Cup Noodle under the redwood trees
Cup Noodle follows the path that humans once used when crossing over from Asia into the Americas:
I hope Kimutaku didn’t leave his empty cup in the middle of the forest.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Japanese Food
Drugs are bad, nnnnnnnkay
Image courtesy of The Mainichi Daily News
Watching the hysteria over this story about celebrity Noriko Sakai’s drug use (Check out the Mainichi Daily News article here), I keep thinking about how unbelievable this would be in my own country, the U.S.A.
Try to imagine so much being made of Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Charlie Sheen, the list of drug-crazed celebs goes on and on.
Seems to be a couple of things going on. First, us Americans seem desensitized to this. If we gave a shit about every celeb who turned to drugs, we’d have no time to talk about anything else (to a certain extent this is the case now). Second, Americans love to watch the car crash–drugs tend to make the spectacle of people’s lives falling apart that much better. Third, drugs have long been tightly controlled on the island-nation of Japan. As a result, people here appear to be very naive about drugs. . .marijuana is just as bad as heroin in many people’s eyes. So, the conversation is just in a different place. Last, there seems to be a kind of satisfaction here in Japan that comes with casting a moral gaze down upon celebrities. They are judged very harshly.
I personally feel sorry for Sakai having to air her dirty laundry like this. Remind me not to become famous in Japan.
Would love to hear other thoughts on drugs, celebrity, and mass communication in Japan.
Contributor Bio: I am a doctoral student of environmental anthropology currently living and conducting research in a mountain village in Nagano. In my research I explore modernity as it is expressed in a rural mountain community. Specifically I look at national management structures, as well as social discourses, related to forests and probe the impacts these have on local human communities. I have lived and worked in Japan for 5 years. My interests also include Buddhism, literature, music, and mountaineering. Read more at my personal blog: In the Pines.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Celebrity News
Japanese fast food chains offer reduced portions
Mos Burger - Less meat in your burger, but at least it's cheaper!
Regular readers of this blog have probably heard about Japanese fast food chains offering “mega” sized menu items. Since not all Japanese want to gorge themselves on giant portions, the same chains are now beginning to offer “puchi” (tiny) sized food:
The above clip discusses how Mos Burger recently cut the size and price of its hamburgers and saw a 30% increase in sales. Matsuya also started offering smaller gyudon bowls and has seen a nearly 30% increase in sales, mostly from female customers. Sukiya has noticed the success of their rival and has also added a miniature gyudon bowl to its menu.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Japanese Food
Trash from Korean fishermen litters Japan’s beaches
A follow-up to yesterday’s post about Korean fishermen illegally entering Japanese territorial waters, this time about the trash they leave behind and its effect on Japanese beaches:
Larger Korean fishing boats can carry over 10,000 eel traps. According to the news program, some 10% of these traps are lost on each fishing trip. The fishermen interviewed don’t seem to think much of losing a few cheap plastic traps. The lost eel traps are washed ashore in Japan, where their disposal has become a very expensive burden.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Anti-Japan
The Future of JAL
According to sources at Japan Airlines, a company wide announcement will be made tomorrow regarding departments that were slated to be dissolved yesterday. Employees in departments likely to be highly affected by the restructuring are also expecting more details regarding their fates to be announced at the same time. While the entire restructuring plan is far from decided, JAL plans to cut 8,600 jobs, around 14% of its workforce. Today, Seiji Maehara, the new DPJ Minister for Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said bankruptcy is not an option for JAL.
As JAL begins announcing who will go and who will stay, if a healthy chunk of this 14% does not come from the entrenched bureaucracy (which it likely will not), those left behind will be tasked with doing not only the same amount of arguably pointless paperwork, but also their job as well as those of several former coworkers, all why being asked not to request to be paid for overtime. On the other hand, it is not difficult to imagine how a streamlined, efficient airline could navigate the perils of swine flu scares, prodigious pensions, fluctuating fuel prices, and the ever-present threat of terrorism.
Fortunately, Maehara also intends to review the feasibility of JAL’s soon to be released plan. Hopefully under the new DPJ administration, a sustainable plan will be implemented.
Contributor Bio: Steve has been splitting time between the US and Japan for the past 10 years or so and is now a post doctorate fellow at a large, lumbering University in Tokyo, where he gets paid to play with dirt.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: General Japan
Foreigners complain about Japan
On September 15th, ATV aired a Takeshi Kitano “World Summit” special that examined how other countries view Japan. Much like the infamous “Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin” series, it included discussion with a large panel of Japanese-speaking foreigners.
Below are two clips from a section in which foreigners named problems the Japan needed to fix.
Clip 1: A narrow mindset / Asking stupid questions
An Bangladeshi and Brazilian both bring up interesting issues. Unfortunately, more discussion time on the program was devoted to the complaints aired in the next clip.
Clip 2: Pornographic Manga / Sexual Harassmen
A Vietnamese woman complaints about the existence of so much pornography and erotic manga in Japan. She fears that it will have a negative impact on her home country. She thinks it is great that Vietnam outlaws pornography.
Next, an American woman starts ranting about sexual harassment in Japan, condemning Japanese men as the most perverted in the world. Another American representative agrees with her statements and declares that he would never want to raise children in Japan.
Just like “Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin,” most of the show was spent listening to the loudest and most annoying panelists make stupid rants and sweeping generalizations about other nations and cultures. At least a few of the foreigners must have been hoping that saying outrageous things on TV might earn them some fame and income as a foreign tarento.
The full program was 2 hours in length. A lot of clips from it have been popping up on YouTube, so I will try to find some of the other interesting parts and share them in a few other posts.
[huge thanks to Miss Igirisu for informing me about this program!]
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Japanese TV