Shop of the Day - DripMania !

Today's prize for Jinglish-titled shop goes to Dripmania, a coffee shop in Tokyo train station.


　 Although I didn't actually investigate this, I suspect that the owner is expressing the drip-filter only approach to coffe-making. This also exlains the slightly funny name of:

　 Cafes such as this one, which serve coffee prepared with a chemistry set, are popular (relative to Europe).


　
Also, you can get a tin foil-wrapped coffee-already in filter-which-hangs-off-the-coffee-mug:

　 Fairly smart, I thought.

Make Your Own Octopus Balls!

Octopus is popular all over Japan, but in Osaka it is a local favourite.

I was watching TV the other day, there were a couple of guys in waterproof gear on a small boat in Osaka bay. They were wafting a net-in-a-hoop around in the water.

Suddenly, the thing gets heavy. They yank it aboard, to reveal a squelching bright red octopus.

They start talking about "That's a really nice one!", "look at the scar he's got across his face", "how old do you think he is?". So, naturally, I believed it to be a nature program. Soon, they've hauled out another one, and they're trying to hold it by it's head, in order to not get squirted with something.

Now, one of the guys just litterally puts one of the smaller octopus' legs in his mouth, and tries to tear it off. When this doesn't work, he pulls out a knife (Japanese knives are generally very sharp), hacks off a good-sized mouthful, and starts comping away. The chewing looks like hard work. "The sucker pads are sticking to my tongue, but it feels nice". Then, the other guy grabs octopus nr 2, swiftly moves to the back of the boat, where he finds an appropriately-sized pot of boiling water. In plops nr 2. After a brief boiling alive, the knife comes out again, and everyone on board is making happy faces expressing the tastiness and freshness of the creature's legs. By this time I was certain it wasn't a nature program.

But, anyway, say you've already tried the local Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), and you want something more fun. But you're not yet ready to charter your own boat with boiling pot of water.
Also, getting into a place like this during lunchtime is a half hour wait. 　




　 So, how about...

...making your own takoyaki !

Now, a place with a big "octopus" sign is a good place to start.

　 Inside is fairly compact.


　 But firstly, order yourself a "childs beer".　


Which is actually very tasty fizzy apple juice - like appletizer.


　 Next, check out the menu.



　 And have a look at the instructions.


　 Ready?

OK, here is the teppan (iron plate), with conveniently ball-shaped indentations. Gas fired from below.



　 Pour the pot of gooey liquid over the plate, and plop one piece of octopus into each well:


Next, put some cheese in, then the Negi (spring onion) goes on top:


This is where the men get seperated from the boys. Using nothing more than a sharpened metal stick, you must twist the gelling gooey stuff into a ball, and flip it over. All in one fluid movement.



　Put some sauce on top (sweet sauce, which, in all honesty, is not the obvious choice for cheese and octopus), and - what's this?

A dried seaweed dispenser! The stick sticking out of it is the stopper.　


There you go!


Now, once you're done eating octopus balls, you can get yourself an octopus ball key chain which tells you your fortune!

Shake, then a random stick will come out of a hole in Mr Takoyaki's head, telling you the answer to your question, in the form of Very Good, Good, OK, Bad, or Very Bad.　

Alternatively, you can get an octopus with a somewhat ironic chef's headband:

Career Test

　 Now, here is a test:


Look at the picture below.


What do you see?


　 If by now you're not splitting your sides with laughter, you can be fairly sure that you're not an accountant. TAV is Tangible Asset Value, something widely discussed as part of the FinMay (Financial Mayhem).

Shop of the Day - Very Heaven

Now, say you're walking around Osaka, looking for somewhere cool, but...

...you're not ready for fugu sushi (puffer fish), just yet.


　 And getting some takoyaki (fried balls of octopus, cheese and gooey stuff) from the popular places in town could easilty take over half an hour:

Now, imagine if on top of that, it started to rain.

Well, in that case, you must head to...

...the giant Ebisu (big-eared, slightly deaf god of fishermen and good business) face:　

　 This shop is known as the Very Heaven Shopping Street.

Hang on - a shopping street?

Inside a building?

Let's check it out.

The queue isn't so bad:

Especially since there is a highly energetic guy telling us about all the salient features of the shopping street.


We get into the wallpapered lift, and go upstairs to...

A genuine fake old-school Japanese shopping street!


The level of detail is actually very good, with even telephone wires hanging down, and public announcement posters in carefully fake-aged colours.

The walls are particularly impressive, with detailed wear and stains from water running down the side.

　 There is even something of a bridge and underpass.

After a while, you forget that it's not nightime.






The shops, or stalls, sell a collection of stuff that makes you remember your childhood...

...assuming that you grew up in Japan some 40-50 years ago:
　

There is also a "street" museum.

Osaka is the home of the pot noodle ("Kapu Nouduru"). Momofuko Ando had the concept in 1957, and his company, Nissin foods, brought out the first pot noodle in 1971. The first flavour was chicken ramen. Unfortunately, the genius died in 2007 in Tokyo. Apparently, there is a genuine pot noodle museum somewhere in Osaka.

　 Osaka is also the birthplace of the dehydrated curry tablet (1926):

　 Here are some men fishing for tiny goldfish.

　 And here is Mr Ebisu himself.

Having your photo taken with him is very auspicious, especially for the start of spring.

　 Elsewhere, you can buy a variety of 1950's robots:　

　 It seems that kids were somewhat less demanding than nowadays.

Is it just me, or are all these robots basically the same?

You can also buy packets of sweets, in which there is one rogue (mega spicy) one. This used to be really popular amongst Japanese kids a long time ago.

　 If your Kanji (Japanese characters) need improving, get yourself some Kanji toilet roll. Every sheet has a different Kanji.

Nowadays, there is a Ninento DS game that is the modern equivalent, but a bit more convenient.
I tried some of this, pickled squid. 　


　 Actually, it is dried vinegar that once made a passing acquaintance with a squid.

If you've ever eaten a whole pickled onion in a London chippie, then that is mild relative to the squid.

I can see this being used as an effective (and cost-effective, only $0.45) way to stop people from falling asleep.

Now, they do sell Takoyaki here, but we're going to look into that in the next post.


　Instead, we are going to check out what vending machines there are on offer.

So, how about a...

...birthday newspaper printout vending machine !

　 Don't worry, this jump-suit clad cat will help you through the process:

Firstly put in your date of birth:　

Pay 300Yen ($3):

　 Wait a bit...

　 ...a bit more...

...ready !

Prints out beautifully (only the front page, though):　

Now, how to pay for all this excitement?

Why, with a cashless proximity-reader card !


　 And, what other cashier, but a kimono-wearing lady operating a touchscreen flat-panel computer?

As for what happened on my birthday in Japan - actually, not a great deal. I should have known as much.

There was an article about whether Japan should follow the US in boycotting the olympics since Russia invaded Afghanistan. The atheletes wanted to go, but the politicians wanted to follow America.

Another article about the shocking retirement packages that government officials were getting at the time, and that retirement pay for members of the parliament will get chopped by 10%.

But the most interesting was an article about Chirigami collectors. At the time, since inflation in the US was high, the price of chip pulp (the raw material for paper) had gone up 60% in half a year, to 29Yen per kilo. Chirigami, or "Torn Paper" is paper for recycling, mostly old newspapers. Due to the price rise, there was a boom in chiragami collection, and there were actually more people doing this than driving taxis.

There is also a bunch of adverts for books, including "The 4 Best Nudes", part of the World's Best Nudes Series, published by Giyaruzu Nau ("Girls Now").