Archive for June, 2009

A toilet that sighs

“Nanikore Chin Hakkei” discovers a toilet that makes a human-like sighing sound after it is flushed:

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Uniqlo to buy the Gap?

Amy Odell of NY Mag reports that Uniqlo owner Tadashi Yanai might buy the Gap:

Yanai is trying to turn Fast Retailing into the biggest clothing manufacturer and retailer in the world. The easiest way for him to do this by targeting the U.S. market is not to open a million new Uniqlo stores — that would be too much of a pain. So he plans to take a shortcut and simply buy a large chain. Insiders speculate that Gap is that chain.

[hat tip to Marxy]

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Pepsi Shiso: How is it?

• Matt Alt: “Surprisingly drinkable.”
• Curzon: “I LOVE the new soft drink.”
• Iwakan – “This was rockin’ good.”
• Claytonian – “Not bad.”
• Kumaboshi – “It’s actually not bad, and does smell and taste (at least at first) like shiso.”

Negative Reviews

• Gaijin Tonic – “While it might be refreshing on a humid summer’s day, there’s no escaping the fact that it tastes like mouthwash.”
• Tokyo Five: “unappealing” & “mediocre”
• Rinkya – “Medicine taste, but makes you feel worse.”
• Hikan Ninja – “tastes like a mild mouthwash.”
• Adventures in Japanland – “Whoever decided to make SHISO into a Pepsi flavor needs to be pushed off a bridge.”

My verdict: It tastes like shiso and it is not terrible. Good to try once for the odd flavor experience, but other soft drinks are far more tasty and refreshing.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Benedictine monastery in Japan

MinnPost has a very interesting article up about how a Benedictine monastery in Japan was able to thrive after Japanizing the lifestyle of its monks:

To outsiders, this may seem obvious. In fact, it was obvious to insiders, too. But it’s one thing to suggest that a culture needs to change, and another matter altogether to actually change it. Nonetheless, last year — with great effort, and after much discussion — the monks at Trinity made the decision to shift the monastery’s culture — especially in the dining room (second in importance to the chapel — which had benefited from a Japanese liturgy for years. Japanese cuisine became a more regular facet of the Trinity dining experience; chopsticks began to appear at the common tables and, most significantly, conversations were translated from Japanese into English, and not — as had long been the practice — from English into Japanese.

Father Edward Vebelun, 41, a still boyish native of Ohio who was trained as a priest in a Japanese seminary, describes the transition as a revelation. “From there, the flood gates really opened for us.”

Read the rest of the article here.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)