NIPPON-ICHIGO

If you needed another reason to visit Osaka, well then… here it is.

Is everyone in on the idea? Awesome.

I imagine that in America people would either stare at you, ask you what the hell you’re doing, or ignore you. Or sue you for assault. BANG.

(I found this link through Sister Claire, hee.)

Oh, opulence! When is it art, and when is it truly too much?

I was watching The Colbert Report and saw this: a Japanese 2009 calendar made out of solid gold.

Doesn't get any more straightforward than that.

They’re ¥30,000,000, or, in USD, still a crap-ton of money. And it’s not like there’s just one, a prize for a single elite; no, Ginza Tanaka is “taking orders” for them.

As if there were a demand, a need, for golden calendars.

(It’s not even something that everybody wants, like a golden toilet, for instance. No, it’s just a calendar. I prefer my calendar to be more interesting to look at.)

It could have been art, yes. But actually, it’s rather plain (and shiny, but still plain). Just an expensive block of gold with numbers and days printed on it, encased in wood. Some of the other things Tanaka Corp does looks interesting. Unfortunately, this particular block of gold fails to be both enticing and useful! I mean, you can’t even mark off days.

Better things could be done, is all I’m sayin’.

In the end, I actually don’t care that much; I mean, it’s kind of neat. It seems as though some people out there deserve gold calendars, anyhow.

A while back I came upon this article called The Japanese face and the eye of the beholder. Almost sounds like one of their movies, right?

It talks about how the perception of a particular photographer on the faces of Japan, and how the writer, a friend of this photographer, says it’s both a mix of singular and worldwide influences.

Japan was a very different place not too long ago in history. It had yet to feel the influence of anything outside its tiny island, but now with an influx of Western culture, who can deny that they, too, are looking more “western”?

The thing about such a fact is that, classic or contemporary, I still love the Japanese aesthetic. No matter how much they’ve changed in the last half-century, no matter how much of Western and worldwide culture has been introduced there, they still have a style distinctly their own, from their lifestyles to their looks. Pretty amazing what they can do, right?

(Yes, we’re fangirling an entire nation here.)

The article expresses the yearnings of a world-traveler at heart. It also makes good points about how time and technology also influence our views of the past and the present. I think it’s good to assume that certain eras are transient and can never be recaptured – but, you have to love the times you’re in. I’m thankful for the world and the Japan we have right now!

We already know that Japan has a mastery of pixel-toys to rival that of Huru-Humis (seriously, why do we even bother); Tomagotchi brought us all joy and possibly made us well up and cry back when. I know I just couldn’t get over it when all eight of mine died simultaneously. Oh, but the innovation never stops!

Whoa! Look what happens to your finger!

Tuttukibako (ツッツキバコ) is a small pixel toy from Bandai and Asovision. It’s just big enough to have a screen, and for you to stick your pointer finger into. What do you do after you stick it in? Knowing some Japanese toys, you might be expecting more. No, but in this case, you can interact with the many different stages on-screen!

Flick somebody!

Cause somebody to vomit, or sneeze, or something like that!

Explore the sea!

Squish an amoeba!

Take that, amoeba!

It’s all possible with just your finger!

I’d like to try one out. I get a kick out of stuff like this, simple as it may be. Maybe they’ll integrate this kind of technology into the next Nintendo DS model?

こんにちわ！初めまして！

Welcome to Nippon-Ichigo!

As she aspires to be a world-traveler, this blog is one day to host Sen’s exploits in ever-intriguing Japan!

But until the day she hits the streets of Osaka, it hosts her more obscure findings about the place — not-so-common articles, facts, things dug up from the country’s history, lovely toys, not to mention opinions, artwork, and things kinda-sorta related to Japan as well!

That is to say, yes, yet another blog about Japan by someone who has never been there.
I’ll make it interesting, I promise.

有り難うございます!