Domo Kun

One thing about Japan that catches the interest of many people around the world is anime. This Japanese cartoon art is very unique and the characters are simply more interesting than other cartoons – at least in my opinion. Anyhow, I recently discovered a Japanese character by the name of Domo Kun.

I am not sure that he falls under the anime category but he is one weird and interesting character. Domo Kun looks like a rectangular block of tofu and has a deep brown color. I accidentally ran into this little guy on the Internet and I had no clue as to who he was.

I know better now. He is technically not part of anime but in fact, he is the mascot of the NHK television station. I don’t know what it is about him but he has quite a following – both in Japan and outside of the country! So what else is there to know about Domo Kun?

Well, he was hatched from an egg (weird looking chick, isn’t he?) and he love to eat meat and potato stew – Japanese style, of course. Make sure you don’t offer him apples as he extremely dislikes them, due to some sort of DNA mystery. And when you know him to be upset, stay clear of him as he is known to pass gas over and over again during these times.

If you want to know more about Domo Kun, visit his official US web site. You can also go to eBay and find tons of Domo Kun merchandise.

Photo courtesy of dailyinvention

Discover Enka

Eastern music is something quite different from what the west has to offer. With the constant exposure to each other’s cultures, however, the juxtaposition of musical elements is inevitable. Still, it is inevitable that indigenous music remain the same. This holds true to a genre in Japan called enka.

The truth is that enka is used to refer to two kinds of music. The first one hails from way back in the Meiji and Taisho period when speeches were made into music. The idea was to avoid the disapproval of the government towards political speeches by masking the words in music. The second genre refers to music that emerged after the war, during the Showa period. This type of enka is quite popular and has been compared to American country music (not because of the musical style but because of the theme and audience).

Though you might find varying descriptions and definition of enka, I like the one presented in Okada:

Enka is usually singing sad aspects of life, irrecoverable destiny, desertion by the lover. It is an expression of love, but love will never be successful and sorrow and tear follow happy memories. It can also be a song of a woman who is resentful to her destiny as her lover is gone to another woman. Anyhow Enka is song of resignation. Resignation must be sweet so that it is endurable.

Indeed, with that definition, it makes you think of country songs. Want to hear some enka? Visit Barbara’s Enka Site. I learned a lot from it.

Cosplay Restaurants

Establishments that have themes are quite popular around the world but trust the Japanese to go all out when it comes to theme restaurants! Have you ever heard of Cosplay restaurants or maid cafes? These are theme restaurants which feature maids or butlers (the latter is dubbed butler café, obviously) – elegantly dressed.

Cosplay restaurants started in the Akihabara section of Tokyo around the year 2000. The idea behind these theme restaurants is for the maids or butlers to provide personalized service to the patrons – service that one would get from a personal maid or butler at home. Though the Cosplay restaurants started in Tokyo, they have spread out to other Japanese cities and even other countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mexico, and Canada!

A visitor to Japan should not miss the chance to have his or her own personal maid or butler at one of the Cosplay cafes – especially if you cannot afford to have your own at home! Just to clear things up, though, there are definitely NO sexual overtones to the maids and butlers at these cafes. They are there to bring the most relaxing experience to their patrons and to provide them pampering and care while dining and drinking. That’s it.

In certain cases, a customer can actually pay extra to have the maid or butler play cards and similar games with them or to have a picture taken. The time allowed for such activities are limited, though, and one would have to pay more for extra time – marks of the good Japanese business sense!

Miuro: Music Robot

Are you tired of having to crank up the volume of your stereo or computer just so you can hear your music from wherever you are in the house? Then the Miuro is the gadget for you. Miuro is fondly called the music robot and it promises to add a new dimension to your listening pleasure.

Shaped like an egg, it is 14 inches long and comes in white, black, yellow, and red. Miuro is made by ZMP Inc. in cooperation with Kenwood – giving you the assurance of high quality sound.

So what makes Miuro better than other music players? Aside from the fact that it can roll around and groove on its own, it can stream music wirelessly from the PC. It can also be connected to your iPod. What I really like about this gadget is that it is equipped with a camera, a sensor, and a remote. These things allow the user to “beckon” to the Miuro wherever he is (within range of course) and it will come to him – cleverly avoiding obstacles in its way.

It doesn’t stop at that though - once it locates the user, the Miuro positions itself so that it will be at the optimal distance for the best sound quality. THEN, it moves around to the beat of the music! Now, all that is hard to beat!

So how much does this thing cost? Prepare about $1000 (maybe a little under it).

New device for portable karaoke

The Japanese love to karaoke. It could probably even be considered as the national pastime. This love for singing in public (to the usual detriment of the ears of people within listening distance) could only mean that the Japanese will try to develop gadgets that would take karaoke to different platforms.

Take for example the portable karaoke handset that was developed by Logictec. The device, which could be attached to MP3 players like the iPod is the answer to karaoke lovers who just cannot wait to go to karaoke clubs to get their groove on. By attaching the device to the earphone plug of a digital music player you can now sing along with the music in the player. An added bonus is the built in FM radio transmitter that would beam the signal to a nearby radio, effectively widening the range in bad singers can irritate people.

Toshiba to use Sony’s Cell processor on its TVs

Flat screen TVs are probably the most sought after electronic equipment in the world today. Everyone wants to jump into the digital age and dump their oh-so-primitive CRT TVs for the space and electricity saving plasma or LCD displays. With digital broadcasting already in place in many countries (or about to be implemented in some) now is a great time to get those TVs.

But Japan’s Toshiba is upping the ante in terms of technological competition. The company is now going to use the Sony Playstation 3’s much vaunted Cell processor in their TVs. The addition of the chip is expected to bring more visual and graphical bang to Toshiba’s TVs. The company has already released prototypes of its TVs with the Cell processor attached to it and it has extended the capabilities of HD TVs by incorporating new features like multiple windowed channels that are shown all at once. This allows you to choose the channel much like flicking through thumbnails on your computer. Standard broadcasts are also enhanced to near HD quality. It also offers a much improved interface that is commonly found in media center computers.

No word yet on when these TVs will be made available to consumers.

HK picture scandal could spill over to Japan

The biggest controversy in Hong Kong today are the emergence of very racy photos that involve some of HK’s top stars. The photos involve Edison Chen and some of his former girlfriends, which include superstars Cecilia Cheung and Gillian Chung.

According to reports, the photos were taken from Chen’s laptop when he had it repaired. Apparently, he forgot to remove the incriminating photographs and the technician stole it from his laptop. It has now been released to the public and is creating such an uproar there because it involves so many stars. Stars Bobo Chan, Joline Tsai and even Maggie Q are said to be included in the 1300 pictures stolen from Chen.

But the scandal threatens to spill over to Japan because there are rumors that there are some pictures that also include Japanese star Chiaki Kuriyama, who was also rumored to have been involved with Chen. The pictures are now available on the internet and time will tell if Kuriyama is indeed included in these photos.

Japanese porn stars do other countries

There’s no use denying it, aside from those mind boggling electronic devices, anime and video games, one other popular export of Japan is its porn. Japanese porn stars are huge all over the world and most especially in other Asian countries. These porn actresses are fantasized by many men because of their looks and of course what they see them do on screen.

In China, there is a big fascination for Japanese porn actresses that even rich Chinese bring them into the country to wine and dine them. There is now a growing industry that deals with sending these porn stars to other countries to “work”. According to a porn industry source, there are currently five people who serve as brokers and act as a go between for these stars and foreign clients.

One reason that porn stars in Japan are also getting involved is because of declining profits for making porn in Japan. With more and more women getting into porn, the salary for the actresses are going down. The prospect of earning more abroad are enticing these women to try out this new opportunity.

Swarovski decorated Mickey Mouse digital player

A few years ago, Swarovski crystals were considered too cool for school. Everyone wanted one and it was tacked on to anything and everything you could think of. With Swarovski’s well past the saturation level and currently experiencing a “been there, done that” reputation, it was a natural move for it to pair with another brand that has acquired the same feel — Disney characters. The 1GB Swarovski encrusted Mickey Mouse inspired MP3 player comes from the creative minds of iRiver Japan and is a part of a five-design collection.

The player will come in either blue, pink, black, white and silver and can even be worn like a pendant. There’s no denying though that anyone who gets this should also have “cheesy” tattooed on their forehead.

The Tokusatsu genre

In a few previous blog post, I talked about my love for the various sentai series that came from Japan. Well, the nostalgia trip didn’t end with writing that post.

I recently went to a toy sale at my local mall and found a whole stash of Kamen Rider 555 action figures. I immediately grabbed a Kamen Rider Kaixa figure (which is one of the coolest figures in the bunch). It was a 12-inch figure that lights up just like in the series — signifying that the armor is powering up.

Getting my hands on a Kamen Rider figure made me think of the other genre that is as popular as Sentai — the Tokusatsu genre. Tokusatsu is a looser grouping, not like the more genre specific sentai. Tokusatsu literally means Special Effects and is actually a contraction of two words tokushu satsuei, which means special photography.

The tokusatsu series runs the whole gamut of subgenres from science fiction, fantasy and even horror and monsters. Some of the most popular tokusatsu series or shows aside from Kamen Rider are the Ultraman series, the Godzilla and Gamera series, and even Doraemon.

The Tokusatsu is another one of those distinctly Japanese pop culture references that make their culture so unique.