Yoda Attack

There's been a bit of a buzz the past few days over Facebook refusing to give a Japanese woman an account because her family name a Jedi to the same it is.

Blogs everywhere have picked up the story and even Lucasfilm posted it on their official blog.

But just who is the Facebook Yoda?

Well I am pleased to say that she is none other than Hiroko Yoda one of the authors of Yokai Attack! Which ironically enough now has a Facebook group.

So join up and rub shoulders with a Jedi.

Shoko Attack!

Anyone who watches as much Japanese TV as I do is bound to know who Shoko-tan is. She seems to be everywhere at the moment, on countless celebrity panel shows, or performing songs from her new album, or ensuring people have good manners in ads for the Promise finance company. She also has an extremely popular blog.

On one of those many TV shows she appears in, I saw that as a kid she was really keen on Yokai manga. So when I met her the other day (for an upcoming book project I will tell you about eventually) I just had to give her a copy of Yokai Attack! She seemed pretty pleased with it and even exclaimed that it would be good practice for her English.

Here's hoping she puts it on her blog!

JSG Canon Rock

I know simply posting links to YouTube vids is a lazy way to blog, but hey...

Virtual Tokyo

I was searching Google Maps today to find how to get to a restaurant for a friend's birthday (can't believe he's 50!), when I noticed that Google has just launched the Street View of Tokyo. It is pretty impressive. I mean this is a damn big city! And they seem to have pretty much covered the whole place. They even have the building I live in on there, and I live in a back street of a fairly sleepy part of town.

I'm not totally sure I feel about it yet. Part of me is going "Cool! Check this street out... over here! We can totally see how to get to that restaurant!" while the rest of me is going "Um, well. Yeah, so. What about privacy and, um, the enjoyment of not actually knowing what a place looks like before you go there? You know, the joy of discovery... in the real world!"

Hopefully these two sides of me will eventually work out their differences. Until then here is where I would take any of you the first time you come visit.Walk around if you like... or save it until you can really do it.

Devilman

Not posting much these days... so thought I'd test out blogger's mobile blogging function. Maybe that will inspire me to blog more. I can email from my mobile while sitting on the train... or in the office like I am now. I just read the Devilman manga, it's pretty wacky!

Yokai Attack!

So, what’s my excuse this time? For not posting in 3 months. Well, yokai actually. The little buggers attacked me. Kept me stuck at home for months. In the dark. Chained to my computer. And when I tried to get away? They crashed my hard drive, and I lost 3 months work. That didn’t please them at all! Made me do all the work over again. In 5 days! Not nice.

But I got them back. Used purple for the endpapers of this book. They don’t like purple you see, so they’re trapped. I hope.

Yokai Attack! Designed by me, written by these nice folks.

Buy it!

Atarashi blog

Yet again I've been somewhat slack in posting. I'd like to blame it on the rather serious hard drive crash I had recently which forced me to work like a robot until I had redone the 3 months work I lost (yes I know "backup"). But really, even if that hadn't happened I probably wouldn't have posted. I have been a very busy boy.

I am however, back. And as you may've noticed I've moved this blog over to blogger.com. I hope you like the new 3 column layout.

Fukubukuro

The first few days of the year are always sale time in Japan. Which I guess is the same in many of the world's big cities. What makes Japan a little different is the tradition stores have of selling "Fukubukuro" or "Lucky Bags". These are like a lucky dip because their contents are hidden until you've bought them, but the promise is they will always contain goods worth about double the price paid.

All kind of places, from department stores through to the big brand-name stores have them, and their price can reach exorbitant levels - resulting in some big savings. While the Ginza area attracts much of the attention during the Fukubukuro season the best place to see the modern nature of this tradition is in Tokyo's heart of girl's fashion - the 109 building in Shibuya.As thousands of girls flock to the store, eager to grab bags from their favourite boutiques, they are heldin check by rows of neatly dressed security guards, whose blue uniforms stand in drab contrast to the glitz of J-girl fashion. These men resemble somewhat bemused fathers as they control the crowds of girls young enough to be their daughters.

Eventually the girls re-emerge from the building clutching their booty, and many soon stop to open the bags on the street in front of the store, where the second stage of this Fukubukuro spectacle takes place. Within and around this seven storey cylinder of style the Fukubukuro sale has become much more than an annual sales event, and has evolved into a free-market trading ground resembling the stock exchanges of old. The proper thing to do during Fukubukuro season, is to accept what is inside the bag and take it home, but for the past few years, girls have set up an impromptu market on the sidewalk in front of 109 and swap or sell the unwanted items of clothing they find inside the bags. The frenzied action is fascinating to watch and probably one few places in Tokyo where you can actually haggle on the price of goods. These girls are going against the accepted norm by doing this and some Japanese people I have spoken to think the management of 109 may try to shut down the market next year. But personally I feel the entrepreneurial spirit shown by the girls who started this trend proves the 109 building in Shibuya continues to be the epicentre of change for Japanese women.

My photos can't really capture the mood so please watch the video below.

Ake Ome

I took this snap of Tyson inspired graffiti in Omote Sando several months back, but it seemed a perfect way to celebrate the Year of the Mouse. So...

Akemashite Omedettou Gozaimau.

Happy New Year everyone... let's hope it's a knockout.

Ebittcho

Over the years I've been somewhat de-sensitised to the odd flavour combinations that pop-up in the snack aisles of the Japanese convenience stores... but this I just had to show you.

So please, um... enjoy the perfect match of shrimp and chocolate?!

(click for a larger view)

Ok... so how do they taste? Well, despite my initial reluctance to try them I eventually did after a few glasses of wine, and can now tell you they taste like chocolate biscuits... with a strangely appealing seafood aftertaste.

But then, I may have had too much to drink.