TOKYOMANGO

USB alien with illuminated tongue

This scary realistic alien toy modeled after the Alien movie series will sporadically stick its glowing red tongue out at you if you plug it into your computer via its USB cable. Buy it here.

Urawaza is a great holiday gift! Buy it.

It's been a while since I pimped my book Urawaza on TokyoMango, but I really think you should buy it for someone — your mom, your brother, your friend, a White Elephant party — for the holidays. It's green and red, colors reminiscent of Christmas Trees and Santa hats, it's not heavy reading, you'll learn lots of cool quirky tricks, and it's 30% off on Amazon and at Chronicle Books' web site with the discount code Family — which brings the grand total cost to about $10. Totally affordable holiday fun!

Buy Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan

Home bath bomb making machine

There's a new toy coming out at the end of this month that I kinda want. It's a bath bomb maker — you know, those big balls of fizzy aromatic goodness for your bathtub that they sell at Lush. The main ingredients in bath bombs are baking soda and citric acid; so basically all you have to do is add your favorite relaxing smells — herbs, rose petals, essential oils — and some water, put all the ingredients in the ball, stir it and compress it, and out pops a perfect bath ball. If only I had a bigger bath tub at home, I would totally use it all the time. It's a fun craft project and great for producing homemade gifts. The kit costs about $40 and comes with enough baking soda and citric acid to get a project started.

Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)

Obama's bow to emperor pisses off conservatives

Some conservatives are pissed off that President Obama bowed at the emperor and empress during his visit to Japan this week. I'm not sure I agree with them. I think they might be thinking of the bow as a subservient gesture, whereas it should probably best be interpreted as the standard form of formal greeting in Japan, much like the handshake in America.

Link

New magazine for people living with facial scars

A new magazine aimed towards people with physical disfigurations will launch next spring. It's called My Face, and it's the pet project of a self esteem support group called MFMS, or My Face My Style. The magazine will include interviews, medical information, and advice on how to fight discrimination at work and at school for the estimated one million people in Japan who suffer from facial injuries or deformities. These people aren't legally considered as physically handicapped, so there's little support. The founder, 42-year old Hiroko Togawa, told Mainichi:

You never know when something like this can happen, such as those of us who have been involved in an accident. I hope the magazine will help take the worry out of finding hospitals and dealing with symptoms.

Link

Article on moe politics on io9 (NSFW)

Over at io9, walking manga encyclopedia Jason Thompson has written a fun and informative article called Militant Cute and Sexy Politics in Japanese Moe Comics.

Cookie cutters in Kappabashi

My friend Garth went to Tokyo recently and took this photo at a baking supply store in Kappabashi. I have never seen so many cookie cutters!

My neighbor is a pastry chef and she fell in love with some pastry forms she saw in a Japanese book on the topic. I spent a lot of time trying to find something for her while I was there. I ended up meeting a woman at a store who, through half Japanese half English communication, helped me find a goldmine of baking supplies.

Link

Que Houxo's fluorescent live art

Japanese artist Que Houxo does live performances where he draws giant flowers and other beautiful things using fluorescent paint in black light.

Link via NotCot

Bra doubles as a golf putting green

Lingerie company Triumph's newest conception is this crazy green bra that transforms into a putting green. If you get a ball into the boob hole, a built-in speaker says: "Nice shot!"

Via Pink Tentacle

Related stories:
The bra that counts down to marriage
Man-bras a big hit
Rice and miso soup bra

Reader photo: The way to Pontocho

I absolutely love this photo taken by TokyoMango reader Ian Nelson while traveling in Kyoto with his wife.

New "luxury" capsule hotel has computerized lighting, fancy sheets

Product designer Fumie Shibata has created a new concept for a luxury capsule hotel — she is transforming the most barebones way for traveling businessmen to spend the night into a trendy fancy type of thing. It's called 9 h (Nine Hours) and the first one will open in Kyoto next month. The hotel will include 125 clean, minimalist capsules, as well as lockers, showers, and a communal lounge. Each capsule has its own computerized lighting system by Panasonic and sheets with a thread count equivalent of a four-star hotel. It's 4,900 yen a night.

Nine Hours main page via Designboom

46 years ago today: a coal mining accident and train wreck kill 600

Wired.com spotlights two tragedies that happened on Nov 9, 1963: industrial accidents that killed more than 600 people in one day.

The first accident occurred at the Miike coal mine between Omuta and Arao. Ten mining carts loaded with coal were being hauled to the surface at around 3:12 in the afternoon. One of the chains linking the carts together severed and sent eight of them careening out of control to the bottom of mine. The carts traveled nearly 400 yards and hit speeds of 73 mph before crashing....As if that weren't enough, several hundred miles away in Yokohama, a deadly three-train railroad crash had occurred.

This day in tech [Wired.com]

Pics of readers wearing TokyoMango Ts

Here are some pics of you good-looking TokyoMango readers wearing the t-shirts that Ben and I made... from top to bottom, Mat, Nami, Derek, and Ruby & Malcolm.

Crystal-studded Hello Kitty MP3 player

Wondering what music player to buy? For $150, you can now own this beautiful (?) crystal-studded Hello Kitty MP3 player that doubles as an accessory.

Link (via News on Japan)

Toyjector, a low-res, super cute toy projector

For $150, you can now get this cute, boxy toy projector called the Toyjector. It's two cubic inches and weighs just four ounces, so it's super portable, but it really is just a toy — it projects 300x224 images and only has an internal 1W mono speaker. But if you're looking for a cute-and-little gadget-y holiday gift for a non-gadgety person, this could be a good gift. It goes on sale in Japan at the end of November.

Press release (Japanese, via CrunchGear)

Reader photo: Gate at the top of Mt. Fuji

Lovely photo of the gate at the top of Mt. Fuji taken by TokyoMango reader Kevin Menchavez.

Judith Hill, the half-Japanese woman who sang at MJ's memorial

Last night, I watched This Is It, the movie that documents Michael Jackson's final days of rehearsing for the big comeback concert that was slated to begin just days after his sudden death this summer. If you haven't seen it already, you really should. It was kind of amazing to see how he worked behind the scenes.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce the woman who was supposed to sing with MJ on tour. Her name is Judith Hill, and she's half Japanese, half African-American. From what I could see in the film, she was the only female background vocalist chosen and she had a lovely rendition of I Just Can't Stop Loving You that she was planning to do with MJ on stage. She also led the final Heal the World rendition at the memorial service held right after he died.

Her own music is a super cool, too — she's still unsigned, but I'm willing to bet she'll become reasonably famous.

JudithHillMusic.com

The 10 most common Japanese last names

Last week, I posted about a JT story that researched the complexity of the historically super long Japanese naming system. I also asked if you could guess what the 10 most common Japanese last names were. Here are the answers:

1. Sato 2. Suzuki 3. Takahashi 4. Tanaka 5. Watanabe 6. Ito 7. Yamamoto 8. Nakamura 9. Kobayashi 10. Kato

Japan has 100,000 last names, compared to about a million in the US, several thousand in China, and 200 in Korea.

Link

Firefly-themed ad campaign offers cool artsy e-card alternative

Hotaru-san (Mr. Firefly) is a fun web program that lets you send short messages to people in a slightly e-cardish way, except it's much more fun. The start screen shows a gymnasium full of people dressed in black full-body tights with giant light bulbs on their bums; they're supposed to be fireflies. When you type a message into the boxes at the top of the screen and press start, the firefly guys will get up, rearrange themselves, and spell out your message with their butt lights. Once you've created a custom message, you can send it to people by email. Cute idea! It's an ad campaign for web provider So-Net.

Link (Thanks, Kazuyoshi!)

USB breast-warming pads (maybe NSFW)

Thanko has a wonderful solution to those whose nipples get cold during winter days at the computer — The USB Bust Beauty Pad. Just plus it into your computer, slip the U-shaped pads under your bra, and cozy up as the pads get warm. The pads are meant to last about six months, and the whole set-up costs about $20.

Product page (Japanese)