I wanted to introduce you to this ridiculous(ly good) YouTube video on Japan's history posted some two weeks ago. But first, I shall stall a bit and address the proper niceties by introducing the video creator Bill Wurtz. He is a cool and kooky guy (strictly interpreted from his internet personality) that writes jazzy and outdated music to funny videos. Most of his videos are 10 seconds or less, if that gives you any indication on what you're getting yourself into. Here's a little taste.
Kind of reminds me of 5SecondFilms. Love those guys. Anywho, this Bill guy just randomly picked the country of Japan (about which he knew nothing), researched it, and created this nine minute masterpiece as a warm up (aren't you excited for more? Oh, well, watch the video then.)
I'm not an expert on Japanese history and completely understand that he has added some intended embellishments into this historical narrative. Do any fact-checkers out there spot any glaringly wrong details?
So what's next for Bill? He plans to either cover a lot of "topics" or "all of the countries...in a month" next. I'm sensing some snark, but what would you expect from such a filmmaker? Oh, and here's his website to complement all of the other interactive resources I've posted here.
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.
So this Japanese businessman is a 70-year-old with a strange interest in water. Masaru Emoto believes that water has strange properties that were previously unknown. Supposedly, water reacts differently to different emotions. He has spent a lot of time examining the ice crystals of water exposed to positive or negative verbal content (i.e. some water might develop more crystals, or be cleaner, if praised daily). Some believe he is a quack and their is a general consensus that he practices a pseudoscience. Don't let that disinterest you, though.
This experiment, the one I want to talk about, is a bit different. Basically, he has three jars full of rice and water. He bad-mouths the one jar, praises the other, and ignores the other. The results are interesting. Whether or not they are reproducible under scientific conditions is beyond my point.
I buy these results, to some extent. I don't however, buy the explanation. Rice is not a temperamental food with human emotions. Please, Mr. Emoto, don't anthropomorphize your rice. It is very possible, though, that talking to rice release germs that help ferment rice (which hardly seems like a positive outcome save for the "sweet" smell). Also, I can imagine that rice that didn't have mouth germs spread in its vicinity might react differently. Finally, it's very possible that using different words, or even more emotion can spread a different amount of germs or even a different kind of germs (tongue germs, throat germs, etc.). What's your take on this guy?
So, there's a new movement challenging blind consumerism and global policy. It's called Detox and it's a campaign to attack the toxic chemicals that are a byproduct (and often a "product") of clothing manufacturing. Not only do two-thirds of our new clothing have trace amounts of toxins but so does the water used to clean the garments. The problem is that third-world countries (chosen by fashion industries for their cheap labor and lose pollution laws) often dump this adulterated mix right into sources that locals use for drinking water. Detox is making slow progress in persuading leading clothing companies to switch out their most toxic ingredients.
Scantily clad protestors and Japanese language...doesn't get any better (source)
The part I like is the campaign's symbol: 水. This is the Chinese character for water...and while I don't know much Chinese, I do know that in Japanese the character is read as みず or "mizu". The 水 connotation in Japanese is that the water is cool and fresh, just like drinking water (source). Another interesting part is that people throw off their clothes in protest and reveal this kanji and the graphic for Detox. Check out the video.
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...
It's almost two years now since the Sumo match-fixing scandal went public. Remember that? A winning wrestler would offer another a victory just so to keep his higher title (and higher-bracket paycheck). This was happening often. In fact, according to Levitt from Freakonomics, there was a 75 percent chance a 7-7 (wins/losses) Sumo wrestler would win against an 8-6 wrestler in a tournament. This means that every time the opportunity appeared for a 7-7 wrestler to lose, not advance in the tournament, and lose money, that wrestler won 75 percent of the time. So, that's like a 50 percent chance of cheating, huh?
The word 八百長, or yaochou, is the Japanese word for "match-fixing". The kanji literally translate to "800 leaders". Hmm, I don't get it. But that often happens when you're learning Japanese.
Prior to the big press stink, often a related skirmish would surface concerning some foreign Sumo wrestler. The truth is though, "the Japanese-born seemed to be just as corrupt as the foreigners" according to the statistics (source). I guess when someone got wind of the cheating, everyone tried to use the foreigner as the scapegoat. Oh, Japan.
This isn't just a problem of xenophobia either. The Japanese media is very conservative and likes to protect the country's image. Here's another clip from Freakonomics:
The moral of the story: go watch Freakonomics and check out their blog.
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.)
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.
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:
Morimoto, Ruth Chris, Four Seasons, Bellagio, Toscana 52...what do these higher-end restaurants all have in common? They all serve various dishes including Kobe Beef. Furthermore, they all currently serve Kobe Beef that isn't real Kobe Beef.
Dun dun dun. Apparently, since 2010 the USDA has deemed all slaughterhouses in the Kobe and larger Hyogo region to be unfit for US importation. This was also true from 2001 to 2005 when some speculated if Americans even gave a crap (source).
The truth is trademarks like "Kobe Beef" are only a nationwide observance. So, in Japan, no one sell Kobe Beef from cows raised anywhere else than Kobe, Japan. But in the US, we could ground up some hotdogs and Spam and legally slap a Kobe Beef sticker on it. (Of course, that's not where this article is heading...)
What the US is doing is marketing things like wagyu beef and even Kobe-style beef as Kobe Beef. Whereas wagyu beef (literally, Japanese cows) should be from cows at least descendant from anywhere in Japan and Kobe-style beef could be any cows from anywhere with food and preparation that might hint at a Kobe Beef flavor, the real Kobe Beef comes only from Tajima cattle in Kobe.
Real Kobe Beef has a marbling ratio, or BMS, of at least 6
Let me go further to say that while wagyu beef is considered better and even healthier than US prime, the Japanese cattle it comes from have probably been crossbred with Angus to fit the American taste (source). While "domestic alternatives" to Kobe Beef might be just as marbled with fat as their Japanese counterparts, the US stock may be corn-fed (leading to all sorts of undesired health and environmental proponents (source) including but not limited to flatulence) and are definitely not given beer (see video below).
Larry Olmsted from Forbes Magazine breaks it down for us:
Giving everyone involved the benefit of the doubt and assuming they were [sic]
starting with an actual quality Japanese breed, after crossing both
grandparents with American cattle, then doing it again with the parents,
you are talking about selling Wagyu from a cow that is potentially less
than half “Wagyu.” To me, that’s like selling orange juice that is less
than 47% oranges. Except you go to jail for the juice scam (source).
Being someone who has tried Kobe Beef, I must tell you it is rich and delicious. It was so rich and savory that my stomach almost couldn't handle it. In the US, I have only tried a Kobe burger from Toscana 52 in late 2011 (during the current Kobe Beef ban). The burger was very delicious, but not near the grade I had tasted in Kobe. What's funny is that I had written this off to the fact that it was a burger, and of course a burger shouldn't be as rich as a steak. Now I realize that was a gross miscalculation due to the included American condiments, alcohol, dim lighting and generally peculiar atmosphere to which most higher-end restaurants subject us.
Now, I don't plan on explaining to you the massages, and other strange things they do to the cattle in Kobe, Japan, but I will provide a highly entertaining video with all that information.
Here is a comical video on eating sushi at a sushi bar. There is a lot of culture here, but, a lot of the things these comedians do are downright absurd so it might be hard for some of us to pick up on. Guess what is wrong in this video in the comments below!
Here's my favorite part:
In the case of business colleagues the lower ranking staff must pour
for their superiors first. "Maa maa maa maa". You must say this when
pouring a drin.k The person receiving the drink must say, "Oh toh toh toh."
"Maa maa maa maa." "Oh toh toh toh." "Maa maa maa maa." "Oh toh toh toh."
"Maa maa maa maa." "Oh toh toh toh."
Maa maa (まぁまぁ) means something like "Now, now" or, in this situation, "Here you go, have a lot." Otto (おっと) means something like "Oops" or, in this situation, "That's far too much." So, while the one guy pours a lot and says, "Here, drink up," the other guy is saying, "Ok. Ok. Woah. Too much!" While it is Japanese tradition to pour for others and offer lots, you might see how this over-the-top repetition and insistence is not exactly customary at a sushi restaurant—or anywhere for that matter.
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.
Masayoshi Son, richest man in Japan, with the striped tie. Make money, make money.
Softbank, a telecom and internet corporation, is teaming up with PayPal on the joint venture "PayPal Japan". The companies will each invest $12.5 million to "revolutionize digital payments in Japan" (source).
It's no surprise Hiroaki Kitano from the Softbank side will serve as the CEO of the business agreement; while revenue for PayPal is in the early billions, Softbank revenue reaches into the early trillions. Kitano is a senior vice president and director of Softbank Mobile Corp, with relevant experience from his time with Yahoo Shopping (source).
The joint venture will also push the Paypal Here credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone. The card reader add-on will retail for 1200 yen, or about $15. (When the card reader is released in the US, it will be free.)
After viewing the demo via the PayPal introductory page, I've become very skeptical of the whole process. I can't imagine a NYC pretzel vendor or cabbie handing the customer his smartphone to type in a tip and sign the transaction. What's stopping the $2.50 pretzel consumer from running away with a $200-$400 smartphone plus a pretzel? In Japan, I don't see this as being such a problem with such low crime rates as a result of their general family-like moral system.
Also, unless I had a special stylus signing pen, I'm pretty sure my signature on a smartphone would look like a few pixelated circles and lines. How's that going to sit with my bank that is tirelessly scanning for fraudulent charges?
Currently, Japan is a very cash-based society. I'm wondering the
speed as to which something like card reader might catch on. It's strange that
Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries but still
largely operates outside the lines of credit.
Softbank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son hopes that in five or ten years from now, Japanese consumers won't need to carry wallets (source). As for me, I find any statement from this guy (the richest man in Japan) laughable.
The irony here is Masayoshi Son supposedly directs some of the Softbank commercials which include what are thought to be hidden messages that dishonor Japan. (Son is Korean but later naturalized as a Japanese citizen.) In a line of popular commercials, a black man has a dog for a father (which doesn't sound so crazy for a commercial plot). The black man, then, is inu no ko, which in Korea is one of the worst curse words. Given that there exists a stereotype that Koreans don't like Japanese or blacks, you may see some of the disputed evidence.
Here another example, for obvious reasons:
When a bunch of Japanese celebrities march out of a dog's anus, it really makes you start to think...
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).
Even though the mantle is sliced, the squid tentacles are still wiggling (photo)
What could possibly be fresher than Japanese sushimi? Live seafood, that's what.
And this cuisine just happens to be gaining some popularity across Japan. Called "odori-don", or "bowl of rice with something dancing on top," the appeal not only comes from the supposedly fresher taste, but also the entertainment of it all, obviously.
The mantle (the top "hat" part) of the squid is mostly sliced off leaving just parts of the nervous system intact. Whether the squid is actually cognizant, vegetable, or just a bunch of postmortem muscle spasms is something beyond what I learned in biology 101.
The meal is supposedly rather uncommon but is getting a lot of criticism overseas. In fact, in the comments of this video alone, there is a small war between Japanese and non-Japanese. My favorite comment would probably be:
They have bullfighting in Spain! Europeans exploit Africans for their
resources! America slaughters the middle east for its oil! If you think
doing this to a squid is cruel, you have no business living in modern
society.
It's easy for outsiders to judge aspects of another culture, because they have a completely different vantage point. But in response to the Japanese, I'm sure it's helping their tourism, right?
I'm going to have to admit, the first time I saw or heard anything about this was in the extremely weird, yet awesome movie "Oldboy". If you enjoy this scene, the movie is going to blow you away.
Another concern of ikizukuri, or "prepared live," is the possibility that the seafood is unclean. SankakuComplex comments, "The practice is somewhat notorious for the risk of parasitic infection
it carries, although in Japan the animal welfare implications appear
mostly to be considered a non-issue."
At least it's not as dangerous as a live octopus—a meal that doesn't go down without a fight. In fact, some have died from it.
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, orikigai, 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 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."
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?
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.
Japan definitely has a thing for cute things. Unfortunately, when these cute things finally reach the US they're usually watered down to their commercial basics (e.g. magnets, Hello Kitty pins, stationary, etc.) until most of us think Japan is just shipping over it's factory refuse.
I'm not usually a guy that gets all mushy over cute things. But after
being exposed to Japan for two years, and my wife for almost another,
the kawaii-craze is starting to rub off on me. The Japanese idea of "cute" differs from that of Western countries—the only problem here is that I can't quite remember my perceptional roots after being exposed to Japan for so long (feel free to help me here).
This show here definitely embodies all of the TV aspects to "cute" programming. They have a bunch of small kittens—some of which are a little sleepy—romping around in an area full of various sized pots with no objective in mind beside celebrating cats that successfully pick a bowl and look cute. There is "cute" music in the background, and Japanese TV, almost notorious for their use of sounds and slapstick humor (think 1930's America) supplies a plethora of cute sounds.
The concept sounds really lame. And to be honest, if I would have read this description a few years ago I would have avoided the video. But having been accustomed to Japan (the culture, their mindset, their TV programming) I find this to be the audio/visual equivalent to crack. I would sometimes peruse my TV in Japan for shows like this one to learn the easy Japanese language they use but inadvertently expand my sense of kawaii.
Can anyone tell me why this is not so cute in the Western hemisphere?
Here is another reel of the same show in which they insert different things into an area with cute dogs or cats including a blow-up dolphin while it's being blown up, and the neko-nabe from above. (Be sure to take the player off mute.)
In honor of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in all its fury and violence, and the Flyers who just tanked in game 4 of the series, I present to you the Pan Asia Aeron Hockey Championship.
The game is basically a testament to the comfort level of one of the highest-end ergonomic business chairs: the Herman Miller Aeron chair. These chairs are pretty amazing if you didn't know, in performance and price. If you poke around enough online you can find the base model for just under $600 (without shipping, of course).
To break it down; it's sitting - like a boss.
Mixing office camaraderie (a la chair-hockey) and a very sleek, yet expensive office chair, you've got yourself one heck of a promotional campaign. Which means more money to make more overpriced chairs.
Ramped up from the office time-waster with makeshift sticks and a paper ball, the Aeron Hockey Championship has an official court, rules, and is complete with real sticks and pucks. I guess when a bunch of business men are playing though, you don't need helmets or face masks...or do you?
Apparently, the Pan Asia Championship includes 9 countries that eventually meet in Hong Kong for the crazy hockey-chair finals. Enough with the preamble; check out the semi-finals for Japan in Tokyo.
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.
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.
