Hot towel? Sure, in my pocket.

by Annie Scott on

In these tough economic times, we can’t always afford to fly first class, or on those airlines that bring everyone hot towels. And we want those hot towels. We want them hard.

Well, now you can bring your own, and in pill form! These crazy pills from Japan work just like those little foam dinosaurs you used to “hatch” as a kid. Submerge them in warm water and they become 11″ x 9″ hand towels.

The pills, or “towel seeds,” as they are called, are harvested every year from the Towel Tree Plantation just outside of Tokyo.*

Know what else becomes a hot hand towel if you submerge it in hot water? A hand towel. But that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

You can get a vial of 10 pills on ThinkGeek.com for just $7.99. It’ll be the most fun you’ve had in the airplane bathroom since you joined the mile high club! Seriously, these would also come in super handy for camping and backpacking.

*false

When a nation becomes a commodity: The Country Brand Index 2008

by Anna Brones on

We live in an era of global brands. McDonald’s, Starbucks, H&M, Coca Cola, Australia… Wait, what???

You read correctly, Australia recently won the top spot of the 2008 Country Brand Index. Nation branding, as it’s officially referred to, is the theory and practice of measuring and building the reputations of countries; basically applying standard commercial brand management that you’d find with commodities and using it to analyzing everywhere from Austria to Zimbabwe.

The 2008 study conducted by Future Brand, a global brand consulting firm, used rankings from 30 different categories to come up with the final index. Among the categories were History, Standard of Living, Friendly Locals and Environmentalism. It’s like a beauty pageant for countries, with the most well-rounded coming out on top. Here are the top ten:

  1. Australia
  2. Canada
  3. USA
  4. Italy
  5. Switzerland
  6. France
  7. New Zealand
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Japan
  10. Sweden

When you look at that list, referring to countries as specific brands starts to make a little sense. Don’t we all have pretty concrete associations with France for example? Wine, croissants and cheese. And what about Sweden? Meatballs, moose and blondes. Looks like what we once referred to as stereotypes has a new name.

Big in Japan: Obama the city loves Obama the President-elect

by Matthew Firestone on

Americans abroad haven’t had an easy time these past eight years, though all of that is about to change…

America might be divided between Obama and McCain supporters, though most of our foreign allies are turning green (or blue?) with envy. Indeed, Obama’s historic election might just be the first step in repairing America’s tarnished image abroad, both amongst our allies and perhaps even our enemies.

One of the most peculiar election celebrations last week took place in the city of Obama (???, literally Little Beach), a sleepy little town in the middle of the Japanese countryside. In honor of the US President-elect, local women performed the hula dance, a tribute to Obama’s early years as a child in Hawaii.

Dubbed ‘The Obama Girls,’ the hula troop told reporters that they now have plans to travel to Washington for the inauguration in January, and are hoping that they will have the opportunity to perform in front of Obama himself.

Hilarious…sometimes you really can’t help but love the Japanese (^_^)

When the presidential results were made official, a huge media circus descended on the town of Obama to cover what was arguably Japan’s craziest election party.

While the Obama Girls were certainly eye-candy, the night’s other highlight was the performance of a local pop group, who recorded the soon-to-be smash hit, ‘La La La La La Obama!’ The song also had some choice lines, such as this lyrical bit of brilliance: ‘Obama is beautiful man!’

Interestingly enough, it’s not just the town’s namesake that has local Japanese supporting President-elect Obama. In fact, they’re hoping that their increasing interest in American politics will help in their case against North Korea.

During the 1970s and 80s, North Korean agents kidnapped a number of Japanese citizens, including some from the city of Obama. One of them is still being held prisoner, and Obama’s patriotic citizens are hoping that President Obama can succeed where President Bush failed.

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that not everyone in the Land of the Rising Sun is celebrating an Obama victory. On the contrary, a good number of Japanese politicians in Tokyo are sounding the death knell on their attempts at luring the Olympic games to Japan in 2016.

Currently, Tokyo, Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are the four cities in the running to host the 2016 Games. However, Japanese Olympic officials fear that the election of Obama as president could make his home city of Chicago the favorite.

According to Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda: “I wonder how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members will react when Mr. Obama appears in a presentation for Chicago. Obama is popular and good at speeches, so things could get tough for Japan.”

The IOC will name the 2016 host at its general assembly in October next year, which means that quite a number of Japanese politicians are planning to watch Obama’s first 100 days with intense interest.

Regardless of what happens to Japan’s Olympic aspirations, at least the Obama Girls will get their well-deserved share of the international spotlight!

Sounds of Travel 5: One Night in Tokyo

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Here at Gadling we’ll be highlighting some of our favorite sounds from the road and giving you a sample of each — maybe you’ll find the same inspiration that we did, but at the very least, hopefully you’ll think that they’re good songs. Got a favorite of your own? Leave it in the comments below and we’ll post it at the end of the series.

WEEK 4: Colder – One Night In Tokyo

Japan has a reputation of creating bewilderment and a sense of wonder for visitors from the Western world. For anyone who has ever gotten lost in the “fiction” of Japan created by movies like Lost in Translation or anime series like Gundam, there is a perception created of a place that looks strangely familiar yet somehow slightly askew, like your friend was hiding around the corner, waiting to jump out and scare the crap out of you. You’re left constantly on edge, ready to be surprised, shocked and amused by a constant barrage of stimuli.

It was with these thoughts in mind as I landed in Tokyo for my first trip to Japan earlier this year. My home base for the next 10 days was a high rise in the Shinjuku neighborhood – a bustling, neon-lit business district in central Tokyo. As I unpacked my things in my room, I flipped on my iPod to a song by Colder, a French electronic artist known for his moody, atmospheric compositions, fittingly selecting one of my favorite tracks called “One Night in Tokyo.”

As the track slowly kicked in, I took in my surroundings. Dusk was beginning to settle over this massive metropolis. Thousands of office towers lay before me – giant monoliths of concrete and glass glistening quietly, silhouetted against the quickly darkening sky. Each pulsated at the top with the intermittent blink of tiny red light, creating a vision of thousands of tiny insects flashing alone in the dark, performing a giant light show for an unknown audience that rushed by, oblivious. The scene was punctuated by the clackety-clack of endless subway cars as they rumbled into the gigantic Shinjuku rail station down below.

“One Night in Tokyo” was the perfect complement to my overwhelming sense of vertigo at the scene before me. The song builds slowly, adding layer upon layer of warm keyboard synths, dub echoes and handclaps, while lead singer Marc Tan sings in a detached, mysterious monotone. The sound effects fade in and out of the song chaotically, much like the intermittent trains that pierced the silence of my quiet hotel room.

As isolating as this all may sound, One Night in Tokyo was absolutely perfect for setting the right Tokyo mood. It captured what I found so intriguing about Tokyo at night – the air feels thick with excitement and potential. The dark alleyways, the searing neon, the bustle and the activity all created a sense of mystery and excitement. There was a constant sense that at any moment I would be thrust into my own movie plot, filled with strange characters and shady villans darting onto subway platforms and down sidestreets.

My next 10 days in Japan presented me with an experience I will never forget. The Japan of reality is surprisingly not like the one portrayed in my imagination – in fact it’s far weirder. But for those first few hours in Tokyo, as the day began to dim and One Night in Tokyo slowly dissipated from my speakers, my fantasy vision of Japan was alive and well.

Click here for previous Sounds of Travel

Big in Japan: Woman arrested for murdering [virtual] husband

by Matthew Firestone on

Not sure if you caught this random bit of news last week, but a Japanese woman was arrested for the alleged [virtual] murder of her [virtual] husband…

Apparently, a 43-year old piano teacher from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido was jailed after allegedly killing her virtual husband in a popular video game, and may face charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data.

According to police officers, the woman was furious at finding herself suddenly divorced in the online game MapleStory. She then proceeded to illegally access the log-in details of the man playing her husband, and killed off his character.

The woman was subsequently arrested at her home in Miyazaki, and then driven in a police car 620 miles (1,000 km) to Sapporo, where her [virtual] husband, a 33-year-old office worker, lives.

Believe it or not, the woman, if convicted, could face up to five years in prison, and a fine of up to $5,000. While Japan might look shiny and happy on the surface, the view is decidedly different in prison where forced labor and overcrowding are the norm rather than the exception.

Think about that the next time you try log-in to your friend’s account in World of Warcraft!

Here is a bit of background that might help you in understanding this random bit of weirdness from the Land of the Rising Sun:

MapleStory, a Korean-made online game, has grown in popularity around the world, particularly in Japan where it has attracted players of both sexes and all ages. The game centers on using your digital avatar to defeat monsters in a 2D world, but players can also actively engage in social activities and relationships, including marriage and divorce.

Confused? Yeah, I must confess that I am too! Anyway, as the story goes…

A Sapporo police official told the Associated Press (AP) news agency that the woman had used the man’s ID and password to log in to the game to carry out the virtual murder.

According the alleged [virtual] murderer: “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry!”

In a country where privacy is a highly valued commodity, digital crimes are certainly not taken lightly, especially when it relates to issues concerning identity theft. Of course, it’s kind of hard not to feel sorry for this heartbroken piano teacher, who most likely couldn’t have imagined that she’d be facing jail time for her ill actions.

After all, rejection, breaking up and divorce are hard on anyone in the real world, so it’s only logical that they carry with them their fair share of pain in the virtual world, right?

What do you think?

** All images displayed on this particular posting are copyrighted images of the online game MapleStory. They are presented here for the purposes of identification and/or critical commentary. They were originally sourced from the WikiCommons Media Project **