Yesterday (and today) we’re a bit worn out. Plus the rain had returned, so we went for a day of shopping in Ikebukuro. This also included a trip to the planetarium on the top of the Sunshine 60 building, and during the show (in Japanese) both of us were nodding off to sleep!
(As I type this, the next morning, we’re watching a TV show about taking a female construction worker and giving her a beauty makeover. The ‘after’ is, in my opinion, much worse than the ‘before’!)
Actually that reminds me of a few asides… things I’ve been meaning to mention:
– The other day we watched a show on TV using three cute girls and a scientist to teach simple wave mechanics (interference, wavelengths, coherence etc) using cellphones and mirrors…
– One day this past week in a McDonalds we saw two schoolboys sit down and consult the menu via their cellphones before deciding what to purchase…
– Japanese cell phone cameras are up to 11 megapixel size, and include all the latest features of digital cameras in the USA (face recognition, moving focus, HD movie recording)
< Kapibarasan
Anyway back to Ikebukuro… um, we shopped! And bought some good souvenirs… especially for that one person who requested origami paper! Some things we observed in stores:
That’s Mr Bacon and Dacky the Healing Partner. (Almost) from the same marketing firm that gave us Homo Sausage?
< Sunny-chan
From a distance I assumed these sunflowers (at a stall in Ikebukuro station) were fake, but (of course) they were real!
Three products observed in a cosmetics shop. The ones on the sides are uniquely asian.. but the middle one is just weird. As KLS said, it’s for when the aliens arrive 🙂
< Kabuto-san
Yes, a pet beetle. Toys’R’Us had quite a selection, in sizes up to almost as big as your hand. Pet beetles have always been popular in Japan, but it used to be you trecked out into the woods and caught them yourselves. Now (I bet) they are farmed and sold in pet stores…
< (silence)
For the rabbit that has everything perhaps?
< Wow
If I was a rich man, I would have purchased this for my brother. It’s a super-detailed super-fine scale metal model kit of a blimp (minus the cover). Seems like you’d need the patience of a saint to assemble it, but it looks truly amazing once done.
< Look closely
The red lines under the ‘do not walk’ symbol? They are a timer, that tick down and tell you how much longer you have to wait. Such an obviously good idea, why hasn’t every country done this years ago?
As for lunch yesterday, well for a change we’ll let KLS have a turn!
Regarding the Maca’s cell phone menu browsing, I bought a Coke at a vending machine in Australia in 2001 using my cell phone. The price of the Coke was charged to my phone bill. I’ve never seen the technology again, but I think it’s a great idea.
I saw red light timers on vehicle traffic lights in India. Most drivers would move into the intersection when the time display showed 10 seconds remaining! I think it’s a good idea for both pedestrian and vehicle traffic, but it wouldn’t work if the lights are controlled by traffic volume or demand and not based on a timer.