Asahi News reported today that the American hamburger chain, Wendy’s, is set to make a return to the Japanese market. Wendy’s unceremoniously exited Japan near the end of last year. A representative at Wendy’s Asian headquarters was quoted as saying that they could not ignore the second largest fast food market in the world, and…
As you know this blog follows ereaders and kindle type devices as a good way for people living in Japan to own, transport, and move with their books despite being citizens of the world. For this reason, I like to talk about various ereaders as solutions to the problems involved with maintaining a nice large…
No sooner has Naoto Kan entered office and been hailed as a very different, very competent law maker and specialist in fixing financial crises, a youtube video of his first faux pas has also come out on the web. The video shows Kan waving to supporters happily and crossing the street… while the DO NOT…
Asus has announced the forthcoming EeePad which will be the netbook giant’s entry into the touchpad or tablet computer market. It seeks to improve upon the iPad’s design with several features not found on the iPad, or only available as paid upgrades or accessories. There are scheduled to be two versions, one with a 10…
The 3G version of the Apple’s iPad is scheduled to be released for use with none other than the obvious carrier, Softbank. Softbank is the company now hosting the growing iPhone market in Japan, and has likewise gotten the nod as the 3G provider for the iPad here. I’ve recommended the iPad before as the…
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose last name literally translates as “Pigeon Mountain” showed a bit of his comedy stylings at a recent event in Tokyo. Hatoyama has always been a character with a penchant for dancing, eccentricity, and having fun however he’s been uncharacteristically low key so thus far in his tenure. A bit…
Pepsi has come out with it’s newest entry into the carbonated beverage pool with “Baobab” Pepsi. To be honest, I haven’t had this yet, and can’t imagine what the flavor might be. The baobab tree fruit is one of the new kids on the block in terms of flavors (off the African continent, that is)…
Some time ago, I was lamenting the fact that the abundance of books I had accumulated in Japan would be too costly to make the trip back to the U.S. with me. I wrote an open letter on this blog appealing to Amazon Japan to make a Kindle in Japan. I wanted Japanese language functionality,…
I guess the important thing to keep in mind is that this poll was completed on the internet by a company called COBS. COBS is a data collection agency with members who answer polls and post reviews in return for points. This also explains the number one answer… Here are the result of the poll…
A new type of cram school has opened in Japan designed to help women find a husband and prepare for life after nuptials. The school targets women who are hoping to prepare themselves for dating and marriage, and help them find love and marriage. Some students include the so-called “Ara-Fo” or “Around Forty” unmarried women…
Many train lines in Japan have women’s only train carriages. This is designed to give women an place to ride the train without fear of the gropers, or molesters called “chikan” in Japanese. The special cars are generally available during rush hour only to prevent the overcrowded trains in Japan from providing opportunity and cover…
The other day, I was perusing Craigslist, and did a search for the term “Japanese” in the job listing section. I was not particularly surprised to see that there was an ad searching for asian egg donors that came up. My first reaction to the ad was that they certainly paid for pretty models to…