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The video introduces what kind of toys are hot now inside and outside Japan!

Suffering from decreasing numbers of children, Japanese toy makers nowadays have to change target from kids to adult customers and foreign customers.

“Taikenou” (*caution: It makes sounds.) (2499yen) is a toy that allows us to have simulated experience of crime lab. The kit is not even a dummy, it’s exactly the same one that the examiners actually are using. There are several kinds of kits such as blood test, pH measurement kit, as well as the fingerprint detection kit introduced in the video.

“I-SOBOT” (*caution: It makes sounds after you choose your language.) is an expensive high tech robot (32,190yen) that is designed for adult customers to play with.

4D dissection puzzle and crystal puzzle are also popular. Above all, Choro-Q hybrid is overwhelmingly popular today. It recorded a huge hit with 200,000 sales from release.

Tamiya is the most famous plamodel toy company in Japan. There is a mini circuit on the 2nd floor of Tamiya plamodel factory in Shimbashi, Tokyo where salaried male workers drop by to play with their mini 4WD cars before they go back home. Most of them are the generation who played with mini 4WD car toys when they were kids. There are over 150 kinds of parts for modification to customize “my car”.

Foreigners also like Japanese toys, too. “Made-in-Japan” is regarded as a good brand in the U.S toy industry. Above all, Bakugan is bestselling in New York. Bayblade is so hot in Korea. They like to hold Bayblade tournaments from time to time.

Do you like Japanese toys?
I liked to play with Decotti from Takara Tomy. Same as kawaii, I don’t think it’s childish or silly for adults to play with toys like these. With kids, adults can enjoy more with these toys.

It’s high time for Sakura (cherry blossoms) songs in Japan~!!!

Let me break down above video with each song from Youtube.
Very new and popular Sakura song!
Sakura no Shiori/AKB48

Sakura Ame/JUJU

Sakurasaku/Kie Kitano

Sakurae/Yuzu

The Sakura songs young people like to listen to.
No.1 Sakurazaka/Masaharu Hukuyama

No.2 Sakura/Ketsumeishi

No.3 Sakura/Kobukuro

No.4 Sakura/Naotaro Moriyama

No.3 Sakura/FunkyMonkeyBabys

Others
Sakura/Ikimonogakari

When cherry blossoms start blooming, it’s likely to be the end of school year and fiscal year in Japan. That means, it’s the time to say good-bye to the classmates or coworkers who may join different school/class/working place from April. In Japan Feb-March to April is the season of sorrowing farewell in exchange for new encounters. (That’s why Sakura songs released during this period are likely hit!) Cherry blossoms are exactly the flowers in this period. They are not just beautiful to us. I think we definitely overlay our sensitive feelings or memories or expectations ( to see new people by the time the blossoms fall) on cherry blossoms. They are that special, and you’ll see there’s no wonder we LOVE Sakura songs! They are very much suitable as love songs!!

Unique Sample Cafe

LCAFE reopened December 2009 at Shibuya PARCO part1 B1 floor. If you ever have a chance to visit the cafe, never fail to register for the membership from your moble phone in advance. According to what you order to eat or drink at the cafe space, you can get tokens(Lcoins) to be echanged for novelties or small sample products.

For example, 1 Lcoin can be exchanged for either of the Bihada Ichizoku’s foot mask or the hand mask. Even a cat food can be exchanged for 1 Lcoin.
You can get 3 Lcoins per lunch. If you take lunch 10 times at this cafe, you can get 30 Lcoins and that can be exchanged for a watch that is originally priced 15800yen. (USD158)

Unique Student Nail Salon

Students from a nail school need practice, while there are people who are happy with nail decorations at discounted price. That’s what this new type of nail salon is for. That’s where students from the nail school do nails for discounted prices and the customers receive not-bad level of finish or decoration (although not perfect) by paying less.

Having said that, the student nailists at the salon are all those who have passed the exams of the nail school. When a professional nail salon requires 8925yen for the course introduced on TV for example, this student nail salon does 4700yen only. When finished, the student nailist gets advice from the professional. It’s good they can still get compensation from such experimental salon.

***Please ignore the last part of the video that has nothing to do with the salon.

Kirin’s opinion:
I’m quite interested in such new type of stores of new concepts! There are variety of ways of thinking and value that we have, and so the businesses should not stick to the ordinal ways. Collaborations made by more than 2 different industries or services sometimes can result in win-win outcome. XD

As per the request from Leasy, one of my blog reader, let me sum up the most popular singers in Japan these days. This kind of ranking always changes, and this may differ next month.

No.1 KAT-TUN
“Love Yourself -君が嫌いな君が好き- (kimi ga kirai na kimi ga suki)”

No.2 Nana Mizuki
“Silent Bible”

No.3 Pornograffitti
“瞳の奥をのぞかせて(hitomi no oku wo nozokasete)”

Information source is ORICON. I skip a fad song on purpose. I’ve gotta go now…I’m leaving for Osaka to see my grandma! I’ll share with you my trip to Osaka when I’m back. Your comments or emails maybe read after that. (^ ^)/~~

*Disclaimer: The original content is quoted from MSN Japan.

Have you heard that it’s a distortion of a body that makes us fat!?
Even if you don’t care about fat or overweight, you’re not happy to live with stiff shoulders, backache, or constipation, are you?
First of all, you can learn if your body is distorted or not. If your answer is yes to any one of the followings, then your body (especially pelvic bone) is very possibly distorted.

test 1
-Somehow the skirt you are wearing turns round while you walk.
-Only one side (inside or outside) of the soles of your shoes worn out.
-You have severe menstrual pain.
-You sleep on your stomach, or on your side.
-You’ve been told that your face looks asymmetry.

If you have one or more of Yes to above, your body is distorted!
(Sadly I am!)
Now how about another test?

test 2
Stand in front of a full-length mirror, close your eyes and step there for 10 seconds.
Then open your eyes, trying to keep relaxed, but quickly check if the hight of the followings are located in good balance.

-the eyebrows
-the ears
-the shoulders
-the knees
-and the length of the arms.

So what can you do to the distortion and lose weight (fat) after all?
That’s what Makudake diet (巻くだけダイエット) is for.
Only wrap a band around your sidebone to set the pervic bone right positioned, and wait for 3 minutes! Do this everyday, and one month later you will find you have lost 2-3kg, according to them.

This is Makudake diet and is very hot now in Japan now!
But as long as I check the book review from Amazon.co.jp, it’s just OK…
But if you are interested in, the photo below is from the book.

I remember long time ago, it got popular to band tape around fingers and lose weight. I tried that, but I could not keep that because at work I had to show my fingers in front of our customers. To continue that diet method, the best thing was to do that as long hours as possible. When we spend most of time at work, how could I keep that? Then I stopped it.

BTW, do you remember my post about rubbing fat to move it to the breasts? One of my friends kept doing that and she said to me, it really worked!!

Is there any diet that is very popular in your country? Anything that you recommend or share with us? What do you think of low-carbohydrate diet? I once went successful with it, but since I heard it’s not effective to stop eating enough amount of rice and instead eat meat well, I stopped my diet and got fat again…:(