It happened in...
KitKat latest
MON 29 JANUARY
If you've been keeping up, you'll recall the testing team was bowled over by the rather special KitKat Choco Banana. Trouble is, so was the rest of Kumamoto, and 7/11s (for tis their exclusive) all over the district have been stripped of their Choco Bananas, leaving only half full boxes of Yubari Melon, which seem as popular as they were in this house.;){kind=link}
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So it was without any particular hope that I had a quick look at the sweets shelf in a kombini on my travels today, and lo and behold, not only the rare beast (which we are now stocked up on), but also this!
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I'm not sure I bought enough.
Catching (almost none of) the action
MON 29 JANUARY
You can cram any amount of learning into your head about taking a decent photograph, but for some of life's moments that learning's not worth a jot without a good dollop of luck.Last week, when I was out of for a walk along the river, I happened upon a huge crowd of ducks. And I took a couple of hundred rather dull photographs of them. Today though I decided to refrain from snapping until something interesting happened, like flying, for example. Following a flying duck at full zoom is a skill you can't learn, it seems.
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More practice required then. Lucky it's digital.
Oh, and...
FRI 26 JANUARY
...Newsround's back.The Great Natto Diet Scandal
FRI 26 JANUARY
Ah, the first decent scandal of 2007.Far be it from me to say that (generalisation coming uuuup... now) the Japanese are gullible, but it has been said that they are somewhat less cynical than certain... ahem... other nations. There does seem to be a level of credulity here that is exploited to its fullest. And not just by foreigners looking for a laugh. No. Also by 'the man on the telly'. The Man on the Telly isn't a scientist and yet he spouts 'scientific facts'. The Man on the Telly isn't much of an expert on anything, but he appears to gain instant authority by virtue of... err... being on telly.
And so you have a fertile ground for the 'scoop' - a ratings-winning 'discovery' that hides a complete lack of any real evidence behind brightly coloured subtitles and a gasping live studio audience.
Remember last January, there was the 'revelation' of the Killer Kotatsu? Which was a rather unsurprising pile of unscientific nonsense. And it put the fear up a lot of people completely needlessly.
Another one that I mentioned here was the spectacular Kidney Bean Diet. Which, as we discussed, was strictly speaking a success in dieting terms. Much in the same way that dysentery would pave the way to "a slimmer, more beautiful you".
These are just two that I could be bothered to write about. They pop up all the time. And we didn't have to wait long for the first one of this year.
On January 7, the programme 'Hakkutsu! Aru Aru Daijiten II' revealed to a stunned (and largely credulous) audience that natto (you remember what natto is, don't you?) is a magic slimming food if eaten morning and night. Now, although my Bullshit Detector immediately started bleeping (natto has after all been around for hundreds of years and no one's mentioned this before), and I figured this was a nice bit of sponsored advertising by natto producers, it seems I was very much in the minority. The next day, newspapers reported, supermarket shelves were swept clean of natto. That one programme spurred bulk-buying of natto all over the country, and two days later, there was the Great National Natto Shortage. There was none to be had anywhere.
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But just the next day, prompted by outraged netizens calling Bullshit, the producers and the TV channel had to back down and admit that the whole thing was fabricated.
Then the newspapers stuck the boot in. Despite having previously kept quiet, the press whipped up as much faux outrage as they could. The starchy Yomiuri Shimbun said the programme "had harmed the credibility of the television media sector as a whole". Cred-uh-bilitee...? Then the low-brow Mainichi (which itself is wonderfully gutter-level, but always places itself unashamedly above 'the rabble') piped up that "popular media tended to exaggerate or give misleading information to keep their ratings high" (which the noble Mainichi would never stoop to).
And the TV channels not involved were falling over themselves, their news-readers barely able to keep the smirks off their faces.
But it didn't stop there. On Monday, the show's only sponsor, Kao Corp, dropped the programme like a stone and stopped endorsing it. The following day it was announced that the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry were getting involved and summoning producers to explain themselves before threatening to give the whole programme the chop.
Then the day after that, the president of the production company (Japan Television Workshop) Naoyoshi Furuya announced his resignation "to take responsibility for the incident".
"We feel grave and serious social responsibility. We apologize to viewers and those involved."Wow! The aftermath was far more entertaining than the original show could ever have hoped to be! I'm not sure why this one exploded so spectacularly, especially considering that this sort of programming is the norm, but who can complain - it finally gave us something to watch!
Many happy returns
TUES 23 JANUARY
Happy Birthday, Dad!
No s**t
THURS 18 JANUARY
In England, signs that prohibit you from doing something are invariably stern affairs promising pain and a pecuniary punch.In Japan, of course, it's a little different. There's no place for stern where instead kawaii will do the job just as well, if not better.
I don't know how true this is for other parts of Japan, but in Mashiki, rather than prescribe anything as harsh as law, the authorities have decided that a bit of gentle encouragement and a good dose of kawaii is the route to preventing the populace from permitting their pooches to poo on the pavement.
So without further a-doodoo, I present a selection of the very special signage on display.
First up, and my personal favourite...
He's just a treasure, isn't he. His sign simply says "Dog poo prohibited", while also asking owners to pick up after their dog.
Second pup up is...
Same headline, but adds "If your dog poos while you're out for a walk, perhaps you might clear up after him?"
Things threaten to take a turn for the serious with #3...
The happy headline shouts "Let's take home our dog poo!" while the frowning bulldog himself has no more to say than "Poop!" Lastly, and I can't say as I'm too happy about this, number 4...
Using a human. I ask you. Granted, it's a bug-eyed cartoon human, but a chance missed, I feel. This one urges you to use a little consideration (and a little plastic bag).
Brainwave
MON 15 JANUARY
If you're looking for a new and interesting way of teaching the names of animals to children, might I suggest Animal Crackers?;){kind=link}
Time flies...
FRI 12 JANUARY
...when you're having fun.Needless to say, after Monday's fun 'n games, the rest of the week disappeared in a frantic search for one photo opportunity after another. And then putting up the results on Flickr.
My favourites from the week have been...
An attempt an miniaturising the town centre - complete with
'model' tram.
Always dependable for a good photo, Miss Milk.
And finally, another visit to the castle for the highest vantage point in the city
centre.
To the victor, the spoils
MON 8 JANUARY
You'll be glad to hear that the Yamada Denki New Year sale has been good 'n pillaged. We raided early this morning and retired to Joyfull for lunch to gloat over our swag.Sick as I am of backing up to CDs, we liberated a 320gig external drive, which should take some filling. But the highlight for me was definitely this - a new Canon Powershot S3. All I have to do now is learn what all these bells and whistles do. A good week of RTFM beckons.
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Nothing in moderation
MON 8 JANUARY
As that
famous old saying goes, the weekend's not over until you've eaten a dessert half the size of your head.That monster on the right is what we used to call Creme Caramel, but what is known here rather more pedestrianly as purin.
And while that tiny little one that you can barely make out is a mere 100g, the proper job next to it is a stomach-stretching 400g. Dessert for the entire family! Just for me!
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Gaki no tsukai, or How I survived New Year
SUN 7 JANUARY
What with being ill for the entire festive season, it's no secret that I wasn't a bundle of joy as 2006 became 2007. And in fact, being incarcerated under a blanket with just Japanese television forBut there was a jewel in the midden. And that gem was Gaki no Tsukai, or more specifically, the annual No Laughing game. The programme is the domain of Downtown (the comedy duo Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada), ably assisted by Housei Yamazaki, Shouzo Endo and Naoki Tanaka. The No Laughing game involves 3 of the group being taken away for 24 hours and put into increasingly ridiculous situations and having to resist the urge to laugh. The punishment for even the slightest smirk is, of course, a good beating.
This year the trio was taken to Police training college. In the past the trio have had to survive a day of unlikely goings on in a hot spring resort and in a school. Watch a clip from last year as Endo, Tanaka and Matsumoto try to resist the urge to laugh on poor Jimi having difficulties with an English lesson.
The whole of this year's show is currently on YouTube as linked by TV in Japan. How long it'll stay up, though, is anyone's guess.
The official 2007 Rubbish Sorting Calendar of Mashiki Machi
SUN 7 JANUARY
When the conversation gets around to rubbish-sorting, as it inevitably does when you've exhausted every other possible avenue of conversation, people who don't live in Japan, or are just visiting, often ask how on earth we sort our rubbish and get the right bag to the kerb on the right day.
It's a piece of cake really. You just consult the Oracle - the colour-coded calendar that tells all.So once you've cleared it with the calendar, you're Go! for landing. Then it's all about finding the right rubbish before you hear the reversing beep of the rubbish truck. And that's a question of the right bag.
Clear ones for moeru gomi - burnable rubbish. Green ones for the moenai gomi - unburnable rubbish.
Then there are the rarer ones - orange, which is for those polystyrene trays you get in packs of meat, for example. It takes us an age to gather enough to fill this one. And then there's the even lesser-spotted blue one - for PET (plastic) bottles. These don't make it out of the cupboard very often either. Most of our PET bottles get reused and lost elsewhere. And then there are the yellow and white ones - yellow for bottles and cans, and the white for milk packs.
You can keep your bikini-clad girlie calendars or your slightly creepy anime pin-ups calendars. Thank heaven (or at least the local council) for my Gomi calendar. For without my Gomi Calendar I'd be as lost and helpless as I am the rest of the time.
Because it's New Year
SAT 6 JANUARY
In the name of messing around for the sake of it, I've had a go at the gallery. Up there in the menu. Up there.Do we need to talk about the cricket?
FRI 5 JANUARY
5th Test, day 4; England 291 & 147, Australia 393 & 46-0; Australia win by 10 wkts, win the series 5-0 and regain the AshesI'm sure I wrote something about the 4th test, but that seems to have disappeared somewhere. If you really need a recap it went something like "England bat first and make it look dreadfully difficult. Australia illustrate that not to be the case. England go in again but fail to look like caring. The End."
And the final test's been no better, really, has it. All this talk by Flintoff of "repaying the fans who've paid a lot of money to come out here and support us". Yup. England can't claim to have done that in any of the matches in this series. Some players have had flashes, but the team has never showed much. Not like Australia, who for prolonged periods, have looked indestructible.
Just about all England can take from this series is that they won't have to face McGrath and Warne again. That should at least prevent them getting themselves out quite so early or often next time around.
Australia will undoubtedly enjoy having won the series 5-0, but knowing Australians, I'm sure they would've preferred it if England had even looked like putting up a fight. Alas.
Hatsu mode
FRI 5 JANUARY
The one New Year tradition that we managed this year was hatsu mode - the first visit of the year to the shrine or temple.;){kind=link}
Kengun jinja, just down the road from us, is our 'home' shrine. But unlike in previous years when we've been up there on the stroke of midnight with the crowds, we left it until Wednesday. I assumed we'd pretty much have the run of the place what with us being 3 days in to the New Year. I assumed most other people would have got their hatsu mode long out of the way, but not so.
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The Deadly Mochi Toll
THURS 4 JANUARY
Mochi, as you might know, are rice cakes, little patties of rice that's been pounded until it reaches a foul, gloopy, abominably sticky consistency (imagine very thick wallpaper paste), and then, like so many similar-sounding food items, enjoyed as a delicacy all over Japan.Mochi also kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.
Mochi are 'an important part of New Year's tradition' in Japan, and so, it would seem, are the resultant headlines. Year after year. "Man chokes to death". "2 woman choke to death on mochi". So far this year 4 people have died and 11 have been hospitalised.
In 2005, the Tokyo Fire Department (don't ask me) recommended that people "cut mochi into small pieces, eat slowly, and not eat alone." Or just not eat mochi.
Of course, if English table manners existed here, all this could be avoided, but no, why take a dainty bite-size portion and stay alive when you can shove as much food into your mouth as possible! And then perhaps start talking. Or choking.
Should've seen it coming
THURS 4 JANUARY
The Year of the Wild Boar got off to just about the most inauspicious start for four people in Yawatahama, Ehime Prefecture. On New Year's Day, they were attacked in the street."The four people, ranging in age from 56 to 77, suffered injuries to legs and other parts of their bodies in the attacks by wild boars within a radius of 100 meters in the space of only 15 minutes, the police said."
Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!
THURS 4 JANUARY
I'm finally getting around to wishing you a Happy New Year, but I've been out of the game since New Year's Eve, struck down by a virus for the entire week of the holiday, and recovered just in time to go back to work. So no festive season for me, and nose back to the grindstone. Not an auspicious start to the Year of Wild Boar.
Back to December?