Wednesday, May 30, 2007

A Japanese company develops an aura sensing phone strap


Solid Alliance has developed a new phone accessory, an aura sensing phone strap. The accessory, dubbed "aura tama" strap or aura ball strap, claims to be able to sensor the user's aura and changes to one of eight different colors depending on the energy the person is omitting. The aura-tama will be packaged with one of three "power stones:” crystal, rose quarts or amethyst.

The aura tama strap will be available beginning in June.


Digg!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Japan developes a digital stamp card for your cell phone


The website GuruNavi (Gourmet Navigator) has launched GuruNavi Touch a new "stamp card" for your cell phone. Participating restaurants now feature a “GuruNavi Touch" kiosk where customers can swipe their Felica enabled cell phones, osaifu keitai, to receive a digital "stamp." The stamp features an URL to an online lottery which users can access from their phone to win prizes. First prize is a 10,000 yen gift card, second prize is GuruNavi logo merchandise and the consolation prizes consists of a ring tone or flash game for the phone. Each user can only get one stamp per restaurant and the promotion lasts till August 31, 2007.

Image from Mezame Magazine June 2007 p35.


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Monday, May 28, 2007

Food courts done Tokyo style.


While Tokyo Midtown, the new establishment in Roppongi, features an almost endless list of boutique dinning, hidden in the basement is an inexpensive food court. Before you get images of Panda Express and Hot Dog on a Stick in your head, Tokyo Midtown's food court is one large restaurant called Okawari.jp. Okawari.jp features separate stations which customers visit depending on what they want. Okawari.jp offers anything from a cup of coffee to a full gourmet meal. The front station offers sandwiches, sweets and a coffee bar. Behind this is the "lunch box" station where customers can choose from 60 different side dishes. Okawari.jp also has an open kitchen at the back, which serves regional specials. This month the station offers regional fare from Kyushu and will feature food from Shikoku in June. The food court also offers a full service bar, a smoothie stand and a Kobe patisserie that cooks desserts onsite. Each station is separate, and customers pay at each station. The staff is very friendly and bilingual which helps when trying to decide what to eat.

At night Okawari.jp completely changes. The back turns in to a trendy restaurant with an open kitchen o the front remains casual dinning with open seating.

Okawari.jp is located on b1 of Tokyo Midtown.




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Sunday, May 27, 2007

Pirates on wheels!


In an attempt to further promote a movie that everyone is already going to see, there was a Pirates of the Caribbean truck driving around Shibuya today. The truck plays the Pirates theme and has the promotional movie banner. Unlike most promotional trucks, this one is equipped with a rotating mannequin of Jack Sparrow at the back. Enjoy, ladies. This is probably the closest you can get to Jack Sparrow.


Digg!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Pizza in a cone?


That's what Kono Pizza, a fast food restaurant is offering its customers. Instead of preparing toppings on a traditional flat crust, the toppings are placed inside a cone shaped crust (think an ice cream cone) and then baked. The reasoning behind this strange creation is that cone pizza eliminates the mess and need for silverware that traditional pizza slices require. Cone Pizza can be eaten on the run. Kono Pizza offers customers 7 different types of pizza cones and 2 dessert cones. Pizza cones are prepared freshly and cooked on site in a specially designed conveyer belt oven.

Kono Pizza currently has 5 stores in Tokyo and 1 in Nagoya.



Digg!

Saturday

Now that the rain's cleared up its time to . . . take it easy!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End: I saw it, so you don't have to


So we went to see Pirates 3 today. Thanks to the international date line, that's almost a full day earlier than most places.

All I can say was that the film disappointed me. Or in less eloquent terms, WHAT THE HELL? I'm going to have to give this post a spoiler alert warning, just incase you didn't want to know everything about Pirates 3.

So suddenly it the crew (Elizabeth, Barbossa and everyone from the second film) is in Singapore needing the help of Sao Feng, a pirate lord who happens to have the charts that will lead our pirate heroes to the end of the world. We also find out that apparently there are 9 pirate lords, each with a piece of 8, who have called a meeting and each lord is bound by the code to attend. Barbossa is one, Sao Feng is another and apparently Jack Sparrow was one too. The only problem being he's dead without a successor. Barbossa is very keen on everyone attending this meeting. So now we know why he wants Jack back. So after a big fight scene with the East India Company they are all on their way. But, oh no! Will Turner makes a deal with Sao Feng that the Black Pearl will belong to him after they recover it in Davy Jones’ locker so that he can save his father. If you forgot, Will vowed to kill Davy Jones to free his father. I don't see why he doesn't just plan on seizing the heart and forcing Jones to free his father, but that would require analytical thinking and he's just a black smith.

Anyways moving on. So they make it to the end of the world and we have a really weird sequence with Jack in limbo. He's crewing a ship with a crew that entirely consist of himself, but guess what? They're just hallucinations! Eventually he makes it to the shore of limbo (?) and is greeted by Barbossa, Elizabeth and everyone. After much discussion he agrees to come along.

Now since this film was over 2hours and 45 minutes long, I'm going to skip over the middle and give you the bullet points.

1) The East India Company controls Davy Jones and they are destroying all the pirates in the Caribbean

2) Commodore Norrington is now an admiral

3) The E.I.C. kills Elizabeth's father and they see him in the underworld. We learn that Davy Jones is supposed to be ferrying souls to the underworld, but he isn't.

4) Upon escaping the underworld the crew is betrayed by Sao Feng and the E.I.C. Sao Feng gets the Pearl. Jack then secretly makes a deal to lead E.I.C. to the Pirate meeting on Ship Wreck Island.

5)The E.I.C. betrays Sao Feng. Barbossa and Sao Feng then strike a deal that he gets the Black Pearl and Sao Feng gets Elizabeth. They then leave on another ship.

4) We find out that Tia Dalma (the voodoo woman) was the woman who Jones was in love with and, gasp! He was once human!

5) Barbossa plans to release Calypso, Goddess of the Sea who is now bound in human form.

6)Will turner plans to betray the crew. Jack kicks him off the ship. Allowing Will Turner to betray the crew again and strike a deal with the E.I.C. to take them to Ship Wreck Island since he now has Jack's compass.

7) Chow thinks that Elizabeth is Calypso. He is killed when his ship is attacked and he makes her Captain.

8) Admiral Norrington and Jones attacked Sao Feng’s ship. He is happy to see Elizabeth. Apparently he didn't know that her father was murdered by the E.I.C.

9) Elizabeth meets Boot Strap and learns that if Will fulfills his promise, that he will become the new Davy Jones, since who ever kills Davy Jones must replace him.

9 )Norrington releases Elizabeth and her crew, but Boot Strap kills him since he has betrayed the Captains/E.I.C.'s order.

10) Everyone makes it to Ship Wreck Island for the Pirate meeting. Barbossa wants to set Calypso free and everyone else disagrees. We are introduced to Jack's Father - Keith Richards who is in charge of the Pirate Code. Elizabeth is named Pirate King in a vote and using her new found power says that they should fight Davy Jones and the E.I.C.

11) Tia and Davy Jones see each other for the first time in 10+ years. He still loves her, she says they can be together when she is Calypso again.

12) Will, Beckett and Jones meet with Elizabeth, Jack and Barbossa. She trades Jack to Jones, to fulfill his debt, for Will and the battle is on.

12) While the Pirate ships face off the E.I.C, Barbossa has taken all the Pirate lords' piece of eights (which are random items) and uses them to set Calypso free. She turns into the 50 foot woman and proceeds to disappear into a wave of crabs. Then she summons a storm and a giant whirlpool.

13) The Flying Dutchman and the Black Pearl sail into the giant whirlpool to battle. Jack escapes the brig and captures the chest containing the heart of Davy Jones.

And this is where everything goes to hell. During a massive battle scene in the rain in which vast numbers of CG pirates are killed, Will proposes to Elizabeth and Barbossa marries them will battling Pirates and the British Navy. If this hasn't already, it should set off warning bells. You know something bad is going to happen to one of them, and it does. Davy Jones kills Will Turner. Yes you read right, WIll Turner dies. But guess what, as he's dying Jack has him stab Davy Jones' heart. So Jones dies and Will dies too. But here's where it gets gross, since he is required to fill Davy Jone's now vacant position, his father, yes his father, cuts out Wills still beating heart and puts it in the chest. Problem solved, only not! Now Will can only come on land every 10 years! So that's a great relationship. He's the newly married, undead captain of the Flying Dutchman. What the hell!? Throughout the whole film they hinted that Jack Sparrow was going to fill this position to escape death, but at the last minute they kill Will Turner. So him and Elizabeth get one day together before he's off to sea for 10 years. Some happy ending for them. Sure Jack and Barbossa get a perfectly fine ending. They're going after the Fountain of Youth. Oh and if you sit through the 15- 20 mins long credits your treated to a scene that takes place 10 years later where Elizabeth and her son await Will's return. Well isn't that nice. All that work saving the world and what do the two of them get? 10 years apart and 1 day together, until she eventually succumbs to death at a young age since it's the 1700s. What a way to turn this into a morality play. Elizabeth and Will are both punished for there individual betrayals while Barbossa and Jack, who both are murderous, merciless pirates, have perfectly happy lives. WTF?

And why is Boot Strap such a weak character who is now is practically brain dead? What was up with Jack’s hallucinations with multiple versions of himself? How was there any point to that screen time since he didn’t become the new Davy Jones? And why did they even bother creating all new Pirate Lord characters that didn’t do anything in the final battle? And finally what was the point to introducing Jack’s father? He didn’t do anything!

If you haven't figured it out yet, we did not enjoy this film.

Rainy Day

It's rainy here in Tokyo today.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

DVDs in your local train station?


Ever been on your way home and wanted to rent a video, but too tired to go to Tsutaya? Well Astala Vista has the solution: a DVD rental kiosk in the subway station! New releases are 350 yen for 24 hours. All transactions are by credit card and returns are made directly to the kiosk itself. The DVD rental kiosk is in English and Japanese and offers English language films as well as Japanese titles.

Beerfest 2007



Roppongi Hills is hosting Beerfest 2007 from May 24th to the 27th. They've dubbed it "Beerden Week," a play on "Golden Week" which was in early May. Various restaurants around Hills will be offering special themed dishes designed to go well with beer and multiple outdoor beer gardens have been set up outside offering beer selections from Sapporo, Suntory, Asahi, Kirin and Orion. Soft drinks will also be available for the kiddies. The Hills website boasts that they've set up 1000 seats and have live entertainment. Beer tickets costs 500 yen each, while soft drinks are 100yen.

You can read more about it in Japanese at the Roppongi Hills website.

Back in Tokyo

Now that I am back in Tokyo, you can expect more consistent updates since a) I am not using the internet through a cell phone and b) I can post relevant things since I am actually in Tokyo.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

28 Weeks Later

Yesterday I saw 28 Weeks Later. All I can say is wow. Except for the two children, every single person dies.

So the story takes place 28 weeks after the first film. People are being reintroduced into a military safe zone in London, including a set of two children, Tammy and Andy who are there to meet their father. In the opening scene we see their father abandon their mother to the zombies to save himself. The children decided to go out of the safe zone to recover some of their personal items at their old house. Andy, the younger child also happens to find their mother in the house who survived. They and the army bring the mother back - who just happens to be infected and immune to the Rage virus. And in the process the mother manages to infect their father and he spreads the rage virus to the whole colony. The rest of the story is about trying to save the children because the boy also has the antibody. Most of the carnage in the movie is the army killing people to exterminate the virus. I'd say only a third of the deaths are zombie related.

Oh and their isn't a happy ending. Unless the producers made two endings again that were randomly changed at different showings.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

28 weeks later = everybody

28 weeks later = everybody dies

Since when was it Friday?

I'm not sure when it got to Friday, but there isn't anything I can do about it. I leave for Tokyo on Monday.

So I went and saw Hot Fuzz again. I really do love that movie. I wonder when it comes out in Japan.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Tokyo

I've decided that since this is a blog about Tokyo, I should write more about Japan. In less then a week I'm going to be on a plane back to Japan. Exciting isn't it? 12 hours in coach. I am soooo looking forward to that. Only not. Although since I'm flying Korean Air for some random reason I get to eat Kimchi and drink red wine.

The first thing I want to do when I get back to Tokyo is eat some real Japanese food. I want sushi, ramen, takoyaki, soba, yakiniku, udon and tempura. That will be my first meal. Then maybe for a snack I'll eat some more.

After I get over my jet lag, I'm going to take on Tokyo! Shibuya, Roppongi and Odaiba here I come!!!


Oh and for the record Gwen Stefani, Harajuku sucks!

Spider Man bashing

Yesterday after I installed one of the new ad banners, it featured a huge ad for Spider Man 3 which I thought was pretty funny since I had been bashing the movie earlier.

Monday

The news for today is that there is no news. I pretty much spent the whole day putting stuff into boxes and dismantling my futon. I've got that down to an art.

I sold back my text books. Such a rip off. I could have used Half.com but I'm going to be in Japan so I couldn't really ship anything could I? Half.com rocks, by the way. They have really cheap dvds for sale.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Spider Man 3 follow up

So, remember how I was complaining about Spider Man 3? I've been talking it over with every one I get the chance to and general consensus it "Why did they kill the hot guy?" I have to agree with them. James Franco was the single most attractive person in that film. Tobey Maguire looks like he's made of pudding, and that black hair makes him look like Pete Wentz. Kirsten Dunst looks horrible with red hair and her extensions were really ratty! James Franco on the other hand was attractive and had more convincing performance then any one else. And what was with that death scene? Oh let's just watch the sunrise as he bleeds to death and stomach acid eats away his internal organs. How about taking him to a hospital?

Oh, and what was up with that dance number? Its like "oh wow, you can dance circles around people in a Jazz club. Now that's bad ass." Only not. Can you believe they're making another on? Maybe they can kill of Gwen Stacy, since they haven't done that yet.

Hot Fuzz

Wow, I didn't realize I haven't posted since Wednesday. Oops.

Today we went and saw Hot Fuzz which I have to say is the best movie ever. Its hilarious. If you like action movies and British detective dramas then this is the movie for you. Even if you didn't like Shaun of the Dead, which I really didn't, I highly recommend you go see Hot Fuzz. I haven't seen a movie in months that has made me laugh so much. The editing is also really cool, especially when he's booking people down at the station.

If you have a choice between Hot Fuzz and Spider Man 3, go see Hot Fuzz. Spider Man 3 isn't worth the admission price, but Hot Fuzz totally is. Sergeant Nicholas Angel jump kicks and old lady with a shot gun in the face. He also takes the entire village council out. Oh and watch for the sea mine. That parts pure gold.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Subway guy used to run a porn rental business?

You read correctly. Jared Fogle, the Subway guy used to run a porn rental business out of his dorm room in college. Read all about it here!

Crazy, crazy! That's really funny. The closes Subway to me is next to a Video Hut with an extensive collection of porn.

Need study tips?

I know it's finals season for college students across the nation. In honor of that I offer a few study tips. Go ahead, take a look. We can all use a few pointers.

That or I guess you can just google "study tips" or "slow down time" to finish that project.

Burn baby burn!

Sorry for the inconsistant/sucky updates. Now that I have speakers that work again, I can search out the best youtube content on the net to post here.

Has anyone seen the fire over in Griffith Park? It's crazy! Yesterday we drove by it on the 2 and the flames are like 20 feet from the freeway! I saw real flames, not just smoldering hillside. Crazy, crazy! While it is very dangerous to get too close, I highly recommend driving by on the 2 at night to take a look. It looks like a freakin' volcano!

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

90s Teen Movies

Since I'm done with school work, I've been kicking back and relaxing by watching old DVDs. All I have to say is 90s teen flicks suck. I've watched the American Pie trilogy and the Scary Movies and they really are bad. Granted when they first came out I was like 12 and I haven't seen them since, but yikes. I can't believe that I actually paid like 10 bucks to go see Scary Movie in the 8th grade. It's not even funny. I know it't a spoof - but still. I think I should stick with action flicks. You can't really go wrong with shooting and fx stunts.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Bored

I don't really have any news, I just thought I would post here for the heck of it. I saw on the news that Paris Hilton is going to Jail. I was surprised. I figured she would get off with community service or something. I wonder whats going to happen to Nichole since she also got a DUI.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Spider Man 3

Again, sorry I didn't post, I was busy watching Spider Man 3. All I can say is, maybe people should stop at 2. This one had little character development and even less plot. While I guess it is up to you to decide whether or not to see the film, I suggest you wait till all the rabid comic book fans see it first so you don't have to line up for an hour to get a seat.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Today we stumped google.

Today we stumped google. In an attempt to find the release date for Pirates III we used google's text service. It didn't tell us and instead asked if we wanted showtimes. I texted back yes, which of course is impossible since the movie isn't out yet. Google then sent us a complicated text that in short said it couldn't do that. Lol. We stumped google.

Wrap-up Party

Yesterday was Mark's wrap-up party for his film and I didn't get home till 5 because we decided to get some footage at 4am out in the Hollywood Hills. Beautiful view. Totally worth the drive.

Sorry

Sorry for the lack of updates yesterday. I was busy at work and at the hair salon getting my color fixed. I had originally had my base shade lightened and highlights put in over that, but the people at the Orpheum Salon didn't lighten it enough. I had medium brown on my roots and light brown on the rest. So I had to go back and have them remove the color they put in, which took an extra 2 hours. Thank god that they didn't charge me for that. After 4 hours, my hair looks great.

I do recomend the Orpheum, they're an an Aveda Concept salon and really nice.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Wednesday

Its Wednesday an I am offically done with classes for this semester. I am also done with exams as well. Too bad no one else is done. I'm all alone. Boo. All I need to to do is pack.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Random YouTube Video of the Day

It's the song from Guy Ritchie's film Snatch! I love that film. For some reason Brad Pitt is in all of my favorite films, even though he's not my fav. Now you can watch the actual strange music video, which I'm not sure is appropriate for all audiences. Be on the look out for the laser breasts!



Mirwais Disco Science.

Shopping in Old Town, Pasadena

Today I went shopping in Old Town. I also had to hit up the Apple Store because I melted my powercord. It fell into soup/water last night and the copper melted. Fun. Oh, and warranty doesn't cover stuff like that. But I was lucky, the guy at the store found a pre-opened one so I only had to pay $30 dollars instead of $70. Phew.

After that I hit up H&M and Abercrombie and Fitch. I bought an awesome pair of short shorts at Abercrombie. I heart shorts.

I was disappointed though, I couldn't find Kylie Minogue's swimsuit line at the H&M. Pitty.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Domain Name!

We're in the process of getting a domain name! Spiffy eh? I'll keep you updated on that.

UPDATE!
We've got a domain name!!! It's www.Tokyolite.com!!! Yay!

Metropolis Classifieds Rock

I decided to finally post something relevant to Japan. I don't know about you, but I get my kicks from reading the classified ads in magazines and newspapers. Back at home, I used to read the Metropolis every week. As soon as a new issue came out, I would go straight to the classified ads and read about all the strange things being offered. Even though I live in Los Angeles, I can still get my kicks from Metropolis. They have gone to the trouble of posting their classifieds online! Woot. Now I can read all the sketchy offers from the comfort of my laptop.

Random YouTube find of the Day



Pirates of the Carribean III is coming out soon. In honor of that watch this awesome spoof.

Take that 400 years of Christian History!

So I turned in my 400 years of Christian History project and took the final exam. Yay. I am one step closer to going home. All I need is a plane ticket and to pack up all my stuff and then ZAM! I'm home. (Yes, just like that.)

In other news, I think this has to be the funniest article title ever, The Internet's #1 Christian Porn Site. The article is about the website XXX Church which is a group that is attempting to reach out to people in the adult entertainment idustry. I wonder what St. Augustine and his sexuality issues would have to say to that?

To those of you who are reading, I assure you this is not a porn/christianity blog. I just keep finding random things about porn, and I'm taking Christian history.