Vertical Weblog

The Tocho Swing Beats big band is a 21-piece band comprised of government workers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices, or Tocho. They recently came to New York to perform at the legendary Birdland Jazz Club.

From the NY Times City Room blog:

“The band, now in its 60th year, was formed in 1948 was originally formed to cheer Japanese citizens after World War II and held rehearsals on the roof of the former Tokyo metropolitan government building in Yurakucho. Band members, who volunteer their time in the band, said they spend many evenings and weekend rehearsing and that they raised the money to travel to New York.

“The city of Tokyo is very proud of this band,” said Katsuya Abe, an entertainment producer who helped organize the trip. “It is almost like rooting for your own Olympic team.”

At Birdland, wives of band members sat at the bar near the bandstand and took photographs of the band, which was anchored by the booming trombone of Yasanori Tanaka, who works for the Tokyo Fire Department, and the piano of Hideo Murakami, a computer systems technician for Tokyo’s Office of General Affairs. Then there was the flashy trumpet work of Hiroshi Narumiya, who works for Tokyo’s Health Department.”

I’m sure playing in a band does wonders for stress. I’d love it if there was a City Hall jazz band in New York… or even cabbies could get together and play music instead of swearing at people and mowing down tourists.

Due to a dearth of domestic bluefin tuna, two sushi bar owners paid $100,000 for a 282-pound bluefin tuna on Monday.

From AP:

“[T]he extravagant purchase — about $370 per pound ($817 per kilogram) — went to a Hong Kong sushi bar owner and his Japanese competitor who reached a peaceful settlement to share the big fish. The Hong Kong buyer also paid the highest price at last year’s new year event at Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, the world’s largest fish seller, which holds near-daily auctions.

Typical tuna prices at Tokyo fish markets are less than $25 per pound ($55 per kilogram). But bluefin tuna is considered by gourmets to be the best, and when sliced up into small pieces and served on rice it goes for very high prices in restaurants.

Premium fish — sometimes sliced up while the customers watch — also have advertising value, underscoring a restaurant’s quality, like a rare wine.

Thousands of tuna were auctioned at Monday’s festive new year sale, which often brings unusually high prices.

“It was the best tuna of the day, but the price shot up because of the shortage of domestic bluefin,” Yoshida said, citing rough weather at the end of December. Buyers vied for only three Oma bluefin tuna Monday, compared to 41 last year.”

282 pounds. Damn, that’s a lot of sushi.

Remember this dude? He finally up and left the Mexico City airport after living there for 117 days.

From Bloomberg.com:

“Hiroshi Nohara, 41, arrived in Mexico on a United Airlines flight Sept. 2 and has slept in the crowded food court on the international departures level since then. He became a celebrity in the city of 20 million, with people flocking to the airport to take his picture, buy him food and donate clothes.

“Another Japanese person came for him yesterday, and they left in a taxi after spending 117 days in the airport,” said Victor Manuel Mejia, head of the airport’s press office. “We can’t remember any similar cases in the past, it was totally atypical.””

I wonder how they finally convinced him to leave. Hopefully they’ll have details soon.

Now this is quite an interesting approach to science. A (female!) chemistry teacher at Musashi Institute of Technology apparently had such a hard time getting through to hormonally-charged (male?) students that she invented an anime-babe-enhanced Periodic Table of Elements.

From InventorSpot:

“Chemistry can be a tough subject for students more interested in games and girls, which makes “The Periodic Table: Learning Basic Chemistry through Moe” a bright idea indeed. Which element do you love the most?

Lest you think one of The Three Stooges is somehow involved, “Moe” is a Japanese term that describes the feminization of inanimate objects. Most commonly used in video games, anime and manga, applying so-called “moe anthropomorphism” makes most anything cute, girlish, sexy or all of the above. Even a topic as dry and factual as the Periodic Table of the Elements, nyuck nyuck!

Though the images are occasionally salacious, there is plenty of descriptive text to go along with them - sort of a “carrot & stick” approach.”

I should think this would make studying, ahem, harder.

(The link has a somewhat NSFW pic, if your company considers illustrated women salacious.)

ASIMO, Honda’s robot designed to eventually assist an aging Japanese population, will be super-sized for the New Year’s Day Rose Parade.

From Motor Trend:
“Honda’s 2009 entry, called “Hats Off In Celebration,” celebrates the automaker’s 50th anniversary of being in America. Elements such as lettuce seed, rice carnations and strawflower comprise the exterior of the extra-large ASIMO. If you haven’t heard of him, the real 12-times-smaller ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) was built in the late 1980s by Honda engineers looking to assist the growing population of elderly Japanese people in their daily lives. His development has continued over the years and amazingly, has advanced to the point where he is even capable of conducting a human orchestra, among other duties.”

Just makes me think of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” from Young Frankenstein.

Ever been so pissed off you just want to throw something breakable against the wall? Would you pay a couple bucks to do it where you wouldn’t have to clean up the broken china afterwards? If so, there’s a new service for you: “The Venting Place.”

From Reuters:
“In a corner of Tokyo’s bustling electronic gadget shopping district, a group of chiropractors, led by Katsuya Hara, dish out plate-smashing therapy from a truck named “The Venting Place.”

And the cost depends on how much you need to destroy — small cups can be smashed for 200 yen ($2) each, while bigger dishes go for 1,000 yen ($11).

“To break something, as all of us know from experience, is something extremely exhilarating and it helps bring down pent-up anger,” Hara said, adding that the majority of his customers are professionals stressed out due to work and the financial crisis.

But for those who are worried that they are creating waste by smashing crockery, Hara says don’t stress. All the shards of the broken tableware are recycled to make more cups and plates, which are destined to be used for more anti-stress therapy.”

I love how the cat is just chillin’.

Magibon is a youtube insta-celebrity. But only in Japan. She’s American. But she speaks Japanese. But, not really. Aw heck, just read this:

From the Japan Times:

“For a vertical trajectory from zero to YouTube hero, though, it’s hard to beat Magibon, a 22-year-old former pharmacy-checkout clerk from a small Pennsylvania town with a four-figure population. Since she began uploading videos to her YouTube channel in July 2006 — the total has now passed 60 — Magibon has attracted 4.15 million channel views, while ascending to No. 1 on the Japanese YouTube view rankings.

Why Japan? Despite living in small-town America, Magibon became, via the Internet, a fan of Japanese pop music while still in high school — Morning Musume was an early favorite (the nickname of one MM member, Aibon, inspired her Internet handle) — and, later on, subtitled Japanese TV dramas. When she began making her videos, usually of herself in her home, usually saying little or nothing (and that little in beginner’s Japanese), she was already a committed Japanophile and her on-screen persona was reminiscent of a Japanese teenage idoru (manufactured entertainer).”

One word: orthodontist.

Yeeeah, this makes me feel safe.

From Japan Today:
“According to police, the 27-year-old vice-captain entered the woman’s apartment around 4 a.m. on Sunday. She was asleep with a male friend at the time, but he awoke to the noise and was able to catch the fireman and hold him until police arrived. They arrested him with two pairs of the woman’s underwear in his possession.

The fireman told police he entered her apartment by mistake, confusing it with his friend’s apartment. The front door was unlocked, according to police. The fireman also said that he was intoxicated.”

Those must have been some hot, hot undies.

This thing is adorable. It even looks a little sad and lost after it delivers the meal, like a lost puppy.

What. I’m not projecting, am I?

Gah. I couldn’t resist. This may be a sign of the coming Apocalypse (along with this freakish warm weather in NYC) but here it is, the Japanese killing us with cuteness:

*.*

This pup gives Aranzi Aronzo a run for their money. (image via CuteOverload)

As any anime otaku knows by now, Hollywood is releasng a live-action Dragonball film next year. J-Pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki (who recently admitted publicly that she has gone completely deaf in one ear) will make a stab at international stardom with her song “Rule” which was written for the film.

From Anime News Network:

“The Sports Nippon newspaper reports that popular musical artist
Ayumi Hamasaki will sing the “Rule” theme song for James Wong and Twentieth Century Fox’s live-action Dragonball: Evolution film adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball manga. Fox plans to use the song as the movie’s
theme in over 60 countries around the world. The up-tempo rock number will be released in 2009. The film itself will open on March 13 in Japan and then on April 8 in the United States.

The newspaper adds that Wong is a big Hamasaki fan who had heard all of her songs, and so he asked Fox to have her sing the theme song. Hamasaki commented, “Dragonball is one of the anime that I’ve liked for a long time. I look forward to having the Dragonball world embraced by every country.” Hamasaki also sang theme songs for Inuyasha and SHINOBI.”

Ayu kicks arse, so it seems fitting for her song to be featured in the film. I only hope the film isn’t as dreadful as most live-action adaptations are. (sigh)