Tokyo like a Richard Scarry episode

This screenshot doesn't do the video quality any justice.

Usually I have something insightful to say. Today, I'm just gonna sit back and let this beautiful time-lapse video of Tokyo do the talking. This video is called ちちゃな東京 (Chicha na Toukyou), or, Little Tokyo and is by Darwinfish105. Enjoy.

In a related post (by title only), please enjoy the open, yet camaraderic racism that is South Park: Little Tokyo.

Samurai spiders

 
It's been awhile but I'd figured I'd throw up this video on spider fighting. Apparently, anything can be raised for fighting these days. This guy pairs his smaller Samurai Spider up against the larger local stock in Kajiki Japan.

This tournament, known as Kumo Gassen (クモ合戦), has been around for over 400 years and is what one blogger calls "the original Pokemon" (source). Haha! In one of the earlier videos in the National Geographic documentary, there is footage of him blowing a mixture of a Gatorade-like substance to help his spider grow. I wonder if it worked...

Japanese man breaks all-fours records

Kenichi Ito just broke the record for the fastest man running 100 meters on all fours with a time of 17.47 seconds. That's right, he utilizes his legs and his arms to run and quite frankly, he looks like a skilled monkey. His time is less than double that of Usain Bolt's 100m dash world record. See Ito breaking the record for yourself...

Apparently, Ito practices moving on all fours everyday indoors and outdoors. He has been studying African Patas monkeys and spent the last 9 years developing his running technique. I guess this is his last 9 years of work coming to fruition. (At least it's not as anticlimactic as some other record breakers.)

African Patas monkeys (photo)

And so I was still wondering, "Why?" When Ito was a little kid, his classmates used to make fun of him for looking like a monkey in the face. He says he was never bothered by the mean comments because he always had an affinity for simians. Check out more footage of him and his training techniques here.

Nintendo woodblock prints (part 2) and video

Illustrator Jed Henry, discussed earlier, is making some progress with his work re-imagining Nintendo characters as woodblock prints. I mentioned the complexity of creating one finished piece of work from this method. Each block of wood is carved in a different way to stamp a different color onto the finished product. Scroll to the video at the bottom to see Jed working on just one of the 11 colors in his Mario Kart piece.

Kirby - the finished piece

Pokemon - check out the guy that burnt his hand

Star Fox - Star Fox used to be a bunch of "3D" planes with crappy color (it has come a long way)

Here is the video of Jed Henry in action. Do you think you could make it through 11 woodblock carvings just to add color to one finished product?

Here is the finished Mario Kart piece from the video:

Thanks to Buzzfeed for the update.

Tomato juice helps your liver process alcohol

This may cure hangovers, or by saying so, make Kagome rich

According to a recent study by Kagome and Asahi Group Holdings, drinking tomato juice will help you sober up faster (source). Apparently, the tomato juice helps to cleanse your liver by making it secrete more of the enzymes needed to break down alcohol.

The study included an experiment of people given about two shots of shochu (焼酎, a Japanese liquor similar to vodka). After the two shots of shochu, the control group was given a pint of water while the experimental group was given a pint of tomato juice. Those drinking the tomato juice sobered up an average of 50 minutes faster than those drinking water.

Kagome and Asahi agree that a tomato would most likely work the same way, although it was not studied.

This is great news considering Japan loses an estimated $11.5 billion every year to hangovers according to a recent survey of close to 3,000 people (source). I wonder if Japanese government and businesses will take this news seriously and actively engage in promoting tomatoes after enkai. I could picture the market for トマトパワー (Tomato Power) After-Party Shooters. (Japan is often wont to either fully embrace something or just let it fall by the wayside, e.g., influenza masks; the insurance hikes on those with large waistlines; or even baseball for that matter.)

Beer for all ages! (photo)

Now, for those of you who don't know, Kagome claims to be Japan's largest supplier of ketchup and tomato juice (source) while Asahi is one of Japan's leading breweries with 40% of the Japanese beer market (source). It seems a little suspicious that a leading beer company and a leading tomato company "discover" that tomato juice can reduce the unwanted effects of alcohol. I would have liked to witness that first meeting where the two company heads discussed ways to join forces and increase money.

Did Kagome and Asahi formulate this as a publicity stunt? Or, were there scientists waiting for commercial sponsorship for their tomato juice findings? What are the chances that two companies put their heads together and found a scientific match for both of their leading products? I'll leave the musing up to you the reader.

A battle version of Sudoku for iPhone and Facebook

There's a new application on iPhone and Facebook allowing two people to battle over a game of Sudoku at the same time. This beats the current tradition of one person holding a pencil while the other one tells them they've made a mistake.

The new application, called Challenger Sudoku, became available for the iPhone last December and has just recently gone live on Facebook. The game requires friends to challenge (or be challenged by) friends to a game of Sudoku and allows them to play head-to-head in real time.

As you solve each row or main square (consisting of nine single squares) the field highlights in your home color of blue. If your opponent solves a field first, the field becomes red.There are also various bonuses along the way, even one for the first to 777 points. Making mistakes will also take points away and transfer them to your opponents score. With the real-time spinoff, Challenger Sudoku can be very unnerving, especially if you are watching the puzzle light up red as someone solves it faster than you.

Through winning against opponents of your level or higher, you can raise your own level from Student, Senpai, Sensei, Grandmaster, and, highest of all, Sudoku Samurai. These aren't levels you can just relax at, though. If you lose too much or remain inactive you will drop a level.

If you ask a native Japanese speaker to play "Sudoku", you'll likely get an odd stare. In Japan, they generally refer to Sudoku as nampure (short for "number place"). In fact, the game was only recently titled Sudoku by a Japanese game company and later becoming an game of international popularity in 2005 (source). The Japanese had most likely appropriated it from the French, who apparently have had a thing for number puzzles.

Well, anyone up for a challenge?

Nintendo characters as Japanese woodblock prints

Illustrator Jed Henry is in the process of making some pretty serious Japanese woodblock prints. When I say pretty serious, I mean Nintendo-serious. He is re-imagining many Nintendo characters as Japanese woodblock prints. Pretty awesomely, too.

What is a woodblock print? It's basically a piece of paper that is stamped by one or many carved woodblocks. Woodblock prints, or ukiyoe (浮世絵), are especially hard for three reasons: (1) the negative space of the image has to be carved, (2) the image will come out mirrored so it's necessary to envision the opposite, and (3) have you ever carved wood?

Maybe you've seen this woodblock print before:

"Behind the Great Wave at Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai was a master and included Mt. Fuji in some way in 46 of his famous woodblock prints. Can you find Fuji-san in his print above? I always thought it was part of the wave...


Without further ado, Nintendo woodblock prints by illustrator Jed Henry.

Donkey Kong - notice the cherry blossoms in the foreground

Kirby - an unfinished piece

Link, from Zelda, slaying the dragon

Mario and Bowser from Mario Kart - love the squid

Megaman - love the ink... is the wolf a newer addition?

Samus Aran from Metroid - Google her and see how saucy she is without the suit

Simon Belmont from Castlevania - I always sucked at this game

Many of the guys from Street Fighter - Who can you identify?

Be sure to check out the Ukiyo-e Heroes on Facebook for upcoming debuts!

How to locate castles in Japan

So, where to?

Are you planning a trip to Japan? Are you wondering where to travel on your surplus of nenkyu days? Why not make a pilgrimage to the most interesting castles in Japan?

Luckily, Japanophile Daniel O'Grady has mapped many of Japan's 300 castles for us. For 11 years he has been exploring and documenting Japanese castles culminating in his Japanese Castle Explorer website.  The easy-to-navigate site includes a navigable map of Japan (above) with satellite images of each castle, most with street views.

Each castle has its own profile and many are rated in 5 areas: scale, buildings, earth/stonework, accessibility, and the surrounding area. Many of the castle profiles have a timeline of important events surrounding the castles (some castles have been burnt down or destroyed and completely rebuilt) as well as historical recognition of each castle or components. This site is basically a virtual Lonely Planet guide to Japanese castles.

Okayama Castle, nicknamed the "Crow Castle" because of its black exterior

You can browse the castles in different ways; you can explore the map in Japanese; you can peruse the 190 plus blog articles; you can even flip through castle photos by category (if your in search of something specific). Many of the castle profiles include various pictures and video walkthroughs which are informative and rather humorous. Some profiles even include pictures of ancient wartime maps.

The inner defensive enclosures, Himeji Castle

Basically, if your interest in Japan is anywhere near that of creator Daniel O'Grady, you might get lost in the site (like I get lost in Pinterest). Enjoy!

Tokyo Sky Tree now open with old and new design

Japan now boasts the second highest building in the world with their Tokyo Sky Tree. The tower was finished after almost four years of work and reached 2,080 ft. in March of this year. The building was just opened to the public days ago on May 22, 2012.

The $806 million structure is a broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo. It's design encompasses three main concepts including:

• Fusion of futuristic design and traditional beauty of Japan,
• Catalyst for revitalization of the city,
• Contribution to disaster prevention "Safety and Security" (source).

From triangle to circle (photo)

The design is actually quite crazy. To optimize the plot of land at ground level, the base is triangular, but floor by floor the tower slowly molds into a cylindrical shape reaching a full circle at 1,050 ft. Also, with earthquakes a major factor in building such a tall tower, the structural design mixes the best of ancient and modern architecture. Mimicking ancient Japanese pagodas, there is a thick center shaft that runs up through the whole structure. Apparently, none of Japan's pagodas have ever been toppled by the centuries of earthquakes (source).

The modern spin-off is that this center shaft is relatively unconnected to the outside steel frame of the building reducing swaying high up. Also, the foundation of the tower, rather than straight poles, is more like roots that dig deep and fan out. Simulation tests suggest that the Sky Tree would suffer almost no damage even in the event of a major 7.9 magnitude quake (source).

OK. Able to withstand a 7.9 on the Richter scale. But wait, 15 of those can happen a year anyway. Let's rewind a year to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. That was a 9.0. On average, an earthquake equal to or greater than 9.0 happens ever year in the world (source). And lets remember that the Richter scale isn't linear. It's exponential. That means this tower is built to withstand 10 to 15 megatons of seismic energy, but may encounter 480 megatons of energy. I guess the March 2011 earthquake changed a lot of perspectives (and plans). Add this "earthquake safe" monstrosity to the list.

The tower is so high up that from the top observation tower you can see not only the entire Tokyo region, but also the curvature of the earth (source).

Apparently, the admission to reach the observation towers are just as sky-high as the structure itself. Also, merchandise and food at the observatories will be equally as expensive. Prices are not stopping the lines of eager tourists, though; tickets are sold out through mid-July, leaving visitors keen to ride up the capital's newest landmark in a very long queue (source).


As the second highest structure in the world, the Tokyo Sky Tree is outdone only by the height of Burj Khalifa in Dubai at a whopping 2,723 ft. which was opened in January 2010.

Burj Khalifa - figures that the tallest building in the world is in an oil-rich country

We're soon approaching Japanese Giant Hornet season again

Here is a new thing to add to my Kirai Japan list.

The Japanese Giant Hornet season is coming around again which is a shame because these guys are a force to be reckoned with. 90% of stings occur from July to September due to the worker bees increased size and activity especially around August (source).

An average of 40 people die from their stings every year making it the most lethal animal in Japan (video below). These Godzilla hornets have poison that is actually less venomous than the average honeybee, but they inject much more: 4.1mg compared to a honeybee's 2.8mg (source).

The Japanese call these guys Oosuzume bachi (オオスズメバチ, 大雀蜂) which literally means "Large Sparrow Bee". They grow up to 2 inches long and, with their ferocity, put normal hornets to shame. They have super-bee strength, too, being able to life up to 6 pounds each. 

Check out this video of a colony of bees outsmarting one of these Japanese Giant Hornets. Apparently, the beehive can handle a scout and hide the evidence of any foul play. 

This time the bees have won. But if one of these Japanese Giant Hornet scouts successfully alerts his friends with a pheromone, there will be blood. Here, 30 of these hornets wipe out a nest of 30,000 bees to get at their young. 

What should you do if you ever encounter one of these suckers? 

Well if it seems like it's coming near you, you should lower voice and and lower yourself to the ground as to not seem offensive. Then you should make your escape (source).

Apparently these guys have amazing endurance.They can fly faster than you can run (25mph)...and fly about 60 miles in a day. That's a scary thought. Also, with their pheromone capabilities, they could technically spray you with bulls eye for any other one of these hornets to hunt you down.

Their endurance is so phenomenal that the Japanese, as well as a few others, have marketed drinks made from these hornets' food.

Vaam, which stands for vespa amino acid mixture, contains the same amino acids that are in the liquids secreted by hornet larva (source). The hornets feed their colony larvae with the most meaty parts of other insects. But then, in a very unique occurrence, they actually get fed by their larvae as well.

Some athletes swear by these drinks. I had always seen Vaam in Japan, but had no idea of its contents. Now, I really want to test it out.

What a strange world.

Japanese master making a traditional bow from scratch

Doesn't this just look cool? (photo)

Sometimes I get frustrated with the painstaking efforts of Japanese artists. You might have seen one of these documentaries (the camera pans in on the light playing off a wooden shape):

Here, Osaragi-san slowly polishes the outside of his cedar bowl with his fingernail. He blows the dust away through filter paper as to not impose his own germs upon the art. He will now place the bowl outside for 5 days moving it to always face the sun. If the humidity reaches 65 percent this bowl will be abandoned and used for scrap wood. To think, the finished product is only 19 weeks away from its last shellac coat.

I jest only because this kind of art is something of which most Americans are just not capable. I don't have the patience to "perfect" anything artsy. In fact, I usually cut a lot of corners when the going gets rough and compromise my original intention selling my soul to the devil of sloth. I'm guessing the average Japanese might understand my complete indifference with such tedious perfection as well. But Japanese artists have this special capability as if it's genetic.

Master Kikunaga is simply a master in this same vein. In this video it's apparent he has this unwavering patience to create a zen-like masterpiece of a bow, or yumi. Also, more importantly, the video is pretty darn interesting (excuse the subtitles and German voice-over).

Japanese centenarians help longevity study

Dan Buettner, discovering the secrets of longevity. photo

Diets only work on two percent of any population.
Exercise routines are usually given up within 10 months.

If you're trying to live healthier, these quick fixes probably aren't working for you. Or at least that's what this guy is telling us.

To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. At TED, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.

Buettner studied groups in Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), as well a community in Costa Rica and Seventh-Day Adventists in California for their extraordinarily high rate of centenarians.

In Okinawa, Buettner has found that, aside from eating healthy and meshing exercise into your everyday life, the natives don't have a word for "retire". (The two years you are most susceptible to death are your first year, and your retirement.)

Instead, the Okinawan people have the word 生き甲斐, or ikigai, which roughly translates to one's reason for living, or as Buettner puts it, "the reason you wake up in the morning". When Buettner asked these Okinawan's what their ikigai was, they each could spout it instantly.

It kinda reminds me of that scene in Fight Club:


Guys, What Do You Wish You'd Done Before You Die?

It makes sense, though, that having your life goal(s) figured out would definitely add a couple years to your life. Now, what do I want to be when I grow up?

Suprisingly, "community" is among the top factors. Buettner says, "We know that isolation kills. Fifteen years ago, the average American had three good friends. We’re down to one and half right now."

Japanese researchers find slime smarter than supercomputers

Toshiyuki Nakagaki, professor of Future University Hakodate (source)

Japanese professors, among others, are hard at work researching, umm, slime. Toshiyuki Nakagaki (above) has found that slime molds in petri dishes (although brainless) are smarter than supercomputers in solving complex-systems problems. The single cell organisms will spread themselves far as possible to find food and then well form to the shortest route to the food possible.

Here, the slime mold (physarum polycephalum) works realtively quick. This video shows how all other "bad attempts" at solving the puzzle will quickly die out to leave only the shorts route.

Atsushi Tero, from Kyushu University, southern Japan, who conducted the research, believes that the intelligence skills possessed by slime mould networks could potentially be used in the future design of transport systems or electric transmission lines (source). "Computers are not so good at analysing the best routes that connect many base points because the volume of calculations becomes too large for them," he said.

In this video, researchers placed food at railway stations around Tokyo (not Bay of Tokyo at bottom middle). The fungus collaborates, spreading out to map many possible configurations and then dies out to highlight the shortest routes between cities and the most efficient overall system map.

So this technology is smarter than humans, and even supercomputers. But isn't the web of human knowledge a product of our technology? Isn't every man as smart as his ability to navigate the internet, or smartphone? In much the same way, now that we have and control this slime technology, isn't it part of our knowledge?

Tsunami victim's soccerball turns up across the Pacific

The Baxters with two recovered items from Japan's tsunami (Reuters)

Survivor of the March 2011 events in Japan Misaki Murakami lost all of his possessions to the tsunami. Searching in the rubble for the last year, he hasn't been able to recover one of his own items. Needless to say it was a big surprise when Murakami got word that his prized soccer ball turned up 3,000 miles away on an Alaskan beach.

David Baxter, a radar technician from Kasilof, Alaska, found Murakami's ball while beach-combing in March this year. Baxter's wife, Yumi, reached Murakami with help from a Japanese reporter. Murakami was so thankful that the couple took "the time to even try to find him," David Baxter said.

The ball was a gift of encouragement in 2005. It was a present from a classmate when Murakami was transferring schools.

Incidentally, Baxter also found a volleyball with Japanese writing on it a couple of weeks later, and NHK reported Monday that its owner was also found - Shiori Sato, 19, from Iwate prefecture (state), which was hit by the tsunami.

Japanese farmer's incredible "scarecrow"

I love you, Earth! (photo)

Japanese farmers can get pretty intense protecting their crops. I have seen anywhere from school girl scarecrows to freaky mannequin heads on a stick. They even have a funny habit of hanging up old CD's to spin in the wind and reflect sunlight to scare off any invasive vermin.

Mama, these gourds are so big! (photo)

Now, as to whether any of these clever ideas actually works is not information to which I am privy. Watching "Dumbo" has taught me that scarecrows are just another perch for crows to rest.

The oldest known account of a scarecrow from 1300 years ago is actually from Japan (source). My guess is that you don't use something for 1300 years without it working, right?

Here is a peculiar video of a Japanese farmer in Shizuoka who has definitely thought outside of the box to keep his family garden untouched.

 

Thanks to Softypapa for the upload! Check out his many other travelogue-ish accounts of Japan.

Foldable line of shoes in Japan

Timberland Japan has brought back their 2009 line of fold-able shoes called the Radler Trail. The unisex shoes can be folded, zipped completely shut and then hung with a carabiner from you pack, or from anywhere.

Timberland boasts these are light and cushy. The uppers are made of breathable nylon while the bottoms are made with 42% recycled rubber made with Timberland's trademarked Green Rubber technology. These might be the perfect fit for hiking, camping, going green, and well, surviving.

The Radler Trail comes in the bale-lime yellow pictured above as well as navy, white/red, pink and camo (check out the colors). These shoes are perfect for those trying to travel light, but at $90 your wallet will be a bit lighter as well.

The real question is: How do they feel after a day of hiking? Also, I'm a little concerned with how bad these will smell folded up after a day of hiking. Good thing the insoles can be removed.

 As for me, I think I would have to go with the yellow or pink color (below). The camouflage should not be a color shoes come in while the the gaudy zipper really shows on the other colors. You might as well wear calf-high socks pushed down.

Amazing Japanese acrobats from 1904

Cirque du Soleile, eat your heart out. Here is a clip of two amazing Japanese acrobats that may or may not blow your mind.

This clip, owned by Thomas A. Edison, Inc and was filmed in Edison's NYC studio. A Japanese juggler spins a small boy through various somersaults and flips incorporating various poses. It almost resembles breakdancing in some areas. I'll let the video speak for itself.

You can download the video here.

Japanese architects make house with slide

If you're two lazy, you can just slide down two stories.

The LEVEL Architects are a group who try to help construct a client's vision. Well that's what it says on their website. The head honchos at LEVEL Architects, Kazuki Nakamura and Kenichi Izuhara have been building people's dreams since 2004.

Up or down?

This dream house (which they must have hijacked from my 5-year-old self's dreams) includes everything a family with kids could want. In fact, I've imagined slides from my second story window right to our backyard pool...and I was sure the angle would work. The only problem was the water supply which I'm sure I had worked out at some point.

"Honey, go slide and pick your favorite bedtime story."

These guys are no two-piece business; the minimum price for a layout design is three thousand dollars (depending on the JP/US exchange rate). But I guess that's what dreams cost.

Curved for their pleasure.

Kazuki Nakamura and Kenichi Izuhara comment on their sliding-board house:

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the right angle of the slope, best materials for the slide and the ideal construction method of the curved corners where the wall had to be reinforced. The four corners of the building are rounded. The first floor – which accommodates a living-dining area and includes the kitchen – is surrounded by the stairs and the slide (source).

Kentaro, don't run up the slide!

I imagine a dream like this has nothing to do with the architects. They just do all the measuring, use their laser-levels and work out all the bugs. I would have to praise the parents on this one. They are the ones with a vision to really create a child-friendly zone.

Ball pit. Also one of my fantasy rooms.

Child-friendly might be a little too subtle. What I mean is child-cocaine. Will these kids ever learn how to ride a bike or play football? Will they ever want to go outside?

It curves like this.

I could only imagine the black shoe streaks that will soon line the slide walls. And I would imagine there would have to be a no-toy policy on the slide.

Curved bathroom

Entrance

Entertainment Center

Hallway

Library

Living room, slide on right

Living room with sofa and fuzzy green Japanese doll.

Go and see their other dazzling accomplishments.