Big in Japan: Can’t win the guys? Try anime eyes!!

by Matthew Firestone on

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is certainly a good thing given that the human form comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes…

Indeed, first-timers in Japan quickly realize that Japanese standards of beauty are very, very different than those in the West. While individual tastes certainly vary, Japanese men – if you’ll permit me to broadly generalize for a moment – prize cuteness and innocence over sexiness and poise.

In fact, you don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of this statement. Don’t believe me? Just turn on any Japanese anime, and take a good look at the female protagonists. While their bodily dimensions are certainly not based in reality, their physical attributes are nevertheless striking, particularly those big watery eyes set against tiny faces.

Of course, no real woman could ever hope to mirror these graphical representations of idealized beauty…or could they?

On that note, allow me to introduce you to the newest fashion craze over here in Japan, namely contact lens that give you the much sought after ‘anime eyes.’

If you ask Japanese men to describe their perfect face, most will tell you that the answer lies in anime and manga.

While Westerners might find big eyes set against a small face to be comical, in Japan this image is a much sought after standard of beauty. In a country where cuteness is king, there is something irresistible about fluttering lashes, doughy eyes and an expression of childlike innocence.

Sadly, nature doesn’t always endow actual humans with anime traits, though you can still win over the guys by simply popping in some contacts and getting those anime eyes. Recently, a number of companies in Asia are starting to produce extra-wide contacts, which have thicker color bars to give the illusion that your irises are much larger than normal.

While initial reactions to these new contacts run the gamut from sheer horror to swelling envy, you have to admit that they’re a far better alternative to plastic surgery. And after all, Sailor Moon might not be everyone’s idealized image of female beauty, but on a number of fundamental levels, she is preferable to Paris Hilton.

But, why stop there? Color contacts are in amongst Tokyo’s famous Harajuku girls, so you why not try bizarre colors such as fluorescent purple, lime green and electric blue. Or, you can really spice things up with special effects lens – give into your feline side by flashing cat eyes, or show your Slytherin House pride with lizard eye slits.

Anime-inspired beauty and fashion might not be sweeping across the runways of Paris and Milan, but it’s all the rage in a fair number of spots in Japan and across Asia. So, if you’ve already got the platform shoes, the blue hair, the crazy pigtails and a good complement of kawaii (cute) accessories, why not round out the package with some anime eyes?

After all, 60 million Japanese men can’t be wrong! (^_^)

China busing in government-trained “cheer squads” to fill empty seats at Olympics

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Just like the Oscars have “seat-fillers” to hide the empty seats when people go to the bathroom, the Chinese are busing in state-trained “cheer squads” to fill the surprising numbers of empty seats at the Olympics.

Dressed in identical bright yellow t-shirts, the cheer squads are meant to improve the Olympic atmosphere and avoid embarrassing television shots of all the no-shows at the Games. As the Washington Post notes, “The U.S. softball team played in a stadium only about 30 percent full on Tuesday, while the day before, 10 of 18 venues did not reach 80 percent capacity.”

Officials blame the poor crowds on everything from the weather to strict visa regulations to spectators not wanting to watch the less exciting sports.

Beijing hotel owners, who were expected to be some of the biggest beneficiaries of the 2008 Olympics, have been underwhelmed by the amount of business the Games have brought. From the Washington Post: “‘Business is worse than at this time last year,’ said a receptionist at a 22-room hotel in Beijing’s Chongwen district, where rooms cost $28 a night. ‘It’s the season for traveling and last year the hotel was full. The Olympics should have brought business to Beijing, but the reality is too far from the expectation.'”

Big in Japan: Home to the best homegrown

by Matthew Firestone on

Let’s be ‘blunt’ for a moment…

While Gadling does not in any capacity promote the smoking of copious amounts of ganja, a good number of us know that sometimes you need a little toke of Mother Nature’s sweet, sweet herb to get you through day.

Of course, wrapping your salivating lips around a hand-blown glass water pipe packed to the brim with Pineapple Express is something of a difficult proposition in Japan, especially since there are some incredibly Draconian drug laws on the books here.

While a good number of people in North America and Europe tend to have a relaxed attitude towards smoking a bit of reefer from time to time, the Japanese are extremely averse to drugs of any kind.

Indeed, all of us resident foreigners here in Japan are used to hearing that drug use is something of ‘Western problem.’

Or so we were led to believe (^_^)

According to a recent report by the Associated Press (AP), it seems that a good number of Japanese have been tuning in and dropping out, thanks to the easy availability of marijuana seeds on the Internet for home cultivation.

Ah so! The plot begins to thicken…

According to a public report that was recently released by the Japanese National Police Agency, the number of marijuana cases in the first half of the year rose 12 percent from the same period last year to 1,202. If this rate of increase continues, the number of cases will reach an all-time high this year, passing the 2,288 recorded in 2006.

Compared to amphetamines and other synthetic stimulants such as ecstasy, marijuana police cases are still very, very low, especially in comparison to other countries. However, police are attributing the rise in marijuana toking to the increasing prevalence of Japanese homegrown.

In the immortal words of the rapper Styles P: ‘I don’t smoke the weed if it ain’t purple or blue.’

So what’s the loophole? Good question.

While Japanese law doesn’t exactly make for light reading, the gist is that people are prohibited from growing or possessing marijuana for recreational drug use, though seeds are excluded from the law. Capitalizing on this ambiguity, Japanese web sites are quick to state that they are selling marijuana seeds ‘only for research, food or collecting.’

Yummy. I loves me some pot seed brownies…

In a country consumed by fickle trends and fads, it seems that Japan as of recent may be suffering from a bit of reefer madness.

Last month, a government worker was arrested after police raided his personal marijuana greenhouse in western Japan. In May, customs officers at Tokyo Narita International Airport misplaced US$10,000 worth of hash after it had been slipped illegally into a random traveler’s luggage in a failed attempt to test the noses of the canine sniffers.

And…let’s not forget about all those Harajuku girls decked out from head to toe in hemp-based fabrics, which have a long history in Japan as traditional clothing.

In the immortal words of Jon Stewart, the enhancement smoker from the movie Half Baked: ‘Have you ever seen (Japan)….on weed?! That’s the way to see it. It’s just wacked.’

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project, and NOT from my non-existent personal collection of homegrown herb and associated paraphernalia **

Photo of the Day (08.12.08)

by Grant Martin on

Istanbul’s Blue Mosque — one of my favorite places in the world in one of my favorite cities in the world. Walking into The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is one of those jaw dropping experiences that you remember for the rest of your life, its vaulted ceilings and Ottoman and Christian influences gently meeting far above the silent crowd. Today’s photo of the day comes from smallscreen, who does an excellent job capturing the detail of the central and satellite domes. A truly exceptional shot.

Have any cool photos you’d like to share with the world? Add them to the Gadling Pool on Flickr, and it might be chosen as our Photo of the Day.

Don’t like the look of a neighborhood? Build a wall around it.

by Grant Martin on

You have to give the Chinese credit for trying to clean up Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. Their methods, while borderline authoritarian, have resulted in a significantly cleaner and friendlier looking China — the perfect reflection of a global economic superpower that should be hosting the games.

Several weeks before the games, officials attempted to curtail pollution by shutting down or constraining many of the factories in the region. While air quality has still been poor — one out of three cyclists in a recent race had to drop out because of the conditions — rain and cooler temperatures are now helping the conditions improve.

Other measures taken have had broader, more ominous impact among the resident population. At the same time that factory pollution cuts were mandated, residential vehicle traffic was also halved to cut down on emissions. Commuters were forced to take other transportation to work and trains and buses hemorrhaged with passengers as millions of Chinese jockeyed through Beijing trying to get to work.

In another district of the capital, developers decided that a particular neighborhood reflected poorly on the image of the country. Their solution? Build a wall around it. Despite the fact that multiple businesses and storefronts faced the street, an eight foot wall was erected around the region, blocking out the questionable content and creating a cleaner, more “tourist friendly” look.

Take a look at this brief video put together by the Boston Globe. Would you be happy with a wall like this in front of your storefront? .