2k540: There’s more to Akihabara than nerds and maids
January 15, 2012 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
by Tim Hornyak
After about an hour in Akihabara, it always hits me. My senses get saturated with the saucer-eyed anime girls, maid café touts and plastic figurines, and it’s time to split. Tokyo’s electronics shopping district is always fascinating but the AKB48 overload can pull you down like a Vegas hangover.
It was a welcome surprise, then, to find a retail experience that’s worlds away from Akiba, yet just off its northern fringe.
After dropping in at my favorite robot shop Technologia, past the UDX Building, I stumbled upon a gem of a mall tucked under the JR train tracks.
Urban renewal
Akihabara, but not as we know it, at the entrance to 2k540.
Opened about a year ago, 2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan is positively futuristic compared to the dowdy surrounds of Ueno 5-chome. I entered a long tunnel of thick white columns sprouting from fresh asphalt, with small white shops stretching into the distance.
Tequila: More than the drink of mere champs
July 28, 2011 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
Japan has 120 tequila sommeliers. Don’t snicker — it’s a
proper thing. If you can be qualified in fermented grape, why not distilled
agave?
The Japan Tequila Association began offering the titles in
January. To procure one, you’ll have to down 12 shots in three minutes using
only your lips, then play the song “Tequila” by The Champs on a five-string
vihuela.
No, you won’t. You’ll be quizzed on the drink’s history and
production, cocktail recipes, food matching, regional characteristics and the
stories and traits of various distilleries.
You’ll then blind taste a tequila and guess its provenance,
style and brand.
Tasty new Mercedes Benz chocolate car is more than just a Valentine’s Day treat
February 4, 2011 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
Q-Pot(ty) designer Tadaaki Wakamatsu has come up with his zaniest and tastiest chocolate treat yet — a chocolate car.
Q-Pot already offers chocolate-themed jewelry, handbags, phone cases and even eyeglasses (not to mention the store itself), but parked outside their Mitsukoshi store in Ginza is their latest collaboration with Mercedes-Benz.
The Valentine’s Day-themed Smart Car is actually on sale for ¥2,360,000 ($ 28,780), with orders being taken until March 13, the day before White Day.
Valentine’s Day in Japan puts the expectation on the women to give chocolates and gifts to the men, with the men expected to return favor on White Day, March 14.
Two wheels better than four in Tokyo
December 2, 2010 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
Relatively flat and bisected by rivers and quiet backstreets, Tokyo is perhaps the best major city in the world for cyclists, especially in the cool dry winter months before the spring rains and summer humidity.
The mama-chari (“mother chariot”) push-bike is one of Tokyo’s defining features — an estimated 20 million are on the streets — most being used for the home-to-train-station commute.
An increasing number of citizens are also realizing that a sturdy mountain bike or sleek racing bike can take them to almost anywhere in the city within an hour or two. With a bike, the journey from door to door is often faster than it is using trains or buses.
Recycling electronic waste in Japan: Better late than never
September 16, 2010 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
Earlier this year, the Japanese government recruited virtual
character Hatsune Miku in a campaign to shore up cell phone recycling rates.
The squeaky-voiced anime singer
recorded a syrupy tune urging people to do their part. After all, Japanese replace their handsets so
frequently that phone recycling boxes can be found in convenience stores in
Tokyo.
What happens to yesterday’s gadgets?
Urban mining
Cell
phones, computers and other IT goods, as well as components like circuit
boards, batteries and cathode-ray TV glass, face a mixed fate. Many are dumped,
some are recycled for precious metals, and some are shipped overseas.
Yokohama police mascots more cute than cop
September 7, 2010 by JapanGuide
Filed under Japan Today
In a country as obsessed with kawaii (cute) as Japan, the creation of official characters is serious business. So the fact that the police precinct of Seya, a homey suburb of Yokohama, debuted a pair of brand new mascots this month shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
What is surprising, however, is just how curvaceous these particular mascots are.
“As far as I know,” laughs officer Tanaka of the Seya Police Department, “these are the most cutting-edge police mascot characters in existence.”
