FEPY

With the Japanese school year now almost a month old, many students will be steadily settling in to a new system and surroundings. For others though, things may not be so simple, with the likes of bullying and baffling bureaucracy a constant bane.

But thankfully help is at hand, as worried youngsters can now simply look to the stressed-out salary men that sired them, and lunge straight for the lager — or at least a lovingly created likeness.

Which, as well as being welcome both before and after school, is luckily in plentiful supply,

and is positively perfect for parties with similarly persecuted peers.

Japanese drinking indoctrination

Originally from Tokyo Times

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Wouldn’t you know it, the conveyor belt sushi is 50 years old this month!

Yoshiaki Shiraishi (1914-2001) opened the first conveyor belt sushi Mawaru Genroku Sushi in Osaka in 1958. The concept has revolutionised the Japanese food culture, with thousands of conveyor belt sushi restaurants operating around the world.

According to Wikipedia, Yoshiaki was inspired to invent the conveyor belt sushi after watching beer bottles on a conveyor belt in an Asahi brewery.

Link | Wikipedia entry on Conveyor Belt Sushi - Thanks Jee!

(Photo: mstephens7 [Flickr])

Happy 50th Birthday, Conveyor Belt Sushi!

Originally from Neatorama

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Now extinct Club Bitch in Kamata, Tokyo.

Thanks to Josh

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Club Bitch

Originally from Japundit

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As everyone living in Japan knows, this is the season of the koinobori carp streamers that can be seen flying outside the homes of families with male children.

I was surprised to find out via a news report today that some areas in Japan have modified koinobori to represent other fish that are local products.

Some locales in Miazaki Prefecture have taken to flying kujiranobori (whale streamers), because whale products are important to the local economy.

I wonder if Greenpeace plans to protest. . .

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Kujira nobori

Originally from Japundit

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The Beatles Abbey Road album cover may well have created a bit of controversy and at the same time caused a humble crossing to become a cultural icon for camera-wielding converts; however, the omission of bushy beards aside, this cheeky little kimono-based copy does have a certain, ahem, something.

Japanese kimono cover

Originally from Tokyo Times

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The Mosquito is an electronic "anti-teen loitering" device that emits an annoying sound akin to a mosquito buzzing in your ear that can only be heard by teenagers and people in their 20s (who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ear).

After selling 1,000 units in the United States, the company that sells the device is now being criticized for torturing teens!

"It’s horrible, loud and irritating," said Eddie Holder, 15, who sprinted from his apartment for school one morning covering one ear with his hand to block out the noise. The device was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers. "I have to hurry out of the building because it’s so annoying. It’s this screeching sound that you have to get away from or it will drive you crazy."

The device has roiled civil liberties groups in countries where it’s in use, including England, Australia and Scotland. England’s government-appointed Children’s Commission proposed a ban. That group describes it as a weapon that infringes on the basic rights of young people and claims that it could have unknown long-term health effects.

The $1,500 device has also been challenged in some American cities and towns that have proposed installing it, with some criticizing the tactic as needlessly cruel.

Others, however, have praised the Mosquito:

"We’d have crowds gather in parking lots, and there’d be the usual trash talk, then you’d have fights," said Rick McGee, the school district’s emergency services manager. "Now, there’s no confrontation at all; they just get aggravated and leave within a few minutes."

No words on the effectiveness of the original anti-teen loitering devices, Mozart and Kenny G, as compared to the newfangled device: Link - via Boing Boing

Anti-Teen Loitering Device: Is It Torture?

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As you might have noticed, I spend a lot of time thinking and photographing what I eat in Japan. This is because food is very good in Japan; Japan is truly one of the great food cultures of the world. Even a Japanese person who has been in the US for twenty years and can’t imagine going back to the homeland for fear of engaging in unwelcome social norms and pressures will wax nostalgically about the food. The only other thing such a person will might as much are onsen (hot spring baths). But that’s another subject.

One of the first things I spotted in Japan was this poster of a “Gourmet Fest(ival)” for wild vegetables. See? The seasonality of food is so important there is a fest(ival)! I wrote last year of the experience of picking fuki no to and later tsukushi. If you find yourself lucky enough to be in the mountains during the spring, then you don’t need a fest(ival), but can pick your own vegetables.

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Foods of the Season: Sansai

Originally from Japundit

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Thanks much to Tony Wu!

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am26:00

Originally from Japundit

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I recently attended Sakagura’s annual Hanami Sake Tasting. Sakagura is a (perhaps the) sake bar in New York, located in the basement of a building on the East Side in a neighborhood populated with small, authentic Japanese eateries.

I liked the sugidama hanging in the entry, all green, signaling fresh sakes!

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Sakagura Sake

Originally from Japundit

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Cool new toy, with endless number of combinations. Head to the product’s homepage.

The NeoCube is composed of 216 individual high-energy sphere magnets, which can be formed into BILLIONS of shapes and patterns.

@ haha.nu.

The NeoCube

Originally from haha.nu

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