It happens only in Japan - Portable Subway Straps

Portable subway strap shows you’re no groper

15 Jan 2008

A portable subway strap that sells for 525 yen (about $5) is featured on the cover of the fall/winter issue of Tsuhan Seikatsu, a mail order catalog with a readership of 400,000. The primary purpose of this male-targeted commuter strap is not to provide support when the train lurches, but to show other passengers — particularly female passengers — that your hands are occupied, thus reducing your chances of being falsely accused of groping. According to a report on the Cyzo website, Tsuhan Seikatsu quickly sold out of the portable subway strap, an indication that false groping accusations are a real fear for many men who brave the crush of Tokyo’s crowded morning trains.

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! あけましておめでとうございます。

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2008 is a Year of the Rat (Earth), which begins on February 7, 2008 and ends on January 25, 2009. First in the cycle of 12 Animal signs, Rat Year begins the sequence and recurs every twelfth year. It is a time of renewal in so many ways. From New Year to Valentine's Day, to the arrival of spring, may all the blessings and delights of the New Year be yours.

A Rat Year is a time of hard work, activity, and renewal. This is a good year to begin a new job, get married, launch a product or make a fresh start. Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns, but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way for you to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly, and make the most of every opening you can find.

It happens only in Japan - Amphibious taxi in Osaka

An amphibious sightseeing taxi drives through the Dotonbori River nearby streets in Osaka, western Japan, during its demonstration run Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008. The amphibious sightseeing taxi, which is capable of carrying up to three passengers, made a debut in the country. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year!

Wishing all our friends all the very best this holiday season and in the new year! Click here for an animated greeting.

Eel Powered Christmas Tree

This is another one of my posts classified under "This happens only in Japan". While this unique way of harnessing the electrical power seen in some underwater organisms is a good demonstration of innovative thinking - I would doubt that this is ever going to be feasible. Yet, something like this would be difficult to do in the Western world - I can just imagine the protests over animal cruelty.

Top Japanese buzzwords of 2007

An intriguing compilation of buzzwords. They are gonna decide on the top 10 soon - are there any here that particularly tickled you. I was fascinated by the fact that "Compliance" has made it to mainstream vocabulary in Japan. "Temp" is another one - a newer phenomenon in Japan than in USA.

What's wrong with this picture?

Here's a street corner full of vending machines - pretty typical for a Japanese tow. But can you spot the odd one out?

Yes, you are not imagining things - one of the vending machines has feet! In another one of "It happens only in Japan" series, here's a brand new personal safety idea - wearing vending machine disguise.

If this is not the first time you've come across an odd invention from Japan, you're not the only one. In Japan they even have a name for these - "chindogu", or “queer tools.”

Click here for the article from NYTimes.

Spirit of Japantown festival in San Jose

There's a lot of Japanese action right now in Bay Area - I missed going to this one though. I've been to Japantown a few times - it's really quiet most weekends. There's a couple of nice art shops selling Japanese handicrafts. The ACE hardware store was probably the first one in Bay Area selling Japanese style electronic toilet seats. Check it out if you get a chance. To see it on the map click here.

San Francisco's Hotel Tomo Jacks Into Japanese Culture

WIRED has this coverage of the newly renovated Best Western Hotel Tomo in San Francisco - a haven for Japanese culture fanatics and videogame lovers. Miyazaki's movies playing in the lobby, PlayStation3 in the deluxe suites, murals with Japanese street scenes - seems like a great place to stay. More here.

Fall Festival brings 17,000 cranes to San Francisco's Japantown

Paper cranes with messages calling for peace and prosperity fluttered in the wind over San Francisco's Japantown on Friday, which made Richard Hashimoto rejoice. So, too, Carol Murata.

For the past eight months, Murata and Hashimoto have overseen the behind-the-scenes doings of a project that culminates today with a daylong festival to celebrate the start of fall and San Francisco's official 50-year connection to Osaka, Japan.

The sister-city relationship was born out of the aftermath of World War II, when President Dwight Eisenhower asked San Francisco Mayor George Christopher to pick a place in Japan to reconcile the differences between the former enemies.

Like San Francisco, Osaka is a port city with an identity that goes far beyond its country's borders. Today's festival features dancers, drummers, speeches, a religious blessing and a hanging of cranes on the 100-foot-tall Peace Pagoda that anchors Japantown. The flying cranes are part of a centuries-old Japanese tradition that has been adopted for today's festival.

"This is the first time we've had anything hanging from the pagoda," said Hashimoto, a native of Japan who is president of the Japantown Merchants Association. "It's of great significance."

For the past three months, visitors to Japantown have written their most treasured wishes onto thousands of pieces of origami paper. Volunteers then folded those papers into the shape of cranes, which were put into streamers that Friday were attached to the pagoda in Japantown's Peace Plaza.

About 17,000 cranes were completed. People wished "for health, prosperity, 'hope my mother gets well,' peace - a lot of peace," said Murata, a Japantown merchant who helped organize the crane project.

One young wisher, she said, asked for "my brother (to) stop pulling my hair."

Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki, who is visiting San Francisco, was ecstatic to see the flying cranes. Among the activities today is the renaming of Japantown's Buchanan Mall to Osaka Way. In February, Seki hosted San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on a trip he took to Osaka.

"Fifty years is quite a milestone," Seki said. "I believe (the relationship) is quite an asset to both cities."

Today's festival is called the Aki Matsuri, which means "Fall Festival" in Japanese. The tradition of folding cranes is a symbol of long life and happiness. Along with the streamers, scores of banners with cranes flew on Friday from Japantown's pagoda.

Murata says she made a wish that was folded into a crane now fluttering from the pagoda.

She said she wrote, "I hope this event turns out OK."

If you go

The Aki Matsuri (Fall Festival) happens today in San Francisco's Japantown, at Post and Buchanan streets, from noon to 8:30 p.m. For more information, go to sfjapantown.org.

E-mail Jonathan Curiel at jcuriel@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle