AU Hikari is a broadband service for subscribers in Japan including internet (yeah, 1GBps), tv, and digital phone. Their most recent commercial uses a Rube Goldberg machine to highlight the “power of optics”. Rube Goldberg machines are referred to in Japanese as a Pythagoras Device or sometimes by the eponym “Pythagoras Switch” (named after the popular…
Momotaro aka The Peach Boy is a very well known Japanese folktale. It’s most often depicted with cute characters, although the story itself is an action packed battle starring Momotaro and the monkey, pheasant, and dog he befriends in his travels. Pepsi Japan has picked up the story and began releasing a series of commercials…
Erana Brewerton, a respected Maori scholar on a cultural program visiting Hokkaido was denied entry to a hot spring in Hokkaido that prohibits tattoos. Brewerton is a celebrated scholar in New Zealand and has a traditional tattoo on her face. Many hot springs have policies prohibiting tattoos but in many cases are not enforced unless…
Just in time for summer and following in the footsteps of Pepsi drinks intended to be both great thirstquenchers for hot and humid Japan, Pepsi has released it’s latest and most delicious sounding flavor so far. Salty Watermelon Salty Watermelon Pepsi is scheduled to go on sale in Japan starting July 24th for the suggested…
If you’ve been to Japan and walked through one of the drinking districts or shopping districts or malls or most any place with a good amount of foot traffic, you may have been tempted to slip inside and drop a few hundred yen into a video game. The popularity of public arcades lives on in…
Japan’s prime mininster’s office has spent 4.5 million yen (nearly US$550,000) on an overhaul of the Prime Minister’s website. The redesign was done to improve communications. A new section of the site was also designed for kids. The site, titled” The Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet” can be found at http://www.kantei.go.jp/ . It includes links…
Pepsi’s latest limited release flavor will be called “Pepsi Pink” and reportedly will be strawberry milk flavored. Pepsi Japan has often experimented in the past with different flavors including Mont Blanc Pepsi and Baobab Pepsi.. Next up is a pink colored drink that is created to be not strawberry flavored, but have a strawberry and milk flavor…
One of the longest running manga in English translation in the US, Ranma 1/2, the unique story of a boy who was cursed to turn into a girl whenever he is wet by cold water. Hot water lets him revert to his original form. (Incidentally, his father turns, not into a girl, but into a…
I’m going to embed the video right here so you can watch and try to figure out what’s going on here… Looks like something out of a science fiction movie. The person in the video seems to be a worker at the plant, based on his official clothing, but I’m not sure why he is…
One of the greatesst places to visit in Japan is Hiroshima. There are beautiful sites, natural places to hike, historical monuments and museums, and great regional foods. One of Hiroshima’s greatest attractions is the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, called the “Genbaku Dome” in Japanese. Beginning August 6th, 2011 in Japan which is the evening of August…
The O-bon or Bon Festival in Japan is definitely something summer travelers to Japan want to have marked on their calendars. There are both good things about being in Japan, but also some things to be aware of if traveling around this time of year. Some things to be aware of: Many people in Japan…
Although many schools make an effort to keep a school song at least somewhat timely and fun to sing, and there are a lot of good school songs around Japan with the inevitable charismatic brass band to play it as well as they can… Shigakukan High School in Nagoya city, Aichi Prefecture has a great JPop…