In Japan they have these great capsule toy vending machines called Gashapon or Gachapon, which is an onomatopeia for the sound of the handle turning (Gacha) and then the sound of the capsule falling (Pon). Cute huh?
They have a lot of Onomatopeia’s in Japan, for example PakuPaku which is the sound of a mouth opening and closing (which is why Pacman was called Pacman – Pakuman (アックマン) in Japanese).
Anyway, as usual I digress.
These capsule toys are about ￥100-￥500 a go, and the toys range from badges, toys, stickers, to really cool Star Wars stuff.
Like these which I found the other week…
Darth Vader Gachapon
Unfortunately Aki liked them a lot so they’re on her keyring and not mine at the moment.
Might have to look for some more (they had a cool Yoda one).
One of the things (food related) I miss most about England while living in Japan, apart from British sausages and jam doughnuts, is baked beans!
Oh, how I love beans on toast, or a full English breakfast (with the sausages) and beans.
You can’t buy beans here. Well you can buy the American pork’n’ beans or a Malaysian variation on baked beans, but they’re pricey and just not the same thing.
Every time we go back to England or someone comes to visit, half the suitcases are filled up with tins of Heinz.
Well imagine my excitement when one of our local supermarkets started stocking a Waitrose range last week!
Aki rushed out and bought half their stock…
Waitrose Baked Beans
And at only ￥１４０ (£1) pretty cheap (for an imported food in Japan).
So now we have a cupboard full of beans – we actually had more, but had Beans on Toast for our dinner on Friday night, ah, bliss.
Finally got around to piecing together and uploading my videos of our visit to the Testujin 28 (Gigantor) statue in Shin-Nigata, Kobe last December.
For those that don’t know, Testujin 28 (or Gigantor as he’s known in the west) is a very long running anime (cartoon) in Japan.
Following on from the Gundam statue in Tokyo, there’s been a spate of these giant anime/pop culture related statues cropping up recently to boost the local economies.
The other week we went to Rokko Island – a man-made island next to Kobe (where our local cinema is/was), for the last time as it’s closed down at the end of January
We saw “Where the Wild Things Are” which I highly recommend! A great movie, much more entertaining and a more rounded, emotionally movie than Avatar.
Anyroad up, while we were there we visited a “hand craft” market and ended up buying a couple of leather bracelets.
The guy running the store was so excited (well, maybe not excited, but kind of happy) to have an Englishman buying his goods (usually only Americans and Japanese) he took a photo of us and posted it on his blog… http://osd1979.exblog.jp/12771435/
Not a great photo, unfortunately, but a tiny bit of fame
Apparently he writes he was happy to have an English customer even if it was only for ￥480! (Actually it was ￥1000 for the two I think, but he did give us a nice discount!).
Not sure if I’m overly struck with this whole Augmented Reality thing yet (for those that don’t know, you point a web camera at a pre-determined shape – usually something simple like a square or a letter, then visit a website and something appears animated on the shape – ok, that’s a very simplistic explanation but you maybe get the idea).
Maybe I’m getting old, but it seems like a lot of effort – Mendokusai as we say in Japan. But it’s early days so who knows 5 years time it might be just like Star Trek or Minority Report or something.
I usually love new gadgets and stuff – would love an Ipad, even the Kindle is wantable. (I think I just made up a word).
Anyway, found this today on YouTube and was fairly impressed – although you do have to spend most of your life with a square tattooed on your arm, explaining to people what it is, etc,etc.
