Archive for February, 2010

CoCo Ichibanya Curry House in Okinawa: Popular with the U.S. military

Curry House chain CoCo Ichibanya has hundreds of restaurants throughout Japan, but two of its top three most profitable restaurants are not located on the main islands of Japan. They are in Okinawa, and, as this news report shows, they are successful because of the patronage of Americans stationed at the military bases there:


The main focus of the news report is on a CoCo Ichibanya located right outside of the gate of Kadena Airbase. When the reporter checks inside the restaurant, she finds that almost every single customer is American.

It is noted that the Americans have eating habits that differ slightly from typical Japanese customers. They really like to order lots of toppings for their curry, as well as consume a lot of the tsukemono (it’s free). Although the monthly total of customers who eat there is less than at CoCo Ichi restaurants in Tokyo, the Americans order more per meal, making it the most profitable Coco Ichi restaurant in Japan. [It may also have something to do with the fact that they are exchanging dollars to yen at a rate of 1 dollar=80 yen. Ouch.]

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Aerial view of snow in Tokyo

It rarely snows in Tokyo, so when it does, it’s big news. Here’s a video from the Asahi Shimbun showing what the snow on February 2nd looked like from the sky:

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Cops stop Josh Sehrer

Remember that video clip of Josh Sehrer acting stupid in Shibuya? Here’s another one, apparently showing him being taken away by the police:

Given the absolutely terrible quality of the video, it’s hard to figure out what is going on. However, Josh provided some details via e-mail:

As you probably know I was just in Tokyo for 72 hours to get publicity, well more like 48 hours. Thursday night when I arrived I had a coat but no shirt underneath, my belly button/tattoo of Shibuya’s 109 building was the only thing showing not either of my nipples.

Fans had been filming when literally all of Shibuya’s police force apprehended me, and you’d think it’d be over yelling that I love the foreigner girls walking past but as you can see from the superimposed time the police showed up about 15 seconds after we walked back.

I was apprehended because my belly button was showing and because of it I lost nearly 24 hours of my trip, detained without food or water!

And it was caught on tape! Please share this, not to promote my friends music but to put an end to this abuse rarely caught on tape!

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Songs for women around 40-years-old

A commercial advertises an album for women “around 40″ who want to re-experience the days when they were young and wild:

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Japanese beverages supported by foreigners

What Japanese beverage do you like best?
Melon cream soda, CC lemon, Calpis, vegetable fruit juice, canned soup…and more?

Japanese beverages are very popular in Thailand, but they are of course arranged for Thai preferences.

Nowadays Gogo-no-koucha is selling well, but originally it was not common in Thailand to drink tea from a PET bottle. If they use the PET bottle same as what they do in Japan, the color of straight tea looks like “nam pla” and lemon tea looks like cooking oil, which doesn’t make Thai people feel like trying it. They learned that they had to change from bottle design to target Thai consumers. Tea is also very sweet compared with Japanese one, because Thai people like strong taste.

Ajinomoto is also a very popular Japanese company in Thailand. They do not sell beverages in Japan, but their canned coffee named “Birdy” is really successful among Thai consumers.

What Japanese beverages do you like or dislike?

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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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Leona Lewis interview on Japanese TV

Another week, another “Mezamashi TV” interview with a foreign celebrity that involves the presentation of weird gifts:

Leona Lewis was singing the “Avatar” theme song before a gathering of Japanese fans, some of whom got very emotional. Mezamashi put one of the pretty girls who models trendy new products every morning The interviewer is a big fan of Leona and presents her with a card expressing her feelings (–we’ve seen what happens when announcers try to read such cards aloud–). Because Leona Lewis’ new album is named after a fairy, FTV decides to present her with some little Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro figures, since yokai are pretty much the same thing, right? Having no clue what the characters are, she is nonetheless asked to pick her favorite.
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