Osaka Walks

The tiger is something of a municipal symbol, as the local baseball team is the Henshin Tigers.

Osaka is Japan's second-largest city, and one of the few that continues to grow in population. It remains extremely popular with tourists, particularly around the river area in the Shinsaibashi area.

A Shinsaibashi shotengai (shopping street).

There are some toy and hobby shops, clustered mostly in the Namba area. However, unlike a decade ago, when you could find wonderful things in shops like Super Position and Psychedelia, bargains are now scarce, and the selection is not what it once was. Still, the city is famous for its food, and it hosts some toy shows like the Doki Doki events.

Toy shop in the Nihombashi area, just adjacent to the Namba district.

After the jump, here are more photos of the city:

Toys & Life in Residential Japan: Potted Plants Filled with Toys

Toys and characters are a big part of life in Japan. It's much more common to see an Ultraman or Kamen Rider promotional tie in than, say, something from the latest movie. So you see posters, signs, and all sorts of other things related to Japan's character kings like Mario, Doraemon, Godzilla, Pikachu - the list goes on and on...

People in Japan like putting little statuettes (toys, animal sculptures, etc.) in front of their houses. Sometimes you'll even see them cemented onto walls and fences. Recently, I came across a home that tops them all. In front, there were dozens of little toys stuffed into planters, like a mini display being shared with everyone passing by.

Here's a video I shot:

Tokyo Views

Koenji crossroads

Sometimes toy and show reporting gets myopic. You're indoors, in front of a booth or shelf, snapping shots of static objects. So I thought I'd pull the lens back and take some shots of the environment in which all this stuff is made. Let's have a look at daily life in Tokyo.

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Pachinko parlor. They're everywhere, and people line up before opening hours to get first pick of their favorite machines.

Typical izakaya, which is a type of casual restaurant. They're popular with the after-work crowd, and contrary to common notions of Japan as a quiet and peaceful place, izakayas get loud and raucous.

An outlet of Takkyubin, one of Japan's largest courier companies. Sending things by courier is fast, reliable, and affordable. Though the Japanese postal service is phenomenal - legendary even - couriers are still popular.

Multiple story car rental place. Renting cars is also popular, since owning one is expensive with fees, taxes, and parking, not to mention exorbitant highway tolls. Because space is at such a premium, many structures have to rise up instead of going wide - so bike parking places, car parking lots, as well as tons of restaurants and shops are small, narrow, and multi-story.

An older residence. These are becoming rarer sights in Tokyo. One reason is there is a formula by which the value of the building falls year after year, until it hits zero. (I believe this takes 20-30 years.) So homes tend to be built with inferior materials and then torn down after a few decades.

 More after the jump:

Pocky II - Can you feel the Lovecky tonight?

Recently I wrote about Pocky's line of specially titled snacks. They've just released a new one, with a couple of twists. This time, they've renamed their strawberry-flavored Pocky to Lovecky, which is straightforward enough, and it does sound better than Aicky. ("Ai" (愛) is Japanese for "love.")

The back of the packaging has a heart-shaped space for you to write a message to a special someone. Reminds me of the little Valentine's cards kids used to give each other. Remember those? The super hero ones were cool.

Another twist, showing just how far Glico is going with this promotion, is they've made the cookie part of the snack heart-shaped. Lovecky was released after Valentine's Day, but it could be that they're aiming for White Day, which is on March 14. It's a Japanese holiday when men give gifts to women.

My all-time favorite Valentine's snack? Old school conversation hearts - not the new weird flavors and concoctions that Necco has come up with, but the original Sweethearts that came in little boxes which also had a heart shaped "To/From" space on the back. (The original Lovecky?)

Fortunately, you can get the good stuff on Amazon, usually from no name bulk candy makers. Some Tasti D-Lite franchises in the US have them too. So good...Much lovecky for the conversation hearts...

What's in a name? Glico Pockifies the snack world.

Glico is a legendary Japanese snack company, famous for hits like Pretz, Cheeza, and of course, Pocky. For folks who aren't familiar with them, Pocky are boxes of long, thin pretzels individually covered with chocolate, strawberry, or other coatings. According to Glico's website, the idea was basically to cover a Pretz with a layer of chocolate. Simple enough, and it was a smash hit.

"Salad" Pretz

Glico has a knack for coming up with unusual product names. This is, after all, the company that sells a line of snack biscuits called Collon, including variants like (and I'm not making this up) Creamy Collon. Yummy.

Pocky macha + chocolate flavor

"Pocky" is a weird enough name, but recently Glico has topped it with a campaign of new titles for its beloved snack line. The names take all or part of an English or Japanese word and add "cky" (or "cy") to Pockify it.

At first glance, some of them don't make a lot of sense, but there are subtitles explaining what Glico is getting at. Some names are straightforward. Others offer insights into Japanese culture. Let's have a look:

Simple and old timey. Thanky for being a friend!

 More after the jump:

Kawasaki European Festival 2015

Every year in Kawasaki, a European Festival is held. There are antique dealers, food stalls, and even performance artists moving about.

The festival is held in a shopping plaza called La Cittadella, and though I wouldn't call the event mind blowing, it's a fun away to spend an afternoon. Here are some pics I took:

 There were a few dozen dealers on hand, mostly selling European antiques.

The toyage at the event was mostly along these lines.

 More after the jump:

Japan is super expensive, right? Actually...

Shibuya station

For a long time, the consensus has been that Japan is an expensive place. That was easy to go along with back in 1990, when Japanese investors had the money to buy overseas properties like the Pebble Beach golf course. Tales spread about 10,000 yen watermelons (which do exist) and many people assumed that even a brief stay in Japan would break the bank. There may have been some truth to that 30 years ago. But how costly is the country these days?

Well, it's a mixed bag. You still have goods and services that are as expensive as they were during the bubble years. But there's a growing basket of things that are becoming cheaper, either because of decades of deflation or due to low-cost competition. Let's break it down.

(More after the jump:)

Tokyo Goats

In general, Tokyo is not what you'd call an unpredictable city. You pretty much know what you're going to get in every district: convenience stores, malls, ramen restaurants, pachinko parlors... But from time to time you will come across something (or things) that make you do a double take.

Not far from Tachikawa Station, near a movie theater that's next to the monorail line, there's a large, empty patch of land. And on that land are a number of placid, mellow goats. Not quite what you'd expect to see in the world's largest metropolis, but the area is far enough from Central Tokyo (about an hour from Shinjuku) that you can kind of see how it may happen.

They're quite popular with passers-by, and they make a nice change from the concrete that covers most of the city.

I'm not sure how long they've been there or if this is their permanent home, but if you find yourself in Tachikawa, you can pop over and say hi to these furry friends.

The 80s are BACK in Tokyo at retro clothing shop Kiki 2!!

In some ways, Tokyo is a city of extremes. You've got your buttoned-up business districts with high-rises clumped together. But walk two streets over, and you're in a shady district full of pachinko parlors and grim alleyways.

Take a train, and you're likely to join a row of serious faces, with a heavy stench of liquor wafting through the carriage. But exit the station, and you may bump into a dancing, furry mascot welcoming you to a newly opened travel agency.

Balancing all that on a daily basis can be a psychological high-wire act, which is one reason most people walk down the street with tunnel vision, hurrying from A to B without engaging who knows what. You can't take it all too seriously, though, and if you seek out the nicer quarters, you can have a lot of fun.

Koenji (the district next to Nakano) is a groovy area to walk around. Besides a few toy shops, you've got plenty of homey restaurants (including a veggie place), coffee shops, thrift stores (called "recycle shops" in Japan) and other bohemian spaces.

On a stroll through Koenji the other day, I came across Kiki 2, a boutique that mostly sells used clothing. I'm not a kawaiiseour, but this place had enough of a funky retro toy vibe going that I thought I'd check it out.

Here's a video I shot:



Store details for your kawaii purveyance:
English address: 2-21-11 1F Koenji Minami, Suginami-ku, Tokyo
Japanese address: 〒166-0003 東京都杉並区 高円寺南 2-21-11
Click here for a pinpoint Google Map to Kiki, which is right next to Kiki 2.
Tel: 03 5377 0105
Hours: 1 PM - 8 PM

Japanese supermarket branded candy + shokugan toy premiums

In Japan, there's a long tradition of selling branded candy, snacks, and other goodies. That might be a pack of gum with Ultraman images, potato chips with Doraemon packaging, and so on. Sometimes just the package is branded, and other times there's a card, sticker, or toy inside. These "candy premiums" (aka shokugan) from companies like Glico, Meiji, and Morinaga go back many decades, making for a cool area of collecting.

The tradition continues at convenience stores, supermarkets, drug stores, and tons of other outlets. Here are images I snapped at a Tokyo supermarket.

The marketers have been hitting it hard with Kamen Rider Drive, the 25th (!!) installment in the legendary series. Interestingly, the top left of the box says "Sofubi hero." I believe this is a straight up mini toy, which you'll also see sold in supermarkets.

You can see the other figures in the series pictured.

Chococlate peanut snacks. Interestingly, this is completely Bandai branded. In the past, it was more common for companies like Bandai to pair up with snack makers. Looks like with this KR shokugan, they've driven past the competition by knocking out the middle man.

 More after the jump:

Traditional Japanese Dango Sweets

Mitarashi Dango

A dango (prouounced "dahn-go") is a traditional Japanese sweet made from a small ball of rice flour. Several balls are placed on a skewer, and the whole thing is grilled for a few minutes. Different flavors can be added, such as soy sauce. My favorite is a thick, malty, sweet sauce called "mitarashi."

Not too many places in Tokyo sell dango anymore, and the quality can vary. One excellent stall is conveniently located for toy shoppers. It's right across the alley from the Mister Donut that is near the entrance way to Nakano Broadway.

Menu

Some types of Dango available at the shop:

Shou yu = Soy Sauce
Mitarashi = Sweet, thick sauce
Anko = Red Bean Paste

If you have a chance, the place is worth trying. Dango are only 100 yen each, and he'll hand you a beautiful ceramic plate that you hand back once you're done. Enjoy!

Tokyo Vegefood Festa

This weekend at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo, a small but well attended veggie food festival was held. (The much larger Spain Festa going on nearby was huge.) At the Tokyo Vegefood Festa, there were a few dozen stalls selling Indian, Japanese, Taiwanese, and other types of veggie, vegan, and macrobiotic food.

Events like this are rare in Japan, so it was nice being able to walk around and try food from different vendors.

Most of the food was good. Portions were small, though. On the bright side, that made it easier to sample a number of stalls. Some things were reasonably priced, while others were out there, even for Japan.

No complaints from this happy dude.

 More after the jump:

Gundam 35th Anniversary 7-11 Promotion

For decades, Japanese convenience stores have been big players in the kidoverse. They've been the home of exclusive toys and packaging variants, countless shokugan releases for candy, chocolate, and other snacks and drinks, as well as seasonal and anniversary promotions.

7-11 has an ongoing Gundam 35th Anniversary promotion There are toys, a super cool spoon + bowl set, and other Gundammy goods.

From what I can gather, it's pretty straightforward. You take one of these tickets to the register, pay 620 yen, and randomly get one of the things on display, based on the letter you pull. At least that's the way they've handled these types of promotion before.

Here are some of the potential prizes:

 More after the jump:

Furoku - 付録 Part 5: Modern Furoku

In past articles, I've written about the history of furoku, furoku in girls' magazines, a close-up look at furoku manga, and a super close-up on a Henshin Ninja Arashi manga given away with a magazine. Now I'd like to take a look at modern furoku.

Freebies continue to be widely given away with all sorts of magazines, and the bundled gifts have become diverse and extravagant over the years. I've even read that women's magazines are using the tactic of giveaways as a way to boost plummeting sales.

Clearly the strategy has traction, as you're seeing everything from anime to sports card to fashion mags wrapped in shrink wrap with one or more alluring prizes.

Some bookstores even have display areas filled with samples of what you can get in new publications.


More after the jump:

Rockabilly Dancers in Yoyogi Park (Tokyo)

All things considered, daily life in Japan is pretty reserved. But there's something about doing cosplay, or taking on a certain style of dress that brings down the inhibitions and lets people go wild - or just dance in public.

For years, the Rockabilly dancers have been a fixture at the front entrance of Yoyogi Park, which is just a 2-3 minute walk from Harajuku station. I don't know much about the group or how often they show up, but go there on a weekend and there's a good chance they might be there, getting down with their hair as greased back as can be. Check out the club insignia a few of them have on their jackets.