Feeling lonely eating dinner all by yourself? Are you a vegetarian who loves the idea of barbecue but just can't pull the trigger on meat?
Fortunately you can log-on to Japanese site Air Yakiniku and enjoy a virtual barbecue. You can even download a template to make a real apron that helps prevent spillage of virtual meat juice (or perhaps to capture drool as you crave meat but eat whatever you have in real life.)
Like the New York Times reports, it's a bit hard to tell if this is a clever marketing gimmick or someone genuinely thinks it's a good idea. Maybe this is where software and dieting make sense for the masses.
I await virtual Dunkin Donuts and Carvel's Fudgie the Whale.
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.
New pics from the Punynari blog reveal that my biggest fear has come true: giant Gundam robots are being assembled in Japan to take over the free world.
More pics on the Moé Passion blog.
Noodles are serious business in Japan, but that doesn't mean that the whole family can't enjoy Bandai's new somen-making toy that is basically a waterslide for "nagashi somen," thin somen noodles that are served in a stream of water. The noodles come out of a little house at the top of the slide and end up in a strainer at the bottom.
Electronic gadgets may be high-tech, but kitchen gadgets make things delicious.
Bandai Press Release
Via TokyoMango
I managed to fracture some bone in my hand and sprain my right thumb while performing a 360 backside-air at the Open Source Goat Rodeo.
Maybe next year, you can watch me tumble down the mountain.
Blog, Interrupted...no typing for a few days.
A new animated series called "Cat Sh*t One". On TV in Japan. Crazy.
So, since I have some free time (I'm awake, and it's 5 a.m. here), I figured that I would torture my friends to see who has the best or worst jet lag story. Not a travel nightmare, but the aftermath of rapidly changing several time zones. Here are a few of my personal examples.
Maui/San Francisco/London
Prior to this U.K. trip, I had been in Hawaii (PST -2 hours) until Sunday night, then I was home for one day and flew out at noon PST on Tuesday. I arrived at 7 a.m. Wednesday London time and didn't sleep a wink on the plane. Last night (Wednesday), I was nodding off at dinner but forced myself to stay up until 10 p.m., only to wake at 3:15 a.m.
No signs of sleep in my future, and I am now just waiting for the coffee place to open. I am strangely coherent, but I can't type that well, and I am not convinced that I could have a conversation about anything but the impending snow here.
Japan/Korea/Thailand
In 2001, my wife and took a Japan-Korea-Thailand tour over the course of three weeks. We adjusted fine during the trip, but when we got back to San Francisco, we were a mess. It took four days before we could sleep at night, and on the fifth night, we finally were getting settled.
Around midnight, we heard the crazy old lady across the street yell at some kids. At about 4 a.m., they came back with baseball bats and smashed her car to bits. Not surprisingly, this woke us and up, and it took another full week to get back to normal.
Hong Kong/China/Thailand
In 2005, I went to Hong Kong, China, and Thailand (some blog posts here) as part of my MBA program. It was a fantastic but exhausting trip, starting with an overnight flight to Hong Kong. One of my cohorts worked for a big pharmaceutical company and gave us all sleeping pills for the flights back.
As it turns out, I was the "control" patient, and the pill didn't work across the 17 hours of flying. I got back to San Francisco and had to take a cab as to not crash my car driving home. I then fell asleep on my living-room couch for about 12 hours, went out for pho soup, and then slept for 14 more hours.
For my next trip, I plan to stock up on elephant tranquilizers, or bring a member of the A-Team to pull a B.A. Baracus and knock me out.
You can follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom
You can never be too prepared for a rhino attack. Even if it's fake.
Here's a fantastic 1966 video of the Remo Four playing the Peter Gunn (aka Spy Hunter) theme to take your mind off of all of the depressing news these days.
If you're not familiar with Roppongi Hills, it's a giant development in Tokyo with high-end shops and housing. It's known for having lots of ex-pat bankers from Lehman, Goldman Sachs as locals and a bar/mating scene unlike anywhere else on earth.
But all is not well says the Times Online. The down economy and failing banks are dragging down the image of the area, despite a $4 billion developer investment.
It is Thursday night and Roppongi romance - or at least, the calculated brand of romance that used to be the currency in this Tokyo bar - is at death's door. Heartland, with its low lights and brushed-steel tables, has made its name as a favourite with the financial great and good and the occasional Japanese celebrity. In the warm months drinkers spill out on to the street. However, the bar that once boomed with British brokers, Australian traders, American hedge-fund managers and those Japanese women who would love them has fallen eerily silent. More damningly, says Heartland veteran and former Roppongi barmaid Eriko Masabuchi, it has gone "image down".
Roppongi Hills' bizarre (and sinking) subculture is profiled at the Times Online.
Morioka City in Japan holds an annual soba eating contest. This year a 44-year old woman ate 383 bowls to claim the title.
I have a lot of other stuff to blog, but the economy is depressing and I thought we all could use some fun.
