If you’ve been reading Tofugu for a while, you’ll know that I can’t pass up a good Godzilla story, especially one that contains haikus as well. GodzillaHaiku is a Tumbler Blog that simply contains images from Godzilla films and overlays them with haikus. Kind of feels like a cross between LOLcats and UnhappyHipster, but a lot more radioactive, if you catch my drift.

Of course, there are a good number more of these over at GodzillaHaiku, so if you’re intrigued, be sure to go and check them out. Here’s to hoping TOho doesn’t send them a cease and desist, like they did with my 1st person Godzilla blog a while back. Also, thanks as always to my favorite Godzilla expert Joyce (literally a Godzilla expert, no joke!) for the tip!

P.S. If your radioactive heart was touched by these haiku, you should follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. G-FEST Chicago: The Mecha-Godzilla of Godzilla Conventions
2. Japanese Snow Monkeys Warm Your Heart With Hot Springs
3. Godzilla has a Blog (and more!)

Only two or three more days before you can win these White Rabbit Press flash cards. If you missed it, at the end of this video I told you how to win them. Lucky for all of you, I’ll tell you how to win them right here in this post, as well.

How To Play

1. Make sure you have a Twitter account
2. Follow Tofugu on Twitter (you know, so I can direct message you if you win).
3. Write a tweet telling me where / how you would use these flashcards. Pictures and videos are also game.
4. Most important thing is to include a #tofugu hashtag at the end of your tweet, otherwise I won’t be able to find it when I choose the winner! All you do is add #tofugu to the end of your tweet.

Creativity is a plus, though if you tweet something that’s totally impossible I probably won’t be choosing it (i.e. using these flashcards in Space is probably not going to happen for most of you).

What You Win

White Rabbit Press graciously sent me a bajillion flashcards to give away, including Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Pretty much all the flash cards you’d ever need to learn a majority of the kanji you should be learning. The cards are sexy, contain lots of information, and are kind of heavy if you carry them all at once. Pretty sweet for studying under 50 kanji at a time, though.

When Will The Winner Be Chosen?

Probably this Friday or Saturday (March 5ish or 6ish, 2010), or whenever I feel like it, so keep sending those entries in while you can.

How Many Times Can I Tweet?

As many times as you’d like, though I’m only choosing one. There’s definitely a balance to be achieved between quality and quantity, though, so be careful.

Do I get a rabbit with my flashcards?

Nope.

When Should I start?

Anytime, right now, probably.

If you’re learning Japanese, consider using eduFire to get live online lessons!

Related posts:

1. 8 Ways to Win Unlimited Japanese Lessons (and counting)
2. Win an iPhone 3GS by Learning Japanese
3. How Wacom Japan Gets You To Buy Their Very Expensive Tablets (Cute Mesmerization)

Everyone knows that smoking is pretty unhealthy – even in Japan people are smoking less and less. But for me, when it comes to my debilitating addiction to cool gadgets, I’d be happy to carry highly radioactive cell phones, stare at staring women, or put one of these in my mouth. That is, as long as it’s only a Vitamin C cartridge inside.

I found this product via Flutterstream’s Twitter feed (Yes, you can buy this). The one being sold is the “Vitamin C” one, though it exists in “Coenzyme Q10″ and “Tarless Nicotine” (for you cigarette addicts out there) flavors as well. Mmm, I can finally throw out the Airborne.

Here’s how it essentially works:

• There’s an LED light so that you can look just as cool as other smokers around you (who’s second hand smoke is much worse for you than if you were smoking an actual cigarette).
• You breath in moisture from the air which gets turned into a smoke-like mist which you can breath out (presumably so you can continue to look as cool as all the other smokers you’re sitting outside with).
• Inside is a replaceable cartridge (the three types that were listed above).
• It doesn’t smell like anything, which means you can smoke indoors and have fun explaining to every other person you run into that “no, it’s not an actual cigarette, it’s just mist… no, see, it’s not a… no… right, but I’m telling you… right… it’s mechanical… and it… ugh, fine, I’ll put it out. See? Switch. Not fire. I just turn off a switch.”)

You do have to charge your fancy cigarette, which apparently takes 3-4 hours to do. C’mon, if they wanted to make it like a real cigarette (which it seems like they’re really trying to do with the LED light and the mist and stuff), then they should make it charge faster, so you can take a break every hour and take advantage of the extra breaks you should get (and deserve). Right?

And, while you’re at it, hanging out with the rest of the smokers, why not take a look at this company’s other product, “NoseMint”?

It’s just one home run after another for this company, isn’t it? So are you like me? Does smoking sound awesome if you get to use a fancy gadget to do it?

P.S. If you think your nose could smell better, you should follow me on Twitter.

No related posts.

This is the last TeamLab post (for a little while, at least). I’ve been saving this one for last, since I think it’s my favorite (or, at the very least, the most psychedelic), so I’m hoping you enjoy it. Like the others, it combines traditional Japanese art styles with various modern elements, in this case they are using video which progresses the art piece as an actual story.

When watching this video, I’d recommend going to full screen

In 2009, the World Wildlife Fund (Not to be confused with the World Wrestling Federation, which is equally as smashy) announced their prediction that sea levels will rise 120cm by the end of the century. 100 Years Sea visualizes this using traditional Japanese art styles. Besides the somewhat political nature of the film, here is the artistic concept behind it, as reported by TeamLab.

“Historically Japanese artist painted and expressed waves using a combination of lines. These assembled lines give the impression of the life and energy of the sea as one living creature. Looking at the sea we feel awe, and it is probably due to this awe that Japanese artists chose to express the sea as a living entity. Japanese ancestors possibly saw the world exactly as it is depicted in a classic Japanese print. Based on this idea, we considered recombining the subjective view of that of our ancestors with the fixed objective view of the modern world. We constructed virtual waves in a 3D environment that regardless of the cut, have the appearance of the combined line style of Japanese painting. As a result we think it might be possible to gain an impression of what the world looked like to our Japanese ancestors. This movie attempts to recreate the recognition of space of our Japanese ancestors’ in 3 dimensions. In doing so, we may be able to discover a new mode of expression in which viewers feel there is no border between the world of the movie and the world in which they live. As a result viewers may be able to feel the movie more physically.” (read more)

The video version above is actually the shorter, faster version (apparently the original actually takes 100 years to complete?). It’s displayed on a gigantic 20 meters of screen, so if you get motion sick easily then maybe this isn’t the best art installation for you.

Anyways, I’ll be watching TeamLab for any cool updates, so enjoy the TeamLab hiatus, for now. So what do you think. Is sea rise going to happen and swallow up Japan? Hopefully not, but at least my favorite monkey friends are safe in the mountains.

Related posts:

1. Flower and Corpse: Making Hanging Scrolls Modern
2. Tofugu’s 2010 New Years Resolutions
3. Mochi Soup and New Years!

A lot of you out there know how much of a (sad) Apple fanboy I am, which means you’ll probably understand why iPhone art makes my heartbeat increase. This is the post I was going to post the other day (before getting distracted by Wacom Japan’s little flash game), and yes, it’s also developed by my new favorite art / design / tech group Team-Lab. We’ve already seen how nice and shiny LCD screens can modernize hanging scrolls, but what if you want to take your hanging scrolls on the train? First, you’d have to get four iPhones, but if you’re a multi-millionaire, then why not?

The trick with these hanging scroll iPhones is to put them side by side and synchronize the start time of each. When this is done, the hanging scrolls tell a story (not unlike regular hanging scrolls), using traditional art styles via a new medium. Personally, I love the 3D-but-not-3D style that Team-Lab puts into a lot of their design, and the iPhone’s a great touch too.

Of course, now that this has come out, there are rumors of a slightly homelier Android version hitting the market too. This new Android mobile hanging scroll model will drop fewer calls and run on Verizon, which encourages you to purchase the family plan with unlimited scroll-viewing minutes for only $49.99 a month.

Oh, and you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Flower and Corpse: Making Hanging Scrolls Modern
2. 100 Years Sea [TeamLab]
3. How Wacom Japan Gets You To Buy Their Very Expensive Tablets (Cute Mesmerization)

Welcome to another edition of “Saturday Time Waster.” There seems to be a huge difference between American flash games and Japanese flash games. Although this isn’t 100% the case, it seems like most of the time, Japanese flash games are all about making you feel nice and calm. Most of the games seem to have no end, and they attempt to down you with pleasant music and cuteness. I suppose if I was a hard working “Sarari man” I’d want something to calm me down too while I was hiding out in my cubical playing flash games.

This particular game was made by my friends at Team-Lab (they’re the ones that did the fantastically mesmerizing ”Flower and Corpse“), who I’ll be slowly covering over the course of the month. I was originally going to put something up for all you Apple lovers today (which I suppose will have to wait), when I came across this game that Team-Lab made with Wacom (the folks that make those really cool, yet expensive tablets). As you’re playing this game, it definitely makes the tablet yearner in all of us think “man, I wish I had $500-$1000 to buy a tablet to play this game with.” Add that to the zombie / mesmerized feeling you get while playing the game… and you’ve created the perfect monster… er… customer.

You can play the game yourself, or watch the video showing my attempt to win the game. I’m pretty sure if you fill the screen with angry neon pigs that counts as a win, right? At least I didn’t buy a tablet… yet.

Play now: http://tablet.wacom.co.jp/bambooplayroom/

Oh, and you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Making The Traditional Hanging Scroll Mobile, iPhone Edition
2. Saturday Timewaster: Cursor 10
3. 100 Ways to Entertain Guests Visiting From Japan

I know it’s a couple days late, but to usher in the new year, I thought I’d make some mochi soup and sing you a New Years song! Mochi soup (ozoni | お雑煮) is eaten mostly during the New Years, though apparently it used to be more of a Samurai-only cuisine, cooked up on the battlefield. The version I made would have to be for a pretty poor samurai, because all it consisted of was bonito soup-base, shoyu (soy sauce), and mochi. Wasn’t all that bad, though.

The crazy thing about Mochi soup is that every year 5-10 people die from choking deaths. What a terrible way to go. You’re ushering in the New Year, ready for all the cool things it will bring, and you start it off by dying a completely avoidable death. I guess you can’t live if you don’t take some chances.

Anyways, I wish a prosperous 2010 for all of you! Make sure you all go out and try something new. Live life and don’t choke on your mochi!

Related posts:

1. Tofugu’s 2010 New Years Resolutions
2. 100 Years Sea [TeamLab]

First resolution: Don’t write a cliché “New Years” post. Whoops. It’s been a nice and busy year, but there’s a lot planned for 2010. Thank you all so much for your support over the years (wow, multiple years!) – here’s what we have planned for 2010. Things are looking like they’ll be a little different!

1. Posting Everyday

Well, in January anyways. Tofugu will be taking the “30 days of blogging” challenge this month, so expect to see something every day. After that… well, we’ll see how it goes. Over the last month I’ve been moving schedules around to put more time into Tofugu, and I’m hoping that will show a lot in 2010.

2. Make TextFugu The Best Japanese Textbook Out There

I kind-of-sort-of announced the my Japanese textbook (TextFugu) the other day in a video. Over the next two months I’ll be working hard on finishing up most of the main content, and then spending the rest of the year making improvements to it (many improvements provided by members, who get paid for their help as they’re learning!), landing awesome 3rd party content, and more. TextFugu is a huge priority of mine in 2010 – get it now while it’s 50% off (including all the updates, add-ons, etc., it gets forever

).

3. Location, Location, Location

I think that the idea of “places” are really interesting. There’s been a lot of advancement in geo-location lately, and I think that can be used to talk about places and people in those places (namely in Japan) in a very unique way. Getting mircro about those locations can be interesting too, which brings us to number four.

4. Spend Some Time In Japan

Haven’t decided for sure yet, but I think 2010 is a good year to become a vagabond. More will be revealed on this later, but for now, just expect a good amount of “in-Japan” content in 2010, if everything works out (crossing my fingers).

5. Post More About Robots

Because everyone loves robots, and I feel like we’re at the cusp of the robotic revolution… and yes, it will be bloody (and darn cute, if Japan has anything to say about it).

6. Get to Know More Tofugu Readers

In 2009, I got to hang out with a few Tofugu readers (mostly thanks to moving to San Francisco, which is much larger than Salem, OR). I think it’s super cool to be able to meet new, like-minded people. In 2010, maybe I’ll get to meet you!

7. Have More Guest Posts

In 2009 we had a couple of really really great guest posts here (puts my stuff to shame). 2010 goal is to 6-drupal (what’s the correct term?) that number and get at least one guest post up a month. It’s awesome to see some other perspectives and writing styles.

8. Tofugu Interns?

Things are heating up in the Tofugu world. There may be some room for a Tofugu intern or two. Still noodling this one, but it’s looking like a definitely probability sometime this year. Lots of people looking for jobs, too, it seems like.

9. Scholarships

I’ve always wanted to run a scholarship on Tofugu – This year’s goal is to give away $1000 in scholarship money to help people study Japanese, which will trounce the 2009 total of $0. Take that 2009.

10. Tofugu T-shirts

Enough said, it’s been a long time coming, and needs to happen sooner rather than later.

So, are you the resolution type? I know I’m not, but I had to write something today for the whole “post-every-day-in-January” thing I just got myself into (already regretting it. How do other bloggers do it?). Anyone resolving to learn Japanese? New Years seems to be a good time for that kind of thing, right?

Image Source

Related posts:

1. Mochi Soup and New Years!
2. 100 Years Sea [TeamLab]
3. In Japan, You Visit A Scary Japanese Doctor 12+ Times A Year

So, without further ado, here’s Tofugu’s version of “A Wild Sheep Chase,” which includes a Sheep running from the law, as well as Batman’s secret life you never knew.

A Wild Sheep Chase

by Koichi

A lone wild sheep (and one can hardly call him wild in the literal sense, but they did anyways) troppity tropps across the field. The field is covered with shattered colors, as if a rainbow couldn’t keep its balance and fell onto its side in a million colorful pieces. Frederick the wild sheep understands this as beautiful but doesn’t doddle. He runs up a slight hill and looks back. Nothing but an old man picking up pieces of color to put in an uncomfortable looking wicker basket. The economy of the entire area, Frederick knew, is based entirely on wicker and rainbow hunting. Pier One Imports must have a distribution network in the area, he thinks.

No normal sheep moves at the moderately fast pace that Frederick moves in, but Frederick is no normal sheep. There are two things that make him different, and I imagine you may already know what they are.

First, he is wild, or so he believes. Second, he is being chased for a terrible crime committed twelve days earlier. Today is day thirteen, and this worries Frederick so he continues to trot through space and time until it becomes day fourteen, a day with slightly less significance for the delusional superstitious sheep in all of us .

—

Two days later Frederick sits on a wicker chair and hungers. It is cold, and the snow covers all that is edible to sheep. He makes a snow-sheep and calls it abstract art. Many art critics would have enjoyed it, though there would be whispers of “I think my kid could have made that” from those with an untrained eye. Frederick now regrets wasting energy on snow sculpting when he is so hungry.

Frederick wonders what Batman would do in his situation, so he asks. Batman is examining the sculptor from a wicker stool with an experienced pair of Bat-Eye spectacles.

“Batman, I murdered a man, but I did it in self defense. Does that make me bad?”

“You know, Frederick, sometimes I have the same problem.”

“You do?” Frederick feels relieved.

“I have this image… Batman doesn’t kill people, he just ties them up with his web and lets the authorities take care of the rest,” he says while making “quote” motions with his rubbery fingers.

“Aren’t you worried about the legal system not working? You come in, you bonk a few bad-guy heads and leave them there. What about when there are no witnesses, the juries have to release them and they’re back on the streets committing more crimes!” Frederick rolls onto his side and stretches his legs and they shake.

“And then they sue me! You’d be surprised how much time I spend in night court getting sued for this and that-and-this-and-that. But you know what I do now?” asks Batman.

Frederick the sheep opens his left ear to listen more carefully.

“In the case where there is no evidence, and no witnesses, I chop their bad-guy bodies up into little pieces and put them in the back of my batmobile. Then, Alfred prepares them for supper and Robin cleans up the mess. The hearts, though, I eat those while they’re still beating.”

“To gain their knowledge and power?”

“Of course,” replies Batman patting his own heart, eying the sheep as if he asked the stupidest question in the world. “Now, sheep, I will paint you black and ride you.”

—

Frederick finds that his pace is much slowed from carrying Batman, and is worried that the police will catch up. The chase, he realizes, will soon be at a close. The sirens get louder and louder, but he continues to push. When the sirens become unbearable, Batman spreads his wings and flies away but is quickly shot down.

The wild sheep tries to run, but his legs wobble from exertion. He falls, and the police cuff him. There is no struggle, but they taze and beat him because he’s painted black.

The Wild Sheep Chase is over, and there is no hope for a fair trial. He looks up and sees a rainbow. It is beautiful, and falling right towards them.

No related posts.

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