Who is that unmasked man in the mirror?
I suppose I could've been the blue monster from the previous post to the fancy dress party but I'd rather be a hero than a villain.
Coincidence - the day I received the costume, I found a small spider in my hair. Gross, yes. Weird, also yes.
Red alert, red alert.
Setsubun - my favourite festival - is on Tuesday (3rd February). There're a lot of monsters roaming around so will someone out there here my call and prepare some beans to throw around.
To jog your memory, here are my previous two experiences of the festival. The first was low-key but fun, and the second was insane - remember satsuma throwing in the snow?
Isn't that amazing, I've been doing the blog so long I'm able to link to three previous entries!
Hollwood's biggest couple and their six (yes, six!) children have taken on Tokyo to promote the Benjamin Button film*.
One thing though. Take off your hat!
*One of the last big Oscar nominated movies I want to see, along with Revolutionary Road. Milk was brilliant.
...now it's officially the Chinese New Year. Google were ever so kind to remind me it's the year of the cow/ox, and they even included my favourite kanji (fuku - luck), although I'm not sure the relevance.
To make the supermarket trip a little less dreary, here's a fun way to add some pizazz to the products. 
Barcode Revolution, a Japanese company, added pictures to the barcodes, giving them life whilst still being fully functional. A huge list of them can be seen here.
This is an alternative inauguration, a magic show by the man of the hour himself. It helps to know that a 'mikan' is a type of orange in Japan.
Want to be Mario? In a really substandard reality?
Here's your chance. Welcome to 'Nintendo Amusement Park'.
Go wild.
Not sure why this happened but it did. A real life Mario experience.
I love how happy they all are at the end.
Whatever your eyes tell you, this is not a cow. This is a goat born in Narita (between the airport and Tokyo). Actually, it's a kid but you get the point.
The News should be full of more of these stories.
I can finally give a Barry-esque grin now: I finally knew something the Eggheads didn't. (Ok, so they guessed it correct but that's irrelevant.) The question was about Yakult Swallows playing in Japan. I even know their colours, mascot (a swallow of course) and stadium, as well as most of the rules. I also know the price of a hotdog there.
Other Egghead and BBC quizzing news (but slightly more mean) - one unfortunate name and an unfortunate-placed word.
I said it was mean.
Now I have your attention. I could've equally used the word "Sex" on its own and undoubtedly you'd be intrigued (although sorely disappointed) but I have readers who may find it objectionable.
I was just reading about 'Google Whoring' (sorry, again) on the Times Website's comment central section. It's a method of including popular words in your headines to make your blog/website more favourable in search engine results, even if it's irrelevant to the contents.
I'm not a particularly good Google whore (nor am I a Pretty Woman - is that relevant?) as I shy away from pop culture issues on the whole. However, I thought it might be fun to see who can make up the best headline full of popular Japanese ideas in the comments section. I'll go first (check the comments for it, and add your own!)
Isn't the sound of thick snow crunching underneath shoes the best? 
Shame then that this is Sendai again. Bournemouth may have had the coldest temperature of the UK last night (-6) but only brought frost with it. Where's the snow?
When the whale died in the Thames a few years back, The Sun used the caption "Farewhale". I could have equally used the title "Goat-ed" but the news is too depressing for that. My friend, the goat in Buais, died.
An obituary: He was an absolute beauty. When we first met he approached cautiously and sealed the deal with eating some veg I offered him. From then on he'd spring out of his shed and bleet me until I fed him, and then watched me with those big eyes until I was out of sight.
He broke his leg and had to be put down. To make it worse, he'd survived Christmas! I want to scream out, "Whyyyyyyyyyyyy him?" but it won't bring him back. Instead he will be forever memorialised on this blog doing what he loved best: eating and looking.
Let this be a lesson: life is short so eat all the cabbage you can.
(Never really 'got' the book but at least it continues my literary theme this year.)
Roadworks are never fun but Japan has introduced a novel (literary!) way to make them less depressing. This was floating around the internet:
Keiko was in Tokyo today (long story, and one that shouldn't be told yet for fear of jinxing) and found this:
Sweet.
That sketch still cracks me up, as does this one: Merry Xmas!.
I 'borrowed' this story from a blog, but seeing as two blogs have 'borrowed' a photograph from my Miyajima post, it only seems fair. According to this report, Japan has the highest density of robots in the world, by quite a long way: ten times the average. However, Europe sneaks ahead, overtaking Asia and America in the continent race.
In Germany's automobile industry there is a proportion of 7 staff to 1 robot, and there will be an estimated 1.2 million industrial robots by 2011. Who said statistics weren't fun?
Actually, a stunning statistic I read the other day was that, in the USA, one in a hundred people are in prison. That is insane.
Not because I think I met her once* but because she is mightily talented. Yesterday I saw The Reader on the cheap**, her latest film and it is an unforgiving role that relies on her courage as an actor.
The novel was massive on its release; the only German book to ever top the New York Times Bestseller list. The first half concerns a relationship between Hanna Schmitz (Winslet) and Michael, a 15-year old (although 18 in real life - there is a lot of nudity but it's handled well). It doesn't end well and what follows then is an amazing reunion at her trial where we find out she is being prosecuted for Nazi War Crimes. Suddenly the audience is drawn into conflict - is her version of the Holocaust enough to excuse her guilt? How can we sympathise with such a character?
The theme here is responsibility: for your actions, for your desires, and for assigning blame. The ending is a little too neat and the only other complaint I had was that one interesting character comes along and questions the morality of persecuting the few for the majority to relieve their consciences, only for him to disappear straight after. Again, this is another aspect of responsibility and, unfortunately, it is glossed over.
And, pathetic me, by the end tears were streaming. Not many films make me cry but this one destroyed me. When Michael finally takes some responsibility (there it is again) for something he should (or shouldn't) have done, it was cathartic to say the least. Oh how I cried.
Winslet deserves a million accolades for this.
*In a deli in Primrse Hill but I could be mistaken.
**£3.90! The Tuesday bargain, as well as the student/senior/child/old staff rate, as well as the 10p discounted from the reduced VAT.
I thought the 'Please do it at home' posters had been resigned to last year but they continue on. I guess it wil be a monthly feature.
I like to imagine the best in people, so I'm going to pretend the boy tripped over and the girl is helping him up.
You all know by now that carrots were originally purple, but have you heard of the white strawberry? Scientists developed them in Tokyo to be sold mainy for weddings. The going rate is extortionate - a pack of 8 white and 12 red would be something like £30!
Not as significant a scientific breakthrough as water-powered clocks, but still something.
In my haste to finish the retrospective I forgot to include my favouritest thing of last year. During the writers' strike, Joss Whedon (the main guy behind the Buffy series) and his pals went to work creatively. Whilst writing for tv was off the cards, they made a self-contained story within three 14 minute episodes (collectively the usual length of a tv drama*) and published them online. It's now been released as a DVD.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog follows the main character through his video blog as he struggles to be acceped by the Evil Legue of Evil and dodge his arch nemesis, Captain Hammer. At the same time, he is in love with the 'nice girl' and this leads to his own struggle between good and evil. It's hilarious, sad, and a musical extravaganza. As with the 'Once More With Feeling' Buffy musical, they pull it off brilliantly. The American Film Institute included it in their "Eight Moments of Significance of 2008".
Here's one of the songs:
Joss Whedon is a genius, there's no two ways about it. He even admitted to preferring Veronica Mars to Buffy and cameoed in it.
If anyone's interested, I have a copy.
*Using that logic, 24 should actually be named "Just Under 18" - in itself not the friendliest sounding name for a few reasons.
Nearing the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, technology is constantly on the rise. Now scientists have invented a clock that doesn't rely on batteries. Instead the electricity is water generated.
Here's a brief explanation from thinkgeek.com: "How does it work? Magic mostly. And a little bit of science too. The internal converter simply extracts electrons from water (or other liquid) molecules and provides a steady stream of electrical current acting as a fuel cell to generate power to the clock."
JA Bank are giving away free 'eco-clocks' to each new customer. (sorry about the quality, I hope you get the gist)
Here comes the science part:
One clock has an alarm, temperature and timer settings as well depending on which tilt the water sloshes. The nice thing about this next clock is that it can double up as a vase! 
Find a better title than that for the Chinese Year of the Cow/Ox!
I dare you.
We leave my year - the rat - behind and, if you turn 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 or, indeed, if you are born this year, you are a cow. Don't have a cow, man. I don't mean cow literally, although I admit the cow isn't the most flattering of animals to be stuck with. Still, they are known for their determination and steadfastness, as well as producing dairy products (which might not be quite so relevant but where would civilisation be without the milkshake I ask you?).
If you are born in this year of the cycle, you join historical figures including Napoleon and Princess Diana.
As always, New Year cards featuring the relevant animal are sent out to friends and colleagues, with codes on the back for the prize-draw a few weeks later. Here's a selection the Terui's received. (One year they won a massage chair!)
Sendai also had a lot of snow:
2nd of January and I'm raring to go: I finished a book last night! (And I didn't smoke either!)
It was a peculiar read - Picnic At Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay - as I knew it had been made into a horror movie but the front cover looked prim and proper, which was intriguing. Set in a boarding school in Victoria, Australia at the turn of the 20th Century, the story begins with four girls and their teacher missing after an outing to the base of the eponymous dangerous monolithic structure. What follows is the consequences for other characters. Although it is nearly conclusive that it is a work of fiction, the writer uses 'real' ideas of newspaper cuttings and other devices to suggest it might have occurred.
The strangest thing of all is that the mystery is never solved, although the Secret of Hanging Rock - Chapter 18 - was published posthumously. The editor and author agreed it was better left off originally, and I'd have to agree. Highlight below for the truth:
The girls and teacher were called up to the summit of Hanging Rock by a supernatural force, where they shed their corsets, discovered a hole in time, turned into lizards and crawled into a crevice which was covered up by a fallen boulder. I'm not making it up! As crazy as it is, reading back through the previous chapters, the clues are all there - metaphors of time, insects and so on. Mystery solved-ish.
Trying a new header picture for the blog. Settled on this one for now as it's clean, fresh and bright but I'm open to suggstions.
I learnt last year that there are certain times the sun sets directly over Fuji, and I was lucky to capture that on a trip to Enoshima in April 2008. My pictures came out well, and you can see the rest here:
I just found out that around New Year, the sun also rises above the mountain in the crisp air, causing a diamond effect and hence the name. Not my photo but it's amazing:
"Have a Fine 2009" doesn't have the same level of positivity as "Have a Great 2008".
"Have a Sublime 2009." Does that work? Either way, Happy New Year!
Last night was really fun - good food and company with family. It proved that you don't need to go out for a good time; maybe my crusade should be to bring back the board game. The game was hilarious (I can't remember the name, but you have to guess words on a card) thanks in most part to Grandma's unique describing and guessing abilities. A few choice examples (I hope you don't mind Grandma):
Oli - What's like a bunny or rabbit, and is on your head?
Gma - Scalp?
Oli - (The Horn of Plenty) It's a place. What does a rhino have?
Gma - A horn.
Oli - And if you have a lot of something?
Gma - Horny!
Gma - When you masticate. You do it 24 times. You use your mouth and teeth.
Anyway... we had a brief interlude to bring in the new year. I don't think fireworks are the best use of money but the ones on the Thames did look spectacular. You can see a video on the right.
Onto 2009. My resolution? I decided to make plenty (as in a lot!) so at least some of them will work. All the usuals. Stop biting my nails. Exercise more. Read more. Also stop smoking (hurrah, I definitely achieved one!!!)
My main one is a bit more complicated. Actually a lot more. I've been doing a lot of walking recently which has been great. Walking is healthy, gives you fresh air and clears your head. It also allows you time to think. One of the things I thought was that we should become a nation of walkers. Thoughts lead to revealtions, enlightenment and personal understanding and reflection. So that's my campaign: we should all walk more and think more.
Since I've been thinking so much, I've realised a lot of the morals and ideals I've had have changed. I've surprised myself a lot and questioned both whre I had the original morals from and why they've changed. Sounds deep I know, so the big resolution is to form my own 'Ten Commandments'. I don't agree with most of the biblical ones - in fact, none of them since I'm not sure any rule can be an absolute - but given that only three of those commandments correspond with governing law I've decided to make my own. It's going to take some work, and maybe I'll mention it on here but it's a good challenge and I'll be interested to see what I come up with.
Any resolutions?
