Travel Back In Time To A Maid Cafe, Meet a 654 Year Old Waitress…

  • Illustration "THE SENGOKU MAID" by Matthieu Pellet, in Switzerland, from Gosh & Seiko

    Travel Back In Time To A Maid Cafe, Meet a 654 Year Old Waitress…

    He usually wakes up at 5 am, goes “to work” until noon, does some shopping and visits his favorite maid kissa, “The Mononopu” until midnight. Shunta is a frequent visitor of the “castle”. He has visited the samurai-maids for 5 years on a regular basis: “I come here almost every day.”

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    Java On The Run: The Choco-Brown “Big-Moon Coffee-Wagon”….Somewhere in Tokyo

    He started to sell a very interesting collection of coffee flavors out of a chocolate-coffee-brown van, the “Otsuki-Coffee-Van”, in which he organized all the steam machines and drip coffee.

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    A Nuclear Respite In Japan; The Buddha Of Fukushima Comes To Tokyo

    “Look around you. Do you think Tokyo needs nuclear electricity?” Naoto Matsumura, observing Tokyo life in Yurakucho, one day after all the nuclear power stations have been shut down in Japan, temporarily. Japan’s last operating nuclear power plant reactor went off yesterday, but only for maintenance. Japan had 54 reactors before the Fukushima Daiichi power [...]

  • An umbrella for every taste and occasion.

    The Lord Of Umbrellas. One かさ to rule them all. 晴雨兼用傘 (Dual Use Umbrellas A Must For The Rainy Season)

    if your country also has a “rainy-unpredictable” season, you should get a “sun & rain umbrella” (晴雨兼用傘/seiukenyogasa), the one umbrella to rule them all. In Japan, we found a store that sells an infinite selection of beautiful and colorful umbrellas. But they are not just ordinary. They protect the modern urban walker from the sun, as well as from the rain. They are UV proof and waterproof.

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    Graduation Day: Goodbye to 虐め (いじめ）？

    Child Bullying Cases Hit Record in Japan in 2011 Bullying is a big problem in Japanese schools. At school, in any country, including Japan, bullying victims are humiliated by other class mates. In Japan, the phenomenon is called ijime (虐め). The Japanese definition of ijime is very simple: “To inflict mental, emotional, or physical suffering upon [...]

"We're trying to run a clean business here, darn it."

Edible soap? Yakuza Arrested For Claiming Sex-Shop Payment Was For Dining

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Organized Crime Control Division General Affair Division (警視庁組織犯罪対策総務課） arrested three members of the Inagawa-kai, Japan’s third largest organized crime  group, on April 27th for computer fraud (電子計算機使用詐欺). According to police sources, the three gangsters were operating a sex shop establishment, called “soap-lands”  in Japan, and in October of 2010 processed [...]

No-No-Hair Summer: Time To Trim The Fur in Japan

and a short story about body hair and Tanuki (badger dogs)

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Children in Limbo: The Cruelty Of Single Parent Custody In Japan. In Japan, what happens to children after their parents divorce?

“There is no winner or loser, but the victims are always the children*,” said filmmaker David Hearn commenting on his recent documentary, From the Shadows, a work in progress. After divorce, Japan’s family court grants the custody to one parent only. It is the rule of the “single parent,” or the single custody. In cases [...]