japan

Tonki restaurant was founded 73 years ago and while surfing just a bit, I ran into an article about this and then found a post from the past. I’ve been to the shop, and it’s an amazing place. (Japantimes – Tonki) Here’s a post from 2010 on a visit there. It just happens that it’s located near the station and it’s just a cool place. It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s worth the visit. There is something special about the wood counters, seating, and it’s cleanliness for a place that’s cooking in oil. It feels great and clean and they’ll also give you as much cabbage as you handle – sometimes it’s the underdog item. (GR – Tonki)

Here’s a video of the shop

It’s happening. Uniqlo is on their secret mission of becoming the world’s largest retailer. Why is it that while the economy still blows, a giant can continue to get more giant. They’re not selling oil, gold or diamonds at inflated prices. They’re selling cotton and polyester. Often times nearly the same as clothing makers of the past… but, who are American. The Gap and Old Navy have been around, but Uniqlo? Sounds like a name for the ages. 20-30 new stores in the US in the next eight years? Sounds doable, especially when they’re charing low prices in high rents in Soho and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, NY. Much like IKEA revolutionized dorm rooms, first time home owners, and great “IKEA hackers”, Uniqlo will do the same. Where will that leave the small shops like Giant Robot, which nearly at the polar opposite end? We’ll be here. (NYTimes – Uniqlo) There are plenty of Uniqlo posts in the past on GiantRobot.com and a recent visit yielded new clothing collaboration by Undercover (Uu) x Uniqlo at sale prices.

Meanwhile in other Uniqlo news: They signed up Novak Djokovic.

This isn’t the most exciting thing in the world but the girl on the left is a huge star in Japan. Her name is Mana Ashida and as a child of 7 years, she’s a hit. If K Pop is going to reign with sexy girls, then why not combat it with a new genre of J Kid Pop? With an older demographic and aging population, this is odd and something that’ll be studied.

“Most impressively, respected Japanese advertising agency Dentsu named Ashida the sixth best Japanese “product” of 2011—placing her in front of hybrid cars and emergency supplies.” (The Atlantic – Mana Ashida)

Tamae Watanabe makes it to the top. She held the previous record at 63 years of age. The oldest is a 76 year old Nepalese man who did it in 2008. Congrats.

Here’s the monument and it’s being asked to be removed by Japanese officials, but that isn’t happening. Some officials maintain that the event didn’t happen as said by many which pushed the matter to a halt. The monument will stay. (NY Times – Monument)

So, they don’t hate each other entirely. The rocket got launched by Japan, and now Korea has a strong satellite in the sky that can monitor their Northern Korean neighbors and just about anywhere in the world. It’s the first commercial space launch for Japan which means many more will come. Just because they can, should they? Eventually, when it gets into bad hands, our local space will be an amalgam of hell. (VOA -Space Japan and Korea)

Video shot by Lefty Gomez that’s previously never seen before. Lefty Gomez was part of the MLB tour of Japan in 1934 and shot this video which is insanely valuable. The tour is constantly talked about since it helped make baseball huge in Japan. Babe Ruth, the oversized star was huge in Japan, and it’s fun to see the video footage that’s being put out in promotion of his book, Lefty an American Odyssey. You’ll have to wait a while to see the video footage since it loads slow, but it shows the vibe of the time. (Random House – Lefty) The story as told in SI is equally an interesting read and tells about the journey to Japan. (SI – Lefty)

The lost penguin who escaped from the Tokyo Sea Life Park has been found after two months of freedom. The penguin appears to be healthy and energetic. It’s amazing that a single bird can elude captors everywhere. (Huffington Post – Penguin)

They can’t sell US cars in Japan, but the bikes are working. Because most can’t buy US made cars in Japan an easily, especially ones with larger size and price tags, a bike will suit just fine. A Hummer is a great example. On what road will a Hummer actually drive correctly in Japan? None, but a bike, sure why not? In a place where tons of bikes look exactly the same, getting a US made bike will actually stand out and be cool. (WSJ – Bikes)

Otomo Katsuhiro‘s movie, Akira, was my gateway to anime as a teen. Due to this, I was giddier than a kid on a sugar rush when the day came to visit his latest exhibition at the 3331 Chiyoda Arts gallery in Akihabara. Most of the tickets were already sold out because it was the beginning of Golden Week when I attempted purchase passes from the nearest kiosk at Lawson’s. Fortunately, I managed to buy tickets during the latest time slot before the museum closed. The date was set.

My friend and I arrived at the gallery an hour before our time slot. A small park was neighbored its entrance and Chiyoda Arts was apparently a Junior High School before it was renovated into what you see now. We lined up and entered the gallery shortly after our appointed time slot ticked into place.

The exhibit itself was a brightly lit chamber painted with white with music from composer Haishima Kuniaki‘s album, Καρδια, playing eerily in the background. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed so we couldn’t take any pictures until the “Motorcycle Display.” A few foreign visitors stood out amidst the crowd who undoubtedly were introduced to the medium through Otomo’s work like myself. Sketches and paintings from Otomo-san’s art book, Kaba and Kaba2, were on display and unlike his films, a majority of the pieces featured from Kaba and Kaba2 were lightheartedly strange and semi-cutesey depictions of animals. Others were of sketches from mangas penned by him that I haven’t even heard of up until today. It was different from the Otomo-san that I knew.

Of course, drawing, sketches, and paintings from his landmark films: Memories, Steamboy, Akira, and many others. I can’t say for certain because fine arts (as a profession) isn’t my forte, but on closer inspection, a good deal of them appeared to use water color as a medium. It was impressive to see how much detail that he invested into the pieces crafted by his own hands. Print media barely did the originals any justice.

Next was the exhibit room with the original panels for the Akira manga in all their totality. Yup. Every panel from all 6 volumes was on display in their unvarnished splendor. The number of pages for each book was so immense that they had to stack them row upon row on “shelf wires” suspended through the display case for visitors to see.

The room after that was arguably the main event. For a donation of 500 yen, visitors had an opportunity to don a replica of Kaneda’s jacket from the manga and sit inside a reconstruction of his motorcycle with pages of the manga garnishing its display. A crater rendering a scene from one of his mangas adorned the back of the room. In addition to that, graffiti drawing from visitors plastered a section of the wall in tribute to the event. It was the only part of the exhibit where visitors were allowed to take photos.

At the end of the exhibit, visitors were allowed to slip their ticket stubs into a slot to determine where proceeds from their purchase went towards the Tohoku recovery. A small gift shop for the exhibit stood near the exit where you could buy posters, postcards, the soundtrack for the exhibit, an art catalogue for the exhibit, and other Otomo related paraphernalia. All in all, it was a delightful experience and briefly brought the child in me back to life. If you’re living in Tokyo this is a must see and would be crime against pop culture for any fan to miss.

It’s like a scene from the movie, Children of Men but in Japan. In a 1000 years, children are running on empty, there’s very few born. Studies by academics from Sendai say:

“Japanese researchers have now warned of a doomsday scenario if it carries on this way with the last child to be born there in 3011 and the Japanese people potentially disappearing a few generations later.”

There’s plenty of reasons, from costs and perhaps changing priorities. (MSNBC – Japan Kids)

Here’s a very well-done working transformer model built by Japanese engineer Kenji Ishida (Twitter him @BRLab). LEGO schmego. A tip of the hat to filmmaker/multimedia journalist Katsuyuki Ueno of Yokkaichi, Mie, Japan.

Harry Potter coming to Japan as a theme park in 2014. It’s called, Wizarding World of Harry Potter and will be in Osaka as part of Universal Studios. Will this even be cool or good? We’d rather see a Godzilla theme park done super well. (Variety – Harry Potter)

Summer is approaching and Super Cool Bras filled with ice will keep them cool. It does save on an AC bill, and what the heck, maybe you can also wear this on your head. It worked in the movie, Weird Science. Yes, Robert Downey Jr wore one too.

Japan is now Nuclear reactor free. For how long? How will they compensate? It’s going to cost, but if there’s a solution, it’ll be something worthy of many Nobel Prizes. The test will be the summer when people need to turn on the AC in a humid Japan. The ideal is that they stay this way, but the reality, they’re going to have to turn one back on. (CNN – Nuclear Free)

There will be more of these washing up. Most everything will be completely thrashed from a year of being in the ocean. If this catches more eyes, they’ll most likely track down the owner and someone will step in and restore the bike for him or her – provided the person is alive. We wrote the script ahead of time. We’ll see what unfolds. (Jalopnik – Harley)

76 year old Japanese man, Masafumi Nagasaki lives on an island alone and naked. The island is 1000 meters across and he bakes in the sun. The island has no drinking water, yet this is where he chooses to call home. He gets a bit of money from his family and that’s about it. A short documentary sounds like a great plan. (Reuters – Naked Hermit)

Where does one go if you’re Japanese, out of a job in manufacturing but an expert? Yes, China. That’s where a lot of technical experts can go find a second career to hopefully work and teach the great skills that some Japanese possess. Of course that comes with issues. There are 2800 Japanese in manufacturing town of Dongguan alone.

“”From Japan’s perspective, emerging countries are getting a free ride of the benefits we nurtured. So yes, it is a problem,” said Yasushi Ishizuka, director of the intellectual property policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.”

Yet, jobs are jobs, people will follow the money to survive. Some say that this manufacturing knowledge aren’t crucial secrets. It’s the world today and that’s how it is. (Reuters – Manufacturing China)

Yes, you’ve had the fake. Admit it. Kobe Beef is only from Hyogo Prefecture where it’s trademarked and not exported (except Macau). Since the trademark isn’t applicable to the US according to the recent Forbes article, the beef you’ve been having here is not really Kobe beef. It’s as similar to the real Kobe beef as Kobe of the Lakers. (Forbes – Kobe Scam) Also see Larry Olmstead’s follow up on Wagyu Beef.

In Wired, Keiji Inafune let’s it out in many ways. Here’s one.

“I want to talk about Korean products too. Why are there no Korean products in Japan? Japanese people believe that Korean products are much worse than Japanese ones, that they’re very bad. But throughout the world, they’re more successful than Japanese products.”

There are more from the creator of Megaman who’s now making games from his own studio. (Wired – Keiji Inafune)