Koen Dori in Shibuya, the main street from the station to NHK, will continue to have eco events until June 10. Here is the NHK Kankyo website. The tema is 明日のエコではまにあわない (“Eco tomorrow will not be enough”) or a sense that we had better start doing something today, or it will be too late. And June 5 is Environment Day in Japan.

I had a great time at the Eco Life Fair last weekend and took some photos which I put on my regular blog, Kurashi News from Japan. Hope you enjoy seeing what is going on here in Tokyo and Japan. This event was sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and some large companies, so it wasn’t as wild and crazy as for example Earthday. Having said that, I also felt Japan is indeed taking a lead in the field of sustainable development and environmental protection.
(more…)

Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Go Back Into the Water.

They are back! You smell them before you see them: Ganguro girls. Is anyone else seeing a ganguro resurgence in their neighborhood? I saw a horde of them at Fussa station this evening. It was scary.

I love the new ads of the U.S Apple Computer. In networking ad, the Japanese girl talks to Mac "he seems to be Otaku, don’t you think so?"

As a "Toshiro Okada – Otaking" fan, I am still a little bit nervous to use the word "Otaku". Yes, I feel Otaku should have very deep knowledge and obsessiveness to the object, actually Wikipedia explains Otaku like this.

However it is very true that the word "Otaku" is used very easily for anime fans, manga fans, maid fans, costume play fans, especially people who hang around Akihabara. Of course since manga, anime, computer stuffs connects tightly to Otaku culture, Akihabara is a Mecca of Otaku, but in a narrow sense, all people in Akihabara (we call Akiba) are not Otaku. So we call them Akiba-kei (Akiba group). Do I make sense? :-)
(more…)