tokyololas

Chocolate Sparkling

tokyololas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:24:17 +0000

Another in my growing list of unusual Japanese soft drinks: Chocolate Sparkling. I keep seeing this at my local supermarket and, despite the intrigue, I’ve resisted buying it (which means I’ll just have to continue imagining the sickly sweetness).

PS: posted with the VERY handy Wordpress for iPhone app

WPtouch

tokyololas — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:09:53 +0000

WPtouch™ image from the WPtouch™ Gallery

I’ve installed WPtouch™ on tokyololas’ blog, so that those of you visiting from an iPhone™ or Blackberry Storm™ or other smart phones can get a trimmed down view of things (saving both time and data charges). If you click on an individual post heading, or on “Read this post”, you will be taken to the actual post page and be able to see the images in the post, etc. If you prefer the full, regular view, you can toggle the “Mobile Theme” switch (at the bottom of the page) to “off”.

So far it seems like a great plugin from the BraveNewCode people, but if any of you regular readers who read this blog from your mobile dislike it, let me know and I’ll deactivate it!
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For Wordpress users:
A little hint to anyone else installing this plugin and wanting to get thumbnails of post images to show in the post previews in the “Mobile Theme” version: under “Settings” in your WP Dashboard, click on the WPtouch link to customize your WPtouch™ settings and, in the first section (General Settings), change the “Post Listings Options” from “Calendar Icons” to “Post Thumbnails”. Then, make sure that for each blog post you create (or have created) that you enter a thumbnail image (which can be done on the individual post page, on the lower right, under “Post Thumbnail”). You can go back to earlier posts and add in the thumbnail by hitting “Set thumbnail” and then selecting one of the images from that Post’s Gallery, clicking “Show”, and then clicking “Use as thumbnail” and “Save all changes”.

February was a blur

tokyololas — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:13:41 +0000

I’ve always immensely disliked February, so I am happy it’s done with yet again!

I have a few blog posts lined up, but I will start with something silly:

I spotted this the a couple of weeks ago as I was passing through Ōsaki station. I am not sure in the least how or why this duck in a chairlift is meant to entice me to buy a JR ski travel package.

Please don’t leave a comment telling me that “Japanese people like cute things, so they use cute things to advertise”. I have lived here long enough to know about all things kawaii. It’s more a question of “why a duck?” or “is this what the enormously popular AFLAC duck does in its down time?”

In previous years, JR has used other animals on skis – a few years ago it was an ostrich, which was even more bizarre than this little duck. Here’s one of the commercials (it’s a blend of live action and CG, but looks pretty seamless):

Polar Bear in Ginza

tokyololas — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:32:21 +0000

What I love about Tokyo is that on any day of the week, at any given time, you can happen across oddities such as this:

Yes, of course there’s a polar bear plushie outside of the Sony Building. Why wouldn’t there be?

Anyway, as funny as it looked, there is a reason (and it did make me laugh to watch the bear and its sidekick, who looks like he is trying to pretend that he is not on the same gig as the bear): they were out there to promote the Sony Building’s Opus High Vision Theatre and it’s showing of 「3D ハイビジョン旭山動物園」or “3D High Vision Asahiyama Zoo” (a 3D film of some animals at Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido).

In general, the Sony Building is always a good place to cruise by with your camera because you never know what you’ll find out front. They have a display area in front of the building called ソニースクエア (Sony Square) and they change the display quite often. For example, in the summer, I happened to be walking by and I snagged this photo:

You can visit the Sony Building website here (but, if you’re inclined to click on the “English here” link, don’t bother: they have not updated it for well over a year).

A better shot of Mt. Fuji

tokyololas — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:56:38 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a photo of the amazing Mt. Nantai as caught in a rare sighting from my balcony, and I used a sunset shot of Mt. Fuji (富士山) for comparison. However, while going through my archives today, I found a shot that gives you a much better idea of what Mt. Fuji looks like from central Tokyo if and when it is visible.

This particular shot was taken in November 2008 and it reminds me that I should venture to the other side of my building on the next clear day:

The boat heading out into the bay is one of the boats that goes back and forth between Hinode Pier and Odaiba every 30 minutes. Here’s a shot taken from Hinode, while waiting for the boat to arrive: