Japanese singer, Hitomi, has called her own husband her greatest enemy in raising their children. She recently released a new baby clothing line in collaboration with Seven&i Holdings (the growing powerhouse behind Japan’s 7-11 convenience stores, Itoyokado malls, and much more). Hitomi’s clothing line will be called Pomipomi, and when announcing it commented that there…
I am writing about this story for two reasons. The first is that yes, there are drugs in Japan and they are not hard to obtain. (This is contrary to how shiny, happy, mainstream media usually portrays Japan in English.) Secondly, I’ve found that when anyone is arrested for drug possession in Japan, there is…
The Konami dating video game LovePlus has now found itself on a Visa credit card in Japan. The video game received global attention when a man in Japan decided to marry one of the characters in his game live on Niko Niko Douga. Now Sumitomo Mitsui Bank (SMBC) is offering a Visa credit card with…
In comments on my previous post, people seemed interested in “Yozakura” or night hanami. Viewing cherry blossoms at night can be a nice evening outing and also a good contrast to cherry blossom viewing in the daytime. There are tons of places, and if you stay in a hotel, I’m sure the staff can guide…
A very familiar face has taken home the best actress honors at the California Independent Film Festival in Moraga, California this year. Hiromi Nagasaku will be familiar to fans of Japanese movies and dramas. She won the award for her role in the film “Cast Me If You Can” in which she stars with Toru…
There are not a lot of performers from Japan who make it big in Hollywood. Now with the addition of Yoji “Pop” Asano, that number remains exactly the same. He did however get a lot of unintentional laughs for his interview style (teachers of English in Japan will not be surprised), and praise for his…
If you are a resident of Osaka and would like to read some opinion papers written by your governor, Toru Hashimoto, you now have the option of reading them at a bite-sized pace. New to twitter, it seems that Hashimoto (whose twitter profile shows he follows no one) jumped in feet first without testing the…
Employees of the Kobe love hotel “Swing” were arrested in a recent police sting for lending Wii and PlayStation 3 to customers. Yes, they let guests of the hotel use their Wiis for entertainment without permission of copyright holders of games such as Mario Cart and BioHazard 5. With all that may or may not…
Another poll from Sugoren gives us a list of the top 9 things that Japanese women want their boyfriends to learn how to do well. I was somewhat surprised by the order of a few items, but the content was pretty predictable. 9. UFO Catcher AKA Crane Games or Claw Games (so that guys can…
This is a commercial for an energy bar called Ippon Manzoku. “Even though it’s chocolate it’s healthy.” Ippon Manzoku is supposed to fill you up with just one. The commercial stars Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, one of the members of the singing group SMAP, who seems to have fully recovered from a little scandal a year or…
Coca cola has released press releases about a new commercial set to be released on February 2nd, 2011. The commercial is set to be part of the Coca-cola Zero “Wild Health” ad campaign. The “Wild Health” campaign also uses other actors and famous people including Amuro Namie. The commercials are made with high production values…
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has released a list of eight cliches they say people interviewing for jobs with Japanese companies should avoid saying. These are the kind of things that teachers in Japan, many of whom have never had jobs other than teaching, advise their students to say. I hope the…