Trends in Japan
 
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Tomy Car makes fishcakes fun

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2008-10-11 13:25:12 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
Its been a while since weve covered novelty food on these pages, but this was too good to go unmentioned. Traditional fish cake manufacturer Odawara Kanko and toy maker Takara Tomy have teamed up to create Tomy Car Kamaboko , in the shape of the iconic model toy cars Taking into account recent food scares, the manufacturers stress that all the...
 
 
 
 
 
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Rain clouds, real time weather forecasts for mobile phones

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2008-10-09 14:48:14 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
The capricious tendency of typhoons (now in season in Tokyo) to change their course at whim means that no matter what the weather forecast predicted in the morning, the details of exactly when and where you might get caught out in a trouser leg soaking down pour are hard to pin down While we tend to think of this as a fact of life, the National...
 
 
 
 
 
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Mugen Peri Peri opens boxes forever without papercuts

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2008-10-06 13:56:07 by Michael in Trends in Japan
Bandai has done it again, and were slowly learning how many enjoyable small tasks there are that we want to do forever on a little toy. Popping Bubble Wrap pinching out soybeans now were opening packages The Mugen (infinite) series of toys from Bandai Asovision has now brought us the Mugen PeriPeri , a keychain toy that aims to replicate the...
 
 
 
 
 
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Hitokara at Home bridges phones with home karaoke

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2008-10-06 06:58:07 by Michael in Trends in Japan
Despite dropping numbers, karaoke is still the official after-school pastime of Japanese youth. Besides being a technology driver by being early adopters of mobile phone, e-money, and interactive loyalty programs, karaoke also plays a large role in the music industry by upping the demand for karaoke-friendly tunes Last year Sega released their...
 
 
 
 
 
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Tama Depa, interactive Tamagotchi shop opens up

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2008-10-01 17:21:15 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
We were pretty disappointed with the closing of Shamrock Air, the cute concept store with the aircraft-like interior that required shoppers to pre-register online for a boarding pass to enter. Taking its place at the highly visible entrance to Harajukus Takeshita Dori, however, is a new Tama Depa with a few nice concepts of its own Tama Depa,...
 
 
 
 
 
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Organize your mess: Stock Back from Cubisto

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2008-09-30 10:42:35 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
Following up on our coverage of the simple yet brilliant Lessev Mobile Station , heres another new product that falls under the tidying up unsightly aspects of modern life category. The Stock Back from Cubisto is designed to neatly and prettily organize your newspaper and magazine recyclables According to the marketing manager for Cubisto,...
 
 
 
 
 
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2D love for PC savvy girls at Web Kare

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2008-09-28 23:40:52 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
Considering the not-so marginalized male population who openly admit online to preferring 2D girls over the real, live thing there has got to be a proportionate number of lonely 3D girls out there fed up with competing for the remaining eligible segment of the population Or perhaps it is another example of the current trend of taking digital...
 
 
 
 
 
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Online graffiti a hit for classroom nostalgia

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2008-09-24 23:02:37 by Rebecca in Trends in Japan
New website Kyokasho.net offers up hundreds of textbook images (kyokasho means textbook) of great figures of history for your digital defacement pleasure. Using tools such as a grey lead pencil, a red pencil, and a rubber eraser, users can create online textbook graffiti that recalls tedious school days gone by Play begins by first choosing...
 
 
 
 
 
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McDonalds wireless hotspots for Nintendo DS

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2008-09-23 23:01:04 by Sascha Faustka in Trends in Japan
On May 27th Nintendo, in cooperation with McDonalds, started a new wireless information and gaming service in 21 restaurants around Tokyo. This is part of the Nintendo Spot project to give DS gamers wireless access to the internet on the train and in McDonalds restaurants Different to Europe and America it is hard to find a restaurant or bar in...