Can’t decide what to drink? This machine knows what you’d like…

When you think of Japan what is the image you have?
Many people who’ve never been to Japan imagine it to be ancient and traditional. Others imagine Japan is futuristic and high-tech.

Both of these images are accurate. In Tokyo you can often see the ultra-modern side-by-side with ancient traditional.

Another thing that visitors to Japan are often surprised by is the number of excellent convenient 自動販売機 (vending machines) here.

Vending machines are plentiful in Japan and can be found everywhere. And Japan has vending machines that sell everything you can imagine…newspapers, hot and cold drinks, fruit, eggs, rice, beer, umbrellas, magazines, videos, stamps, sandwiches, and so much more.

And the machines themselves are modern and convenient.
In Japan, you can make pay for purchases at most vending machines, train and subways stations, convenient stores, etc with cash of course, but also with your train pass card or your cellular phone!

Well, as if the vending machines here weren’t high-tech enough…now many vending machines across Japan are being replaced with new futuristic vending machines.

Rather than having a display of cans and bottles of the drink choices available in the machine, these new machines have a digital interactive display.
When there aren’t any people in it’s immediate vicinity, it displays a cartoon face and randomly has a “speech bubble” that offers random questions…such as “Are you thirsty?” or “Would you like to buy something?”

Japan's newest vending machine

But once someone moves closer to it, the digital display shows the choice of drinks…but the most amazing aspect of this new machine is that it scans the faces of potential customers and then offers a few 「おすすめ」 (recommendations) based on the person’s approximate age and gender.

Check out this TV news broadcast about it:

Even after over twenty years

I have been living in Japan for most of my life.
I came here when I was twenty years old…and that was over twenty years ago now.

I think Japan is the most beautiful country in the world and Tokyo is the best city.

I wanted to show some scenes that I see regularly in Japan and I may have started taking for granted but they are a part of what makes Japan so special.

Rather than go through the photos in my camera’s memory cards, I decided to be a bit lazy and see what I could find online.
I found a website called Getty Images that has many stock photos…some of them of Japan.
The people who take these photos must have cameras that are much nicer than mine because they took some really nice photos.

I use photos that I took myself in most of my blog posts, but the following photos are from Getty Images.

Every January, when the "Tokyo Stock Exchange" reopens after the New Years holidays, the female staff wear kimono.

A"bird's eye view" of Tokyo

A traditional Japanese breakfast.

A Japanese garden.

The symbol of Japan: 富士山 (Mount Fuji).

Tokyo's "Rainbow Bridge".

Japanese "Green Tea".

The Shibuya area of Tokyo

The Shinjuku area of Tokyo.

新幹線 (Bullet trains)

Tokyo Tower

By the way, today is the seventh day of the New Year.
On this day it is Japanese custom to eat 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“) for breakfast.
I will have it for breakfast today as I usually do on January 7th.

Click here to see my post that explains this tradition in more detail.

けん玉

My family and I like to play 「けん玉」 (“Kendama“).

Kendama is a traditional Japanese toy.
Much like a yo-yo, with practice you can master the basics of Kendama…and with a lot more practice, you can learn to do the “fancy tricks”.

Basically, Kendama is a wooden hammer-shaped toy with a small, a medium-size, and a larger “dish” and also a “spear”.
It also has a string attached with a wooden ball at the other end of the string. The ball has a hole in it.

To play, you have the ball hanging freely and move the Kendama in a manner that makes the ball swing up and then you catch the ball on either one of the “dishes” or the spear.
And then make the ball move to one of the other “dishes” or “spear”.
You have the ball go from one to the other as many times as you can before the ball misses.

Here’s a video of someone who is excellent with the Kendama.
The video tells the names of a number of Kendama “tricks”, and then the man in the video demonstrates them (and he makes them look easy):

Have you ever tried a Japanese 「けん玉」 (“Kendama“)?
Are you good at it?

Miscellaneous…

WordPress has added a new function to the blog comments. It’s an E-mail notification.
If you check the box titled: “Notify me of followup comments via email.” below the Submit Comment button when you write a comment on my blog, then whenever I or anyone else responds to your comment you’ll get an email notifying you.

(Click the box like this one to receive email notifications.)

Also, if you see pop-up windows when you hover your mouse over an image on this blog, you can turn that irritating function off (Click here to read my post about how to do that.)

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Last Thursday, a TV show that I enjoy alot was on. It only airs twice a year. I try to watch it every time.
It’s called 「欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞」 (Kinchan & Shingo Katori’s All-Japan Costume Talent Contest).

Do you live in Japan? Have you ever watched this show? Did you watch it last Thursday?
It’s a great show. People make their own costumes and props and put on a short show and a panel of five judges can award between 0 – 4 points each. If the contestant gets at least twelve points, then they move forward and stand a chance to win one of the cash prizes.

Click here to see the official 「欽ちゃん＆香取慎吾の全日本仮装大賞」 (Kinchan & Shingo Katori’s All-Japan Costume Talent Contest) website.

Here are a couple of the contestants from past shows on YouTube:

This one’s was one the show last Thursday. It’s called 「ミイラの新体操」 (The Mummy’s Rhythmic Gymnastics):

I enjoyed this one alot.

This one’s called 「ピンポン」 (Ping-Pong). I saw it when it aired on the show a couple years ago:

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Tomorrow is my second daughter’s fourteenth birthday.

(“S”, お誕生日おめでとう！ (Happy birthday!) Don’t be in such a hurry to grow-up. You and your sisters are still my babies! ♥)

She’s getting an I-pod® and some clothes for her birthday present.

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Also, tomorrow is 鏡開き (Kagami-biraki).

At お正月 (New Years), one of the many Japanese decorations is 鏡餅 (Kagami-mochi), which is two mochi (pulverized rice) stacked with a みかん (tangerine) on top.

On January 11, the 鏡餅 (Kagami-mochi), which is brittle by now, is broken and prepared in a hot soup with An beans as a traditional Japanese dish called 「汁粉」 (Shiruko)

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Monday, January 12, is a 祝日 (legal holiday) in Japan.

It’s called 「成人の日 (Adults Day).

Click here to read my short FAQ about this holiday. And click here to read about it on my “Festivals In Tokyo” page.

If you’re in Japan on the second Monday in January, you’ll see many twenty-year-old Japanese people in suits or 着物 (Japanese kimono).

(In just five years, my oldest daughter will being doing the 成人式 (Adults Day ceremony). 😦
Time flies!

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Also if you’re in the area on January 25 and 26, you might want to go to 横浜中華街 (Yokohama Chinatown) for the 中国新年 (Chinese New Year) celebrations.

It’s not on a convenient date if you have to work, like I do…because Chinese New Years Eve is on Sunday, January 25 in the evening…and the real event (including the famous Chinese lion parade) is on Monday, January 26.

春の七草

Today is the seventh day of the new year.
It’s a Japanese tradition from China to eat a special dish made with 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) on this day.

In China, the new year starts at the beginning of Spring. Japan used to follow this calendar, too.
That’s the reason that one way to write “New Year” in Japanese is 「新春」. It means “New Year“…but a literal translation would be “New Spring“.

The dish you meant to eat this morning with the 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) is called 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“).

The picture above is the 「春の七草」 (the seven herbs of Spring) that my wife used to make this 「七草粥」 (“Seven Herbs Porridge“):

I put a 梅干し (Japanese salty plum) in mine.
It was quite good.