Kousaka TamakiHot Stuff!
I have a soft spot for Tamaki-chan and I have two other figures of her. I had better not get this one as my wife will disapprove even more than she already does.
Japanese Love HotelsThere are no Love Hotels in the UK but it's not unknown to rent rooms in proper hotels for "lunchtime meetings".
Personally I love Love Hotels. They are well worth a visit with your special someone.
SabraMagazines and newspapers are suffering from websites.
What's important is whether a business like Sabra can transition its regular readers to a subscription for a website instead of buying the magazine.
The problem many media businesses have on the...
Cycling in TokyoMy bike cost about £600 including the add-on basket, lights and security lock.
The basic frame is a Ridgeback Avenida 8, with 8-speed Shimano hub gears. It's the style called hybird or town bike. The frame is a bit like mountain bike and it has flat...
Lumix GF1 ReviewI've got three film kits and for digital I just use a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX35.
My two key rules about buying a camera are (1) no pop-up flash, (2) must have optical viewfinder. That's why I haven't bought the new Olympus.
The battery on my Lumix t...
Japan Train ServiceLondon Underground has got basically three problems.
1. It was the first underground railway and a lot of the system was designed and scaled for Victorian needs. The population has increased and people have physically got larger. The only way to dea...
Japanese Student Credit CardsI've got several British bank accounts and two credit cards, and a Japanese based HSBC Premier bank account and credit card. I can't remember the credit limit but it's millions of yen. The bill has to be paid quickly though.
When I'm in Japan I pay...
Japanese Student Credit CardsIn Japan the ATM machines typically charge for dispensing cash.
Plenty of people minimise the fees by withdrawing their entire month's cash spending allowance in one go.
Japan is a much safer country than most for street crime, so it's not as risky...
Ritz-Carlton Tokyo LunchThere's a similar view from the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower restaurant just under the art gallery on the top floor.
The lunch is surprisingly reasonable if you choose the set menu.
Japanese Schoolgirl Love LettersThere's always someone in Japan handing out promotional material, usually packets of tissues or money off vouchers. An decent size railway station usually has one or more promotion staff outside.
As a gaijin, you have two options. You can either ign...
Shibuya Autumn CosmosIn the area of my house in Japan, each resident is required to maintain a roadside planting box of flowers or shrubs.
Here's my house. You can see the hedge and in front there is the low shrubbery fronting the road. It's all green because it was rec...
Breakfast in JapanIf the Japanese Health Minister wants his population to eat breakfast he should arrange it so they don't have an each-way commute of over an hour every day.
When I'm in Japan we usually have salad, toast, fruit, jam, and sometimes an egg or bacon. I...
Indian Food in TokyoThat happens of course, think of California Roll sushi.
Remember too that India is a huge country, including Pakistan, Ceylon and Bangladesh in the continent. From the North West Frontier, to the Deccan to the Carnatic is thousands of miles, many la...
Apartment salesShibuya like most cities and areas has good and not so good locations. For example, Shibuya has some major roads and an big entertainment district near the station -- these are noisy places to live.
The other main factor is the actual size of the ro...
Snow Leopard JapanI've got OSX v10.5.8 on my laptop and recently upgraded my iMac G5 with 10.5. I think the MacBook should be good for a few years yet.
If I can get a RAM upgrade for the iMac that is a good computer too, so I see no need to upgrade the OS on either o...
Japan Railroad CrossingThere are still plenty of level crossings in the UK, even in some suburban areas like where I used to live in RIchmond, Surrey.
I love the advice in the Highway Code which reads, "If you are on a level crossing and the warning klaxon sounds, DON'T S...
Air GunHere in the UK it is much easier to buy a real air gun (shooting lead bullets) than an airsoft weapon.
To buy an airgun you just have to be over 17 years old and give your name and address when you buy it. Over a certain power level, you need a fire...
Japan Theft PreventionI pinched sweets from shops when I was a kid but I stopped pretty young.
It is wrong, of course. Young people don't have a developed moral sense about it.
Japan's Economic StimulusMy wife and daughter got theirs and stuck it in the bank.
A better stimulus would be to drop the rate of consumption tax back to 3%.
Anime DeclineAs a BD/DVD/Online producer I can confirm that the manufacturing cost of disc formats is fairly low. DVD is much cheaper. However, by the time you add the cost to stock items in shops, add the cost of shop staff and so on, the cost has crept up a fai...
Japanese T-ShirtsThe whole affair is a lot of nonsense. It shows how weak the Japanese press corps is at covering real news. Much of their work is really just helping corporate PR which is why they are spanking this guy now, because his corporate sponsors had to pull...
Men must pay for dinner in JapanThe idea of the man paying comes from the long ages when women were economically dependent on men. That situation is gradually changing.
No Foreigners Or PetsI know someone who has lived in Japan for 10 years and hardly speaks a word of Japanese.
They work at an international school where the basic language is English. They live in an area where there are many foreigners and diplomats who all speak Engli...
No Foreigners Or PetsThe problem with this discrimination is that it is based on an arbitrary criterion.
It would be perfectly reasonable to discriminate against people who can't speak Japanese, because of the communication problem. Discriminating against all foreigners...
Amazon UK Sells ErogeIt should be made clear that the game was offered for sale by Amazon USA, not Amazon UK.
This means the game was not rated by the British Board of Film Classification and could not legally have been supplied to a UK customer.
The Belfast Telegraph...
