UTK brings a different light to manga

Talk about manga usually revolves around Japanese style superheroes, mythological beings and mecha robots (okay, some of you dirty devils would also think about those disturbing porn). These genres have become so entrenched in manga culture that a title like Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku is like a breath of fresh air to the medium.

The title, also known as UTK, is written by Kenji Hamaoka. Roughly translated, the title means “the steel-reinforced concrete family of Urayasu.” This manga tells the story of the lives and various adventures that happen to a bunch of children from elementary school as well as their families.

UTK is one of the best drawn mangas to come in a while. The attention to detail in the comicbook is worthy of attention. It really shows that the people working on it do it with love. The characters are also people that you will come to love and admire. Just like everyday people, the slow unfolding of each person’s character may take time but what you have invested in it pays off in the long run. One bad thing though is that since the stories are very entrenched in contemporary Japanese culture it may be quite hard, if not impossible, to see an English translation of this wonderful manga. But then stranger things have happened. Hopefully, UTK does get a translation deal because this is the kind of manga that more people should read.

Quirky video games in Japan

When it comes to quirky games nothing can beat the Japanese. They have practically invented the genre and the market for games that are so out of this world in concept and gameplay that you wouldn’t even think that it is playable, much less marketable. And yet, the Japanese have proven time and time again that their formula actually succeeds in capturing the imaginations (and the wallets) of gamers.

Of course, most of these quirky games would really cater more or less exclusively to the Japanese domestic market itself. Take for example the popularity of “dating” simulators. These dating games are one of the biggest game genres in Japan but it has yet to really penetrate the market abroad. But thent there are games that are soo out there in concept and gameplay mechnics but still manages to get a worldwide audience.

Katamari Damacy is a puzzle/adventure game. You play the role of an alien who needs to replace “lost” stars in the sky and the only way you can do that is by accumulating all types of things on earth by rolling a “sticky” ball until you reach a desired diameter. It’s a really crazy concept but it became a really huge game when it was released and even spawned a sequel.

I think we should try to imitate the Japanese people’s ability to become open about new changes and ideas.

Urban camouflage shown by Japanese designer

Japan is known for being a leader in technological innovations. But it has also gained a reputation for being a center for wacky ideas and innovations. The Japanese have a knack of really thinking out of the box and devising really weird inventions that may make us laugh but at the back of our minds, it would also make us think and say “why didn’t I think of that?”

Take for example the idea of Aya Tsukioka for urban camouflage. This camo is an answer to the rising incidence of street crime in Japan. Other people might think of personal security devices like mace, tasers, personal alarms or security cameras. But leave it to Tsukioka to think of a more innovative and definitely more outlandish answer to the problem. Tsukioka, who describes herself as an experimental clothing designer, designed a skirt where, if you lift up a flap, will transform the wearer into a soda vending machine. The illusion is believable enough.

She has designed a line of different products with the same “camo” dual feature, like a purse that becomes a manhole cover and bag that can become a fire hydrant. It would be cool to imagine a whole city that has assimilated Tsukioka’s designs. I can just picture men and women suddenly disappearing and turning into benches, trees or phone booths. It would be such an interesting city to live in!

For $800, you can bring the reality of a wearable vending machine home.

Japanese Horror Movies

With Halloween fast approaching, I am feverishly preparing for my horror movie marathon that begins at at 10 am and ends when I pass out from sheer exhaustion. I’m now mentally listing down my snacks and already issued invites to friends or relatives that may want to join me (watching horror movies are more fun when you have other people watching with you). Of course, I’m also preparing my movie list.

I have some predictable American movie titles in my list like The Exorcist, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Salem’s Lot. But the piece de resistance on my list are the succession of Japanese horror movies that will surely add the most spice to my horror movie night. I’m preparing Ringu, Ringu 0, Ringu 2, Kairo, Dark Water, The Grudge, The Grudge 2, Premonition, and a few other movies that I’ve acquired through the years.

There’s no denying the fact that the Japanese make the scariest horror movies. What makes them click is the fact that Japanese horror does not rely so much on cheap frights that are just designed to surprise you. They instead rely on dread and atmosphere and the anticipation of horror. And when it does come, it’s like a taut rubberband that snaps. It just jolts you from your complacency and lingers with you long after the movie has ended. Any movie fan should check out Japanese horror films, it’s the only way to really discover what the horror genre can offer.

Knit Dresses All the Rage This Winter

The Japanese have always been known for their savvy fashion sense, which is often unique and ultra modern. So its not surprising that Tokyo’s streets are one of the best places in the world to spot the latest trends.

This winter, the star of women’s fashion are knitted clothes, most especially the sexy knit dress. In the uber-trendy area of Shibuya, young fashionistas have been seen in mini-knit dresses of all colours and patterns, teamed up with knee-high boots.

Layering is an essential part of the look, with cardigans, tight sweaters and even skinny jeans or leggings added to create a unique personal look. Some other layering looks seen in the streets are sleeveless knit dresses over blouses or turtlenecks with contrasting fabrics like silk or even another knit.

Texture plays an important part as well, with a variety to choose from the smooth, silky knits to the chunky cable. The hottest colour choices are of course the traditional darks of winter like gray and black, but bolder colours like red, green, violet, mustard yellow and white are also firm favourites. Funky touches can be seen through different kinds of buttons, zips and other metallic trimmings.

As for price, heres a clipping from a local Japanese paper to give you a good idea on how much a peice of fashion for the season can set you back:

Knit dresses are a particularly popular item these days. Many of the knit dresses in the stores right now are attractively priced at around ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 (about $86 to $172 at ¥116 to the dollar), not much more expensive than a sweater or cardigan. When one also considers the fact that knit dresses combine the slightly formal air of a dress with the easy-to-wear quality of stretchy knits, it is no surprise that their popularity is spreading, mainly among women in their twenties.

[tags]Winter fashion, Shibuya, Tokyo, knits[/tags]

Canine Inbreeding and Fads

As promised in my last post, here is the article on canine inbreeding in Japan.

Rare and unique dogs are highly prized in Japan and can set buyers back more than $10,000 US. But the problem is what often arrives in the same litter: Genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose.

There have been dogs with brain disorders so severe that they spent all day running in circles, and others with bones so frail they dissolved in their bodies. Many carry hidden diseases that crop up years later, veterinarians and breeders say.

Kiyomi Miyauchi was heartbroken to discover this after one of two Boston terriers she bought years ago suddenly collapsed last year into spasms on the living room floor and died. In March, one of its puppies died the same way; another went blind.

Miyauchi stumbled across a widespread problem here that is only starting to get attention. Rampant inbreeding has given Japanese dogs some of the highest rates of genetic defects in the world, sometimes four times higher than in the United States and Europe.

These illnesses are the tragic consequences of the national penchant in Japan for turning things cute and cuddly into social status symbols. But they also reflect the fondness for piling onto fads in Japan, a nation that always seems caught in the grip of some trend or other.

“Japanese are maniacs for booms,” said Toshiaki Kageyama, a professor of veterinary medicine specializing in genetic defects at Azabu University in Sagamihara. “But people forget here that dogs aren’t just status symbols. They are living things.”

Dogs are just one current rage. Less consequential is the big boom in the colour pink: pink digital cameras, pink portable game consoles and, yes, pink laptop computers have become must haves for young women. Last year, it was “bug king,” a computer game with battling beetles.

A number of the booms in Japan, including Tamogotchi, basically a virtual chicken that hatched and grew on a computer screen, and the fanciful cartoon characters of Pokemon, have made their way across the Pacific and swept up North American children, too.

The affection for fads in Japan reflects its group-oriented culture, a product of the conformity taught in its gruelling education system. But booms also take off because they are fuelled by big business.

Companies like Sony and Nintendo are constantly looking to create the next adorable hit, churning out cute new characters and devices. Booms help sustain an entire industrial complex, from software makers to marketers and distributors, that thrives off the pack mentality of consumers in Japan.

The same thing is happening in Japan’s fast-growing pet industry, estimated at more than $11 billion a year. Chihuahuas are the current hot breed, after one starred in the television ads of a finance company.

In the early 1990s, a TV drama featuring a Siberian husky helped send annual sales rocketing from just a few hundred dogs to 60,000 and then back down again when the fad cooled, according to the Japan Kennel Club. The breed took off despite being too large for most cramped homes in Japan.

The United States also experiences surges in sales of certain breeds, and some states have confronted “puppy mills” that churn out popular breeds by enacting “puppy lemon laws” to keep breeders from selling diseased animals.

But in Japan, the sales spikes are far more extreme. The kennel club says unethical breeders try to cash in on the booms, churning out puppies from a small number of parents. While many breeders have stuck to healthy mating practices, the lure of profits has attracted less scrupulous breeders and the proliferation of puppy mills.

Some veterinarians and other experts cite another, less obvious factor behind widespread risky inbreeding in Japan’s dog industry — the nation’s declining birth rate.

As the number of childless women and couples in Japan has increased, so has the number of dogs, which are being coddled and doted upon in place of kids, experts say.

In the last decade, the number of pet dogs in Japan has doubled to 13 million last year — outnumbering children under 12 — according to Takashi Harada, president of Yaseisha, a publisher of pet magazines.

“Households with few or no children are turning to dogs to fill the void,” he said. “For a dog to be part of the family, it has to be unique and have character, like a person.”

Indeed, many of these buyers want dogs they can show off like proud parents. They are willing to pay top yen, with rarer dogs fetching higher prices. Coveted traits like a blue-tinged coat are often the result of recessive genes, which can determine appearance only when combined with another recessive gene.

Inbreeding is a quick way to bring out recessive traits, as dogs carrying the gene are repeatedly mated with their own offspring, enhancing the trait over successive generations.

When done carefully, some types of inbreeding are safe. But in Japan, too many breeders throw aside caution in search of a quick profit, experts say. In these cases, for every dog born with prized colors, many more appear with defects, also the product of recessive genes.

“The demand is intense, and so is the temptation,” said Eiichi Kawanabe, one of the country’s top Chihuahua breeders. “There are a lot of bad breeders out there who see dogs as nothing more than an industrial product to make quick money.”

Awareness is so recent that the only comprehensive survey of genetic defects came out two years ago, looking at malformed hips in Labrador retrievers. The results showed that nearly half of all Labradors suffered from the deformity — four times more than the United States, according to Professor Kageyama at Azabu University, who conducted the survey.

Hirofumi Sasaki, a pet store owner in the western city of Hiroshima, has seen so many defective dogs that last year he converted an old bar into a hospice to care for them. So far he has taken in 32 dogs, though only 12 have survived.

One is Keika, a deaf one-year-old female dachshund with eyes that wander aimlessly in different directions. Her breeder was originally selling her for about $8,000 because she is half white, a rare trait in dachshunds. “That is an unnatural colour, like a person with blue skin,” Sasaki said.

The breeder told Sasaki he had bred a dog with three generations of offspring — in human terms, first with its daughter, then a granddaughter and then a great-granddaughter — until Keika was born. The other four puppies in the litter were so hideously deformed they were killed right after birth.

Miyauchi, the Boston terrier owner and a resident of the city of Kobe, said she was appalled to learn how common inbreeding was in Japan. After the death of her second Boston terrier, she said, she went looking for the breeder, but the phone number she got from the pet shop was invalid.

“No one’s really monitoring the industry,” she said.

The government admits that oversight is poor and passed a law in June to revoke the licences of breeders who use dogs with genetic defects for breeding. But the Environment Ministry, which has jurisdiction over pets, says it has just four officials to monitor 25,000 pet shops, kennels and breeders in Japan.

The Japan Kennel Club began adding results of DNA screening onto pedigree certificates in April. But that falls short of the American Kennel Club, which discourages risky inbreeding by listing acceptable colours for each breed.

“Japan is about 30 or 40 years behind in dealing with genetic defects,” said Takemi Nagamura, president of the Japan Kennel Club.

Ultimately, animal care professionals say, the solution is educating not just breeders but potential dog owners.

“If consumers didn’t buy these unnatural dogs,” said Chizuko Yamaguchi, a veterinarian at the Japan Animal Welfare Society, “breeders wouldn’t breed them.

[tags]pets, Animals, Breeding, Fads[/tags]

Blue Puppies Anyone?

In Japan, the search for the ultimate in “cute” is brought to new hights - and the pet business in no exception. I recently found an interesting but disturbing article on chihuahuas bred to have a distinct blue hue. The downside however, is that these unique looking pups have a propensity for health problems and its not for the faint-hearted. Think bones so brittle that they can cause the animal to crumble at the slightest pressure or worse, brain damage so severe that the poor animal spends hours on end haplessly running in circles.

As an animal lover (we have several dogs, cats and turtles in our home), I can’t help but think that is this penchant for cuteness worth it? To breeders, yes, as a minature poodle (the size of a teacup) can fetch around the region of $10,000. And maybe even for the owners, at first, who can show off their unique (but actually un-natural) pets. But once these rather frightening health problems creep in, it all seems like a very cruel business indeed. I for one think that the good old “mongrel” can make an equally wonderful pet and companion.

I’ll be posting the article in my next post for your reading pleasure.

[tags]pets, breeding, animals[/tags]

Folklore: Riki The Fool

Literally translated as Ghost Story, Kwaidan’s tales recollect the true experiences of
Greek expat Lafcadio Hearns when he lived in Japan. Through these spine-tingling tales of seemingly simple and ordinary village life, the cultural aspects of religion and superstition come in to play with some startling insight into family relationships. Subjects like reincarnation, death and spirituality are strong themes here, and the intriguing story revolving withing the gravesite make the work a powerful one.

From Lafcadio Hearn’s classic Kwaidan, 1904.

His name was Riki (力), signifying Strength; but the people called him Riki-the-Simple, or Riki-the-Fool,– “Riki-Baka,” (力ばか) — because he had been born into perpetual childhood. For the same reason they were kind to him,– even when he set a house on fire by putting a lighted match to a mosquito-curtain, and clapped his hands for joy to see the blaze.

At sixteen years he was a tall, strong lad; but in mind he remained always at the happy age of two, and therefore continued to play with very small children. The bigger children of the neighborhood, from four to seven years old, did not care to play with him, because he could not learn their songs and games. His favorite toy was a broomstick, which he used as a hobby-horse; and for hours at a time he would ride on that broomstick, up and down the slope in front of my house, with amazing peals of laughter. But at last he became troublesome by reason of his noise; and I had to tell him that he must find another playground. He bowed submissively, and then went off,– sorrowfully trailing his broomstick behind him. Gentle at all times, and perfectly harmless if allowed no chance to play with fire, he seldom gave anybody cause for complaint. His relation to the life of our street was scarcely more than that of a dog or a chicken; and when he finally disappeared, I did not miss him. Months and months passed by before anything happened to remind me of Riki.

“What has become of Riki?” I then asked the old woodcutter who supplies our neighborhood with fuel. I remembered that Riki had often helped him to carry his bundles.

“Riki-Baka?” answered the old man. “Ah, Riki is dead — poor fellow!… Yes, he died nearly a year ago, very suddenly; the doctors said that he had some disease of the brain. And there is a strange story now about that poor Riki.

“When Riki died, his mother wrote his name, ‘Riki-Baka,’ in the palm of his left hand,– putting ‘Riki’ (力) in the Chinese character, and ‘Baka’ (ばか) in kana. And she repeated many prayers for him,– prayers that he might be reborn into some more happy condition.

“Now, about three months ago, in the honorable residence of Nanigashi-Sama in Kojimachi, a boy was born with characters on the palm of his left hand; and the characters were quite plain to read,– ‘RIKI-BAKA’!

“So the people of that house knew that the birth must have happened in answer to somebody’s prayer; and they caused inquiry to be made everywhere. At least a vegetable-seller brought word to them that there used to be a simple lad, called Riki-Baka, living in the Ushigome quarter, and that he had died during the last autumn; and they sent two men-servants to look for the mother of Riki.

“Those servants found the mother of Riki, and told her what had happened; and she was glad exceedingly — for that Nanigashi house is a very rich and famous house. But the servants said that the family of Nanigashi-Sama were very angry about the word ‘Baka’ on the child’s hand. ‘And where is your Riki buried?’ the servants asked. ‘He is buried in the cemetery of Zendoji,’ she told them. ‘Please to give us some of the clay of his grave,’ they requested.

“So she went with them to the temple Zendoji, and showed them Riki’s grave; and they took some of the grave-clay away with them, wrapped up in a furoshiki…. They gave Riki’s mother some money,– ten yen.”…

“But what did they want with that clay?” I inquired.

“Well,” the old man answered, “you know that it would not do to let the child grow up with that name on his hand. And there is no other means of removing characters that come in that way upon the body of a child: you must rub the skin with clay taken from the grave of the body of the former birth.”…

[tags]Japanese Folklore,Riki the Fool[/tags]

Sanrio’s Puroland

In Japan, Sanrio’s characters - from the eponymous Hello Kitty to My Melody (the bunny with a red bow), Little Twin stars (Kiki and Lala) and Keropi the frog among others, are as well known and perhaps even more beloved than Disney’s crew of Princesses and animated film heroes. After all, you would rarely see anyone over the age of 10 in a Cinderella t-shirt or 20-something using a Peter Pan lunchbox to work in the West, while in Japan, these adored characters seem to withstand the test of puberty and oftentimes adulthood.

So when the Japanese need something other than Disney’s magic in terms of Theme Parks, they turn to Puroland, Sanrio’s answer to Disneyland. Located in Tama City on the outskirts west of the capital city, Puroland has all that you would expect of a theme park - rides, shows, gift shops, restaurants, and larger-than-life characters wandering around - all in a massive indoor area.

Theres Hello Kitty’s house for the kids to explore (although the size is large enough for grownups too!), a Hello Kitty ride, and a fantastic parade/show which caps off each day. here’s what to expect according to Sanrio:

Each day is highlighted by the main event - a singing, dancing, acrobatic story which takes place 360 degrees around Puroland’s centerpiece – the magnificent “Friendship Tree.” The entire park crowds around and buzzes with excitement as the music starts, then holds its breath as the star, Hello Kitty, floats to the stage from the star-filled sky above, wearing royal silver and gold. Sanrio characters dance as the music blasts and acrobats spring through the air in the action-pack finale.

Sanrio Puroland also boasts one of the largest Sanrio stores in Japan, certainly one of the busiest. It features just about every Sanrio product imaginable, even many, like the Hello Kitty “Plaid” or Badtz Maru “Metro” lines, that are designed exclusively for the Western hemisphere markets.

[tags]Sanrio, Puroland, Hello Kitty[/tags]

Hello Kitty In Bling

Hello Kitty makers have always been on the cutting edge to going full-on with their merchandising strategies - after all, there isnt really an animal character that comes close to the Sanrio’s White Cat in terms of sheer market variety. Apart from the usual range of things for kids, clothing and so on, there are also real, working home appliances in Kitty’s name, as well as a chain of cafes in Japan, Hong Kong and even the Phillippines. And one musnt also forget Puroland, the all-weather Tokyo theme park where Hello Kitty holds court.

Well, in time for the big-holiday-spenders is the jewel-encrusted Platinum Hello Kitty, which should make die-hard Kittyfiles drool. Heres the news clipping:

Sanrio Co., maker of the popular Hello Kitty line, will offer a platinum version of the winsome cat for about $150,000 in Japan.

The jewel-encrusted kitty will be available Tuesday at the flagship department store of Mitsukoshi in Tokyo, the Kyodo news service said Saturday.

The figure stands about 2 1/4 inches high and weighs slightly less than 21 pounds. Its seven jeweled pendants include rubies, pink sapphires and diamonds.

[tags]Holidays, Shopping, Hello Kitty, Jewelry[/tags]