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How to eat sushi (like a CEO)

Too bad the Matt Dillion sketch on SNL didn't live up to its potential, IMHO. Thanks for WFMU for providing a link to a 31 MB video introduction to "the Japanese Tradition: Sushi."

Newcomers to Japan appear on TV to say what they find 'cool'

From Japan Today:

What's cool about Japan? The premise of the new NHK-BS program called “Cool Japan” is that first impressions offer the best clues. It’s a reasonable assumption. The Japanese themselves, like natives anywhere, take their environment too much for granted to know. Long-term foreigners — like long-term foreigners everywhere — are probably too jaded to think anything’s cool.

Enter the wide-eyed newcomer. His or hers are the eyes that see what others miss. The program format confronts moderator Shoji Kokami with 10 greenhorn gaijin — anyone in the country longer than six months need not apply. Naturally, there’s a language barrier, and so Kokami is assisted by simultaneous interpreters. Budgetary constraints making it impossible for NHK to hire qualified interpreters versed in all the native languages of all the short-term foreigners in Japan, the choice of guests is restricted to those speaking English.

The program debuts in April. Writing in Spa! (April 4), Kokami tells us how things are going so far. The first program will deal with the Japanese home. What is cool about the Japanese home? Four things above all: tatami, sliding fusuma doors, high-tech toilets, and — slippers.

Kiddyland- not just for kids anymore

Gridskipper takes on multi-faceted Harajuku today ("Harajuku girls got the wicked style") and the Washington Post visits a toy store filled with ravers:

Party at the Rave, Then Fall Into The Fun House
3 1/2 Hours in Kiddy Land

Sunday morning, 10 a.m., Harajuku district, home of Goth girls, squid crepes, crystal tattoos, $400 T-shirts. All but the hardiest hipsters from the all-night raves passed out hours ago. But Giga and Luka, eyes red as Bloody Marys yet still standing by the grace of some unknown substance, manage to make it to the magical opening hour at Kiddy Land. They join babes in arms, young mothers, pimply geeks, wide-eyed foreigners and giddy local teens stepping through the looking glass into the Mad-Hattered world of Japan's coolest toy store.

Joe Perry of the "big in Japan" Aerosmith had something to say about Kiddyland, too. As he told in-flight mag American Way:

Joe, you mentioned you always take the kids along with you. Where do they like to go?
PERRY: Kiddyland, a toy store in the Harajuku. As with a lot of things in Japan, they’re on the cutting edge, and you’ll see some toys, especially the GameBoy kind of things, that won’t make it to the U.S. for six months. Kiddy­land is geared more toward younger kids. There are all kinds of little gadgets, trinkets, and stuff there that’re a lot of fun. Right next to Kiddyland is a place called the Oriental Bazaar. It’s a great place to buy your souvenirs: kimonos, pottery, ceramics, and all the classic stuff you want to take home. They have the T-shirts with the ninjas and the ninja outfits for your nephew or six-year-old. It’s a great place to get postcards, chopsticks, tea sets, and stuff like that. And the prices are really good.

The stars realign in Japan- hollywood celebs no longer the shortcut to ad sucess

Via Agenda, the LA Times features the decline of an age-old (well, decades old) Hollywood tradition, appearing in Japan-only ads (Winona Ryder and Jodie Foster for a Starbucks knock off, anyone?). Check out Japander for examples. From the LAT:

The Stars Realign in Japan - Hollywood celebrities once commanded big bucks to pitch products overseas. Now, ad agencies and consumers prefer talent from Asia.

TOKYO — Brad Pitt did it. George Clooney and Meg Ryan did it. Bill Murray pretended to do it. And back when he was just a celluloid action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger was very, very good at doing it.

But none of them does it much these days. A Hollywood in-house secret, Japanese TV commercials were once talked about with a wink and a shake of the head. Piles of cash were paid to stars willing to peddle anything from whiskey to cigarettes, cars to coffee, instant noodles to cafe latte — as long as nobody told the fans back home. Hey, did you know Dennis Hopper did one for bath products? How much do you figure Leonardo DiCaprio got for that SUV spot? A million? Three? Sadly, the days of seeing, say, Harrison Ford guzzling Kirin beer may be over. American stars have not vanished from the Japanese advertising landscape, but their numbers have dropped dramatically since the heyday of the 1990s, when even Mickey Rourke was considered bankable here.
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Many in the world of Japanese advertising argue that the decreasing use of American stars marks a cultural watershed, in which Japanese audiences increasingly embrace stars and celebrities from Asia instead of the West.

"The Hollywood brand isn't the best anymore, and Hollywood actors aren't effective enough anymore," said Yukio Mori, president of Systrat Corp., a marketing and promotion consultancy in Tokyo. "Consumers are in favor of singers or artists who are familiar, rather than foreign movie stars."

The catalyst for the change, almost everyone agrees, has been Japan's raging love affair with Korean culture that took everyone here by surprise two years ago.

Metropolis presents the big 600 things to know about Tokyo

To celebrate their 600th issue, Metropolis presents part 1 of "600 salutes to our milestone and our city":

Facts and figures, tales and trivia, records and rumors. We present everything you ever wanted to know (and some things you didn’t) about the biggest and greatest city in the world

When Tokugawa Ieyasu moved his government to Edo in 1603, Nihonbashi became the official center of Japan.

All distances from Tokyo to other cities in Japan are measured from Nihonbashi.

The 15km Tokyo Wan Aqualine bridge/tunnel linking Kanagawa and Chiba cost ¥100 billion per kilometer.

Chiba produces 72 percent of the peanuts in Kanto but only 11 percent of the spinach.
A combined total of 13.8 percent of the populations of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures commute to work in Tokyo each day.

Tokyo residents have Japan’s third longest average commutes to work (47 minutes), after those in Chiba (48 min) and Saitama (50 min).
Workers at Japanese companies have about 15m2 of office area each.

Workers at foreign-owned companies get 19m2.

The chore office ladies hate most is making tea for their male colleagues.

Naked Sushi is back- but this time it's naked men...

While I'm more familiar with the Seattle "Naked Sushi" controversy, Japan Today reports that:

BEIJING — A women's magazine in southwestern China has shot tapes of a two-hour feast served on a naked man's body in response to a flap last year over a Japanese restaurant in China that served sushi on women's bodies, the event organizer said Monday.
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Wang said New Female organized the private meal after noting the popular outrage over the use of two female university students at the upscale Japanese Hefeng Village Huaishi Cuisine restaurant complex in Kunming, also a city in southwestern China.
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Senior staff members at the Hefeng Village restaurant say they stopped serving sushi on naked women after the story came to light in April 2004. The restaurant said it sold meals on women, who were decorated with shells and stones, in keeping with a Japanese culinary tradition.