Agree with #9. The story was in the Japanese news for weeks when a salaryman went on an eco rampage. It wasn't even that severe, but people really took offense to the whole thing.

I really don't consider this guerilla gardening either. Keeping your neighborhood beautiful is a kind of citizen duty in Japan with many people volunteering to clean the streets, pick up trash and do civic work like gardening. It's not really unexpected, though in recent years housewives especially have become a bit resentful of the way this is expected of citizens because by citizens they usually mean housewives and working women and not men of any persuasion except the retired.

The only place I've found a used panty vending machine is outside a used panty store. They DO exist, but the average foreign tourist wouldn't find them as I doubt they know where used panty stores are, or case to know.

As to why the fuck I was there, that's a different story.

(and panty UFO catchers are a lot more interesting than bloody vending machines)

This tv show (yes, arabisadan) is much more interesting than balloon guy. It's a late night show whose whole premise is to showcase offbeat, painful to watch and just plain wierd talent. Kind of like that MTV show ten years back or so... was it called Oddville?

When you live in a country where every comedian relies on a catchphrase to get laughs, you're really greatful for a show featuring nothing but wtf. Searching あらびさ団 on youtube is gold, I tell you.

I really wish people would understand that what goes on on the bridge isn't fashion. It's cosplay, emulation done by young teenagers trying to find a group to belong in.

Harajuku as an emerging fashion movement has been dead since hokoten was dissolved and all that's left now are a lot of out of town tourists.

Ditto the Powell's Travel Bookstore in Portland, OR. Glad to see NYC finally caught up with the times. :P

@Enochrewt - those are all margarines.

@robofunk - I agree, Japanese milk tastes nasty but it's because I grew up on skim milk and Japanese milks are usually much higher in milkfat and the stuff that isn't is processed in all sorts of absurd ways to be low calorie. They also sell a lot of wierd soy blends and whatnot.

And yeah, WTF with Japanese milk shelf life??? I had a quart sitting in my fridge for a month I had forgotten about and when I went to clean it out it still had a regular milk consistency. x_x

Japan has been slowly pushing more and more products with dairy into the market since the 1960's and most people here regularly eat things with some degree of dairy in them (milky caffe latte coffee drinks, cheesey macmeat burgers, and various types of chocolate being major ones) so I doubt the lactose problem is as bad as it used to be.

Fun fact: that drink Calpis we all like to snicker at for it's name is a lactose based soft drink introduced into the Japanese market by a dairy company to woo more people into drinking milk.

The.. well.. I think it's $12 or $13 for us overseas deal isn't so great, but the $5/mo package direct to the US seems really good especially if you buy the 12/mo package. I regularly eat about $6 a month conservatively even with the 2 cent rate, so $47 a year doesn't really sound so bad.

I've got to say, the WiiFit is an excellent piece of equiptment.

Personally, I'm heavily tattooed and live in Japan where tattoos are basically prohibited from view in gyms, so an overpriced (10,000yen = ~$100/mo) membership for a gym I'd have to wear a full body suit to is kind of out of the question. The WiiFit however is a great (fun!) and motivating addition to my workout routine. I've found especially on days I can't muster up to doing a 'real' workout I can at least do 20 minutes of one of the WiiFit things, and hey, that's 20 minutes more than I would've done.

I really hope that game consoles continue to bring out lifestyle programs like this. I'm really anticipating some of the new games for the DS coming out along this line (the Japanese equivalents simply have too many difficult words to be useful to me, sadly).

I'm really glad to read the amount of sanity from the users regarding this issue.

My first time in Japan at 17 years, I was genuinely shocked to learn that first graders taking the trains by themselves to and from school in Tokyo was the norm and continues to be despite some rather horrific stories of people being pushed off platforms, stabbed randomly in the train stations, or otherwise harassed. It's often led me to try to understand why exactly American fears lead to such an utterly paranoid repressive state yet Japan, honestly, has some very scary stuff going on within it and yet life goes on as normal.

I'm sure however were I to ask a normal Japanese person if they'd let their 9yo son or daughter wander around New York alone it would be met with a horrified expression and an exclamation that it was unthinkable as America is such a dangerous country. I don't really see there's much of a difference between Tokyo and New York in terms of child safety, however.

#20 There's a big difference in this case between coming across something for 25 cents at a garage sale and being a dealer sent in to do a private appraisal.

Having lived and worked with antique dealers my whole life, I know there's a kind of ethics about this. It's one thing if someone wants to sell something and stickers it themselves -- whatever, they made their decision on it's worth, it's done. It's quite another thing if someone requests you come to look at a collection and asks you to make them an offer. A part of what they're requesting is not only that you'll take this stuff away, but also that your expertise will get them a price that's reasonable.

However, from Chuck's account it doesn't sound like it was all that unfair. I mean, he could be protecting himself, but saying that the cheaper comics were what he saw when he made the offer, that he showed them price guides and they refused to do consignment, and moreover that everything had to be paid cash in hand, I mean, bluntly put the deal would never have been able to go through had he offered them a lot more money. Also with all the comments that they seemed uninterested in the items and were trying to throw them out, etc. Well, you know.

Also I think, I mean, he paid them SOMETHING. And he paid them for paper products in the office and whatnot. To put this into some perspective, I have known dealers who would waltz into a house like that, see the utter disinterest of the family and tell them the whole lot was worthless and they'd best throw it out, only to come back on trash day and take the lot for free.

Downpressor,

Having spent many a night drinking on center gai (yes, even sitting on those supposed 'feces and tampon' strewn streets) I can say you're over-exaggerating.

First off, I've not seen ANY of the filth you've mentioned there any more than in any other part of Tokyo, which even then is negligible (aside from salaryman vomit).

Even if Center Gai were a cesspool, overrun with hustlers (Wouldn't deny that one), the SCGP don't tackle any of those issues and are instead concerned with people smoking and loitering. Hustlers here, and you should know, don't loiter, they prowl. Really the SCGP is out harassing young people from having a good time on the street and creating scenes that deter traffic flow. Which is a shame.

On the other hand, I totally agree with your asessment that they're pathetic and the video was set up. Here's what has happened any time the SCGP or their Shinjuku equivalents (or the cops, for that matter) have come up to one of our streetside drinking parties.

them: hey, move on. You're creating a disturbance.
us: fuck off!
them: *fucks off*

Really you only move if you don't want to get nagged. They have no real authority and the police don't normally want to bother with it.

PSH. Whatever. You know all those super awesome illuminations in Tokyo? Roppongi Hills? Takashimaya Times Square?

The TV news last week explained it was powered by shit. The government spent millions of dollars to make a waste processing plant that would turn shit into excrement and are testing it on the holiday light surge. That's the feel good of this year for me, really, watching couples fawn over lights powered by their own excrement.

RE: sumo wrestlers and "where's the carbs?!" it's pretty obvious: rice and noodles. Anyone who has ever eaten nabe before knows it's standard practice to put rice or noodles into it, both heavy in carbs and calories at normal proportions and I would hate to hear what they run at sumo proportions.

That's a pretty shoddy (ha!) answer though for bad construction. If you look at the architecture in some of the more expensive parts of Tokyo vs the rest of it you'll notice that when monetarily motivated construction is actually very high in quality.

When I lived years ago in Yotsuya we watched a three story building get constructed over the course of half a year only to be torn down the next year and replaced with an identical 14 story building. The reason? They needed showroom models to sell the future potential apartments in the 14 story building.

And why won't that building be here in another 20 years likely? A few factors.

1) Construction companies = usually yakuza. Which in all variety of businesses offer incentives to companies to use their construction services.

2) Japanese people hate renting or buying old things as a general practice. Especially apartments and offices. Look at the rent on a brand new apartment 20 minutes away from the station and a shoebox versus a 1DK (1 bedroom, dining room + kitchen) that's twenty or thirty years old near the station. The price will often be near identical because Japanese people simply prefer renting new.

Though Charlie Stross's interpretation from the "monorails" of Tokyo seems a bit like Jean Baudrillard's. Beautifully glossy but really having no connection to the actual city or the culture. Of course it will look like most Tokyo people live in high rises if you're only seeing the city from what I assume is the JR Rail, as Tokyo only has one monorail line. "ekimae" (near the station) is the most expensive property in all areas and is of course overdevelped in comparison to the rest of the city.

Coming from the perspective of someone who lives in Tokyo on a "normal" income I can say none of my friends live in buildings any higher than two stories. Four technically if you count loft spaces as floors.

Wanted to say that this is nothing new in the Japanese music world. And I think it still holds true that for success in the American music world TV tie-ins like anime will not cut it.

The key to Japanese music market success for at least thirty years has been TV theme tie-ins. To get your song on a commercial, in a drama or an opening or ending credit really meant you had made it. Even today the selling power of a band gets determined largely by how they can tie themselves into TV.

Consider the term "selling out" in the American music context, remix and enjoy.

If you're planning on coming to Japan on more than one occassion I definately think buying a phone is better in the long run than renting one. I've had three prepaid vodaphones over the years (now softbank) and while the initial payment is steep I think in the long run it balances pretty well.

the 3,000yen cards actually go a long way if you do what Japanese kids do and use your phone primarily for e-mailing. Do your LD via skype and your longer calls at the hotel and one 3,000yen card can easily last a month.

Plus the phone will stay active for six months without replenishment and you can keep your number for another three months without a new card. So even if you come biyearly it's a good deal.

Otherwise it seems any of the cell rental places are about the same. Some weigh better for a short term (daily rate but lower minutes) and some have higher rates with no daily better for longer stays. None of them provide the newer model phones so if it's tricked out tech you want you'd do better to get a friend with a gaijin card to pick you something up on a monthly plan.

excellent comments guys.. wanted to point out a few other things on the datura plant.

- the origins of the zombie myth comes from the carribean where the local datura species is used in the cocktail for 'making zombies'

- the video points out that datura has a cultural tie in columbia but that's not the only one. Truly due to the veracity of this plant there's cultural significance for this plant in folklore all over the world.

- the book "coin locker babies" by ryu murakami is an ace extension of the datura myth, if you haven't read it.

While the copyright issue with famous people and their use of tattoos on merchandise is an issue, for modified people I think the scalping of tattoos that were specially designed for them is the bigger issue. Nothing really kills you more I think than realizing your tattoo hand designed for you by your tattoo artist is being sported by someone who saw a photo of it and decided it was their new flash piece.

If people haven't seen it, Needled's Marisa Kakoulas wrote one of the first pieces I think discussing the legal implications of tattoo copyright for BMEzine link.

More than anything else, as tattooing is a rather subcultural community most tattoo artists I know (and what Marisa discusses in the article) would rather have their work copied than get lawyers involved.