichi Horie first achieved fame in Japan by becoming the first Japanese to cross the Pacific alone.

Now he's become the first ever to cross the Pacific in a wave-powered boat. (There's some technical detail here.)

He set sail from Hawaii on May 17 and completed the 4,000-mile voyage to Japan's Kii Peninsula in 110 days.

Here's a video released when he first left Hawaii:

—Mellow Monk

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Japan gets tough on spare tires

Yikes! Workplaces in Japan are cracking down on obesity:

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. [. . .] Those exceeding government limits [. . .] and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight.

"Goodbye, weight!"

—Mellow Monk

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Tokyo Toy Fair 2008

Bandai's Airshock Battle Beam Saber, which "makes satisfyingly realistic noises as you use the force to jab and lunge towards your opponent," was just one of the gadgets on displays at the Tokyo Toy Fair 2008.


The Amazon Japan pre-order page for the Beam Saber has a demo movie you can watch.



Sure, they're calling it a "Beam Saber," but let's see what George Lucas has to say about that.


—Mellow Monk

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Muji—the brand that isn't a brand

It must be a Zen thing.


Just as Bruce Lee practiced the art of fighting without fighting [YouTube link], Japan's Muji brand is the brand that isn't a brand.


Muji, whose name literally means "brandless," is a line of Japanese generics that has inspired fanatical loyalty among adherents all over the world.


It's not just the philosophy behind Muji that enthralls customers, but the sleek, simple look of the products, too.



A sampling of the Muji lineup.


—Mellow Monk

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Reese at tea

Watch actress Reese Witherspoon, clad in lovely kimono, learning how to whisk up a bowl of frothy matcha green tea the traditional, tea-ceremony way.


Ms Witherspoon is visiting Japan to raise awareness of breast cancer and domestic violence as an Avon "global ambassador" in a project also supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. (Read the full story here.)





—Mellow Monk

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Black watermelon fetches record price

A black watermelon that sold for over six thousand dollars is yet another news item you can file under "Japan's black food boom."



Try this and you'll never go back.


—Mellow Monk

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Harnessing "silver power" in Japan

Just like almost everywhere else, older folks in Japan are staying in the workforce longer. They also have high technology to help them live independently. Check out the high-tech electric kettle below.



Whenever she uses it, Mrs. Oheo's James Bondian kettle automatically sends a text message to her daughter's cell phone, letting her know that Mom's alright.


—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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Bulldog nurses tiger

A slideshow of the animal kingdom's oddest couuples includes a French bulldog nursing and raising a baby tiger at Japan's Shirotori Zoo [image search], located in the city of Higashikagawa. The tiger cub had been rejected by his mother.



Hachi the tiger cuddles with his new mom, Nana. Raised on dog's milk, Hachi is just like other tigers — other than a propensity to chase his tail.


—Mellow Monk

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In Japan, clever crows confound communities

Feeding on urban refuse, Japan's crows are thriving.


And these birdbrains are clever. When power companies began removing nests from electric poles because they were causing blackouts, the birds began building decoy nests.


But we should expect as much from a bird that back in the '90s first learned to crack hard nuts by dropping them on roads for cars to run over, then figured out that the best place on a road to drop nuts was in crosswalks [link to video].


If these guys ever figure out the Internet, we could be in serious trouble.



Maybe he's upset that trash collection was early today.


—Mellow Monk

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A bicycle built for three

With gas prices the way they are, more parents in Japan are biking their small kids to school. In Japan's very compact cities, most folks tend to live quite close to their kids' preschool or kindergarten.


So the Kawamura Cycle Company came up with a "bicycle built for three" that's a lot safer than the conventional approach of tacking on an aftermarket child seat. As you can see in the photo below, another of the bike's selling points is the rear-wheel configuration, designed for stability even when riding over the bumps and other obstacles that are so common on city streets.



My kids are too old to sit in back, but those child seats look to be just the right size for a small sake cask.


—Mellow Monk

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Reciting pi to 100,000 decimal places

From the "Pi Across America" website:

π On October 4, 2006, Akira Haraguchi, a 60 year old Japanese mental health counselor who lives near Tokyo, recited pi to 100,000 decimal places from memory. It took him fourteen and a half hours. Haraguchi is seeking to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records which at the time, listed Hiroyuki Goto also of Japan, as the record holder having recited 42,195 pi decimal places from memory in February of 1995.

Click on the photo to read more about how he did it.


—Mellow Monk

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Rare ibis seen in Aso, Japan

Reporters and birders in Japan have been flocking [pun intended] to Aso to see a kurotoki, or black-headed ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus), a species rarely seen in Japan. (Its normal habitat is China and Southeast Asia.)


According to this news video [in Japanese only], this individual ibis first appeared in Aso last fall and has been seen in the area almost daily ever since. "He's like a member of the family now," says the woman interviewed.


The news report also says that although the bird seems to have an injured leg, it can still fly and feed itself, so the local branch of the Wild Bird Society of Japan (Yacho no Kai) has decided not to capture it for protective purposes.


The kurotoki ("black toki") is not to be confused with the crested ibis, or just plain toki, which was once common throughout Japan but long ago disappeared from the country's skies. Captive breeding efforts using birds from China are attempting to save the crested ibis from extinction and re-introduce it to Japan.



The rare bird. (Click on the photo to watch the video.)


—Mellow Monk

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The aluminum jacket

Japan's Kawanami Ironworks, headquartered in Kyoto, won one of the top prizes handed out in Mori Seiki’s Cutting Dream Contest Awards. Their winning entry—an aluminum jacket.



You can't wear it, but it does look cool.



—Mellow Monk

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Rainbow roses for Valentine's Day

A while back I wrote a post about how popular rainbow roses are in Japan, and the post itself was pretty popular, so I thought I'd write a follow-up.


The shopping pages of Yahoo! Japan are positively stock full of various rainbow rose offerings for Valentine's Day. (You may say it's too late to order online now, but when it comes to roses, the aphorism "better late than never" definitely holds true.) Some of them look really nice, and they all seem to be from the Netherlands.


A search for "rainbow roses" at Yahoo! U.S.A., however (or on Google, for that matter), turns up something different — bouquets of variously colored roses, but each roses is a single solid color, unlike Dutch rainbow roses, in which each individual roses exhibits the full rainbow spectrum.



A colorful bouquet. The gent who could score some of these for his missus would be a hero for sure.



A close-up of a rainbow rose. Both pics are from the Yahoo! Japan shopping site.


—Mellow Monk

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Japan's latest eco-trend: walking around with your own thermos

An up-and-coming "green" trend in Japan is the movement away from disposable beverage bottles and toward a refillable, washable bottles instead.


In other words, rather than walking around with those ubiquitous plastic water bottles, more and more people can be seen carrying their own personal mini-thermos—insulated bottles are especially popular as they can hold hot beverages (such as tea) in the winter or ice-cold beverages (such as iced tea) in the summer.


The photo below shows a cutified "insulated aluminum water bottle" made by Sweden's Laken.


[Source: Yahoo Japan News]



Laken must have made this cute model especially for the Japanese market.


—Mellow Monk

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There she is, Miss Japan

Eri Suzuki, a 20-year-old student at Nihon University, beat out 2,940 other contestants to be crowned Miss Japan 2008.


Talking to reporters after her win, Ms Suzuki said that she didn't even expect to make it into the top 10 finalists, who were chosen that morning. In fact, she had told her parents and grandmother, who were in the audience, that they would all go out for yakiniku after her loss, and so when she not only made it into the top 10 but was then announced as the winner that evening, the look of utter surprise on her face was completely genuine.


[Source: Mainichi Shinbun]



Eri Suzuki, Miss Japan 2008.


—Mellow Monk

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Sushi chocolate for Valentine's Day

Quirky Japanese retailer Tokyu Hands is offering some very quirky gift ideas for Valentine's Day, including sushi chocolate—sushi-shaped sweets in which the shari (sushi rice) portion is chocolate and the neta (sliced fish or octopus or whatever) is some sort of sweet. (The article doesn't specify.)


The wasabi packets (see photo below) that come with the sushi set contain wasabi-flavored chocolate balls.


Other special Valentine's treats include eclairs that look like deep-fried breaded shrimps (ebi furai).


So far as I can tell, these items aren't available in the U.S., but if someone knows otherwise, please let us know!


[Source: Mainichi Shinbun]



Q: What is it that looks like sushi but tastes like chocolate? A: Sushi chocolate!



A photo from the Tokyu Hands page at the Yahoo! Japan job-search site. Unfortunately, Tokyu Hands is not hiring now.


—Mellow Monk

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The waterfall that turned into an icicle

I sure hope that no one in Aomori Prefecture ever made a promise that was contingent on Nio Waterall (Niogataki) freezing over—such as, "Sure I'll pay you back—when Nio Falls freezes over."


Because that's exactly what happened this week.


Actually the freezing of the falls is known to happen occasionally—the last time was 3 years ago—and is said to be a sign of a bountiful harvest in the fall.


[Source: Yahoo Japan]



Yeah, I'd say it's a little cold today.


—Mellow Monk

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