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.

June 5 was the opening day of the historic United Nations Conference on Human Environment in 1972 in Stockholm, and was stipulated as Environment Day in Japan in the Basic Environment Law in 1993 for its commemoration.

The United Nations declared June 5 Environment Day, responding to a Japanese proposal in Stockholm in 1972. On this day, various events and ceremonies are held to promote environmental protection activities.

What do you do in your country on this day…?

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.

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? :-)

This site said the definition of Akiba kei is…
1.Talking about bag, it’s backpack.
2.Splash out for what he likes.
3.Use PC while walking.
4.Porn book in his bag.
5.Moe for maid.
6.He like realistic girl. (even in anime, manga).
7.He thinks "I am Otaku".
8.He thinks "I am no good".

Talking to the fashion style, Akiba Blog added some features more. They say they are identically dressed , and having Poster saber, Having huggable pillow (not really, they are shopping bag). Ha! 12 Otakus came from England and visited Akiba, without showing face, we can’t tell any different. ha ha ha! (This round smile mark which covered people’s face is the "Warai Otoko" mark of Ghost in the Shell) But at any rate, the most remarkable fashion feature of Otaku is backpack. Akiba blog researched it, in front of the entrance of Sofmap. In 2004, there were all backpackers, they say 46% of people around there had backpack. I wrote about Train man often last year, of course the train man has backpack at first too, but in the end he changed his fashion style because of her. Actually the hit of train man became a trigger of fashion boom for Otaku, some Get off Otaku fashion guide were published.

So surprisingly enough, in this year the number of backpackers in front of Sofmap entrance decrease a lot. Akiba blog say it was just 22% in this year. 　Yes, I can find only one backpack in that picture. Still they are identically dressed, at least bags are different. Akiba kei got fashionable a little bit? Or more regular people got Akiba-kei?