1.26.2008

Tokyo Taxi Chronicles 1

Like I wrote about the smoke ban in Tokyo cabs the other day, I LOVE chatting with cab drivers. Whether in Las Vegas or Florence, cab drivers are the ones who are in the know about the city. In Tokyo, where taxis often outnumber private cars in the city, cab drivers are a great source of 'insight' into the city.

Lately, I've been drilling local cabbies on the recent cigarette ban.

Surprisingly, they all say overall it has been quite with no major problems. However, several drivers told me an interesting story: they have lost female customers since the ban.


It seems that riding in a taxi had been a great opportunity for many business women to catch a smoke before or after work. Basically, they don't smoke at home and avoid smoking at work under the watchful eyes of male co-workers (yes, there is still sexism in Japan and smoking at work is considered a manly habit). The solution then for them was to get off their train a station or two before the office, catch a cab and enjoy her purple haze.

Since they are no longer allowed to smoke in cabs, they simply stopped riding them. I first thought it was just a rare case, but heard the same story from several drivers. Now I wonder where these women go to enjoy a smoke... or do they substitute it with something else like sweets and booze??!! My investigation continues...

1.25.2008

Bento Madness

I am now going to take you into the mystifying, mind-boggling and slightly horrific world of school lunches in Japan. Now when I was a kid, my mom threw a bologna sandwich in a brown bag with an apple and maybe some Lay's chips in a ziploc and that was lunch.

In Japan, however, moms compete with each other for who can make the most creative/cutest 'bento' (lunch box) for their precious little ones. Websites, magazines, and blogs abound with recipes and directions on bento-box production with themes covering Anime Characters, Sports, Seasons, Animals, and anything else a kid could ever want. Some examples:



Particularly frightening is what is being done with the weiner in this country. Japanese kids LOVE sausages. Kinda like hot dogs in the US. But did you know weiners can also be farm animals?




Now you can make your own weiner animals with the help of the good people at Nippon Ham. (click on any animal for detailed how-to instructions!).

1.24.2008

Sweet Madness


Department store basement floors in Japan are called 'Depachika' and usually host various food tenants; deli, bakeries, local delicacies, take-out dinners, etc. But one cannot miss the great temptation of Depachika sweets: yummy chocolates, cakes, cookies and other high-end goodies.

From Jan 23-28 Shinjuku Isetan will host the 5th annual Salon de Chocolat. There will be 55 chocolate brands from 11 nations gathering to allure the sweet fans of the city.

www.isetan.co.jp/sdc/

(Sorry, Japanese only)

Today's morning news reported that 500 people lined up for the event opening yesterday. All could not enter the floor so hundreds of them even had to line-up on the staircase. A box of 18-piece chocolate was on sale for 17,500 JPY (about 165 USD), and women don't just line up for that, but also love taking photos with the patissiers as if they were Hollywood celebrities!


This event is clearly greasing the wheels for Valentine's Day sales; in Japan, the 'tradition' is for women to give chocolates to men (see, Japan really is a great country!). It is also true that some of them give themselves chocolates as a 'reward' for their stressful / hard urban daily lives.

If you can't make the event, get yourself a free sample of Fresh Chocolate (chocolate made from fresh cream, Nama-choco) while perusing the selections. Fancy a piece worth 10 USD?



1.23.2008

Keepin Warm With Uniqlo

The setup: Tokyo's first snow of 2008. It ain't Chicago but...




.... if you're from SoCal, this means IT'S COLD OUT THERE. What do you really need? A scarf? Mittons? Never heard of 'em. What I need is a T-shirt. For snow.

Enter the good folks at Uniqlo. They've come up with "HEAT TECH" a new line of 'inner wear' made from fiber that actually heats up with your body to help you keep warm - rather than simply trapping heat. The fiber stretches and breathes like cotton, and even has some sort of anti-bacteria function to prevent stink. Here's a link that explains in Japanese.

The launch ad for Heat Tech was brilliant - a girl tries to convince her boyfriend to wear heat tech tights but he, like any man, resists - me wear tights?!? Cut to the benefit shot where we see him standing in uniform on a snowy train platform (about the only job I could imagine a young guy standing out in the cold).



Luckily my wife had just bought me one this morning (literally opened it up and threw it on before going to work):


Not the most fashionable, but it's inner wear, right? Good to go - like an oven mitt.

1.16.2008

Identity Crisis

On a recent trip back home (Los Angeles), I was confronted with a paralyzing crisis in personal identity, the way I express and define myself. "Who am I?" I thought to myself, "Which energy drink is right for me?"




In Japan energy drinks, called eiyo (nutritional) drinks, have been propping up the salarymen of Japan Inc for ages. Lately they've become increasingly specialized to meet the needs of Japan's evolving social structures:

Good old-fashioned eiyo drinks:



Beauty eiyo drinks:



Love eiyo drinks:


last resort gone...


A new regulation took effect on January 7, 2008: smoking is now banned in Tokyo taxis.

While Japan is one of the 'lenient' nations on smoking, more offices, restaurants, and public spaces are now smoke-free. Taxis were almost the last resort for smokers who ride it in between client visits and meetings. Shinkansen (the bullet train) is also smoke-free today.

A cab driver told me the other day that female customers are more detesting to the ban, which I thought interesting. This might be (?!) bacause of male/female psychological differences, but more over, statistics show that while the entire smoker population is decreasing in Japan, female smoker population is growing.

Stressed salary-men of Tokyo, what are we gonna do???!!!

Meaningful Innovation 1

Question: Why are tissues white?


Answer: Who knows. Black Tissues from Daishowa First.