The Kotatsu and other Japanese winter rituals that seem like good ideas but definitely aren't

Naked Man Festival : Japanese runners representing the feeling you will get reading this article

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The Japanese have such a multifaceted society. They are at once global and parochial, fraternal and isolating, uber-modern yet archaic. All of these features manifest in positive ways; the modernity of Japan can be summarized in their ground-breaking technologies while the archaic side reflects the wealth of their heritage accessible to many. In a large contrast, some of these facets have negative sides (cue dramatic, bleak music that plays to the end of this article).

In fact, Japan's booming technology makes a joke of their archaic heating systems. Back in Japan, I wrote a blog on Catching One's Death from the winter cold. In America, the truth is that those who don't have central heating are poor. In Japan, those with central heating are probably rich. But central heating isn't generally a coveted item for the Japanese (as for the ex-pats, it is). In fact, although many Japanese will complain about how samui (cold) it is, they are very accustomed to their thin walls, high electric bills, and walking around their house generally a little bit cold.

Also, there's the kotatsu idea. It's a table with a heater underneath and over it is draped a blanket--so you imagine sleeping under it would be a good idea. It looks so cozy! Then you wake up as if from a drug binge with a soar throat and body aches. The table is designed so that you can heat your legs the entire time you sit under it. The problem is, sitting under the table is the only time you have heat, unless you are pumping kerosene into other heaters strategically placed in your house (also requiring electricity).

The kotatsu seems like a great idea, until you want to get up. (photo)

In Japan Times, in his hilarious article entitled "A Winter's Tale: cold homes, poor lives in wealthy Japan" Gianni Simone gives an interesting anecdote about those that live in the colder northern Japanese areas like Hokkaido. He says:

According to architectural adviser Keiji Ashizawa, [...] "Only in Hokkaido is there such a thing as the Law on Cold Residences, and the Government Housing Loan Corp. gives financial assistance to homes protected against the cold. They say that people from Hokkaido catch colds when they come to [southern places like] Tokyo, because they traditionally live in houses insulated and warmed through central heating."

Now, I generally am a complainer but the ubiquitous Japanese cold really takes the cake for aggravations. I love winter, and even play sports in the cold, but sitting still in a barely-heated room is like torture. Interestingly enough, most Japanese students endure this torture every winter. I remember my feet being so cold for so long in schools that some of my toes wouldn't contract right. If that doesn't sound impressive for heating mishaps, try walking without three of your toes.

Now go read that Japan Times article.

Japan and a few others reppin' at Adfest

Thailand hosted the 15th Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (ADFEST) from March 18-20, 2012. The festival could best be described as a TED Event for advertising. Each of the commercials/items below speak for them self. Enjoy.

China: "Keyboard of Isolation"

by nonprofit Family Care For Grassroots Community 

won  Grand Prix in the Outdoor category 

 

South Korea - "The Origins of Pizza"

by Mr. Pizza / Addict Media in Seoul

won Film Craft Award

Japan - "Taxi"

by Japanese department store Sakae

a Gold Winner in film category

Australia - "Breakup"

by National Australia Bank / Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

won Lotus 360 Award 

And last but certainly not least: 

 Japan - "Design Nori"

by Umino Seaweed / I&S BBDO

won Best of Show in design category

These of course are all made out of dried seaweed (just like normal sushi) but cut with new technology. The patterns are classic Japanese designs. The project is intended to convey happiness, long life, respect for the past and hopes for the future in the wake of the Match 2011 Tsunami (source).

Hemp design

Tortoise Shells

Tortoise Shell pattern

Water drop

Cherry Blossom

Japanese pen spinning

16 year-old Ryuki Omura won the 2008 pen-spinning championship

Now, I've seen people spin a pen around their thumb in the US. The first time I saw it I was kind of amazed and tried it for awhile. It was kinda like the tech-deck (mini-skateboard) fad.

But, in Japan, my students were on a different echelon of pen-spinning. Students could spin a pen around a few fingers. Now that I remember it, some of my students had one of the special elongated spinning pens. I had thought they had purposely added another pen cap and, well, in my efforts to get said students to focus on English I was just simply frustrated rather than interested.

Official pen-spinning weight and size--considerably longer than normal pens

The truth is this isn't just a little fad in Japan. In fact, there are Japanese tournaments, the Pen Spinning Association of Japan and even a Pen Spinning Club at certain universities, the first rule of which is to not spin pens in class (good idea). Here's a bunch of Japanese pen spinners:

And, if you really want your minds blown (on a small pen-scale level) check a trailer for the 2011 World championships:

Is it a sport or just a silly hobby? I'll leave that decision up to you.

The highs and lows of Japanese commercials

Here's a hilarious advertisement for the Ajinomoto Stadium for Japan soccer from 2004. It's called "Husky Women".

SPOILER ALERT: I'm pretty sure I saw this while in Japan. If you can follow the subs while watching the video, it's pretty funny. My favorite part was the chorus singing "Ave Maria" if you could make that out.

Now, I would love to make some broad sweeping comment praising the ingenuity of Japanese commercials. But, that is something I simply cannot do. Especially when every fifth commercial resembles this nonsensical attempt at advertising.

So the banana man is a new student and he's so happy he can get a lot of friends. But tomorrow, he's on to a new school. Where the H was he flying off to at the end? and how?

I have not come to fully understand Japanese humor. Some J-humor is hilarious and I get it while some just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I guess that goes for just about any country's humor. This sometimes even follows for individual comedians. Zack Galifianakis has some hilarious stuff and then some stuff that makes me feel awkward--awkward for him and everyone else watching it. Again, maybe some of his stuff is just something I'll understand later.

But, probably not.

Japanese scientist turns seaweed into fuel

 

Things are looking even more shaky in the Middle East and gas prices are projected to soar this summer despite the fact that the US has quadrupled the number of domestic oil rigs drilling. This is not to mention that oil is a natural and nonrenewable source on this planet.

Good news: scientists at Bio Architecture Lab in Berkeley, California led by co-founder Yasuo Yoshikuni have refined the process of turning brown seaweed into a renewable fuel. The 2 and a half years of fine-tuning was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The problem with breaking down the high sugars of seaweed into ethanol is the presence of the "alginate" sugar--a problem of which has been deemed to be unsolvable until now. Yoshikuni and his team have genetically engineered E. coli splicing in a section of a known metabolizer of alginate. And this was no easy task considering Yoshikuni and his team had to successfully isolate a 36,000 base pair DNA fragment (source).

So why is this great news? Imagine a cheap alternative to current renewable gases. Corn is the current heavyweight, sucking in so much water (and tax dollars).

 “When you grow corn on land, there’s basically a fixed amount of land, and if you were to increase the use of that corn for fuels, you are taking away the use of that corn for something else,” says BAL spokesman John Williams. Using just three per cent of the waters that can grow seaweed could produce 60 billion gallons of fuel—four per cent of the world’s annual fuel consumption (source).

Sounds great, right? Imagine the skeptics. Keep in mind, though, no one is proposing that seaweed bioethanol will overtake petroleum. But it will be making big progress with a small carbon footprint.

Bio Architecture Lab has made a few deals and now grows this brown seaweed in Chile, where it owns and operates four offshore farms and is currently developing storage facilities (source). The seaweed is grown on long submerged ropes. Also, it doesn't suck up resources like corn, it takes little space, and grows in virtually untouched areas. "Using 3 per cent of the world's coastlines we can replace 5 per cent of total oil consumption. That's 60 billion gallons of fuel," Dr Yoshikuni said (source).

Algal bloom of the coast of China during the Olympics

What's more, seaweed naturally absorbs industrial waste reducing algal blooms which are a whole 'nother cluster F we probably shouldn't get started on.

One of the biggest problems of this amazing advancement in renewable fuels is how to cultivate it year round.

White rice now connected to Diabetes

Japonica rice, the stuff on the left in large amounts is linked to diabetes

A review of previous studies confirmed that high consumption levels of white rice is likely to increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes. This news is especially troublesome for Asians, who tend to have a much higher white rice intake.

The review was done by experts at Harvard Medical and Harvard School of Public Health looking at Chinese and Japanese (as representatives of Asia) and Americans and Australians (as representative of Western society) (source).

The studies followed 350,000 people over time from 4 to 22 years. In these cases, over 13,000 people developed Type 2 diabetes.  There was a 12 percent difference between the Asian and Western groups with Asians 55 percent likelier

It also should be noted (or be pretty clear) that:

Diet is only one factor in Type 2 diabetes, a complex disease that involves high levels of blood sugar that cannot be processed by the hormone insulin. Obesity and lack of exercise are also cited as culprits (source).

What Dan Thinks:

What I find surprising is that this is news to anyone. It is not a secret that rice has a high glycemic index and contains little nutritional value. I remember reading somewhere that we always want to avoid spikes in sugar levels and that such an avoidance will let us live longer (pending other diseases or freak occurrences).

Starches (or, carbohydrates), just like candy or soft drinks, are basically sugar. The only difference is that starches are complex carbohydrates which means they need to be broken down to get at the sugar. But when a person overloads on carbs (no matter what it is) the sugar is released right into the bloodstream causing one of these nasty "spikes".

This was always something I considered in Japan when students were encouraged to go back for seconds and sometimes thirds on the white rice. I'm guessing most of them thought it was healthy, a sign of genki-ness and made for a strong child. The same went for seconds of white bread which everyone thought was a healthy alternative to rice every once in a while. Sometimes we would have yakisoba (noodles), bread, butter and honey, and then a milk--all of which pretty much amount to sugar. And students' consumption was only checked by the amount of food that was left to eat. It really blew my mind.

Japanese synchronized "swimmers"

Here is a short clip of an interactive visualizer from Japan's Music Saves Tomorrow Campaign. If you head on over to Sperm.jp, you can choose your favorite song from Vimeo and have the little sperms dance to it. You can also change whose sperm it is to change the dance routine.

Sperm.jp says they each filmed their own sperm under a biological microscope to extract its shapes and motion data to create the animation. Weird? Awesome?

Their concept is that children are the "seeds" of tomorrow so why not influence them to help create a bright future.


MUSIC SAVES TOMORROW（SPERM DANCE 60 Sec Ver） from SPACE SHOWER TV on Vimeo.

The default song is "Denpa Jack" by Passepied. Denpa Jack means "Broadcast signal intrusion" or basically: a hijacked broadcast. Remember, you can pick any track from Vimeo. Have fun!

Here is the Making Of video:


MUSIC SAVES TOMORROW SPERM DANCE MAKING VIDEO from SPACE SHOWER TV on Vimeo.

Shit Japanese Students Say (Video in Japanese)

To be honest, I'm actually getting kinda sick of the "Shit ____ Say" videos. Everyone and their mother thinks they can join in and make something just as funny as the first. "All of my cheerleader friends are going to love this movie." We all know that is not true and that's why this craze is really starting to drag some of us down. If you a) aren't funny and b) have little to no experience with camera, lighting, filmography, etc. then don't upload your horrible videos.

For example:
Shit Christians Say to Jews
Shit Boston Guys Say
Shit Social Media Experts Say
Shit Ballerinas Say
Shit People Who Make 'Shit People Say' Videos Say
(That last one pretty much sums up this whole fad)

This video, though, is well thought out and actually funny. It's made by a current English teacher in Japan who has a bunch of videos for learning English (and they're kinda interesting). Check him out here on Youtube.

Having been an English teacher in Japan I can attest for most of these as being on the money. Japanese students love to complain about things: how impossible English is; how bored they are; and they will sometimes waste class time talking about "cute" things or using Japanese-sounding English (Engrish) to say something that's not even related to your lesson. Of course, these are all just stereotypes of certain kinds of students.

Some of my favorite in this video:
Hayaku owarou. - Let's finish early.
Kawaii deshou. - Isn't this pretty?
Ii naa. - I wish that was me. (like when other kids get stickers for actually knowing English)
and also the kid yelling "sensei", waving his arm and tapping his chest

Wild monkeys to measure Fukushima radiation

Fukushima University researchers have designed radiation-measuring collars to fit on some of the wild monkey population in the surrounding wooded areas. This, of course, is to analyze the higher radiation levels still present since the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima power plant.

Since the monkeys spend most of their time in trees while occasionally dipping to the forest floor, the gps-equipped collars will be able to measure ground and air radiation levels. Supposedly, the monkeys are key in this new project because their area is well known and will help track wildlife exposure to radiation. Also, the monkey collars are supposed to be more reliable than the current readings from helicopter.

These cute little guys even bathe in hot springs.

Now, I understand that the collars can be released even by a remote, and that, well, the monkeys will be living in the radiated areas anyway... but doesn't it sound a bit like exploitation? These little guys are smart enough to bathe in hot springs. They're like little people (that may occasionally throw poop in a fit of anger).

It just seems a bit backwards to employ an itchy and invasive collar on monkeys to study the degree of "not well" a human accident still is. Why not just attach a few "collars" to trees in different areas at varying heights?

Why not just send a few current TEPCO heads out into the forest with dosimeters (hazmat suits optional)? Ah, they're getting sued by their shareholders for sheer incompetence anyway.

Read more about the monkeys here

Japan invents a speech-stopping gun

Two scientists in Japan have invented a "speech-jamming" gun to stop a person mid-sentence. Although it's called a gun, its no more harmful than a police radar gun. The gun picks up what a person is saying with a directional microphone and repeats it back the person with a directional speaker.

The gun has a 0.2 second delay which seems to be the perfect amount of time to confuse your mind. The gun currently works on subjects up to 30 meters away and although it will stop words, it won't stop other oral sounds.

Imagine instead using a parabolic microphone at a football game, using on of these speech jamming guns during a key play when the coach has to relay a play to the quarterback.

And, well doesn't this kind of violate free speech?

Read the original post here

Fear and Traveling in Fukushima

Looks great, but some are worried this water might be irradiated.

Twenty previous English teachers that worked in Japan under the JET Program got a free ticket back to their prefectures to acclaim the safety of the area and dig the tourism industry out of the dumps. They were paid for living expenses and told to blog on their expenses with a little nudge to merit Japan's worthiness as safe for tourism. One of these participants, James A. Foley who taught English in the Fukushima prefecture gives a pretty level-headed account of his return travels.

Iwaki is a city of modest population along the Pacific Ocean that attracts visitors with its natural beauty. The area around the downtown train station is made of neon lights and mystery bars, but it’s flanked by rolling green mountains and prominent farmland that gives the old coal mining town a down-home rural edge.

Upon my arrival at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, I disclosed my travel plans to immigration officers. When I told them where I planned to go, one looked dumbfounded.

“You can’t go to Fukushima,” he says. “It’s dangerous.” The other expressed only mild concern and thought I would be all right in Iwaki. I found that tenuous balance, between freaked out and just fine, one that resonated whenever Fukushima came into the conversation.

Read the full article at JQ Magazine.