I have written a number of posts about interesting people. Most of whose stories are related to Japan in some way.
Maybe you haven’t seen many of them…so I decided to put links to all of them on a new page that I titled “Who’s Who?“.
Please check them out and leave comments to let me know what you think.
The new page is here.
I just made a new page on my blog.
It’s titled “What’s that?“, and I made it to answer some of the questions that visitors ask me about “mysterious” things they’ve seen in Japan.
Check it out and if you have any questions about Japan (things you’ve seen, where places are, recommendations for places to visit, etc.), feel free to contact me. And, of course, comments in any of my blogs pages and posts are always appreciated!
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).
Next Friday, my youngest daughter will go on a school trip to 新潟県 (Niigata Prefecture) on the other side of Japan for a four-day ski-trip.
Her sisters both took the same field trip when they were in the sixth grade…and they both had a great time.
I’ll worry a bit when she goes on this trip (just as I did when her sisters went), but I’m sure she’ll have a good time.
Today, we went to 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) to get some things she needs for her trip.
After we finished shopping, we went to a カラオケ・ボックス (Karaoke box)…which is a place that has many small, private rooms where you can go to enjoy food and singing karaoke without strangers being able to see or hear you.
Our Karaoke room
Here are some photos that I took around 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) today:
アメ横 ("Ameyoko") in Ueno
Here’s a video that I took of this corner:
Some more photos I took of the area:
上野の「たぬき小路」
Tommy Lee Jones does TV commercials for "BOSS Coffee"
「立入禁止」 = "Do Not Enter"
Sometimes men need to stay in a cheap hotel for a business trip (or because they missed the last train of the evening)…this type of place is popular for them—A Capsule Hotel with sauna and “Pachinko parlor“:
Capsule Hotel
ちょうちん (Paper lantern) for a 「うどん」 (noodle) restaurant
One of the oldest buildings in 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo) is the old shopping center 「聚楽」 (Jyuraku) will be demolished soon. So I took a photo of it:
上野の「聚楽」
Last Friday, the DVD for the movie “Detroit Metal City” went on sale. There are two versions…the regular DVD of the movie and another version that includes a bonus “making of the movie” DVD.
KISS bass guitarist, Gene Simmons, makes a cameo in the movie and plays on one song on the soundtrack.
I wrote a post about this movie. Click here to see it.
Here the DVD promotion poster:
"Detroit Metal City" DVD promo poster
It was a fun day. The highlight was listening to my daughters sing カラオケ (Karaoke). 🙂
Tokyo Five 
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