Big in Japan: Hello Kitty and the Culture of Cute

by Matthew Firestone on

Let’s start today’s column with a warm-up exercise. Ready to waken up that brain?

Name the first five things that come to mind when you think about Japan.

Ready. Set. Go!

??????????????????????????Zero.

Need more time? Sorry – I’m working with a limited amount of space here! So, did you come up with sushi? Sumo wrestling? Cherry blossoms? Rock gardens?

How about Hello Kitty?

Easily one of the Japan’s most recognizable cartoon characters, Har? Kiti (Hello Kitty, ??????????????????) is known and loved the world over. From Hello Kitty bento boxes and chopsticks to cell phone straps and designer tennis shoes, Hello Kitty is a global trademark that appeals to virtually all age groups and both sexes. According to estimates, Hello Kitty adorns over 22,000 products worldwide, and earns almost a billion dollars a year in revenue for the Sanrio Company of Japan.

Hello Kitty was created in 1974 by Sanrio – the very first product was a clear vinyl coin purse bearing the face of Hello Kitty, which sold for 240 yen or approximately two dollars. Surprisingly, Hello Kitty was intended to be named ‘Kitty White’ after one of Alice’s cats in the Lewis Carroll classic Through the Looking-Glass. At the time, British culture was the height of fashion amongst Japanese girls, and Hello Kitty was never intended to have any appeal beyond the pre-adolescent female market.

Of course, the designers at Sanrio failed to fully appreciate the Japanese obsession with all things cute.

One of the first words foreigners learn upon arriving in Japan is the all-important catch phrase kawaii (cute, 可愛い). The favorite three syllables of most women in Japan, cuteness is a cultural obsession that few foreigners completely understand. While Western beauty and fashion stresses the importance of women looking sexy, a large percentage of Japanese females strive to attain the highest possible level of kawaisa (cuteness, 可愛さ). Incorporating everything from brightly colored hair-extensions and fluorescent eye make-up to knee-high socks and flowery dresses, Japanese fashion can simultaneously shock your senses and melt your heart.

With that said, cute culture extends far beyond the realms of beauty and fashion, and it’s by no means limited to the female segment of the population. If you look for it, kawaisa appears virtually everywhere in Japan, even in places that Westerners would consider juvenile. For instance, the Japanese think nothing of using cartoon characters and random bits of cuteness for public service announcements, office memos, government letters and even police notices.

So, it should come as no surprise that Hello Kitty is a marketing phenomenon unlike no other. Greying salarymen think nothing of dangling a hot pink Hello Kitty strap from their cell phone, while middle-aged housewives swear that the Hello Kitty toaster is the best on the market.

(And, truth be told, I’ve been known to rock out some Hello Kitty chopsticks from time to time).

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of Hello Kitty and Culture of Cute.

** Special thanks for Flickr users ♥ Cherie♥ (cute girl), ChaTox (Lolita Girl) and Seiya235 (Umbrella Girl) **

Big in Japan: A Look Inside Capsule Hotels

by Matthew Firestone on

Ever wonder what it’s like to sleep in a coffin? Perhaps you should consider spending a night in one of Japan’s wholly unique (and utterly bizarre) capsule hotels (capseru hoteru, ?????????????????????).

To Western eyes, Japan can at times be a strange place, though perhaps nothing is weirder to us than the idea of sleeping in what appears to be an enormous morgue. For those of you who have never heard about capsule hotels, the idea is simple.

Rather than spending your hard-earned cash on a pricey hotel room, you can save some yen by simply renting a capsule for a night. If all you need is a few hours shut-eye, you don’t mind sharing a hotel with a few thousand strangers and (most importantly) you’re not claustrophobic, then a capsule hotel is all you need.

Although Japanese travelers view capsule hotels as the last viable option (some even prefer sleeping in internet cafés), foreign travelers (myself included) can’t seem to get enough of them. They’re cheap (between US$20 and US$45 per night), surprisingly comfortable and about as authentically Japanese as you can get.

Plus, how many times in your life can you bed down in what is essentially a glorified coffin?

Capsule hotels are typically located in large cities near a train station, and cater primarily to Japanese salarymen who miss the last train home. In terms of style and cleanliness, they run the gamut from 1960s-inspired concrete and exposed beam monstrosities to ultra-modern steel and glass masterpieces of design. As with everything else in life, it pays to shop around and compare, and capsule hotels are no exception.

Ultimately, your experience really depends on the particular hotel. For instance, the first capsule hotel I ever stayed in was located in a somewhat dodgy part of Tokyo on the outskirts of the Red Light district. My fellow capsule mates were mostly loners, drifters, vagrants and the few odd foreigners like myself, who clearly had no idea where we are or what we doing. That night, I thrashed my legs against the sides of the capsule trying to find a comfortable position, hit my head on the ceiling more times than I can remember, and am pretty sure that I slept on bedding that hadn’t been changed in months.

Of course, if you’re ever in the city of Kobe, don’t miss their brand-spanking new capsule hotel. Upon entering, you will be handed a freshly pressed yukata (cotton robe, ゆかた), and escorted up to what can only be described as a ‘man spa.’ After an hour or two of soaking your travel-worn bones in a variety of hot and cold baths, you can retire to the dining room where you can choose from fresh sashimi, bowls of ramen or filets of Kobe beef, all of which can be washed down with ample pints of Kirin lager. When you’ve had your fill, you can rest soundly in the deluxe capsules, which come complete with personal television sets, mood lighting and a full library of Western and Japanese music.

Don’t believe me – those are my stinky feet in the picture!

Related: New capsule hotel in Gatwick gets mixed reviews, Japan’s Capsule Hotels

Big in Japan: Making Biofuel Out of Used Chopsticks

by Matthew Firestone on

Today’s ten-million yen trivia question is this:

How many disposable, wooden chopsticks are used each year in Japan?

Give up?

The answer is approximately 90,000 tons (81,646,000 kilograms) or approximately two-hundred pairs per person per year. Needless to say, the Japanese aren’t exactly the world’s greatest environmentalists!

Indeed, one of the biggest culture shocks foreigners experience upon arrival is the incredible amount of trash that the Japanese generate. For example, if you go to the convenience store to buy a bento or lunch box, it’ll be skillfully double or even triple bagged by the clerk. After unwrapping the endless layers of your bento, inside you’ll sometimes find as many as three pairs of chopsticks- just in case you feel like sharing your lunch with a few friends.

So, what can be done you ask – how about making biofuel?

Earlier this week, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery announced plans to allocate funds to support nationwide chopstick recycling programs. The aim of the program is two-fold: the first is to raise public awareness about the need to conserve resources, particularly items that are a daily fixture in people’s lives. The second aim is to support projects by businesses and local governments to turn disposable chopsticks into biofuel.

Currently, used chopsticks are simply discarded in the burnable rubbish bin (one credit to the Japanese is that they routinely separate burnable and non-burnable garbage). In a country obsessed with hygiene and cleanliness, the idea of reusing chopsticks is unheard of, especially with the fear of pandemic illness on the rise such as SARS and avian flu. Indeed, environmentally conscious foreigners like myself who carry our own chopsticks around with us are usually the subject of intense ridicule!

However, the current plan is to install boxes to collect used chopsticks outside restaurants and convenience stores. Private contractors will then transport these boxes to special facilities where the chopsticks will be ground up and compressed into wooden pellets, which can be used as a high-energy fuel.

Typically, wooden pellets are formed using heat and pressure to compact sawdust and paper, though disposable chopsticks are clearly a more abundant resource. There is also hope that disposable chopsticks can be converted into ethanol, which is becoming an increasingly important additive to gasoline. Currently, there are approximately thirty facilities producing wooden pellets across the country, as well as ethanol-producing facilities in Osaka and Okayama.

The Ministry is hopeful that the program will also help raise consciousness about the social responsibility of large corporations across the country. This is particularly relevant as global climate will be a major topic on the agenda at the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations’ economic summit scheduled for June of 2008 in Hokkaido.

Furthermore, I think I can speak for everyone here in Tokyo that after suffering through one of the hottest summers on the book (I’m tired of sweating through everything I own), stepping up the fight against global warming is something all of us can agree on.

Japan may have sparkling whale-free seas, but at least there’s hope for the forests.

PS As a disclaimer, I am by no means knowledgeable on the process of making biofuel, so please feel free to comment on the efficacy of this program!

** Special thanks to Flickr users Rick (Chinese Lunch), MShades (Bento Box) and View-Askew (Pollution) **

Big in Japan: Video Games that Kill

by Matthew Firestone on

We interrupt our regularly scheduled feature column to bring you an important news bulletin that may save your life, the life of your friends and even the life of your children.

Video games can kill – well, at least this one can.

Earlier this week, an arm wrestling video game known as ‘Arm Spirit’ was removed from arcades across Japan as a precaution. Apparently, the move was prompted by Atlus, the distributor of Arm Spirit, following a number of high profile game-related injuries. Apparently, at least three different players broke their arms during game play.

(And you thought tennis elbow and gamers’ thumb was bad!)

For those of you who don’t regularly visit Japanese arcades (I know I’m a total dork, but they’re just so much fun!), Arm Spirit features a life-sized arm that players try to slam down to the table in a series of matches. Tension increases as players advance through ten levels, with opponents including an erotic French maid, a drunken martial arts master, a yelping Chihuahua and a hulking sumo wrestler.

A long time favorite of high school boys trying to impress their dates, overworked businessmen trying to relieve a bit of tension and resident foreigners trying to show off to their Japanese friends, Arm Spirit appeals to virtually everyone. With stereo sound, hi-definition video and a catchy theme song worthy of putting on your IPod, a round of Arm Spirit is worth every one of your hard-earned yen.

Much like Japanese arcade staples such as Dance Dance Revolution (aka DDR and Dancing Stage), Taiko Drum Master and Guitar Hero, Arm Spirit was destined for fame. Some argue that Arm Spirit could have even taken rank alongside Super Mario Brothers and the Legend of Zelda as one of the truly great gaming experiences.

So, what went wrong?

According to Ayano Sakiyama, the company spokesmen for Atlus: “The machine isn’t that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it. We think that maybe some players get over-excited and twist their arms in an unnatural way.”

Sadly, the days of virtual arm-wrestling glory are coming to end as a country-wide investigation has been launched into the incidents, and the recalled machines are being checked for any malfunctions. Loyal fans hold on to the hope that the engineers at Atlus can tweak the unit, thus ensuring that future generations of gamers can enjoy Arm Spirit. However, in a country plagued by the fear of anything even remotely dangerous, it is unlikely that Arm Spirit will be making another appearance in an arcade near you.

Arm Spirit was never released outside of Japan, though perhaps this is the best time to try and snatch up an old machine on E-bay. If you do manage to score one, let me know as I still need to exact my revenge on that infernal Chihuahua. Perhaps it’s my puny arms, but that mutt gets the best of me every time!

(Special thanks to my buddy Ryan-san in Uguisudani, who alerted me and you, the Gadling audience, to this important discovery).

** Arm Spirit photo courtesy of the Associated Press (AP). DDR photo courtesy of Flickr user iotae **

Blowfish sold as salmon kills 15, sickens over a hundred

by Matthew Firestone on

As a frightening aside to my Big in Japan column on the subtle art of eating blowfish, MSNBC reported today that over the last three years, fugu meat that has been passed off as salmon in Thai markets has resulted in 15 deaths and over a hundred cases of food-poisoning.

As a result of a nationwide ban in Thailand on the selling of blowfish meat, some rather unscrupulous fishermen have taken to the practice of dying fugu and passing it off as salmon. The issue was brought to light following a report issued by Dr. Narin Hiransuthikul at Bangkok’s Chulalonkorn University Hospital.

As a warning to anyone travelling in Thailand, it’s probably best to skip on the salmon spring rolls!

** Photo by Flickr user Howdy, I’m H. Michael Karshis **