Japan has good taste in foreign celebrities.

I was in Uniqlo for the first time in months yesterday and it turn out that Chloe Sevigny is the main model they're using in their ad campaigns right now. (Uniqlo is like a Japanese version of The Gap, except that they make fantastic jeans. They're a good store for the basics, but some of their other things are bit cheezy, especially their t shirt designs. So Chloe Sevigny is wearing a few tacky t shirts in the Uniqlo ads, but it's ok because I love her.) After I saw her all over Uniqlo, I started thinking about how Japan has great taste in foreign celebrities. 

I had my students start a unit about movies and music, like asking a new acquaintance what genres you like and what actors/ actresses / musicians / films / directors you enjoy. So many of them chose people I think are great. Here are a few people who are really popular in Japan. (It's not that these people are not famous in other countries, just that they're really famous in Japan specifically. All are household names.) Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Depp, Wes Anderson,Milla Jovovich, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Vincent Gallo, David Lynch, Brad Pitt, Leehom Wang, Catherine Deneuve. I like all of these people so much. 

Another great thing about Japan is that The Sound of Music is still an incredibly popular movie with a soundtrack that is always on the top-selling shelves at music shops. And back home, most average Canadian guys wouldn't admit to knowing or loving The Sound of Music, but here, when I asked my guy Japanese students what his favorite movies were, I got "The Sound of Music" as an answer seven times! Before I told them I love that movie, too. And I mentioned it before, but Tsutaya rents very rare VHS videos you can never find elsewhere, especially rare French and Spanish ones from the 60s.

I think there are plenty of really tacky things in this country, but that those tacky things are only the ones that get the most attention. Overall, in clothing, food, foreign film and foreign music Japan has great taste.

AND...
This isn't about Japan at all, but you guys need to see it because I think it's hilarious. The BBC website is one site that I visit almost every day and look what I found today. An article about how teen-abstinence programs are failing kids in America. But after seeing this photograph, I couldn't even concentrate on the rest of the article. Those are supposed to be teens?? The BBC is getting lazy if they're using photos like this. That photo is as close to Mom and Dad and as far away from Teen as possible. 

Japanese Street Fashion Blog - Fashion Hayley is Super Fun

One quick thing. If you want to see a really entertaining, super stylish blog about Japan, check out Fashion Hayley Hits Japan. It has hundreds of pictures of all sorts of interesting parties and fun times in Japan with a group of some of the coolest and most stylish-looking people I have seen. I want to know where she found all these rad, fun-looking people! It is a really exciting and addictive site full of great photos. And Hayley is a vegetarian, too. She and her friends seem really outgoing. The site is definitely worth checking out if you like Japanese street fashion. Thank you, Hayley!!

Momo Curry モモ カリー Best Tokyo restaurant!

Momo Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants in Tokyo. It's in Kichijoji and serves delicious curry. I also really love the atmosphere. There are plants everywhere and it's high above the street, so it's quiet. Momo, the owner, is a really great lady. She is a talented cook and has good taste in music, too. She likes to play mellow 60s rock and roll. Sometimes she plays Stereolab in the restaurant, too. Another great thing about Momo cafe is that the ventilation system is really good. That's essential in Japan, because you can smoke cigarettes anywhere you want in this country and no matter how good a restaurant is, if the guy next to you is smoking and you're a non-smoker, the meal will be ruined. At Momo Cafe, the air always smells fresh. And another good thing is this: Whenever I go to a curry restaurant of any kind, I come out smelling like spices and make myself hungry for the rest of the day, but at Momo Cafe, the ventilation system is so good that I can't smell food on anything afterwards.Momo has been featured in three or four books about Japanese curry and also a few great websites like this one and this one and this one which has a lot of pictures of Momo Curry and this one that has a map to Momo Curry as well as the address (in Japanese) in case my directions don't work for you.Japanese curry is really good. It's sweeter and less spicy than Indian or Thai curry, but it has a really unique flavor. Sometimes it's made with apples in it for extra sweetness. I have never tasted anything like it. Usually it's made with a beef base, but Momo makes a lot of vegetarian ones. I like the mushroom curry. (kinoko kari) and the Thai green curry with vegetables. All the dishes are served with a side dish of Japanese sweet pickles. They are also the only place outside of Kenya and Tanzania that I have been serving Tusker beer. I've never tried it, but that was what I saw everyone drink in Tanzania. The beer is named after the elephant that killed one of the two men who started the brewery. For real. Doesn't that at least make you curious about what the beer tastes like? This was a small Christmas party at Momo. My cousin is the guy in the back and you know what I look like already. Everyone else is either Japanese or Scandinavian. Try to guess who is from where. It felt like a private party! This is a really wonderful and sort of secret restaurant. I was lucky to find it and I think they deserve more business. I have taken everyone else I know to Momo Curry, including my precious mother.
Directions to Momo Curry
To get to Momo Curry, you take the train to Kichijoji and exit from the central exit in front of LonLon. When you're out, walk left towards the Baskin Robbins. Walk all the way to the end of the street until you are in front of the Family Mart Convenience store. Then turn right and walk up the street. It is about a ten minute walk, maybe less. When you see a purple sign that says "Pub Rabbit" with a big white rabbit picture on it, you are very close. One more block up the road is Momo Curry. It has a big orange sign that you have to look up a bit to see. It usually has a sign on the road, too. Walk up the steep stairs and you will be there. Momo Curry!!Momo, the owner, is nice and she will give you candy when you leave. Once, she gave me an umbrella with a duck on it. She speaks really fast Japanese but she is awesome and friendly and the best cook. Usually Momo Curry is empty during the day, which is unfortunate for her but great for you. Momo Curry has great Chai tea and mixed drinks, so it's a nice place to sit and read on a Saturday or Sunday when you have nothing to do.I hope that you'll all go there and make this place as busy at it deserves to be.
Momo Curry has a really pretty website.
Open from 11:30～22:00 every day.
JR吉祥寺駅中央口から徒歩5分、京王井の頭線吉祥寺駅から徒歩5分
If you speak Japanese or know someone who does, you can phone Momo Curry.
0422-22-0231

Osaka Aquarium

It's no secret to anybody that I love aquariums. If I had a choice of doing anything in that vein (visiting museums, galleries, zoos, science centers) I would almost always choose aquariums unless there's something specific I want to see at one of the other places (like an artist whose exhibit I'm especially interested in). It is kind of amazing how many different aquariums I have been to in my life and how many times I have been to the same aquariums over and over again. This weekend, I was taken to the Osaka aquarium by surprise and it was really fantastic.For someone with no actual knowledge of fish (I haven't taken biology since high school) or oceanography, I think I know a surprising lot about what's under the water. But I think that the older I get, the more into the ocean I'll become. I really like memorizing names and facts; I have loved that sort of thing since I was a child.The one little guy I really wanted to know the name of was this fish above. His tail was bent over and he wasn't just a mutation because there were other fish like him in that tank. He looked so odd. His face looked like a pug or a bulldog. I asked one of the workers what his name was, but I didn't understand it properly because the worker spoke fast Japanese and possibly didn't tell me the name of the right fish, since I was pointing through the glass. Do you know what kind of fish this is?Here's me and my massive bag, watching the aquarium tank. At the Osaka aquarium, I really liked the octopus tank and the jellyfish room. The octopus tank had a lot of other animals in it, but it was full of these things that looked like little broken flowerpots and the octopi (plural octopus sounds terrible) were curled in each one. Sometimes they would come out and spread themselves around the glass. It was beautiful, like watching a flower open in a time lapse video. But everyone around me was screaming "Oishii so!!" which means "They look delicious!" I know a guy who eats octopus out of a can with a fork. He has loads of octopus cans in his kitchen cupboard. He knows who he is. I think he'll read this. The best aquarium I've ever been to is still the New Orleans aquarium. It was so perfect that I cried when I saw the sea dragons. It sounds so lame to say this, and you might not believe me, but I wouldn't make this up because it's embarrassing: the sea dragons were so beautiful that I was watching them without even realizing there were tears coming down my face. (It was like a scene in a horrible romcom.) But they were so perfect looking. Osaka's aquarium didn't have any, which was sort of too bad. But it was still the second best aquarium I've ever been to, which is saying a lot. The sloth was the highlight; he was moving around like a madman. I had never seen a sloth move at all before. He was also huge and scary. I took a horrifying video, but I can't upload videos right now, so here is a beautiful one instead.
Here are some sea dragons! Please enjoy them!

Gyaru Sone, Japan's cutest competitive eater, is easy to like.

Gyaru Sone is easily my favorite Japanese celebrity. I think she is completely adorable and really funny, too. I wrote about her a few months ago. Her real name is Natsuko Sone but her nickname is Gyaru / Gal Sone because of the way she dresses and dyes her hair. She is famous for eating amazing amounts of food in amazingly short amounts of time. She also is famous for looking like she enjoys every mouthful. I like her, so every so often, I will post a picture or a video of her. I think girls here in Japan often overdo "cute" but Gyaru Sone balances it out. She weighs only 95 pounds, is 21 years old, has the highest voice, is completely girly in tons of jewels and makeup and heels but balances out the cute by eating the same quantity of food in one sitting as a burly, middle-aged American man from somewhere rural in a place like Louisiana. I love her. This is a picture of Gyaru Sone's finger nails. They are __________. Sticking random things all over your nails is something a lot of girls do here, and I think it usually looks really pretty because taking care of yourself is pretty. I even got into Japanese manicures myself a few months ago. But Miss Sone's nails are a whole different thing.

I posted this song last week, but this video is different. The song is really bad dance music and so catchy that if you don't watch this on mute, it will be in your head for weeks. But the video is sort of cute because it's based on Hansel and Gretel. And you get to see Gyaru Sone eat tons and tons of cake.

I can't post pictures!

Does anyone know why I can't post pictures on here anymore?

It looks like the are errors on my page and it doesn't matter if I open it with firefox or with explorer. There are Japanese characters going down the side that say "ta i to ru" (title) in Katakana. The "ru" of them is blocking the bold button and it's making it so that I can't click to upload photos. Please help me!

Also, how do I change blogger from Japanese to English? It has been default Japanese since I moved here, but it would be nice to have it in English so that I can properly read things like error messages.

Japanese Gyaru Girls: Ganguro, Yamamba, HinaGyaru

This is GYARU. Seeing this kind of girl was definitely one of the most surprising things for me when I first came to Japan. I have wanted to write about gyaru girls for a long time, but I never knew what to say about them. I still don't really know what to say about them so I'm not going to make any comments. I'm just going to show you pictures and tell you what I have seen. You can make your own comments at the bottom of this post.
Gyaru are unique to Japan. They look and dress sort of like deeply tanned Barbies. There are a whole lot of different types of gyaru girls within the subculture, like Yamamba, Ganguro, Kogal and Himegyaru. Some gyaru look kind of like regular girls in sort of a Vegas-style way. Others have dark tans, tight, bright clothing, blonde hair extensions and too much makeup. Other more extreme versions have their eyes and lips painted with thick, white paint or have blue contact lenses, or have random pink and blue dreadlock hair extensions or have stickers of Stitch and other Disney characters platered all over their faces. Other gyaru subtypes are obsessed with African-American culture. They paint their faces black, get tight perms, braids or dreads and go to hip hop clubs.They have their own style of text messaging, called "gyaru-moji" so that only other gyaru people can read what they write. It looks kind of like l33t and takes twice as long as regular text messages in Japanese. (Why? Well... for those of you who read Japanese, here's what Gyaru-Moji is. It's basically taking regular Hiragana, splitting up the individual characters and typing them using Katakana. For example, け is Hiragana for "Ke" and in Gyaru-Moji it is typed using two Katakana symbols, レナ so that it looks big and child-like and kawaii and all of that. Except that レナ is pronounced "Rena" so it's completely incomprehensible for a non-gyaru to read. Also, Hiragana characters are often replaced by random Kanji or even numbers and Roman or Cyrillic letters that look kind of similar to the Hiragana. For example, な is "Na" in Hiragana but in gyaru-moji it can be written like ﾅょ or †ょ or 十ょ or even ﾅg. Easily as annoying as l33t speak, possibly more annoying. ) Most gyaru girls like only progressive trance and sugary house music with really bad vocals. This video is a great example. My roommate and I went to a gyaru club once and we heard them play a trance version of "Part of this World" that song from Disney's The Little Mermaid. At gyaru clubs, the gyaru girls know choreographed dance moves with their arms and hands that they stand in a line and do all at once. It's totally surreal to see them do it. This video is by a group called Gyaruru and the blonde girl in the middle is the cute celebrity speed-eater Gyaru Sone that I wrote about a few months ago. I actually really love Gyaru Sone and I really do think she's completely adorable. She has the sweetest little voice and such a feminine baby face but she can eat more in 20 minutes than a huge man could eat in two days.

Hime-gyaru is a different kind of gyaru. They look kind of like little, tanned Jon Benet Ramseys. Hime means princess in Japanese. They love this designer called Jesus Diamante and they wear blonde, curled extensions and diamonds on their fingernails and false eyelashes.
Ganguro literally means "blackface" and ganguro girls go to tanning beds every day, wear dark brown or black makeup and paint their noses, eyes and lips white. There are also male gyaru. These guys hang out in Shibuya near the First Kitchen on the main street near Tsutaya. They wear platforms and makeup and have tans and blonde hair just like the girls. The gyaru guys and girls date each other almost exclusively. I have never seen a gyaru girl with a pale guy before. The gyaru guys are called Sentaa Guys or Yanki. A lot of people say that gyaru girls are really fun because they are loud and wild and they drink alcohol at clubs, which is not common for girls in Japan who usually stop after one or two drinks. I don't really know anything about that, though. Yamamba is another style of gyaru. Yamamba wear panda-style makeup, black faces with white paint circling the eyes. They love Hawaii and anything to do with Disney. So any kind of lei or flower or anything relating to Disney's Hawaiian-themed Stitch cartoon is something they like. I think Yamamba and Ganguro are the most extreme type of gyaru. Do you like it?

Japanese Love Hotels - Osaka's Christmas Hotel

Ever since I heard that a Love Hotel called Hotel Christmas exists in Japan, I have wanted to go there and see what it looks like. This Saturday, I finally got to check it out. Before coming to Japan, I couldn't imagine how a rent-by-the-hour, entirely Christmas-themed sex motel could stay open and make money all year round. Now I know why, and I'm going to tell you. A Love Hotel is a uniquely Japanese phenomenon. A Love Hotel is a motel that you can rent either by the hour or by the night. Hotels like this exist in many other countries, but a Japanese Love Hotel is different because couples go there without worrying about any of the stigmas that by-the-hour motels have back home or in any other country. Love Hotels just don't have the seedy reputation in Japan that they have in any other country. They're just thought to be clean and practical. I read that people in Japan are supposed to call Love Hotels "rabuho" (An Aside: Japan loves abbreviations. Convenience store = conbini, Personal computer = pasocom, even Brad Pitt = Brapi and I really wish I were joking about that one) but I have never heard anyone call a love hotel a love hotel. They're just motels. Japanese people are really nonchalant about the hotels in their country that foreigners find so fascinating. Capsule hotels. yawn. Themed Love Hotels. Just another motel.The reason why Love Hotels are so popular is because most young Japanese people live with their parents. It's common to live with mom and dad until you get married or move to a big city because of work. It's very, very normal and common for a 28 year old to still live with his/her parents. That fact, combined with the notoriously thin walls and small rooms in Japanese apartments, make Love Hotels a great option for most people. When I first came to Japan, I used to ask my friends about Love Hotels because they were such a curious novelty for me, but now I don't notice them anymore, mainly because no Japanese people care about them. Every Japanese person who has ever had a girlfriend / boyfriend has gone to one and apparently they're just as exciting as a regular old Midwestern Motel. Soap, shampoo, complimentary toothbrushes and tea, a bed, a toilet. Nothing special. Except Hotel Christmas. This place looks like the place in the North Pole where Santa's elves build the toys. It's huge and colorful and looks like a Toys R Us store more than a by-the-hour motel. I can't imagine anyone over the age of eight really wanting to go in there. So I know what you want to know. Why is Christmas sexy in Japan? In other countries, Christmas isn't sexy at all. In fact, I think it's basically the least sexy of all holidays. It's a children's holiday and a day for families to spend time together. Stories about Santa and Jesus. Singing carols in a group at care homes. Nothing is less sexy than children and the elderly. But in Japan, Christmas is a kind of Valentine's Day. Christmas has been marketed in Japan as a day for couples to exchange presents, eat "Christmas cake" together (not quite sure what that looks/tastes like) and spend a really romantic night. Back home, if you spend Christmas Eve in a cheap sex-motel, you are likely addicted to speed or glue. But in Japan, good luck finding a room on Xmas Eve. Alternately, though, New Years Eve is probably the most romantic / hedonistic holiday of the year back home. Everyone kisses everybody at midnight, nostalgia and freshness, etc etc etc. But in Japan, New Years Eve is a quiet time for family. Everyone wakes up early in the morning on New Years Day to go visit a shrine and wish for good luck in the new year. The entire family eats soup together and spends the day in quiet relaxation. Far different from the hangovers that a lot of Western people use that day off work to recover from.

Anyway, I need to know what is in Hotel Christmas. If you've been inside Hotel Christmas and have pictures of it, please send them to me so that I can share them with everyone else.

A Fun Gaijin Where's Waldo Game You Can Play in Japan!

Even if you haven't been to Japan, you probably already have an idea that Japan is full of guys who look a little something like this. In Tokyo, especially around Akihabara (the computer / electronics / manga section of Tokyo with maid cafes and anime fetish shops and robots) there are tons of this type, but they're rarer near the Inokashira park area where I used to live.

But in Kansai, especially Osaka, it's a whole different thing. A new level. I feel like every five minutes, the same guy walks past. Late 30s or early 40s. Check. Ponytail. Check. Goatee. Check. Greasy glasses. Check. Kangaroo-pouch tummy. Check. Cargo shorts worn with sandals no matter what the weather is like. Check. Extremely loud voice. Usually American, sometimes Belgian or Australian or German, but basically it's the same guy.

So here's a fun game you can play with your friends. It's kind of like Where's Waldo except that there is a winner and the winner gets a free dinner and the Waldo is a fat man with a ponytail. The rules are that the first person to find and call 10 of these guys in one day is the winner and the others have to buy the winner a meal at the end of the day. In Tokyo, I can go a whole day without winning at all. In Kansai, there are so many of these Waldos that you could potentially end up with two or even three winners.

Have fun.

Introduction ESL Lesson Plan (For Teaching 15-25 Year Old Students)

(This picture is of 3 of my friends.)This is the handout I gave my new students on the first day of meeting them. If you teach at a high school, a university or even a conversation school like GABA and happen to get a young enough person to use this on, feel free to print it out. My students liked it. While they were filling it out, I went around commenting on what they circled. If they circled "watching movies" you can ask them what kind of movies they like and offer suggestions like funny, scary or dramatic. If they circled "cats" you can ask them if they have one. The best class so far has been one where loads of people circled "dogs" and ended up with the entire class showing me cell phone camera phone pictures of their dogs, most of them dressed in sickly-sweet baby clothes made for dogs. Cute goes a long way in Japan.

For most Japanese students at low English levels, you're going to have to explain the difference between first and last names by using examples. When you ask a student's name, they'll usually give you their entire name when just the first name would suffice. I explain that native English speakers don't usually introduce themselves as "Meagan Marie Wallace" but just as "Meagan" although I still can't really convey that when you call a non-Japanese person by her last name (which happens to me all the time) she feels like she's in 7th grade gym class. "Wallace! Pass that ball to Nguyen! Smith, Deneuve, look alive!" First and last names are basically interchangeable in Japan. In most formal relationships, you'll only use people's last names.

So after you've explained first and last names (I just use examples. Hideyuki and Haruka for first names and Suzuki and Sakai for last names. Whatever works well for you.) you can get them to fill out the sheet and circle anything they like to do. Explain "hobby" if that's an unfamiliar word. Explain potentially unfamiliar terms/words like fast food, hockey and comedian. Get them to draw a picture of themselves in a little box to the right. That's kind of funny and will also help you remember their name if you have a lot of students. Then you can explain he/she him/her, stick the kids together with a partner and get them to introduce their partner to the class. Please use this and feel free to add to it. If you use it with your students, tell me how it goes!

Introduction : Let's get to know each other!

Hello, my name is______________________________________.
first last
I am _______________ years old.

I like _________________.
Nice to meet you.

Please draw a picture of yourself in this box.

Please circle some things you like.

bowling, soccer, playing with children, baseball, rock and roll, ballet, classical music, ramen, shopping, art, swimming, hip hop music, airplanes, skateboarding, pachinko, karaoke, izakaya, travel, eating oranges, hockey, skiing, fast food, vegetables, fashion, corn soup, drinking beer, reading, watching TV, eating spicy food, studying, talking on the phone, Fujirock festival, dancing, dogs, the color blue, Exile, cats, piano music, The Beatles, beaches, hiking, painting, going to museums, going to clubs, math, Indian curry, science, watching movies, history, George Bush, L'Arc En Ciel, eating bananas, barley tea (mugi cha), chocolate, playing violin, sewing, reading magazines, eating pasta, playing tennis, Spring cherry blossom parties (hanami), playing video games, playing guitar, Namie Amuro, the color red, boating, eating birthday cake, horror movies, going to a livehouse, speaking English, flowers, yoga, Japanese comedians, Tokyo, elephants, Thai food.

Please introduce the person sitting on your left.
Example:
Her name is Yuki Yamamori. She is 19 years old. She likes cats.
His name is Masataka Oshima. He is 20 years old. He likes soccer.

... and Julie in Japan loves Katie Heath!

Venuszine wrote an article about julieinjapan.com! The article is called "Katie Heath loves Julie In Japan" and it is a really sweet, kind article! So exciting for me. I feel like I'm doing something right because I really like Venuszine.com and galadarling.com and both have featured my site in their reviews! It's especially flattering when people (and sites) you admire like you (and your site) in return. 

Please remember that this site is meant to be an interesting resource for you and if you ever want to know anything about Japan, don't be shy about sending me an email and asking me to write about / photograph something for you. I like writing about Japanese things you are curious about ...I've done it before and I'll do it again. I have had so many nice people write to me and ask me questions that make me think about where I am living!  

"Julie in Japan is the account of one girl's experiences teaching English in Japan and is penned by a charming Canadian with good taste to boot. Julie shares tips on language barriers, finding helpful books, lesson plans, and other tricks - like puppets - that she has utilized in her classroom... she also shares her perspective on Japanese culture oddities, street fashion, politics, and what it's like spending Valentine's Day in Japan - turns out it's for boys only."

Venuszine.com

Katie Heath, when you come to Japan I am absolutely taking you to tea! 

My 1st Hanami at Osaka Jo Koen!

Last Sunday I went to my first Hanami. A Hanami is basically like a potluck or a BBQ except that you do it in the Spring sakura season while the cherry blossoms are blooming and falling all around you. I have always wanted to go to a Hanami. Last year, I walked around Ueno park during Hanami time, but because I didn't know anyone or speak any Japanese at that time, I didn't really get to participate. This time, though, a bunch of us went to Osaka Jo Koen (Osaka Castle Park) and set up a great picnic. Osaka Jo Koen is really beautiful right now, if you get a chance to go see it before the pink cherry blossoms all fall off.The main identifying feature of a Hanami is that the park covered with blue tarps. Tarps are everywhere and that's what people sit on while they eat and drink. A Hanami is exactly like any other picnic or potluck. People bring balls and play games on the grass. Kids come. People bring barbeques to roast their meat and vegetables. Everyone shares all the food. Before leaving the house, we gave our orange a face. We also went to Tsuruhashi (easily the best place in Osaka) to get kimchi for the Hanami. Tsuruhashi is sort of an unofficial Korea-town. You can walk near the train tunnels to find outdoor markets selling all sorts of Kimchi (my favorite food right now, especially daikon kimchi) and and live octopus (just like that scene in Oldboy) and gorgeous, colorful Korean wedding dresses.Every Canadian who lived there as a preteen at least knows what hackey sack is, even if they're not good at it. Most Japanese people have never heard of it, so my Canadian friends brought beanbags and taught our Japanese friends how to act like Canadian 12 year olds at recess.

Radwimps, Kansai-Ben, my new job teaching English...

I have been really busy but I absolutely love my new job so far. Thanks for all your great wishes and good luck. Teaching people around the same age as I am is so much more interesting than teaching children. I am really pleased with my new job. My students are all age 18-27. Most of them are really funny and cool.

Something great is that since I am close to the same age as the students, they often stay after class to chat with me. I got to talk to a girl about Vivienne Westwood and what bands she likes. One of my students speaks Spanish but very little English, and I was surprised to find that I can understand Spanish if he speaks slowly enough! I was stoked about that. I'm so glad I speak French.

Anyway, I learned a lot about what kind of music young Japanese kids are into these days. One of the bands a lot of girls in my classes like is called Radwimps. They have kind of a sweet, acoustic, romantic feel. They're on the top of Japanese pop charts. Here is a sweet, charming video by Radwimps. It's a funny name for a cute Japanese pop band. The best part for me about this song is that the lyrics are really basic, cute love song lyrics and I understand the entire song!



I found out that so far, it's really true what everyone says about Kansai people and Tokyo people. Everyone says Kansai people are funny and outgoing and more casual, and it's 100% true. I haven't had this much attention or this many friendly smiles since I was in Tanzania. Random people smile at me, people hold the doors for me, kids stick their tongues out at me, my students tease me. My new roommates leave me little notes and presents and bring their friends over to say hello. People speak faster Japanese to me and everyone tries to teach me region-specific slang (Kansai-Ben like nandeanin and meccha). So far, I am having the best time.

Kimura Takuya and Ebi Chan : Most recognizable Japanese Celebrities

This is Kimura Takuya, the biggest product hawker in Japan. His image is used to sell absolutely everything from gum to cameras to fast food to hair products. If you come to Japan even for a week, you'll see him basically every day whether or not you turn on the television. His ads are on trains, in bus stops, in shopping malls. You cannot escape Kimura Takuya.

He is very popular with girls here, but I think he's irritating. I think that overexposure doesn't apply in Japan. Actually, that's exactly what it is, now that I think about it a little more. That's why American celebrities can come to Japan and hawk random noodle products that would get them made fun of back home. But doing loads of product advertisements doesn't hurt an actor or actress or singer over here like it would elsewhere in the world. In fact, being in advertisements in Japan actually makes a celebrity even more popular. Cameron Diaz is so famous here in Japan, mostly because everyone has had to see her image in Softbank cellphone ads every day for over a year. There is also an actress over here called Ebi Chan who is like the female version of Kimura Takuya in that her face is used to sell every single thing in the country. Recently, she has been appearing on super embarrassing television ads. Her name is Ebi Chan because her name is long and begins Ebi____ somethingorother so people shortened it to Ebi, which in Japanese means "shrimp". Chan is a term of affection like "miss" or "Lil" in English. So essentially, her nickname is "Little miss Shrimp" and McDonalds decided use her in a series of horrible advertisements for shrimp burgers. When an American celebrity decides to model for a cheezy company like McDonalds, they worry that it could cheapen their careers so they don't try to associate themselves too much with the product outside of the ads. Ebi Chan though, bless her heart, poses on red carpets with the McDonald's hamburger.I couldn't find the worst advertisement, in which Ebi Chan skateboards to work while holding a Filet O Fish and does this Tony Hawk jump against the wall a Japanese office and then looks at the camera and winks and takes a bite of the fishburger. But you are really all the better for not seeing it. You're all the better if you don't even try to imagine it. Here's a different one, also pretty bad.


Here is something wonderful for you thanks to Naben. Also, thanks to Hannah for leaving around 50 comments on this site, all of them insightful / interesting / kind.