Happy Mascots Part 1

In Japan they have this thing about happy little mascots for products. I'm not just talking about Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes but a whole army of animated little mascots ranging in all shapes and sizes. Everything has a little happy face on it. What's important is that their all happy. Always smiling in some way. What makes it really funny to see is that this marketing idea is usually applied to anything that involves sugar or some kind of public service.

For instance, the post office has a little mascot. Its a post box with a little happy face on it. I've seen one for the fire station and police office as well. Happy little fire engine.

Below are a bunch of photos that I've taken over the last few months ranging for different products and services.










These were in-front of a gas station. (Above). These ones (Below) are from a sign that tells you where to leave your garbage for garbage day. Don't you think they are really cute?











I'll let you guess what the rest are from. Honestly, some are from dry cleaners some are from products.












































Kindergarten school.






























Happy Subway, Happy Bakery











I suppose most of them are there just to make you smile or keep a friendly atmosphere.

Russians invade Japan through Capitalism

For all the Russians out there, they've upgraded the whole babushka thing to a whole new level. Bath babushka. Your complete set of sponges and soaps.










Weird. I believed that my Russian could somehow come in use in Japan as it is a bordering country. After talking with a local Russian guy that I met, it turns out that I was very wrong. There is no interest or business going on with Russia in Japan. No one speaks Russian here. But there is a slight cultural influence from the Russians. Seriously. I'm not talking about Vodka.

Now most of you probably have no idea who these characters are but every Russian in the world would know. For some reason these Russian characters were chosen as the mascots of a Japanese private rail system called the JR. The adds talk about respect and whatnot in the train and not to forget your stuff in the trains.


The main character is called Cheburashka. He sings songs and much like Barney tells stories about this best friends. He's from 1960's Russian culture and he's all the rage here. You can buy Chebourashka anything. I'll come back to that when I get some good pictures.

This was on the side of restaurant. Honestly, its like Where's Waldo with Chebourashka stuff. I'm not sure if the samurai dude is suppose to me defending the Chebourashka but it sure looks like it.

Things are not always what they seem

Pass the Recently Killed Fish

What makes sushi different here than in Canada or France (those being the only places I've eaten sushi besides here) is that you are overwhelmed by the variety. Simply put, the most simple sushi place here will have maybe 45 different sushi dishes. That's not including Maki rolls.

Yes, I have eaten Fugo (Blowfish) and yes it is poisonous and no, they did not send me to the hospital. I went there all on my own.

For those who don't know (I myself didn't know until recently) Maki is not sushi. Maki is seaweed rolled with rice and other stuff inside. The stuff can vary. In the picture here you can see some cheese Maki, made with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. They're my favourite.

Sushi is just fish on rice. Sometimes they put eggplant or beef but that's uncommon. Sashimi is just the fish with no rice.

If you know all this already I apologize but some people (like me) have confused all this stuff for years into the general category of Sushi.

Still not sure why April O'Neal got grossed out at the thought of sushi when Master Splinter offered it to her. It was probably way better for you than the weird Pizza that the Ninja Turtles were eating. Then again, now that I think about it, how Master Splinter got a hold of the fresh fish to make sushi down in the New York sewers presents a lot of sanitation issues. Maybe the pizza was safer.

The other big difference here is that the fish is super fresh. All of it is caught off the coast of Tokyo so the fish you eat is no more then a day old. Usually caught, sold and brought in the same day. As for taste it varies depending on the place. Salmon can taste really good but then again, Canadian Salmon can taste better.








The point that makes it all worthwhile it is that it's easily available.

Here is our favourite sushi place. Each plate is about $1.50 Canadian dollars. And you can make requests.

Free tea too!

The same kind of thing in Tokyo is about $4.00 a plate.

Oink!

Tonight we heard some seriously creepy noises. For the last little while, as it was getting colder, the neighbourhood cats have been complaining more and more. Thus, in the last few weeks we've gotten use to the screeching in the background, here and there. But tonight, I think one of the cats came across something fierce in the hillside near my house.

At first it sounded like cats crying but eventually it started to sound more like dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Either the cats pissed off a wild pig or got freaked out by one. The next 10min was filled will all kinds of oinking and growling. I thought it was pretty cool. My best guess is that two boars were fighting over something. Maybe even a cat. ah love.

Japanese Wild Boar Sus scrofa leucomystax

Why can't everything in life be this easy?

Transport: Spider-Man Style

Someone told me about a Spider-man train out in Sakurajima. That's a prefecture at the very southern end of Japan. I feel that I should go there just to find this. But someone did the work for me already. Its an advertisement for Universal Studios Osaka.

Christmas in Kyoto

Has the holiday music completely driven you insane? Can you believe that there are people out there who actually like "Jingle Bells"? I'm disgusted too. And if you thought for some reason that I was safe out here, think again. Yes, even though the Christians in Japan represent, at most, 2% of the population (Thank you world factbook), you can still hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" on every street corner. Yay commercialism. They're trying to hook the Asians as fast as they can. Honestly, Japanese people find it weird and because of the cultural overlap they're not sure what to do. Some buy presents for their kids, most don't. For the most part, people like it because it's festive. They don't know the words to most of the songs, so they simply feel like it's just holiday music. For some songs they have come up with their own words. That's really funny to hear. As for days off, the 25th is a normal working day. Everything is open. In fact the 23rd is way more exciting for people, as it's the emperor's birthday, most things are closed and there's usually lots of things happening. I honestly don't know because I wasn't in Japan for Christmas. I went to visit my brother in Taiwan (more on that later.)

Nonetheless, the city did put the effort for the holiday shopping season. It is considered the holiday season because most people take the week off before New Year's to prepare for the event. Yes, New Year's Eve and day and, for that matter, the week before and weekend after are huge in Japan. I don't mean people yelling in the streets or fireworks. It's more like a huge family event. On the New Year's weekend, the Japan transportation system usually peaks with people trying to get to their home town. The event comes closer to Christmas dinner then anything else. The tradition is that the homemakers do some form of spring cleaning all through December so that they enter the new year with a clean house. Many of my students have been complaining about how busy they are. In addition, they prepare a huge dinner that is eaten on New Year's Eve, with the family and then continued to be eaten for the entire weekend, I think. I guess it's to really enjoy yourselves and not be bogged down with cooking. The meal is called Osechi. It contains anything that would have been considered rare or difficult to make. Rare items are usually connected to luck. This is important to start the new year. I have no idea. It was explained to me but I don't think I can get it until I see it. The other tradition is to be eating Soba noodles at the moment the clock strikes midnight. The longer the noodle the better. It's suppose to symbolize long life.

My New Year's eve was not so simple and was not nearly as boring. I suppose this is the most popular time of the year for Japanese people to see their families. I couldn't get anyone to come out for the night to party as it was designated family night. Sort of reminds me of Christmas in Canada. Everyone was busy. Parties in general were pretty scarce.

In Osaka there was a little bit of extra lighting around the city hall. It was kind of weak and a lot less amazing then the advertisement promised. Maybe we came at the wrong time or something like that. I know that Kobe has some amazing light displays. I just didn't have it in me to go that extra hour out there to see it. Here is a picture I stole from someone else's blog just to give you an idea. I'm sure my picture would have looked very similar. No way to know.



On the shopping side of things, I found all kinds of fun things. Japanese traditional houses are very cold. The walls are made from paper so heating can be a real problem. We've been going through a whole new kind of hell with the heating here. I'll be sure to make a posting about it soon. But nonetheless, it gets cold in the house so people need their sexy frog bodysuit thing to keep them warm. I don't know why but it's funny. I'm sure it's warm too.

Everything from hot water bottles, socks, slippers, and pyjamas all have some form of twist to them from really hot and sexy to well.... just look at this pic on the side.

There is one thing that the Japanese have really figured out when it comes to Christmas and that's making it sexy. Yeah thats right. Because Japanese girls have long thin legs, the overall style here for women is to show them off. The closest thing we would get in Canada is maybe some sexy lingerie with a Christmassy feeling to it but here they have full outfits that really try to bring out the inner elf. Now I've seen girls wearing these outfits and I can tell you that somehow they pull it off.


The fact that it's not so cold here may make the difference. And as you can see there are a lot of styles to choose from.



Do you find this hot?




I'm usually the guy who seriously brings on the hate for Christmas but to tell you the truth this was the first year that something felt off. Maybe it was the lack of snow or familyness that usually goes along with Christmas even if you're not into the whole Santa Clause thing. The day came and went like any other day, and I couldn't help feeling that I missed it. I couldn't even Grinch on it with my Bah-humbugs because no one would understand what I was talking about.

One last funny story. I was leaving the gym and they asked me if I wanted to spin this lottery thing to possibly win a prize. I was in a rush and really didn't care that much, but I'm greedy too I said sure. Turns out I got the big prize of a Christmas Cake. Everyone was really happy for me but I was in such a rush my thoughts were more along the lines of "ok, I won, gimme so I can go". The guy explained where I needed to go and of course I didn't understand. A lady overheard the situation, labelled me a very lucky man and offered to show me where to go. When I got to the cake stand they were happy for me too and congratulated me and all that jazz and once again my thoughts were "gimme the damn cake". Turns out the cake was OK. But it was free.