Flying In

The flight was uneventful (except for the turbulence that always appeared when I tried to go to the bathroom), long, and boring. I didn’t bring anything to do on the flight, so it was all about SkyMall. Seriously the best magazine ever made.

Upon landing, it was go-go-go, and I didn’t get to film much until I got into Shibuya (more on that a little later). I went downstairs and exchanged my JR Pass, which lets you ride all JR trains (that’s a lot of trains plus it includes the bullet train) for free (well, not free, but I only had to pay $700-ish dollars one time. Will pay for itself really quickly). After getting the JR Pass, I got my ticket for the train into Shibuya (because I knew there were some capsule hotels there, and you guys wanted Capsule Hotels), and it turned out it was leaving really soon. I ran down to the train, got in, and proceeded to use almost all 50mb of my phone data in one fell swoop. Whoops (Don’t worry, I upgraded to 200mb… I can’t use my phone so much).

Shibuya, The Man, And The Capsule Hotel

After arriving in Shibuya, I immediately started walking in the wrong direction, thinking I was walking in the right direction, and got lost in the Shibuya ghetto (if that’s even possible). While walking around, I met this older dude who wanted to know more about my camera set up. Turns out he didn’t have much to do, so he walked around with me to show me where Shibuya actually was, then show me some interesting things in Shibuya. For TofuguTV, I’m much more interested in the stuff that’s not in Tokyo, but I can show you here.

Me and the guy I met

We went around and saw a lot (and he wanted to see my capsule hotel, creepy, I know) – two things of interest include Hachiko, the ever faithful dog that waited for his master to come home (there was an American movie made about this).

…and a restaurant that specializes in Whale meat. You know, all in the name of science, or something. (P.S. if you don’t want to eat whale meat, you should probably avoid くじら).

That whale in the bottom right looks totally happy!

After he showed me around for a while, we went searching for a Capsule Hotel that also happened to be on the way home from this guy’s home (We’ll call him “Ta-san” because I only remember that his name starts with a “Ta”). It was a pretty sweet setup, actually. You get bathing facilities, a big locker, some sleepy clothes, a couple towels, and a nice coffin sized capsule to sleep in. I kept finding dead bugs in mine. I appreciate that they weren’t alive.

I’m planning on staying at another capsule hotel in Kyoto (which is totally awesome, from what I’ve read / seen), so I’ll do more on capsule hotels then, but this particular one wasn’t a bad experience. I’ll post more when I start putting up episodes of TofuguTV. One more good memory… there was a guy in one of the other capsules in my area that had a snore (or something) that was exactly like a dog barking. Maybe he had a dog. Either way, it kept waking me up, and it was really, really, weird. Seriously. Dog barking snore? Maybe he has something stuck in his throat… Other than that, it was a fairly good stay. Definitely recommend it for the experience, at least!

The Search For Wifi

The next morning (i.e. this morning, for me) was early. 4am to be exact. I pretty much just walked around in the dark and rain hoping that something would open. I ended up going to McDonalds because it was one of the only things open, and I thought they might have wifi. I was wrong.

This began an entire morning searching for wifi. Finally, I found a cafe called “Wired Cafe” in Shibuya. The internet there was pretty shoddy, but it got the job done. I think I was at the edge of the wifi signal. I’d have to move my computer to my left by about 3 feet in order to get things to load. I probably looked like a weirdo.

While I was there, I met the CEO of “Qoopedia” which is like Groupon (you get deals on things). He wants to make an English version for foreigners in Japan – you’ll probably hear about it here when that happens, too. We talked shop for a while (you know, business, startups, entrepreneurship, blah blah blah) and I headed out, eventually, because I needed a lighter long-sleeved jacket. I know a few of you called it. It’s way to warm here. My fleece jacket was unnecessary (but, I fixed that).

Hanging Out At Flutterscape HQ

Flutterscape CEO working hard on something

Luckily, today I had planned to go hand out at Flutterscape HQ (you buy Japanese things and get them shipped to you, it’s pretty awesome, and there’s free upgrades to express shipping going on right now, I think). Awesome to finally meet the folks I’ve been talking with a lot lately. I’ve bought a few products through Flutterscape and it’s always a great experience. The really convenient thing is that they ship things from Japan to America. I happened to have a problem where I packed too much and my backpack was too heavy. To solve this problem, I’m putting my stuff I don’t need in a box, and they’re shipping it back to my home in Portland, OR, so I don’t have to carry / throw it away. It’s a lot of stuff, too, and it’s (surprisingly) only going to cost around 2000 yen ($25-ish dollars). Not bad for international, considering how much box I’m sending back. Seriously, @hirrro who’s helping me do that is awesome. You help me say thanks to Flutterscape by tweeting this (click on the Twitter button below).

Oh, and I also got to use their wifi, so I could catch up on some email and write this post up.

Next Up? You Decide.

Of course, I don’t really know what I’m going to do from day to day, but I have some ideas for tomorrow. I’m going to start heading north (gotta get to Cat Island, eventually… so many people are requesting it). I’ll have a cameraman for a few days as well (Japanese friend from College), so it should be pretty good. Tomorrow is when the real show begins, I think.

I think there are three options. I’m going to lay them out here. For the first one, make sure you’re following on Twitter or Facebook to find / get the poll, going out soon. I’ll probably try to see a couple of these, at least, but I’d love to know what ones you want to see the most.

Option 1: “Western Village.” This amusement park is “American Western” themed, which means there will be cowboys and stuff. I’m really hoping it’ll be full of really ridiculous depictions of America, or be something like “America Town” from that episode of The Simpsons. Either way, it should be full of interesting hijinks, weird culture translations, and (hopefully) Japanese cowboys saying “putto uppu yoru handzu.”

Option 2: “Sex Robot Museum.” I have no idea what’s actually here, just that there are sex robots, or robots doing the dirty thing, or maybe a little bit of both. Who knew that there was a need to have a museum like this?

Option 3: “Sex God Museum.” Once again, not 100% sure what’s here, but it should be interesting. It’s all a matter of whether you want Robots or Gods. Up to you, really.

Option 4: “See Some Monkeys.” My camera man says he knows how to find monkeys around here. There’ll also be another opportunity near Nagano to see some monkeys, too, so keep that in mind. Not sure what these monkeys do, but monkeys are monkeys, and monkeys are pretty awesome.

There you have it. To vote on what you want to see the most, head on over to Twitter or Facebook to find the link to vote. While you’re there, you should make sure you’re subscribed to both of them… I won’t always tell you where to look, you know!

Win What You Want

Flutterscape (if you haven’t figured it out by now) is a site that sells Japanese goods… with a twist. Regular people in Japan take pictures of items in their local area (at stores, and such), and then they put those pictures up on Flutterscape with a description, price, and so on. They buy the product from their local store when you pay for the item (your money goes to Flutterscape and is kept safe until Flutterscape gets the item to ship to you), and then you get the product a little bit later. Because of this business model, there are a ton of fun things on the site… which makes it hard for me to choose what I want to giveaway, and why I want you to choose for me.

Everyone has different things that they want, and everyone wants something ridiculous from Japan, so now’s your chance. You can choose ~$200 worth of goods from Flutterscape.com and win it (then get it shipped to your home).

How The Contest Works

This is a pretty high-prize contest, so the contest rules are a little more difficult (compared the the previous two).

You do have two choices, though. You can either write a blog post somewhere (I like WordPress, if you don’t have a blog right now and want to create one), or you can create a video and upload it to YouTube. Both have equal weight in terms of scoring, so choose the one you like most. Here’s how the contest works:

1. Go to Flutterscape.com and find approximately $200 worth of things you’d want to win. It can be whatever you want as long as it’s found on Flutterscape.
2. Write a blog post or make a video telling me why you want/deserve these things you picked out. Be creative!
3. In the blog post / in the YouTube description section, link to the items you talk about / want to win, so I can make sure they exist and you’re not making stuff up.
4. Send your entry to contests@tofugu.com. Contest ends July 21, 2010.

Scoring system is a combination of random and preference. I’m going to take my favorite blog posts and my favorite videos, and then I’ll probably amidakuji them to pick a random winner out of my favorite 6-8 entries.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra7BBV8CRGE 590]

There you have it. ANYTHING YOU WANT. I’m really looking forward to seeing what you want. Feel free to link to your entries in the comments as well! Okay! Go ahead, get started! Questions? Pop them in the comments. So, what do you want to win?

P.S. If you like funny Japanese products, you should follow @flutterscape on Twitter.

FlutterScape seems a little complicated at first, but really it’s quite simple. There are people in Japan going around to various stores taking pictures of things they want to sell. They don’t buy these things from the store until you buy them. Once you buy the item, they go to the store, get the item, and send it to FluttersScape HQ in Japan. Once FlutterScape gets it they forward the money along (or will send it back to you if the person never gets the item for you) and will send the item to you. Seems complicated, but all you really need to know is that you can safely buy something without much worry about getting screwed over very very easily.

What Can I Buy?

Between the time that FlutterScape just started (I was poking around back then too) and now, FlutterScape has really stepped things up in terms of items available. You’re still not going to be able to go to the site and find anything and everything you want (that’s what the request feature is for, keep reading), but you’ll definitely find a lot of interesting and wonky items to keep you interested for a while. Personally, I’m really into the weird crazy stuff (even though I’ve tried to go a bit more minimalist), and always feel tempted every time I visit the site, which is more and more recently. I’m not much of a shopper but it’s hard to help myself.

There are a bunch of categories you can search through, as well as an actual search function, so if they have what you want then you should be able to find it… but what if they don’t??

Requesting An Item From Japan

Over the last few months, whenever somebody asked me where they could be “Item A” or “Item B,” I’d forward them along to the FlutterScape CEO who would help find the item. I’m guessing he got tired of this and decided to create a request feature (genius!) so that no matter what it is you want from Japan, you can find it.

The part that stands out to me isn’t the text areas, it’s everything else. Let’s go through the request features – I get a little giddy just looking at them.

Is This An Auction? This is if you wanted to buy something off, say, Yahoo Auctions Japan. Ho-Lee-Crapola. You can put your max bid, the URL to the auction, etc, and someone will bid for you based off your criteria. Then, if they win it they’ll send it to you like a regular FlutterScape item. Wow.

Pictures: Perhaps you don’t know what the item is called, and only have a picture. Fear not, you can upload a bunch of photos and someone will try to find it for you. It’s more likely that someone in Japan knows what the Japanese product is, so pictures are the perfect way to go.

YouTube Video URL: There’s a good chance that a lot of cool Japanese items are discovered via YouTube, so if that’s how you did it, then you can share a video of it as well.

Wow, every base I can think of is covered, here. It’s nice and simple, but they did a really good job with the request feature.

Does FlutterScape Work?

A couple of months ago I was introduced to FlutterScape, and decided that I needed to get some Rummy (chocolate with rum raisin inside). I got 20 packs of the stuff, ordered it, and approximately a week later I had a box of Rummy in my mailbox. Mmm, and they were (and are) tasty too. I can’t say what experience other people have had, but things worked out well for me and I imagine it’ll work out well for you too. Try things out on something small, and see how you like it. I think I’ll be using FlutterScape to buy many fun Christmas Presents this year (no Rummy for the younger cousins, though).

Win One Of Three Cupmen!

I have three Cupmen to give away. If you’re the cup noodle eating type, you’ll know that you have to put something on top of your Cup Noodle to keep the lid down while you wait for the hot water to cook and soften the noodles. I usually use my wallet. Now, though, you can use these little “Cupmen” who hang over the top.

Here’s the product description:

“After pouring hot water over your instant noodles, get a helping hand from the hardworking Cupmen. Watch as it turns different colors while desperately trying to prevent the lid from flicking back up. Enjoy a few minutes of fun with Cupmen until your noodles are ready to eat.”

Aww, if that doesn’t win your heart over, I don’t know what will. Here’s more information on Cupmen.

Winning one of these three Cupmen is very simple. You don’t even have to leave the page! In the comments, tell me why you need this product oh-so-bad. Feel free to go into a (fictional or non-fictional) account on how painful it is to make ramen using your shoes, or something like that. I’m going to pick my 6 favorites, and then three will randomly be picked from there. So, although there is some luck involved, quality comments are going to be key to get into that top 6! You have (approximately) a week to get your comment in!

Oh, and if you tweet about the contest, you won’t have higher chance of winning, but you will get some brownie points, you brown-noser you.

Great, so there you go! Win yourself a Cupmen so you can have the full Cup Noodle experience. Speaking of which, I bet FlutterScape has some noodles to go along with it in their Japanese Snacks section.

Oh, and if you have a lot of extra time, you should check out the short film “Mr. Cupmen” by fake French Video artist Jacques Koichi.

P.S. If you eat ramen, you should subscribe to the Tofugu Newsletter.

P.P.S. If you like Japanese “things” you should follow Tofugu and FlutterScape on Twitter.

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