I remember playing this as a child. You draw a circle on the bottom of a relatively shallow box. You cut two characters out of a piece of paper and stand them on the box. You then tap the box until one of them falls. This web page provides a PDF template that you can print and cut out.

Ever wonder what Japanese people typically eat at home? Do they eat only Japanese food? Do they eat sushi every night? Well, you can see my sister’s food blog where she keeps track of what her family eats every day (almost). As you can see, it’s pretty diverse.

I’ve always found it strange that in some cultures, all they eat is their own cuisines. In India and China, for instance. From what I’ve heard, they pretty much eat only their own cuisines. To be honest, I could not imagine eating Indian food every day. If you know why, in certain cultures, people only eat their own cuisines, please let me know.

Here is a piggy bank that won’t stop buzzing unless you put money in regularly. And, here is your own “Personal ATM” machine. And, in case you need to remind yourself what it is like to be drunk, here is a pair of glasses that simulates the drunken vision; it’s called “Drunk and Dangerous”. At first, I thought this gigantic keyboard was a ridiculous idea, but I think it would be great for those with physical disabilities. Apparently it’s touch sensitive, water-proof, and allows you can write on it with a pen and a piece of paper.

In New York, there is a Ramen boom. Especially in the East Village, many ramen noodle shops have opened recently. Ramen is not easy to make because the broth requires so many different ingredients and a long time to cook. But, what most Americans do not realize is that there are packaged ramen noodles that are just as good or even better than many ramen noodles served at these restaurants. These packaged ramen noodles are called “nama-ramen”. Unlike the instant ramen noodles, these are fresh. You can buy them at Japanese grocery stores like Jasmart and Sunrise Mart in New York. They are either frozen or refrigerated.

The Japanese packaged food manufacturers have perfected the way to make the broth concentrate, and they are quite amazing. I make them for my friends at home without telling them that they were packaged, and they are often shocked by how good they are.

My parents swears by this tofu. The tofu is cooked inside the package, so there is no need for refrigeration, and it lasts almost indefinitely. It’s not just the convenience; it’s one of the best tasting tofus around. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s true. It does feel weird psychologically since it is essentially a canned tofu, but seriously, it’s good.

Apparently this singer/model named Leah Dizon is big in Japan. According to Wikipedia, she is a mixture of Chinese, Filipino, and French. She was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her photos spread like a wildfire in Japan; so she decided to move to Japan. She is now singing in Japanese, wearing a super-mini skirt.

I recently noticed that TV in Japan is filled with half Asian and half White people, who are simply called “half”. I was shocked to find that even kid’s programs on TV have many “half” people. I suppose the “half” people represent the Japanese desire to be more international. What is interesting is that they no longer are interested in 100% White people. The overt idolization of white people is apparently over. They now prefer somewhere in between. I would imagine that this trend is also being fueled by the popularity of White-male Asian-female couples in the 80s and 90s. Their kids are now in their teens, ready to sing and dance.

The fundamental problem in Asia, when it comes to human beauty is that Asians do lack the variety that other races have. Just having natural brown hair, you would stand out among the sea of black hair. Some may see the Japanese idolization of white people as a racial issue (often described as self-hatred), but aesthetically speaking, it’s only natural that we are drawn to something that is rare and exotic. If you put a blue M&M among hundreds of red M&Ms, the former would seem very special. The same logic.

But with this logic, they should still be interested in idolizing 100% white people. It’s either that they simply got bored of the white people’s looks, or they became self-conscious of the racial issue. Not sure which.

The whole “idol” industry is a peculiar phenomenon in Japan. They take teenage boys and girls, and turn them into what essentially are mascots. The fans fetishize them. There are companies that churn them out. Interestingly, they take the dehumanizing aspect of this whole business for granted; that is, there are no pretenses by any parties involved. It’s not about what’s “inside”; it’s purely about the surface values. In this sense, it makes sense that they would create video games like this below. The whole point is to see these girls and boys as fetishes, so you might as well forget the real humans and use computer generated characters.

Years ago, I bought a game similar to this for Playstation 2 (Japanese console), but after playing it for an hour or so, I couldn’t see the point of the game; so I never played it again. I thought the idea was interesting, but I think you have to be really into this sort of thing to get into it. My guess is that the joy comes from owning and controlling the girl (the players are mostly boys). If you need to fetishize a person, I think a video game character is a better way to go. According to this Wikipedia article, it made “Japan’s ratio of Xbox Live sign-ups to the number consoles sold the highest in the world.”

By the way, this video clip includes what is presumably an “accident” or a glitch where the girl’s underwear gets exposed. Now, that’s VERY Japanese.