マックでＤＳ

マックドナルド (McDonalds Japan) has started a new tie-in with Nintendo.

It’s 「マックでＤＳ」 (“Mac De DS“)…which means “(Nintendo) DS at McDonalds”.

If you’re in Japan, and you or your kids have a Nintendo DS, bring it with you on your next visit to マックドナルド (McDonalds)…and you (or your kids) will be able to play games that are available only while you’re inside a マックドナルド (McDonalds) in Japan, download マックドナルド (McDonalds) coupons and “Pokemon” characters and things like that.

I haven’t been to マックドナルド (McDonalds) recently, so I’ve haven’t tried this yet…but the next time that my kids go to McDonalds (either with us or with their friends), they’ll probably bring along their “DS” to try this service out.

Vodka and cola

I mentioned my preference for beer over cola on an earlier post (Click here to read it).

But on 七月八日 ((2009) July 8), Kirin (the Japanese beverage company most famous for their line of beers) will begin selling 「コーラショック」 (“Cola Shock”).

キリン「コーラショック」 (Kirin "Cola Shock")

It’s a canned cola and vodka cocktail.

The ad says that it’s a 発泡酒 (Low-malt alcoholic beverage) that contains アルコール分５％ (5% alcohol).

As I mentioned before, I don’t drink cola often…but this is one kind I’d like! 😉

回転寿司

Today my wife and I went to a Levi’s outlet sale in 新宿 (Shinjuku, Tokyo).

We bought some clothes for our kids.

While we were in 新宿 (Shinjuku), we had lunch at 三葉回転寿司 (Mitsuba conveyor-belt sushi).

Do they have 回転寿司 (conveyor-belt sushi) restaurants in your country?

At this type of sushi restaurant, the sushi chef prepares various types of sushi and puts them on different colored plates. Each colored plate represents the price for that particular sushi.

Then the sushi is placed on a conveyor-belt and goes around and when the one you want passes in front of you, you can take it off and eat it.

When you’re ready to leave, the restaurant staff calculates how much you owe by counting the colored plates from all the sushi you ate.

You can also request the sushi chef to make a particular sushi that you want, if you don’t see it on the conveyor.

Here are a few photos I took of the sushi and around 新宿 (Shinjuku):

フグ (Blowfish) skin

This building in Shinjuku has banners advertising Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics.

The banner says: 「Tokyo 2016.　日本だから、できる。 あたらしいオリンピック！」 ("Tokyo 2016. This is Japan, so we can can do it...a new Olympics!")

American 80s icons died

A couple of weeks ago, David Carredine, famous from the U.S. TV show “Kung Fu” from the 70s / 80s died.

Then two days ago, Ed McMahon, famous from the “Tonight Show” and “Star Search” died.

Yesterday, Farrah Fawcett from “Charlie’s Angels” died.

And right now, the TV morning variety shows are saying Michael Jackson may have just died.

New drinks

I wrote about Pepsi Japan‘s new drink that they started selling this week called Pepsi Shiso.
(Click here to read it).

I decided to buy a bottle of it today to try it just for the novelty value.

"Pepsi Shiso" on the convenience store shelf.

I know what シソ (Shiso), the Japanese herb, tastes like. We actually have some growing in my wife’s garden right now.
I like it fine…but the idea of “Shiso flavored cola” seemed very odd to me.

I was right. Pepsi Shiso smells and tastes alot like the herb. As I said, I think Shiso is good…as an herb. But in a cola, I found it unappealing.

I took a couple sips to try it, and gave the rest of the drink to my kids. Even they found it “mediocre”.

I guess we won’t be buying Pepsi Shiso again.

After trying the Pepsi Shiso, I opened my favorite drink…an ice cold beer! (Actually a 発泡酒 (Low-malt beer), which is just as good to me).

Yesterday, I bought a case of Kirin Beer‘s newest offering: 「コクの時間」 (I would’ve translated it as “Wonderful Time“…but it says on the can “Golden Moments“).

Regardless, the beer was much better than the herb cola! (Actually, a cold beer is better than any other drink! 🙂 )

MOS Bears

The Japanese fast-food chain MOS Burger is now offering a “Kids Set Meal” for the first time in their history.

Also if you buy any burger / small fries / medium drink set at MOS Burger from now until 2009 July 6, you’ll get a scratch card that gives you a chance to win your choice of a “MOS Burger Bearbrick Figure” or a “Pepsi NEX Bearbrick Figure“.

Bearbrick is a Japanese company that makes bear figures in the likeness of famous people or things. Mostly pop-culture related.

I wrote a couple posts about them before.
Click here to see my KISS Bearbrick post…
and click here to see my post with the Star Wars figures.

Wild Health

Do you know 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie)?

She is a Japanese pop singer.

I remember when she debuted in the early 1990’s at the age of about 14…now she’s already about 31! Time flies!

She’s from Okinawa and she originally debuted in a band called “Super Monkey“. They weren’t so popular though, and she went solo.
The rest of the Super Monkey band remained together and changed their name to “MAX“.

The band MAX was moderately successful…but 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) became extremely popular in Japan in the 1990s.

Many Japanese girls copied her style of clothes and hair. Many people think that 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) started the style that became popular in the mid-1990s in Japan of having bleached hair.

At the height of her popularity, 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) got married to a member of the Japanese pop band TRF and they had a son together.
But their marriage didn’t last long and they were divorced.

And then, news was reported that her mother was violently murdered in Okinawa by her step-father’s brother…who then killed himself.

I’m not particularly a fan of 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie). I don’t listen to that type of music.
But I remember her being on television here in Japan all of the time in the early to mid 1990s. And I remember how many young Japanese girls copied her style back then too.
And I remember when the news of her mother’s news was on TV too. (Her mother was half-Italian, by the way).

Then I forgot all about her when her popularity diminished.
But recently, she’s making a bit of a come-back.

She’s started showing up on the music shows on TV a few years ago. And she has a few fairly new tattoos that she shows off alot.
One tattoo is a bar-code with the date-of-birth on it.
Another is the name of her son, Haruto.
And the one above her son’s name is a “R.I.P.” tattoo dedicated to her late mother.

And now, 安室奈美恵 (Amuro Namie) is the current campaign model for both Coca-Cola Japan‘s “Zero” cola.
Her campaign ad for Coca-Cola Zero says “Wild Health”.

(Click here to read my other blog post about Coke (and Pepsi) in Japan.)

And she’s also the current campaign model for McDonalds Japan‘s “Quarter Pounder” burger ads.

(Click here to read my earlier post about the Quarter Pounder in Japan.)

The Quarter Pounder in Japan had been using the colors black and red in their ads…but for some reason they’ve changed the color to what their calling 「バラ色」 (“Rose color”)…(it’s actually pink, though).

And if you buy a Quarter Pounder set meal in Japan now, you can get a pink (sorry, “Rose color”) pin with one of a choice of strange designs…and you’ll also get a scratch-card that gives you a chance to win a pink T-shirt with the same choices of designs.

Personally, I would never wear a pink T-shirt…especially one from a fast-food restaurant. The designs offered are like this one:

If you don’t understand Japanese, a T-shirt that says “Don’t Read Air” must seem strange. But it’s obviously meant to be a literal English translation of 空気が読めない (“Can’t read between the lines”).
A better literal translation would be “Can’t read the air”. But what it means is “Can’t read between the lines”…which is important in Japanese culture.

父の日

今日は父の日 (Today is Father’s Day).

Just as they did on 母の日 (Mother’s Day), my kids told my wife and I we should go out on a “date” and they’d cook dinner today. (Click here to read my post for last Mother’s Day).

So my wife and I went to 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo).

We walked around for a bit and stopped at a coffee shop for a coffee and talked for a while.
Then we stopped at a store and bought some things our daughters needed for school.

When our daughters called and told that dinner would be ready soon, we headed home.

Dinner was wonderful! As it’s 父の日 (Father’s Day), my kids made one of my favorites: 「豚キムチ」 (Pork and Kimuchi on rice) and a fruit salad for dessert!
美味しかった！ (It was delicious!)

After dinner, they gave me Father’s Day presents! One daughter gave me a ケータイ・ストラップ (cell-phone strap) that she made by hand! It’s very nice! And it’s black—my kids know my taste!
The other two gave me a notebook / pen set for my 日本語 (Japanese language) studies! Great!

It was an excellent day!

(When my wife and I went to 上野 (Ueno) today, we passed by 下谷神社 (Shitaya Shrine). Here are a few pictures I took of the 「鳥居」 (Torii Gate) in front of the shrine):

パチンコ

I’ve written an earlier post (click here to read it), Japan has many types of 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machines.

If you want to know about what 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) is, you can read my earlier posts that I wrote about it.
(click here and here).

「パチンコ」 (pachinko) is often called “Japanese pinball”…and like pinball machines, 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machines are decorated with pictures of famous people or characters.

In Japan, there are Spiderman, JAWS, Marilyn Monroe, 「ウルトラマン」 (Ultraman), and 「七人の侍」 ( The Seven Samurai) 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machines.

That’s just an example. There are many others.
There’s even a 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machine for the Japanese pop singer 「倖田來未」 (Koda Kumi):

(Click here to see the Koda Kumi Pachinko website).

As I mentioned in the earlier post I mentioned above (click here to read it), there are also KISS and Star Wars 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machines:

(Click here to see the KISS Pachinko website.)

(Click here to see the Star Wars Pachinko website.)

Now there’s a new 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machine. And it’s also decorated with images from American pop-culture.
It’s the Bon-Jovi 「パチンコ」 (pachinko) machine. It plays some songs by the band and has cartoon images in their likeness.

(Click here to visit the Bon Jovi Pachinko website).

On the news today…

A few things that were on the TV news today…

• A woman in Belgium is suing the tattoo artist who put 56 stars on her face.She claims that she requested that he ink only three stars on her face, and then she fell asleep while he was tattooing her…and when she woke up, she discovered that the entire left-side of her face was covered in stars.

  

  The tattoo artist, who is completely covered in tattoos and piercings himself, claims that she requested a tattoo of exactly 56 stars on her face and that’s what she got.

  

  The tattoo artist

  It’s hard to be sure who’s lying…but, personally, I think I believe the tattooist. Even though he looks bizarre…why would he jeopardize his livelihood and give his customer a tattoo over 18 times the size that they requested?
  And could a person sleep who their face is being tattooed?

• 田鍋友時 (Tomoji Tanabe) died today at the age of 113.He was the world’s oldest man. (Now the world’s oldest man is an Englishman named Henry Allingham. Mr. Allingham is also 113 years old…but he just turned 113 a couple of weeks ago—田鍋友時 (Tomoji Tanabe) would have turned 114 this September, had he lived.)
• The longest continuously-running manga ever, 「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」 (“This Is The Police Box In Front Of Kameari-Park in Katsushika-ward (Tokyo))”, will be made into a live-action TV series.
  

  「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」

  It already has a popular anime series. I like to watch the anime (TV cartoon)…so I’m planning to check out the live-action TV series when it starts airing this August (on Saturdays).

  The main character, 「勘吉両津」 (Kankichi Ryoutsu), will be played by 「香取慎吾」 (Katori Shingo) of the J-pop band SMAP.

  

  "Shingo" as "Kankichi Ryotsu"

  The story 「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」 (“This Is The Police Box In Front Of Kameari-Park in Katsushika-ward (Tokyo))” is about a team of police officers in a small town in Tokyo…the main character is Kankichi Ryoutsu. He’s very strong and can run extremely fast…even though he always wears 「下駄」 (Japanese traditional wooden sandals).

  But he prefers to try get-rich-quick schemes rather than police work.

  There are also many other characters in the series…for example, a motorcycle cop named Honda who’s extremely timid and nervous–until he gets on his Kawasaki motorcycle (his brother-in-law is named Kawasaki and rides a Honda motorcycle!).

  If you go to the town in Tokyo that this manga is based, you can see the police box that the characters are stationed at. (If you ask the real policemen at this police-box where Kankichi Ryoutsu is, they’ll often say that “he’s out on patrol”!).

  Also, at either exit of the 亀有駅 (Kameari Train Station), there is a statue of Kankichi Ryoutsu.

  I took a photo of each one: