-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

Hi everyone who enjoys reading TKE blog.
It’s time for the Giveaway 2011. First of all, thank you for those who kindly suggested to me what kind of prizes might be good the other day.

Please read the following guidelines carefully before you enter the contest.

=TKE Giveaway 2011 Guidelines=

Open: Thursday 30th June 2011 (This means if you read this post, it’s started!)

Close: Thursday 14th July 2011 at midnight (Japan Standard Time)
*The announcement of the winners will be around 16th-18th July or so.
NOTE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED! YOUR ENTRIES ARE INVALID NOW!!

How to enter: Fill out the contact form with your name, email address and subject as “TKE Giveaway 2011″ and your answers to the following questions. (Your URL is optional, which doesn’t really matter.)

Questions for you to answer
1) Do you have any problems when you browse TKE blog? (for example, it takes too much time for loading.)
2) What kind of post/category/page do you like most in TKE blog and why is that? *Multiple answer is OK. (for example, Japanese foods and Pi-chan.)
3) Are you interested in learning Japanese?
4) (If you’re learning Japanese) Do you prefer some posts both in English and Japanese?
5) Any suggestions to improve TKE blog?
6) Which do you prefer: Reading TKE blog or watching video blog on Youtube (assuming that I update more videos.)
(What do you honestly think of the idea that I less frequently update this blog and more active on Youtube instead?)
7) Which prize do you want if you win the contest?

What you can win?: See below.

***Please note your personal information is NEVER shared with anyone else, and the collected infromation is only to be used for this contest and should not be used for any other purposes.

FAQ
Q. Who can participate in the contest?
A. Anyone who read TKE blog can.

Q. What is the prize?
A. There are 7 options you can choose from, if you win the contest. (See below the post for more about the prize.)

Q. Can I enter by leaving my comment on this post?
A. No. To enter the contest, you have to write to me. If the contact form didn’t work, please simply email kirin at tokyokawaiietc.com (change at to @) with all the information required.

Q. Do I have to subscribe to TKE before I enter?
A. No, it doesn’t matter. Some people like to read through RSS, some like to Google “Tokyo Kawaii, etc.” Some bookmark it. It all depends what method you like to use to reach TKE blog. So I don’t want to insist that.

Q. How many winners?
A. 1) 2 winners for Best Contribution Prize. (USD 30+ worth)
(Each of them can choose 1 prize out of 7 options. I will make it flexible. For example, if one wants Japanese magazine prize, I can ask her which specific magazine she wants and I will get it for her.)

2) 1 winner for Thank You Prize. (USD 15 worth)
(Random pick up. No freedom and no flexibility of choosing the prize. However I will consider her No.7 answer and try to choose the goods from her preferences.)

Q. Who can win the Best Contribution Prize and Thank You Prize then?
A. 1) For Best Contribution Prize
It’s given to 2 participants who gave me the email that moved my heart/ gave me a big aha! moment/ most. Whether it’s positive or negative comment, if I find it a good opinion, the sender of the email will be the winner of this contest.

2) For Thank You Prize
It’s given to 1 participant selected by randam drawing.

Any more questions? Feel free to comment on this post or contact Kirin directly.
Good luck to you all!!

Prize from 7 options!
note: Each picture is only the image or the sample. Actual prize is not always the same thing as the one in the picture. As discussed, if you win the Best Contribution Prize, you have a chance to discuss with Kirin what you want.

Prize Option 1: Kawaii character goods (such as Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, Ghibli and etc…)

Prize Option 2: Kawaii zakka (such as Swimmer or 6% dokidoki or 300yen shop or Bleu Bleuet…you name it, there are just so many over here!)

Prize Option 3: Japanese magazine or book (such as KERA, egg, handcraft books and etc.)

Prize Option 4: Kawaii Bento box with chopsticks and Furoshiki (Furoshiki means a cotton cloth like this.)

Prize Option 5: Japanese toy, kawaii stationery or souvenir (such as cell phone strap, Fuurin, cute notepad, decoden goods, and etc.)

Prize Option 6: Japanese cosmetics (such as Dolly Wink, SBY, Canmake, and etc.) and hair accessory.

Prize Option 7: Kawaii socks, bag, or fashion item

I look forward to receiving many entries from you!
Thank you for your participation!
*(^0^)*(^w^)** GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!!**(^w^)*(^o^)*

Let me introduce authentic Japanese vegetable dish that we often like to have as a side dish.
You may have noticed that Japanese cuisine tends to be salty. Miso soup, grilled fish, Japanese pickles, dish seasoned with soy sauce, teriyaki, and etc. Hence it’s nice to have something sweet as a side dish.

So today, it’s simmered pumpkin. This recipe is made with a little bit of stronger taste. If you prefer lighter taste, please decrease a little bit more of soy sauce and sugar.

Ingredients for 2-3 people
-quarter cut pumpkin (350g)
-1 cup of water
-1tbs of soy sauce
-1.5 tbs of sugar

Pour water, sugar and soy sauce into the pot. Get rid of seeds and unnecessary part from the pumpkin and cut it into 3-4cm cubics. Then put them into the pot.

Place an “Otoshibuta” which means a lid resting directly on the food. (“Otoshibuta” is useful when we want to simmer vegetables or meats effectively.)

Keep simmering over medium-low heart for about 10 minutes until you see nearly no soup left.

As is always, you can use aluminum foil as a substitute for “Otoshibuta” if you don’t have it.

Done! (You see no soup left.)

Some people like it with soup. You can find your way.

Hope you like it. ^ ^ Again, many thanks to my friend Chika who always collaborate with me for the Japanese cooking posts!
Please feel free to request us if you want to know any specific Japanese home cooking recipes.

It’s been about 2 years since I wrote “Why Facebook is not that popular in Japan?“. But the situation has been changing since then, and I still receive comments to that post. So I think it’s high time I updated it with this post.

Twitter became popular first in Japan. (It’s easier to navigate and no need to use a real name.) It’s true it took a long time until Facebook became popular. But same as twitter, when some celebs or well-known figures start using it, TV or magazines start to feature it, and gradually people start using it. I must say the movie “The Social Network” is definitely a motivator or a trigger for the Japanese to try out Facebook. As is always the case with most of the foreign films in Japan, the movie was just released 15th Jan. 2011, while it was already sometime in 2010 in the U.S.

When I go to a party, I notice people are naturally talking about Facebook and exchanging their names to be added later for “friend”. It’s the change I can easily see today. Now when more and more people start using Facebook, people bring people. That’s how it’s getting popular.

But it’s possible the party is mixed with the locals and foreigners living in Tokyo. What if it was only Japanese? What if the party was not in Tokyo? I don’t know. Please look at the result that we can get from Google Insights for Search. You see the numbers of the term of Facebook searched in Japan are growing only recently. (What do the numbers on the graph mean?) Also, you see most of the searches are from Tokyo.

Facebook was available in Japan since 2008, but most of the Japanese naturally feel it’s scary to share a real name and face on internet because some stalkers could find someone to stalk from such information. (Sadly it’s not rare in Japan that women are killed by a stalker because they rejected him. Such incident is often reported by the media, and it’s actually very difficult to avoid the tragedy because the police cannot be a full-time body guard for the victim.) To protect ourselves, it’s natural for us, especially women, to use a nick name or avatar and a picture that does not show her face clearly, if it’s open for the public and anyone can take a look at it. Japan-born SNS such as mixi is more closed and thus it gives us a kind of protected feelings. Of course it never requires a real name for registration.

This is basically our culture. Hence I didn’t believe Facebook can be accepted by the majority of Japanese people no matter how popular it can be. No one wants to try something new in exchange for a risk of being involved in murder or any scary or negative experiences. User names and avatars are convenient tools for some bad-mannered people to be totally anonymous icon that can be really mean to others. Therefore, in Japan, to enter the conversation or online activity it’s safer to be in armor with fake name so one can blur his or her identity. This is the basic thought that majority of the Japanese naturally have consciously or not.

Why Japanese internet sphere has become so dangerous then?
In my opinion, it’s possible some bad-mannered people just try to get rid of their repressed feelings online that they could not have expressed in their real life. It’s our culture, we do not express our feelings very much in a social life and especially at work. Internet is a sweet lawless area to them where they can act and speak out things as they wished, which should not be allowed in a real life. In fact, I think you will be surprised how online message-board posts are active in Japan, while most of the Japanese hesitate to state their own opinion in their real life. People state their opinions very clearly, sometimes with very strong expressions and even includes personal attack, which must be possible with their identity hidden or blurred.

Online activity and real life: Some Japanese people do prefer these two worlds completely separated, so they can act 2 different characters in order to keep their mental balance.

On the other hand, when people find it safe enough to go by their real name on Facebook, I think Japanese facebook users will increase rapidly.

As for me, I still like to use my nickname as Kirin online. (For Facebook, Kirin Suzuki is my personal page and Tokyo Kawaii, etc. for the fan page of this blog.) After all I still like personal email exchanges a lot more than short chats or messages over social network.

Have you felt any difference in communication with Japanese Facebook users lately? Do you think we’ve become more active on Facebook? Or do you still find difficulties trying to get connected with your Japanese friends over Facebook?