Jonelle Patrick's Blog, page 60

Snow Dog

All kinds of great non-snowmen appeared around Tokyo after the last big dump of snow – from transforming Snow Pikachus, to Snow Shrines Dedicated To Crossdressing TV Celebs – but this one is my favorite! If you’ve ever been to Shibuya, you’ll recognize the statue of Hachiko, the faithful dog who waited at the station every day for the dead master who never returned. But isn’t it sort of cheering to see that someone built lonely old Hachi a lady friend for Valentine’s Day?

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix. Thanks to the Bonjour Tokyo Facebook page for this great snap!

Obscure Snack Flavor Of The Day

What do you mean, you’ve never heard of a bean and butter sandwich?

It’s late, and you’re jonesing for your favorite midnight snack, but someone ate the last of the red beans and then they left the butter out, so now it’s covered in marks that look suspiciously like they were made by a cat tongue. What to do, what to do?

Well, if you’ve played your cards right and you live in Tokyo, all you have to do is hop down to your corner convenience store and pick up a pack of red bean and butter sandwich cookie snacks!

What next? Peanut butter and green tea?

Not Your Average Action Figure

While this One Piece Donquixote Donflamingo character could certainly whup your average GI Joe in a fashion showdown at high noon, I can’t quite imagine him as Barbie’s main squeeze…

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

Fan-Built Lego Of Japan

Complete samurai suit of armor, Horned Minifig clan. I especially enjoy that it is fully jointed.

I saw these fan-built designs on display at the Lego store in Odaiba!

Experience the failure to grab any prize in miniature – just like the real thing! – with this fully operational Alien Claw model.

Rollicking 3D action with this motorized whitewater raft, complete with robot, cat and maniac in the middle seat.

Anatomically correct Lego family WAT

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

Cupcake Contact Case

Just don’t get a craving for a midnight snack…

Whipped cream and chocolate were never things I looked for in a contact case, but once I saw these little bites of 20-20 goodness, I wondered why I ever settled for the plain old vanilla kind!

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

 

Your Very Own Tiny, Glowing, Pile Of Plastic Firewood

When it comes to selling miniature replicas of burning logs, nobody can beat Tokyu Hands. Yes, this patented FireWood(TM) product will have you on the edge of your seat as you pretend you’re drinking that whisky & soda out in the wild woods (although the illusion works a bit better if you’re the size of a GI Joe). Adding to the whoa-I-can-almost-smell-the-smoke verisimilitude, if you blow on the little electric logs in “Outdoor Mode,” the embers leap to life, even if you haven’t yet drunk enough to set your breath on fire. Whisky and batteries are apparently not included.

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

This Year’s Cherry Blossom Forecast

Yep, now that everyone’s hopes of an early spring have been crushed by the blooming plum trees getting their inevitable smothering in snow, it’s that time of year when the crystal ball gazers step in to predict the arrival of cherry blossom season.

This is serious business in Japan. All over the country, precious time off from work has already been booked for a few splendiferously pink days away, and the family is not going to be pleased if they’re paying mega-premium rates for hotels and train tix, just to see bare branches.

This year, it looks like it’ll be the conservative bettors who will be swanning around in a cloud of smug, at least in the Tokyo region. Barring any rogue polar vortexes, the buds are predicted to pop on the Monday AFTER the last weekend in March, and BEFORE the first weekend in April, thus disappointing those who were counting on global warming to deliver an early win.

You thought you’d seen the worst of it but…SURPRISE.

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

You May Call Me ‘Your Solar-Powered Highness’

Recent victim of pickpocket or dispenser of royal largesse? You decide.

For this week’s Wat-I-Don’t-Even Award, nothing beats this spectacularly useless figure of Her Royal Elizabeth-ness, which harnesses the mighty sun to power her royal wave. You may stock up on one in every color (that would be pink or royal blue) at Tokyu Hands in Ikebukuro.

(Okay, I know this product is not Japanese, but the fact that it’s for sale in Japan is SO Japanese, I just had to show you.)

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.

Forever Alone: Japan Version

A sign advertising One-Person Karaoke rooms, 3rd floor

In The Land of Group Harmony, doing things by yourself is almost un-Japanese. But because Japan is also the country which offers a hot spring resort for dogs, a store that only sells big red underwear for people over sixty, wine matched to your blood type, a club for people who gather in the park every weekend dressed like Elvis, and A Perfect Bar For Bananafish, it was only a matter of time before a few businesses began to cater to Forever Alones.

One Person Karaoke (in which you get a room to yourself and can belt out your favorite tunes as though you were in your very own shower, but with better back-up) and One Person Yakiniku (in which you are given a chair at a counter – so you don’t have to face an empty seat all night – and your own personal grill for cooking your meat just the way you like it) have joined the traditional venues of net cafés, ramen restaurants and comic book stores to make Forever Alones feel as though they aren’t, well, alone.

Of course there are still a few things that Japanese people would rather be boiled in hot tempura oil than do solo. Chief among them are:

#1: Going to Disneyland alone (okay, hard to argue with that one)

#2: Having a BBQ alone (perhaps they haven’t considered the More For Me aspect)

#3: Going to the beach alone (wouldn’t make ME reach for the hemlock, but since this is considered one of the top Japanese “romantic things to do on a date’” I guess I can see how it might not be top of the list for those without one)

#4: Watching fireworks alone (yeah, okay, kill me now)

#5: Going to a bar alone (which in Japan means drinking alone and going home alone, since everyone else is there with groups of friends and in no need of new acquaintances, so yeah, staying home and watching all three Lord Of The Rings movies back to back might be preferable).

On the other hand, in a world filled with social media, who’s to know you’re actually alone? You could always go by yourself and…

“And then she offered me the most delicious bite of sushi I’ve ever had…’”

Ahaha! Psych!

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix. Two bottom photos from http://portal.nifty.com/kiji/13080116...

Wait, Seriously, You Can Eat That?!

In case you were wondering if there is such a thing as too much information, take a look-see at this handy chart I spotted recently, hanging outside a “Don’t Waste Anything!” restaurant in Tokyo.

Although at first glance it looks like a biology quiz, when you discover it’s a diagram of where all the meats on the restaurant’s menu come from, you may wish it had stayed safely within the pages of your 10th grade textbook. This restaurant serves fifteen (count ‘em, fifteen!) different types of pork bits for the bargain price of ¥90 (less than a dollar) a skewer. For your dining consideration:

1: Pig head (Don’t ask. And don’t exercise your imagination too vigorously either.)

2: Tongue

3: Cartilage (esophagus, to be precise)

4: Heart

5: Liver

6: Intestines

7: More and different intestines

8: Diaphragm

9: Stomach

10: More stomach

11: Stuff around the intestines that isn’t intestines

12: Large intestine

13: Uterus (okay, I can no longer stifle the inner screaming)

14: Rectum (inner screaming X2)

15: Pigs feet

On second thought, perhaps a nice hind haunch of tofu…

Jonelle Patrick is the author of the Only In Tokyo mystery series, published by Penguin/Intermix.