Japanese Designer New Years Cards 2014
Every year around this time we share with you a selection of Japanese designer Holiday/New Year’s cards. Here is the 2014 edition, which should also serve as a reminder that this year is the year of the horse. Happy New Year!
1. A cute illustrated card from Nagoya-based graphic design firm creun, inc. Continue reading »
Ladies from Uzbekistan Bring Japanese Emoticons to Life
Tokyo web planning company Nuuo showed a series of Japanese emoticons to models from an Uzbekistan model agency.
Nuuo only told them the bare minimum about what each emoticon meant and allowed the women to interpret the emoticons on their own. Japanese emoticons are slightly different from emoticons in other countries, and thus, the nuance of meaning might not be readily apparent. So while this Japanese emoticon m(_ _)m might look like a butt with wings, it’s actually the image of someone bowing on the ground. Continue reading »
Giant Image of Marilyn Monroe is Grown in a Japanese Rice Field
The image of Marilyn Monroe is made from nine rice species with seven different colors has popped up on a rice filed in Inakadatemura, Aomori prefecture, northern Japan. (AP/Daily Mail) Continue reading »
Crazy Japanese Vending Machines
Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita, with about one machine for every twenty-three people. Japan’s high population density, relatively high cost of labor, limited space, preference for shopping on foot or by bicycle, and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, provide an accommodating environment for vending machines. While the majority of machines in Japan are stocked with drinks, snacks, and cigarettes, one occasionally finds vending machines selling items such as bottles of liquor, cans of beer, fried food, iPods, pornography, sexual lubricants, live lobsters, fresh meat, eggs and potted plants. Continue reading »
Randoseru, Japanese Schoolchildren Backpack Unboxing
A randoseru is a firm-sided backpack made of stitched firm leather or leather-like synthetic material, most commonly used in Japan by elementary schoolchildren. It measures roughly 30 cm high by 23 cm wide by 18 cm deep, and features a softer grade of leather or material on those surfaces which touch the body. When empty, the average randoseru weighs approximately 1.2 kilograms (about 2½ pounds avoirdupois). The term randoseru is a borrowed word from the Dutch “ransel” meaning “backpack”, a clue to its origins nearly 200 years ago as used in the Netherlands. Continue reading »
How One Japanese Village Defied the Tsunami
The man on the picture is Kotaku Wamura, who died in 1997 at age 88.
Until March 11, 2011, – he did not live, but it turned out to show the big tsunami a big “fuck”: being from 1945 to 1987 the mayor of the Fudai town, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, he has invested more than $ 30 million in building a protective wall height of 16 meters, which saved the lives of more than 3000 people. Nearby villages have decided that 10 meters is enough, and were washed away into the ocean. Continue reading »
Japanese iPhone Cookies
Real sweet coockies from Japan’s Green Gables bakery. ;) Continue reading »
Satellite of Love: Vanishing Beauty of Japanese Love Hotels
Love hotels, nowadays they’re calling them “fashion hotels,” they’re calling them “boutique hotels.” What times are these we’re living in?
We Japanese are generally reputed to be “good at copying,” yet for some reason we seem to exercise the highest level of erotic originality in the world. From sopu “soaplands” (bathhouses) and imekura “image clubs” (costume role-playing) and deriheru “delivery health” (call-a-massage), mainstays of the sex-hire industry, to hi-tech adult toys, to lust-and-violence manga comics and pick-a-girl fuzoku magazines, the Japanese creative spirit would seem to be fixated on things erotic. And of course, there’s interior design’s erotic “true north”, the love hotel. Continue reading »
Irrational Fear of Scary Japanese School Girls
No comments. My mind is blowing. Continue reading »
