2010 January | Japan Probe

Archive for January, 2010

Daiwaman X

Oh crap. Daiwa House has got some new Xevo houses, and the crazy director from their previous commercials thinks that Koji Yakusho should be playing the role of a new superhero, Daiwaman X:

Yakusho does not want to put on a ridiculous super hero costume. He suggests to the director that a younger actor, such as Toshiaki Karasawa, would probably be more appropriate for such a role.

To his surprise, Karasawa suddenly appears and happily volunteers to become Daiwaman X. The director thinks he’s perfect, and Yakusho is shocked and possibly even jealous.

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3 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 29, 2010 at 6:01 am

Categories: Odd / Strange

Battle of the Japanese deliverymen

A Japanese TV show picks a location in Shibuya that is of equal distance from three food delivery businesses [Domino's Pizza/ Shanghai Express/Hishizen Sushi] so it can test who can make and delivery meals at the quickest speed:

The results are as follows:

Hishizen Sushi – 19 minutes 55 seconds
Shanghai Express – 20 minutes 3 seconds
Domino’s Pizza – 20 minutes 14 seconds

The delivery times are so close that no chain gets bad PR out of the television appearance. At the very least, each place seems to have known exactly which order was to be filmed, so it might not be a good idea to take this as an example of typical speedy responses. [From my experience ordering from nearby pizza places, it usually takes about an hour in the evening.]

Do you think the results were rigged/staged?

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13 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 28, 2010 at 6:02 am

Categories: Japanese Food

Josh Sehrer in Shibuya

If you liked Jimmy the Supa Gaijin, you’ll probably enjoy this video of Josh Sehrer [the Ghettocities Clothing guy] being interviewed on the streets of Shibuya (warning: contains graphic language):

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30 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - at 5:51 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan

Fast fashion beats big name brands?

A three-piece set of outfit that looks like a fashion magazine costs only 3,890 yen at Don Quijote. It’s “Tokyo Cover Girl”, Don Quijote’s fast fashion brand. The secret of such cheap price is in Guangzhou, China. They study Japanese fashion magazine and manufacture similar designed clothes as well as custom designed clothes very promptly at a low cost.

GUCCI in Ginza fashion district is going to withdraw at the end of February 2010, and the place will be replaced by Forever 21′s second store in Japan. (At a moment, Forever21 has only one store in Harajuku.)

Other high fashion brands cannot stop opening their sister shops that offer low-price clothing one after another, because this is the trend today brought by foreign fast fashion brands. For example, FREE’S SHOP produces FREE’S MART and moussy produces AZUL by moussy. Don Quijote is not exceptional.

It will only take about 3 weeks for Don Quijote’s “Tokyo Cover Girl” to be available at stores. It has to be that fast and fresh.

I have to say it’s very natural we jump to fast fashion under such a bad economy, while I am worried about it that cheap things may be thrown away very easily. When we can get things at a very low cost we may forget the spirit that we have to cherish them.

If you are interested in the fashion, here’s a related post about it.

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Contributor Bio: Kirin is a Japanese woman spending her life so far somewhere around Tokyo. She now works from home and is also spreading Japanese kawaii culture and etc. through her popular blog, Tokyo Kawaii,etc.
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