18th January 2015

Have a break, have a ..err…jacket potato KitKat!!

28th April 2014

If you happen to be close to Honancho station in Tokyo on a weekday between 10 and noon then you stand a chance of bumping into a modern day super hero. Dressed in a similar fashion to that of the Green Lantern this unlikely hero goes by the name of ‘Babycar Orosunjya’, which somehow translates to ‘Let me carry your pram down the stairs’. Babycar-san offers to aid mothers in need of getting to the stations platform which through lack of convenience offers no lift for mother and child. Luckily for local residents Babycar Orosunijya realized this flaw and is now putting his special manhandling powers to good use. Fair play.

3rd April 2014

Fancy a blowie?

The Edo period legend has it that a beautiful woman would entice a man into a quiet shack and begin to play a Biwa, a type of Japanese lute. While the victim would be distracted by the sound of the instrument, she binds her victim in spider silk threads in order to devour the unsuspecting person as her next meal.

19th March 2014

The national sport of Japan….Binocular Football:

16th March 2014

If anyone has a spare 10 hours:

18th February 2014

And on the subject of mascots…well…I don’t even know whats going on here, I don’t think were supposed to.

18th February 2014

Many Japanese towns and prefectures will have their very own mascots, quite often referred to as ‘kawaii’ (cute). Okazaki in Aichi prefecture has a ‘kimo kawaii’ mascot, which roughly translates to ‘GROSS…yet cute’. Personally I find him quite disturbing, actually very disturbing. I’ll let you decide for yourselves, ladies and gentleman I present to you…’Okazaemon’:

16th February 2014

Mint chocolate stout anyone? For Valentine’s Day a Japanese brewery has concocted the idea that the world would be requiring a mint chocolate beer beverage to get folk in the mood….what mood I dare not say.

14th February 2014

Penguin friend:

10th February 2014

Thought this was pretty cool, a train filmed pulling into Shinjuku station in slow motion.

26th December 2013

The Bow

Spend any short amount of time in Japan and one can’t help but witness the bow and its various forms. Many signals, complications and interpretations can be derived from the bow. From the casual ‘how do you do?’ 15 degree nod to a colleague or friend to the 45 degree ‘I’m sorry I bummed your wife’. And if one is upon all fours face down in the dirt then its best not to think what that person may have been up too, but it can only be guaranteed that they have bought great shame to themselves and that they are eternally sorry.

24th November 2013

Yamaguchi Prefecture: Mr Suzuki and his canine buddy off to work.

21st November 2013

Tokyo Underground Bicycle Parking lot

The pictures kind of speak for themselves really:

8th October 2013

Cat Island (Tashiro-jima -田代島)

Once upon a time in the 50’s the miniscule island of Tashiro-jima had a bustling silk trade. To materialise silk you need the silk worm, the silk worm is a staple and wholesome diet for the mouse. Many silk worms equal many mice, to help neutralise the mice numbers the cat was introduced to the island. In fact many cats were introduced to the island to control the mice. Over time the silk industry upon the island diminished and the island population along with its supply of silk worms and mice. The cat’s however remained, and today largely out number that of the islands human population. Dog’s being prohibited the felines live out their days in luxury being fed my both locals and tourists. It is said that feeding the cats and maintaining their healthy population will bring prosperity back to the island.

And just one more kitty pic for good measure.

1st October 2013

The Thingymejig

Stumbled across this some time back, apparently it’s an early prototype but it’s hard to say whether it’s real or just some quirky special effects. It’s essentially a cleaning product that removes liquid spillages via a small conveyor belt leaving no iota of a trace behind. It’s most certainly very weird.

24th August 2013

Pulling a Sickie

A young Tokyo woman wakes up one morning and decides that she doesn’t fancy going into work. Deciding that the easiest way to get the day off work was to simply tie herself up with rope and leather belts so that she is completely bound. Making a racket so that the landlord comes a running, of whom in turn calls out the police. The woman claims that an intruder did this to her. The police however aren’t having any of it, they rumble the woman and she breaks, confessing that it was all an elaborate stunt to get her the day off work. Quite an original yarn though all the same, but surely a simple stomach/head ache excuse would have sufficed?

The other part I found interesting was with the actual TV news report, they went out of their way to program and design a whole computer animated sequence to coincide with the story, not to mention the sparkly acid jazz soundtrack. Of which can be seen here: