This photo isn’t particularly enlightening, but it is fascinating. I lived practically in spitting distance of an Asian market for nearly two years, and I used to find browsing its shelves very entertaining. However, apart from the raw fruit and vegetables, pancakes, and rice vinegar, I can’t identify many of these items. Any ideas?

According to the photo’s original caption, this is one week’s worth of groceries which cost ¥37,699 (US$317.99)

Source: Photos from the book “Hungry Planet,” which were featured in the Time article “What the World Eats“.

According to various sources, most Japanese don’t actually expect gaijin to return bows, but most consider it rude for foreigners not to at least acknowledge such courtesies with a nod.

The following video lightheartedly demonstrates the most common forms of ojigi used to apologize, but keep in mind that if you’re actually using this video as a hard reference, the actor’s facial expressions are meant to be comical and that women cross there arms in front of themselves, rather than placing their hands at their sides, palms facing inward during shallow bows.

This video is a bit more realistic demonstration for business etiquette.

If you want to read more about ojigi, there’s an interesting article at the APM Forums on the role of etiquette in conducting business in Japan.

Google has failed to reveal where I buy one of these, but the photo is amusing to look at nonetheless. It looks like it would be tasty, if spice, too. It appears to be standard sushi (sticky) rice dyed pink with curry sauce screens edged in Nori Seaweed and daikon buttons. It would probably be fairly simple to make at home for the average sushi connoisseur.

Source: Alafista.com via Craftzine

This video is hilarious because it’s so true, but if you’re actually looking for tips on how to eat sushi, try Sushi Faq.

Source: Japan Culture Lab

… if not, divide at stairs to flee.

Alright, alright, I might be just a bit biased. When I was little, bugs always fascinated me. And this show has bugs in spades. It pits one bug against another in thirty rounds, including beetles, millipedes, scorpions, tarantulas, and wasps. Even if you don’t find creepy-crawlies interesting, there’s a certain comic value to the videos. The announcer is very enthusiastic and seems to the death matches quite seriously.

Video Mirrors: Gladiator Bugs

An article in Friday’s New York Times featuring this photo cracked me up. Only the Japanese would think something like this up, and Japan is the only place in the world were anyone would actually use one. Designed by a twenty-nine year old fashion designer, the flaps that these fake vending machine consist of are concealed beneath a woman’s skirt. If she feels threatened, such as when she is walking home alone at night, all she needs to do is lift the flap and stand very still.

The invention is interesting not just in it peculiarity, but also, as the article goes on to say, in how much it reflects the deep deference in the mindset of the typical American and Japanese urban dweller. An American’s idea of an anti-crime device (and by American I mean United States citizen) is a gun, pepper spray, or a taser, but “many Japanese favor camouflage and deception, reflecting a culture that abhors self-assertion, even in self-defense” according to the article.

I find that insight a bit funny, too, considering the impression most American are left with by Japanese media. I can’t personally think of a Japanese film, manga, or novel I’ve ever seen that doesn’t involve at least one horrific death, and I’ve seen more than most. However, it is noteworthy for anyone who has taken a real interest in Japanese culture.

Read the New York Times article “Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place.”

Takeshi Yamashita does not look like a homeless person.

From his carefully distressed jeans to his casual-cool navy striped T-shirt, he is every bit the trendy Tokyoite.

Yet the 26-year-old has been sleeping in a reclining seat in an Internet cafe every night for the past month since he lost his steady office job and his apartment.

It’s cheaper than a hotel, offers access to the Internet and hundreds of Manga comic books, and even has a microwave and a shower where he can wash in the morning before heading off to one of his temporary jobs ranging from cleaning to basic office work.

Asked how long he plans to go on living like that, Yamashita smiles and shrugs.

“I hope the situation in Japan will improve. The new Japanese generation doesn’t have any money, and many young people don’t have any motivation. I don’t have money, but I have a dream,” he says, sitting in a cubicle with a PC and a stack of comic books.

… and people say that I have an Internet addiction. Ppppp…

Read the Entire Story…
Source: Reuters

Only in Japan will you find an institution like the love hotel. Hotels where couples can rent heavily decorated theme rooms by the hour for amourous liasons, love hotels cater to diverse tastes through elaborate decor ranging from subway-car eroticism to space-age bondage. Fascinating in themselves for what they contain, these rooms also present a window into an aspect of Japanese society virtually unheard of in the West.

There are around thirty-five thousand Love Hotels in Japan, which rent rooms by the hour to couples looking for a little privacy. Once called tsurekomi ryokan (drag her/him in hotels), it’s now trendier to call them fashion hotels, in acknowledgment of the fact that it’s usually the more discerning, trend-conscious woman who makes the room choice. All kinds of tastes can be indulged at love hotels, anything from mirror-lined rotating beds to ornate cages. Some rooms even come equipped with video cameras so you can take home a souvenir of your stay.

A stay overnight costs around eight thousand yen. The room fee for two hours during the day is usually a little bit lower, while on weekends, the prices are usually much higher. The reception at a love hotel is very anonymous. The guests choose a room on a board by pressing a button, before paying at a little window where the receptionist can’t be seen.

There’s an excellent article on Love Hotels at Globe and Mail’s Travel site. I also found a first hand account of a stay at a love hotel over at Atlas Magazine. Don’t worry, it’s a PG account.

Listen to A Single Shadow at the Escape Pod.
Blogger’s Note: This story contains adult content.

Blogger’s Note: Proceeding past this point may cause you to spontaneously tear your eyes from their sockets!

Although Hadaka Matsuri means “Naked Festival”, the participants aren’t nude in the strictest, since everyone involved wears loin cloths. The festival isn’t a national holiday. Different temples hold the festival on separate days, each observing a different set of traditions.

There is a Hadaka Matsuri held on January 14 in Kyoto at the Hino Hokai-ji temple, during which a loin-clothed wearing mob chants and “rub against one another.” In the Hadaka Matsuri in Okayama city held on February 3, hundreds of youth in loin cloths in outer temple hall try to catch a phallic talisman tossed by priests. The best known festival is held annually at the Konomiya Shrine in Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture on February 17.

In this bizarre festival, participants pursue a Shin-otoko, or “Naked Man”, through the streets, trying to touch him as he runs past. The “Naked man”, who has shaved off all of the hair on his body, runs through the streets stark naked, acting as a scapegoat. He absorbs the evils of the community and brings good luck to anyone who succeeds in touching him. At the end of the festivities, the Shin-otoko pays his respects to the Konomiya Shrine, puts on his clothes, and is banished from the town.

This festival is over twelve hundred years old. It attracts more than ten thousand participants and is seen by more than three hundred thousand spectators each year. Most participants use the festival as an excuse to drink heavily, and, subsequently, the festival results in a great number of injuries.

What really cracks me up about the Reuters report that originally inspired this post, is that the report characterizes the event as “one of the three most eccentric festivals in Japan.” I can’t wait to learn about the other two.

Read more about Hadaka Matsuri at ThingsAsian
Visit YouTube to watch videos of the Hadaka Matsuri
Source: Pictures courtesy Webshots Travel Site.

This is a store in an up-scale Tokyo shopping center. Evidently, in Japanese fashion, Arkansas is the new Beverly Hills.

Source: Nude Highway Driving

Yes, it’s a condom machine.
I’m sorry.

In Japan, a person’s blood type or ketsu eki gata is a popularly used to determine a person’s temperament, much the way Americans use astrological signs. The difference is that the Japanese take blood types very seriously. Japanese dating services use blood types to make matches. Employers use them to evaluate job applicants. High school students exchange blood types by way of introduction. Sports card include athletes’ blood types prominently alongside more traditional sports statistics. Manufacturers even market a wide variety of blood-type specific products, including calendars, chewing gum, colas, and condoms.

The obsession with blood types began in 1927, when a psychology professor by the name of Furukawa Takeji who work as a high school administrator began observing the the differences in temperament of the students who applied to his school. From his observations, he conjectured that all humans could be divided into two personality types. According to Furukawa, people with blood type A were mildly tempered and intellectual. People with blood type B were just the opposite - easily roused to anger and unintellectual. Furukawa published a series of articles and books, called “The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type,” which the public gobbled up, despite a complete lack of hard evidence. Interest in ketsu eki gata waned after Furukawa’s death in 1940, but was revived in 1971 when journalist Masahiko Nomi expanded on Furukawa’s theories in a best selling series of book, “Understanding Compatibility from Blood Types.” The new theories associated some blood types to academic success and different types of crime.

After Masahiko Nomi’s death, his son Toshitaka Nomi founded “Ketsueki-gata Ningen-gaku Kenkyusho,” the Institute of Blood Type Humanics. Since the Institute’s founding, interest in ketsu eki gata has continued to grow. It has been used to hire employees, divide labor forces into blood-type appropriate roles, broker marriages, and even dictate child-rearing techniques. It’s use has become so widespread, in fact, that some people have reported being discriminated against because of their blood type.

South Koreans in particular have embraced ketsu eki gata on the dating scene. Men with type B blood are reportedly having an increasingly difficult time finding dates. In a recent nationwide survey conducted by a South Korean site, Type-B men were overwhelmingly voted the most difficult blood-type to date. In addition, forty percent of female respondents indicated that they would never marry a type B man. Magazines, television shows, and internet communities have all jumped on the band wagon, espousing the perils of getting involved with a type B man. There was chart-topping song entitled “Type-B Men” which featured lyrics describing these men’s short-comings, and even a hit movie, “My Boyfriend is Type B.” In the movie, the heroine, a type A personality, falls in loves a passionate but completely irresponsible type B personality, and, inevitably, hilarity ensue.

Type A: The Farmer
Speaking broadly, it is said that people with Type A Blood are calm, composed, levelheaded, and very serious. They have a firm character, and are reliable, trustworthy, and hardheaded. They are shy, introverted perfectionists. They are considerate to others and don’t easily lie. They are loyal to friends and coworkers. They can be secretive, though, and don’t often share their feelings. They try to suppress their own emotions, and because they have continual practice in doing this, they appear strong, when, in actuality, they have a fragile, nervous side, as well. They tend to be hard on people who are not of the same type, and consequently, tend to be surrounded with people of the same temperament. They also don’t hold their liquor well. Type A’s are the most artistic of the groups. They can be shy, cautious, conscientious, reliable, trustworthy, and sensitive. They can also be overcautious, picky, arrogant, and reckless when drunk.

Type B:The Hunter
People with Type B Blood are curious everything. That may be good, but they also tend to have too many interests and hobbies. They tend to get excited about something suddenly only to drop it again just as quickly. They seem to manage to know which of their many interests or loved ones are truly the most important. B Types tend to excel in things rather than just be average, but they tend to be so involved in their own world that they neglect other things. They have independent spirits with strong personalities. They have the image of being bright and cheerful, full of energy and enthusiasm, but some people think that they are really quite different on the inside. They also don’t really want to have much personal contact with others. While they don’t care what others think of them. They are extremely passionate about the things they hold dear. Type B’s are the individualists of the blood group categories and find their own way in life. Type B personalities can be curious, bright, cheerful, enthusiastic, independent, sensitive, and unpredictable. They can also be superficial, unreliable, selfish, unpredictable, indiscreet, lazy, and impatient.

Type AB: The Humanist
Type-AB people are an unpredictable, distant lot, but tend to use their heads over their hearts. They are good with money. Type AB’s are the split personalities of the blood groups. They are considerate of other people’s feelings and deal with them with care and caution. On the other hand, though, they are strict with themselves and those close to them. They, therefore, seem to have two personalities: one for those “outside,” and another for people on the “inside.” They often become sentimental, and they tend to think too deeply about things. AB Types have a lot of friends, but they need time to be alone and think things through, as well. They can be both outgoing and shy, confident and timid. While responsible, too much responsibility will cause a problem. They are trustworthy and like to help others. Type AB personalities can be sensitive, considerate, careful, and efficient. They can also be strict, moody, easily offended, critical, and standoffish.

Type O: The Warrior
Type-O people are outgoing, expressive, and passionate. They are highly motivated, natural leaders. Blessed with a strong physical presence, they aren’t afraid to gamble because they are so convinced they’ll win. Type O Blood people are said to set the mood for a group and to take on the role of creating harmony among its members. Their image is one of being peaceful and carefree. They are also thought to be big-hearted and benevolent, and they tend to spend money on others generously.They are natural athletes. They tend to be obsessive in their quest for success, and this can make them boring to others. Type O’s are outgoing, and very social. They are initiators, although they don’t always finish what they start. They appear to be levelheaded and trustworthy, but they often slip and make big blunders inadvertently. That is also the what makes O Types lovable. Creative and popular, they love to be the center of attention and appear very self confident. Type 0 personalities can be carefree, generous, independent, flexible, idealistic, goal-oriented, athletic, competitive, and adaptable. They can also be clumsy, flighty, jealous, greedy, unreliable, obsessive lover, vain loudmouths.

Romatic Compatability by Blood Groups:
A is most compatible with A and AB

B is most compatible with B and AB

AB is most compatible with AB, B, A and O

O is most compatible with O, and AB

Disclaimer: This article was written by a B type personality. Information presented here may be unreliable.

Footnote: I came across the following excerpt just after writing this post:

The popular indigenous typological system called ketsueki-gata holds that one can categorize people according to blood types A, B, AB and 0. This type of classification only dates back to 1927 when it was first proposed by Furukawa Takeji, a professor at Tokyo Women’s Teacher’s School.10 In this scheme there are four basic types (Table 3). Blood Typology has broad applications: a nursery school in Saitama used it to divide students into different groups, and Mitsubishi Electronics once relied on it when they put together product development teams composed of only AB blood types. One of the most interesting developments is the combination of western astrology with Japanese blood typology. This means that for each of the twelve zodiac signs there can be further elaborations made on the basis of ketsueki-gata, yielding forty-eight separate personality profiles. Almost every woman’s magazine now follows this syncretic practice.

Alternatively, the twelve western zodiac signs may be classified as one of four elements (Air, Earth, Water or Fire), and combined with the four Blood Types to produce sixteen categories. In one article, each of the sixteen combinations is accompanied by an individual “Love Biorhythm Graph.”" A paradigm chart also cross-references all the possibilities by sixteen male types, yielding 256 fortunes in a “You and your boyfriend’s love compatibility chart.” To illustrate, a woman who is a Water sign with Blood Type AB will do well with a man who is an Earth sign with Blood Type A, while someone who is a Water sign with Blood Type O should stay away from men who are Fire signs with Blood Type A.

People types: Personality classification in Japanese women’s magazines
Laura Miller. Journal of Popular Culture. Bowling Green: Fall 1997.Vol.31, Iss. 2; pg. 143, 17 pgs

Sources:
JapanVisitor: Blood Types - Capillaries hold key to character
Netscape: Blood Type Predicts Personality?
NY Times: Blood, Sweat and Type O: Japan’s Weird Science

As Japan’s population gets older, there are fewer young people to take care of the older people. The money to be made in this situation is talking dolls, designed to sleep next to seniors and tell them that they love them. Talking toys have become such a hit that some elderly people have embraced them as substitutes for the children who have grown up and deserted entire neighborhoods in the rapidly greying country.

Moral of the Story? No matter how alone you think you are, there’s always someone in Japan who spends their days talking to a doll all day who is lonelier still.