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New product season
It’s new product season. In the late spring, all of the summer products start appearing on the shelves of conbini around town. Many of these new items are simply variations on a theme, taking a twist to accomodate whatever lifestyle fad is current. Last year it was blueberries and cranberries–drinks, chocolates, yogurt, ice cream, pastries.…
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Five Dees
On InterFM last night, the Five Deez were promoting their Japan tour & new album. They are a four man rap frenzy. They were taking callers’ names and mixing them into raps live on the air. The rhymes were brilliant. My favorites were for Tachiro–touch n’go & Casio. Quick thinking!
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Ringtones
Every time a phone rings, I jump. For as long as I can recall, the blare of the telephone has startled me. I’m often on edge in trains, on the streets, in shops and during meals out and about in Tokyo, because other people’s keitai are always ringing. To keep myself from leaping when my…
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Feather duster
While standing on the street in Minami Azabu, waiting for my DigitalEve mentoring group to arrive for a meeting last night, I fulfilled a small desire. I popped into a nearby household goods shop and scanned the aisles for cleaning supplies to find, in a box next to a bunch of mop heads and cotton…
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Bomb threat
Yesterday morning a bomb threat claimed the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nomura Securities, and Tokyo Station would be blown up. They’re still standing today; apparently it was a hoax. But here’s an interesting point: 800 people were evacuated from the TSE while the police spent 30 minutes looking for bombs. Nomura’s office building and the train…
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Scary shellfish ID
Yesterday’s scary shellfish is a geoduck, a giant burrowing clam. Pronounced gooey-duck, it digs three feet deep into sand and lives there for up to 150 years. Wow. The Washington State Department of Ecology has great information about geoducks, and if you’re interested in cooking one, here is a recipe. Thanks very much to Lisa…
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Scary shellfish
The Santoku supermarket near our apartment caters to gourmets and the local French population. There are five different varieties of escargot (three frozen, two fresh), and a frozen meats section that has every hard-to-find meat we’ve ever craved: turkey, quail, duck, and even American bacon. There are lots of esoteric things, too. Like this 7,000…
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Bono, I
I was tipped off yesterday by my friend that her husband’s nickname for me (to differentiate me from her other foreign friends) is Bono. My likeness to the rock star has been discussed before and I’m not entirely convinced. What do you think? I like Bono’s style so I’m not complaining. It could be much…
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Stupid tourists
OK, these folks are just reinforcing the stereotype of clueless Japanese tourists. In a report from the BBC, we discover: “Two tourists engrossed in their guidebooks and heading for the birthplace of Jesus Christ unwittingly wandered into the centre of a war zone on Tuesday. “The Japanese couple were amazed to find that Bethlehem’s Church…
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Octogenarian croquet
Octogenarians if they’re a day, these croquet fiends have a little course of three wickets, all numbered with faded flags, and they laugh and cheer one another as they make their shots. Tod passes them in the park every morning on his way to work. Today I snuck a photo to share.
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