Christmas and New Year are over, so it’s already time to look towards the next big public (and commercial) holiday: Valentine’s Day.

Regular readers will know that February 14th in Japan is a bit different, since traditionally on that day it is the women who give chocolate to the men, who then reciprocate on March 14th (known as White Day).

Quirks like that aside, Japanese retailers and chocolatiers pull out all the stops for the two dates, so you will see lots of interesting takes on the usual box of chocolates. This is concurrent with the growing trend we are seeing in Japan for luxury and bean-to-bar chocolate.

Nendo, the design unit led by Oki Sato, has teamed up with BbyB., which sells gourmet Belgium chocolate crafted by Michelin-star chef Bart Desmidt and master chocolatier Jan Verleye.

If you buy only one box of chocolate with snazzy packaging this year, make it this one, available exclusively in four colors from BbyB. Ginza and select department stores, from January 20th to February 14th.

Opening in late 2014 as BbyB.’s first outlet in Japan, the striking BbyB Ginza store was also created by nendo to the delight of design blogs worldwide.

Since February 14th is about giving to the guys in Japan, nendo’s BbyB. chocolates feature a “masculine” look inspired by design plans.

On top of the four variations of boxes, the collections themselves are also curated by nendo and BbyB. into two types. Each set includes 10 differently flavored chocolates and retails for ¥2,700 ($22).

After American street artist DAAS stunned us with his vibrant burial mound-inspired mural in Takatsuki, here’s another example of superb recent street art in Japan.

While a lot of great street art can be found in Japan’s urban landscape, you will need to head to the countryside in Gifu to see this mural by Japanese artist Roamcouch.

As Street Art News says, it depicts “a dreamy gondola ride featuring his trademark stars and whimsical children.” The whole mural is created to look like a large oil painting has been hung on the wall of the building.

The mural is located on a warehouse on a levee, transforming a necessary disaster-prevention facility into a colorful landmark for the community. Since Japan is full of such manmade structures intended to combat the perils of nature, Roamcouch points to a great way to make these inevitable facilities more fun and interesting for residents.

Measuring 6 x 5 meters, Roamcouch spent six months preparing and used 250 stencils to complete the mural.

Everywhere around the globe has been going Star Wars crazy due to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

This is especially the case in Japan, though, which saw an array of merchandise and exclusive products throughout 2015, as well as traditional folding screen paintings with Buddhist motifs get a Star Wars revamp, the skies fill up with Star Wars airplanes, and crowds flock to a hugely successful exhibition in Roppongi.

Another “Star Wars” exhibition recently at Sogo department store in Yokohama also proved a hit, attracting over 70,000 visitors and selling ¥160 million’s worth of merchandise and tickets.

Japan enjoys a special relationship with Star Wars. The franchise’s characters have frequently been the faces of advertising campaigns for various brands and corporations (going back to that unlicensed 1978 canned tuna TV commercial with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker dueling with light sabers), not to mention the fact that George Lucas famously drew a lot of the inspiration and source material for Star Wars from Japanese history, culture and cinema. Unsurprisingly, like elsewhere in the world there is a whole subculture of Star Wars mega-fans in Japan, plus Japan even got its own special trailer of The Force Awakens that contained then unseen footage.

That being said, Yo-Kai Watch managed to keep the new movie off the top slot of the local box office, even as its shoots up the ticket sales records around the globe.

Perhaps we can consolidate ourselves with this awesome Japan-exclusive item: Star Wars 3D Rubik’s Cube BB-8.

As the name suggests, this really is a Rubik’s Cube in a BB-8 shape, complete with moving and rotating parts.

And when you are done with the puzzle, the set includes a base so you can stand BB-8 on your desk or shelf as a regular model or ornament.

The BB-8 Rubik’s Cube is currently on preorder and will be available in late February.

Not such a fan of the new movie droid but love the old ones? No sweat. There is also this R2-D2 version of the Rubik’s Cube.

The surprise smash hit event of 2015 in Tokyo was the Shunga Exhibition, the first such large-scale public showing of erotic prints in Japan.

200,000 people packed the tiny Eisei Bunko Museum over the 85 days of the exhibition, which was based on the British Museum exhibition (2013-14) that had pulled in around 90,000 in London.

The exhibition closed on December 23rd but if you’re still hungry for shunga you can catch it in Kyoto from February 6th to April 10th at Hosomi Museum.

It brings together shunga (literally, spring picture) woodblock prints from museums in Japan and Europe, as well as private collections. The erotic art includes masterpieces by the likes of Utagawa Utamaro and Katsushika Hokusai.

Some of the exhibits will be changed for the Kyoto leg of the tour. Tickets cost ¥1,500 on the door or ¥1,300 in advance, though if you’re under 18 do not expect to be allowed in.

The exhibition ignited a public debate about censorship and nudity in the Japanese press and led to a tabloid editor losing his job after he published a famous shunga print. Police also gave cautions to weekly magazines against printing the historical prints.

Japan’s century-old obscenity law is usually interpreted as forbidding the depiction of nudity. The rule applies to both mainstream culture and entertainment, and also even pornography. Lower-body nudity is digitally blurred, though this has been circumvented at times for certain comedic scenes and some famous examples of “hair nude” photo-books released by popular actresses (this was especially a trend in the 1990s).

In the past we have seen police pressure public art museums not to show full-frontal nudity, and even a well-known photographer and gallerist arrested (but not charged) for depicting male nudity. Meanwhile, Megumi Igarashi’s troubles with police over her use of genitalia motifs in her work are now internationally famous.

Despite the kudos of the London show, the organizers were rejected by 20 venues in Tokyo before the Eisei Bunko agreed to take the risk of exhibiting the legally dubious artworks. The gamble paid off in terms of attendance — and the Kyoto exhibition is surely expected to be equally successful — but will this lead to long-term changes in Japan about the depiction of sexuality?

Moff is based in Tokyo but has its sights firmly on the global market. Its wearable smart toy Moff Band was released internationally after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014.

Now it has previewed an updated version, which promises to “transform the way you play the classic Pac-Man game”.

Partnering with Bandai Namco to borrow the Pac-Man video game franchise, CEO Akinori Takahagi recently launched the awkwardly named Pac-Man Powered by Moff at CES 2016 in Las Vegas.

The “gamified fitness app using innovative wearable technology” is set to arrive in spring this year, though details are slim at present.

It’s not clear if Pac-Man Powered by Moff will be released only in Japan first or go global straightaway. We’ll keep you posted.

Moff is part of a fast-growing new generation of globally minded start-ups using international platforms like CES and South by Southwest to launch innovative digital products. These include H2L and their Unlimited Hand haptic wearable controller, and Shikumi Design’s futuristic musical instruments. Another prominent startup, LogBar, though, has attracted controversy and criticism for its marketing for the ili translation device and the quality of its much-hyped Ring product.

If you’ve been to Japan you’ve seen them: Brightly lit vending machines with rows of beverages lined up, each facing the passerby and beckoning to be sampled. Maybe you’ve noticed the coffee options as well. Where I’m from drinking coffee out of a can, never mind a hot can, sounds crazy. Yes, that’s right, in the cooler months of the year these things give you the option of coffee, tea, and more in a warm can. Sounds awful right? Maybe not.

I’m a coffee lover. I relish the chances I get to try new types of coffee, visit new shops, and talk coffee. Sometimes I can’t wait to go to bed just so that I can wake up and drink that first cup. I’ve worked behind as espresso machine for years and I currently spend my time harassing baristas in third-wave coffee shops about their java. Yes, I love coffee, but I’m not a coffee snob. Canned coffee from Japan has a special place in my heart.

Many of my coffee loving friends have been shocked by the contents of these cans. The most surprising part for them being that it’s not bad. It’s surprisingly inoffensive. It’s fine. We all expect it to taste tinny, sour, old, or strange. But it doesn’t. It’s perfectly passable and often is a better option than the coffee chain choices. It’s incredibly consistent and it’s certainly cheaper. There aren’t the same surprises you might encounter at some cafes where a green aproned staff member didn’t measure things correctly and you get a watery cup of joe. Though I prefer other types of coffee they aren’t always available, or sometimes I just need the caffeine.

I decided to try the most common black canned coffee options in Tokyo area and compare them. I tried really hard to pick out any distinguishable flavors and anything else that stood out. Sure, this whole thing is a little tongue in cheek, but I also took it as seriously as I could. So, here are my notes on 4 different companies’ canned black coffee. All ratings are on a scale of 1 to 5 and they overall score is based only against other canned coffees.

Kirin Fire Black

This can boasts that there are only fresh beans from Columbia used in their coffee. I doubt that all the beans came from the same farm, so I’m assuming that it’s a Columbian blend. I couldn’t detect much of an aroma from this can but found it smooth and easy to drink. There was very little going on in this coffee. It had a very mild coffee flavor and a lingering cocoa aftertaste. If I concentrated really hard I could pick up a faint raspberry taste in the acidity. There is nothing at all offensive about it. Totally drinkable.

Premium Boss Black

Boss seems to change it’s black coffee recipe relatively often and give it a series of different ambitious names. I’m glad that this time around it doesn’t contain trace amounts of silicone like their Relaxing Black series. I was assured that it was safe to drink, but that didn’t make it any more appealing. Premium Black Boss has a faint apricot aroma. Aside from that there wasn’t too much notable about this coffee. It’s pleasant though, and has a faintly sweet lingering aftertaste. It has a medium body and a very mellow flavor.

Tully’s Barista Black

Tully’s is a cafe chain in Japan that stands out among it’s competitors because the staff actually makes the coffee there. There aren’t just automatic machines that spit out coffee-drink with the push of a button. That’s rare these days in the corporate world of coffee. Their canned coffee stands out the most in this group, but not for good reasons. The first whiff out the can smells of beef jerky. I gave it a moment to recalibrate my senses and gave it another go. Unmistakably beef jerky. Beef jerky and spices. This coffee is a lot fuller in body than the others, but is roasted a bit darker. The flavor of the roast overpowers most everything else. The aftertaste is strictly char. If you like your coffee smokey, then this one is for you.

Georgia European Black

I’ve seen a lot of ads for this coffee lately. People are presented a cup of coffee and then later are surprised that it came from a can. I think those people are all actors. Maybe my nose was doing really well when I tried this coffee but it had the most complex aroma of the bunch. Hints of cinnamon, brown sugar, even orange are present. The most distinguishing flavor from this can was it’s faint sweetness. Almost like a slightly burnt caramelized sugar. the aftertaste was a long lingering char flavor. A little more complex coffee than Tully’s, but just as darkly roasted. There’s really nothing wrong with this canned option.

At the end of the day all of these coffees are mass produced beverages specifically designed to be unmemorable. If any of their flavors were too strong or too interesting then it would probably only attract a small group of potential customers. There aren’t too many major differences among them, regardless of what the ads may claim. That being said, it’s pretty amazing how OK they all are. It’s very easy to make bad coffee, and I’m sure we’ve all had our fair share. Somehow this aluminum encased joe doesn’t quite deserve a negative label. Japan’s canned coffee options are a safe bet for that extra jolt you need to keep moving around this amazing country.

This article by Adriana Mazza first appeared on Tokyo Cheapo.

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Boroichi Market: Intangible Folk Cultural Asset

There’s something pretty magical about an intangible folk cultural asset, isn’t there? It relies on collective initiative and long-lasting enthusiasm that transcends generations.

Well, you can experience just that kind of magic at Setagaya’s Boroichi Flea Market, which has been going strong for over four centuries and with no end in sight.

The market takes place twice a year, once in January (on the 15th-16th) and again in December. It grows bigger each year (with over 200,000 expected visitors per day) and boasts a friendly and lively atmosphere — families, tourists, cheapos, vagrants, all welcome.

Photo by Adriana Mazza

See, Do, Eat

Head on over to peruse the 700+ stalls selling a mish-mash of antiques, trinkets, household wares, leather goods, greenery and more. You’ll also be privy to some good old weird stuff, like creepy mannequin heads and taxidermy turtles…

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Boroichi Flea Market is more than just stall-hopping, though — you’ve got tons of good eats options. One street is strictly dedicated to yatai (food stalls) serving up some classic Japanese food like okonomiyaki, yakisoba and takoyaki. Beer abounds as well, however we recommend going to the non-alcoholic route and trying amazake — a traditional Japanese drink made from fermented rice (right before it turns into alcohol) that dates back to the Kofun Period. It’s sweet and served piping hot — an absolute delight on a chilly day. You’ll find amazake vendors every few stalls, just keep an eye our for a bubbling cauldron, you can’t miss it.

Once you’re topped off belly-wise, go ahead and dabble in some typical carnival games — to be enjoyed by both kids and adults!

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Head on over if you:

-Need a day away from central Tokyo and want to be a part of a small piece of Japan’s cultural history;

-Want to satiate your cheapo needs by picking up souvenirs, household items and much more for a steal;

-Are interested in a photo op with the aforementioned weird stuff (#instagramtastic).

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Photo by Adriana Mazza

Read more, including a map, on Tokyo Cheapo

Okay, Wacky Japan alert… but this is quite fun, in a very cheeky way, and also might just be worthy of closer investigation. After all, here is a product that will not only turn heads, it might even get you arrested or at the very least send overseas blogs into overdrive.

The Upskirt Umbrella has been attracting a ton of buzz online, originating from a Rocket News 24 piece. While we don’t agree with the allegations that this is “a thing” or the “latest bizarre trend” in Japan, we also cannot deny that it does tap into a certain subculture and fetish that is clearly alive and kicking.

As Japan Trend Shop (who are offering it for international orders) say:

The Upskirt Umbrella (or An-burera, a play on the words for “underpants” and “umbrella”) by Million Girls Project might be the most original umbrella you ever buy. Please just be careful not to get arrested when using it, though! The Upskirt Umbrella is a very tongue-in-cheek spin on Japan’s reputation for turning schoolgirls into sex objects. Well, it might not improve that image but it certainly makes for a novel way to keep the rain off your head!

How does it work? You open up the umbrella canopy. While the front shows an innocent moe character — enough of an embarrassment for some, you may think — the inside shows what the creators imagine her panties look like!

In other ways, the user has their own private viewing up the character’s skirt.

There are even two versions, each with a different female character and panties. There is a stripy panties design and a “swimming costume” one, in case you’re especially fussy about such matters.

So the Upskirt Umbrella is a fringe item made as part of a tongue-in-cheek project. It was buried in the corner of stores in districts like Akihabara until it was discovered on social media. And so a “trend” is born. No, these are not “becoming popular”, nor are they the “latest craze”. But the product does have some interesting implications.

In Japan, this kind of “up-skirt panties view” fetish is known as panchira, and its existence is at least one of the reasons why phone cameras in Japan had to be fitted with a “shutter” sound effect.

It could be just creepy — and it is, with plenty of local men making the news each year when they get arrested for sneaking shots up girls’ panties on trains or escalators, or even by hiding in a storm drain — but there is something bigger at play here beyond the tabloid sleaze.

For example, here is adidas in Japan also lending mainstream cachet to panchira through an advertising campaign.

And this Rock ‘n’ Roll Panty video shows what happens when “the sounds from various instruments are fed into a dedicated device which pumps the sounds from large speakers and also generates wind by strong resonances. The wind is used to blow the skirt up and so you can have a peek at a pair of panties!” Of course, you might well just respond: But why?

And then there is this “schoolgirl flip-skirt” calendar that has become a cult favorite.

We will leave it to the cultural anthropologists to debate fully, but this obsession with panchira might well reveal a deep-seated fixation on what is forbidden and concealed, in a highly codified nation replete with hidden rules at almost level (social, professional, political) that work to restrict individuals.

On a lighter note, what is it about Japan and umbrellas? There never seems to be any shortage of fun designs out there, from upside down ones to lettuce-themed ones, Mt Fuji-style ones and even animal tail designs.

Half British, half Japanese. That alone would set Hana Tajima apart from most, but she is also a Muslim convert (at the age of 17) and a fashion designer and blogger.

Tajima has teamed up fast fashion retailing giant UNIQLO to create a new range of clothing aimed at Muslim women.

A New Style of Comfort, as the range is subtitled, “fuses modern designs with traditional values and superlative comfort”. It includes everything from “elegant pants and flowing, breezy dresses to the iconic hijab, kebaya and jubbah”.

Already a success in other parts of Asia following its launch in summer last year, we wonder when the range will come to Japan. It would make for a smart tie-in with the booming numbers of tourists Japan is experiencing, many of whom are coming from Muslim nations like Malaysia and Indonesia. Any trip to a large UNIQLO store in central Tokyo now finds you surrounded by Asian tourists shopping for clothes.

This is how Tajima describes herself and her work:

There is a strange juxtaposition of cultures in my life and I’m constantly looking for that strange beauty in what I design. There is a side of me obsessed with simplicity and the beauty of the unseen that is very Japanese, and then this rebellious, rather eccentric aspect that comes out of my experiences growing up in England.

Ahead of the range’s launch in the UK in March, Britain’s Channel 4 News recently spoke with Tajima about her work, calling her “the fashion designer redefining the hijab”.

As Tajima says, there is a huge potential industry waiting to be exploited by designers and retailers, though conservative Muslims would criticize “hijab couture” as running counter to the very point of such items as the hijab (to preserve modesty) and is even capitalizing on faith.

The controversy over the new National Stadium to be built for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics rolls on and on.

After Kengo Kuma’s design was chosen in the second contest that became necessary when Zaha Hadid’s divisive design was scrapped due to its escalating budget, then came anger and accusations from his predecessor that his design was a blatant plagiarism of hers.

There was speculation at the time that Hadid’s firm had been made the scapegoat since the design itself did not have to be expensive; it was actually the construction costs being handled by administrators that were spiralling out of control. With design adjustments and other choices, the cost could arguably have been managed.

No one on the 2020 organizing committee (which includes the renowned blunderer former prime minister Yoshiro Mori) nor on the Japan Olympic Committee board resigned over the affair and everyone, from the wizened design judges (including Tadao Ando) to the central government, Olympic committee and Tokyo governor pointed the proverbial finger at the other.

Hadid’s efforts to revive her design came to naught. The second design was chosen quickly in order that construction could start and still finish in time for the 2020 Games. (The 2019 Rugby World Cup, a pet product of Mori’s and which was one of the reasons to justify demolishing the old stadium and building a new, larger one in the first place, will not be hosted in the stadium.)

Hadid immediately noted the striking similarities between Kuma’s design and hers, which was selected in 2012 and unveiled to a mixed response. “Like a bicycle helmet” was a common refrain. (Kuma’s has already been dubbed a “hamburger”.) “A dull, slow form, like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away” was how famed architect Arata Isozaki described it in late 2014. The Pritzker-winning Hadid is famously outspoken and gave a typically feisty reaction: the Japanese architecture community was simply aggrieved that a foreigner had been awarded the prestigious contract.

It seems that what she said came back to haunt her. The powers that be shut the doors on the process leading up to the second design choice, which was naturally a Japanese one.

After the announcement, Hadid sent a report to the Japan Sports Council detailed the alleged plagiarisms. She then also recently came out with fresh allegations that final payments were being withheld by Japan Sports Council from her and her subcontractors unless she agreed to what is effectively a gagging order and also to give up her copyright. This, she claimed, indicated that indeed Kuma’s design was essentially plagiarizing the work her firm had done.

Now Kengo Kuma has come forward to put his side of the story to the press.

“In the design, I would like to say there are no similarities at all,” Kuma told reporters.

“The conditions set for the competition mean that automatically some similarities emerge,” he said, adding that “the concept is completely different, so it is absolutely a different building, despite the similarities”.

The Olympic organizing committee also recently reported that the original budget for hosting the Games would not be adequate. The actual budget could be as much as six times the original estimate! For an Olympics bid that marketed as compact and ecological, so far the Games have been nothing but excess and failure.

(On a side note, the Japanese press has consistently referred to Zaha Hadid in Japanese as “Miss Zaha”, rather than use her surname. Given the amount of controversy, money and other issues at stake here, this is a minor gripe, but this always infuriates us when we see it.)

Gatebox is a “hologram communication robot” that integrates with a smart home.

Developed by Japan’s Vinclu Inc and apparently the first of its kind, Gatebox can converse with you, turn on appliances, wake you up, and more. The hologram sits inside a kind of blank box and can also monitor your appearance and mood.

This being Japan, the hologram comes in the form of a cute female character in a short skirt and speaks in an annoying childish voice. (Needless to say, the makers’ demonstration features the hologram interacting with a male user.) The hologram character is called Hikari Azuma and has been designed by Taro Minoboshi, one of the creators of the successful “Love Plus” dating SIM game series.

The video also hints that the hologram and user can touch and even get intimate. In the future, not only will holograms and robots link into the Internet of Things to form one technology system for living — but they will also replace the wife!

This is just a concept at the moment so we should wait for the working prototype before passing judgement. Nut you have been warned: the future is apparently very moe.

Woman Act is a slightly awkwardly named Kanagawa Prefecture initiative aimed at bringing “women more and more into the main role”.

A worthy cause, we would all agree, in Japan’s acutely patriarchal (and gerontocratic) society.

However, Kanagawa decided to promote the project with a website and front image showing an all-male panel of corporate presidents. Quite a way to contradict yourself.

Given the name and the purpose of the initiative, you might expect to see at least some — or even just one — female face on the first page of the website. Instead, the visitor gets 11 men. One of them is Carlos Ghosn, the French-Lebanese-Brazilian CEO of (Yokohama-based) Nissan, who thus supplies the closest thing the image has to diversity.

“The power of women is the greatest latent force in Japan today,” the website says. Yes, so latent that even this campaign cannot show it.

The men are presented as the “Kanagawa Support Group for Activating Women”, which is certainly a patronizing title if ever there was one.

Kanagawa, with its bevy of influential and exciting places like Yokohama and Kamakura, must have lots of interesting female role models for the organizers to highlight. Surely they could have found some actual women to join this male supporters, as well-intentioned as they likely are.

As Quartz comments, “judging by what the Kanagawa government is offering up, even that may be too ambitious.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made quite a PR blitz out of his “womenomics” schemes. His National Act Plan to “get women to shine” was meant to involve filling 30% of all management positions with women by 2020. This would, he claimed, help boost the national economy out of the doldrums. This relatively modest target has now been downgraded to a mere 7% by 2021.

Currently just 3.5% of senior government jobs are held by women. Another of Abe’s goals is to increase the female labor participation rate by 5% for women aged 25 to 44. Closing the gender employment gap could seriously boost domestic GDP, but at present 70% of women quit full-time work when they have a child, not least because there is a chronic shortage of childcare facilities in Tokyo and elsewhere, and there are also few financial incentives.

Men are paid 28% more than women on average. Men and women in Japan are also not allowed to retain separate surnames when they marry, despite recent legal challenges.

And while the Crown Prince of Japan only has a daughter, Aiko, she will never ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne. Instead, her younger male cousin will succeed Naruhito.

While Japanese TV and history is filled with many people we would likely label LGBT, the issue of same-sex marriage in Japan has been almost taboo until recently.

However, following the decisions by Shibuya and Setagaya wards in Tokyo to offer de-facto legal recognition, same-sex marriage and LGBT rights are headline news.
Disneyland Tokyo and a Kyoto temple are just some of the places now offering wedding services, while two celebrity women held a “wedding” in spring 2015 for the media to publicize the issue.

Now along comes Equal Wedding Japan, offering traditionally flavored wedding experiences for same-sex couples. Operated by an Osaka-based wedding planning firm, it claims to offer the world’s first traditional Japanese wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. (Moreover, there is full English support too, which isn’t surprising given that the LGBT community in Japan is highly international.)

The kimono-themed weddings are reasonably priced compared to most wedding events in Japan, starting at $4,500, though the plan does not include the meal for you and your guests. (Of course, we should point out that, like heterosexual weddings ceremonies and events in Japan, these are non-legally binding “parties”.)

There are four packages, currently only available in the Kansai region.

The “Japanese traditional wedding” plan “weaves the sacred shinden, shrine maidens, and gagaku into a dreamlike ceremony”.

For a more theatrical style, you can opt for a “Noh wedding”, which takes place on a Noh stage.

The “Machiya wedding” takes place in a “uniquely Japanese guest-house… with a century of venerated history”.

Of course, this is a same-sex wedding service so there is very wisely also a campier choice too: the “samurai wedding” clocks in at $10,000 but lets you and your partner “be the stars of your own epic film”! There is even some ninja training thrown.

And to be clear, this truly is an “equal wedding” service: it’s not just for same-sex couples.

Just under a year ago, Shinjuku Station was taken over by 100,000 “pop-able” bubbles as a promo for the PlayStation game Dragon Quest.

Once again Dragon Quest will be hijacking the same underground concourse at Shinjuku Station, this time to promote the new game Dragon Quest Builders game.

Appropriately for the latest game in franchise, this time it’s not “Slime” character bubbles but building blocks.

There will be 180,000 mini blocks on the 80-meter wall in Shinjuku Station Metro Promenade (between the Marunouchi Line and Alta), forming a colorful, interactive Dragon Quest mural. Passersby can remove the blocks and take them away with them.

As the days of the campaign go by, the 3D block mural will gradually disappear more and more, bringing the poster underneath into view.

A random 300 of the blocks feature a QR code that will allow you to download special campaign wallpaper graphics. (QR codes remain popular tools in Japanese marketing.)

The “Shinjuku Jack” wall started on January 25th and lasts until January 31st, though the blocks can only be removed until 17:00 on January 28th (the day the game is released in Japan).

They upped the numbers this time because frenzied fans popped all the 100,000 Slime bubbles within one day in last year’s campaign. How long will the blocks last for the new promo wall?

We’ve seen a surge in these kinds of cleverly interactive physical pop-up campaigns in Tokyo. Last year, Parco hosted a Google Music “sound billboard”.

Later this year, the Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic Games kick off. After they are finished, the handover event during the Rio closing ceremony will then see the clock really start ticking down to the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

A group of eight production consultants for the handover ceremony have been announced, including pop diva Ringo Sheena, Perfume’s choreographer Mikiko, former synchronized swimming Olympian and Tokyo Games ambassador Mikako Kotani, Paralympic shooter Aki Taguchi, and a Dentsu “creator”.

“I hope to fulfill my job as a consultant in helping showcase Tokyo as well as Japan (to the world),” Sheena was reported as saying.

Sheena is a pop singer with an edgy and sexy style, but isn’t above participating in the mainstream establishment. She previously wrote the official song for NHK broadcaster’s coverage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. There has been no announcement if Sheena is actually performing herself at the handover ceremony, though it would surely be a waste of her talents if not.

Given Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s well-known fondness for idol groups like AKB48 and Momoiro Clover Z, many expected a spectacle similar to that of the ASEAN gala banquet hosted by Japan in 2013, when Exile and AKB48 took to the stage to entertain the region’s leaders.

However, given AKB48 head honcho Yasushi Akimoto’s involvement with the Tokyo Olympic executive board, we can probably still expect at least one of his girl groups to be present at the 2020 Opening Ceremony.

“It will be a tall order to squeeze everything into eight minutes,” Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said. “But I hope we can offer some highlights about Japan that will give the world an idea of what our country is up to.”

“Something like this cannot be left to amateurs. We need experts as well as those who have experienced the Olympics and Paralympics to get this right.”

Mori’s comments may make our eyes roll, since so far there has been little but amateurish pratfalls from the geriatric organizing committee.

All eyes will be on the handover ceremony as it will not only offer a hint as to what we might expect for the 2020 Opening Ceremony, but also mark Tokyo’s first real public test to prove it can handle the task of hosting the Games, following the disaster of the withdrawn logo and scrapped national stadium design.

Ginza Mitsukoshi has opened the first airport-style duty-free store in Japan. The only place in Japan that has previously been allowed to host such retail facilities outside of airports is Okinawa, which is home to a large number of United States military bases and is a popular destination for tourists from nearby China and Taiwan.

Occupying 3,300 square meters, Japan Duty Free Ginza opened on the eighth floor of the Mitsukoshi Ginza department store on January 27th.

The store sells items from such fashion brands as Boucheron, Valentino, Saint Laurent, Vacheron Constantin, Roger Dubuis and Albion, as well as high-end traditional crafts and other souvenirs.

In the same way as an airport duty-free store (one of the corporations behind the management firm is a subsidiary of Narita’s NAA Retailing), products are available at duty-free prices, excluding not only consumption tax but also custom duties, liquor tax, and cigarette tax.

The store also allows customers to purchase items and then pick them up at Haneda or Narita airports when they depart the country.

The organizers are forecasting 2,000 visitors per day and hope it will lead to other duty-free outlets in Tokyo.

Not only foreign visitors, Japan residents planning to leave the country within a month are also allowed to purchase duty-free items at the store.

Inbound tourism to Japan, and especially Tokyo, is experiencing an unprecedented boom (nearly 20 million tourists in 2015), helped by a weak yen and proactive government policies.

Retailers in Shinjuku, Ginza and elsewhere have adopted new strategies to deal with the influx of Asian tourists eager to spend their money on electronics and beauty products. Counters allowing tourists to purchase products at tax-free prices or claim the 8% consumption tax back immediately have appeared at a wide range of stores (even drug stores, since beauty items and cosmetics are popular shopping choices for Asian tourists), and retailers have also developed technological solutions to make this process smoother.

Are we about to witness a revival of the J-horror film genre?

Local horror films experienced a boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Starting with the 1998 release of Ringu, a raft of small but effective Japanese horror films drew audiences domestically and also attracted global interest. Ringu was remade and became a mini series in America in its own right, as did Juon (becoming The Grudge), Dark Water, Kairo (as Pulse), and One Missed Call.

This ran parallel with the breakout of survival horror video games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and more (which also generated their own film adaptations).

Since then, however, J-horror has lapsed into a cycle of lazy sequels in tired series (the Japanese Ringu franchise alone now has five films), and has become known as a genre that casts female idols whom certain fans want to see in peril or screaming. (We will leave the wider, more troubling implications that can be drawn from this “appeal” for another day.) The past three years in particular saw several horror movies released starring current or former AKB48 idols (to mixed box office results), while more low-budget offerings are perennially populated by glamor models.

Last September, the production company Oz, which was being Juon and Ringu, went into bankruptcy proceedings. It looked like the end of the commercial prospects of local horror cinema.

However, with the release of The Inerasable on January 30th, critics are talking about a “return to form” for the genre.

Yoshihiro Nakamura’s film has met with acclaim. Mark Schilling for The Japan Times called it “engrossing and skin-crawling”. The real test will be the box office coffers, though.

June will also see the release of Creepy, directed by J-horror veteran Kiyoshi Kurosawa with an all-star cast. (Coincidentally, both films feature Yuko Takeuchi.)

So does this point to a revival in serious, successful Japanese horror cinema?

Both are based on horror novels, indicating a return to better source materials rather than rely on the same tried-and-test formats from past series, plus are feature Japanese domestic settings that cleverly play on our sense of unease in familiar environments.

While the jury’s still out, with a new home-grown entry in the Godzilla franchise also on the theater schedules this summer, 2016 could well be the year that sees the rebirth of two genres (monster movies and horror) that had at one time been identified very strongly with Japanese cinema.

If Tokyo has one enduring image abroad it’s that everyone and everything is rushing. In the mornings, high-heeled women in skirt-suits can be seen running down the sidewalk towards the train stations. In Shibuya, the famous crossing is constantly full of undulating masses of people. Trains and buses come one after another, often with timed precision. Heck, even sushi moves fast in some restaurants, delivered on miniature bullet trains directly to your table. Though this is just one side of Tokyo it certainly is a big part of it. What’s fueling all of this movement?

Caffeine is easy to find here in Japan, and it comes in many forms. There’s everything from the $10 cup of coffee to the $1 dollar can. Unfortunately we can’t always afford the time or the yen for the best cup of coffee, and that’s where convenience stores come in. Convenience stores, or konbini, are essential to daily life. Most are opened 24 hours and offer everything from pre-made pasta dishes to fresh packs of underwear. Coffee has now become a big part of that business.

Each of the main konbini chains boasts that they have the best coffee. The shiny automated java machines in each store are unique to the company and so are the beans. For each cup of coffee made, the coffee is ground to order and brewed on the spot. Sure, it’s not the best, but it’s still pretty cool. I’ve had plenty of coffee from these automated baristas and I’ve done my best to dissect them. Taste is subjective, but so is everything, and I’ve done my best to rate these coffees on a scale of 1-5 only against each other. I drank all these coffees black and hot.

Here are my reviews on the four most common convenience store coffees.

7-Eleven

7-Eleven’s coffee has a floral and nutty aroma. It’s a very traditional cup of coffee that would be at home in any diner. There was nothing surprising or upsetting about this cup, which is what you want from a cheap cup of coffee on-the-go. It had notes of cashew and milk chocolate and a slightly sweet and citrusy aftertaste. It’s totally fine. It’s not ambitious, it knows exactly what it is: a cup of coffee from a convenience store.

Family Mart

There was something about the machine at Family Mart that made me nervous about the coffee quality. It is was by far the least futuristic looking of the bunch. Heck, to get a large cup of coffee the directions are to press the button to brew a small coffee then when it’s done (and your cup is half full) press it again. That being said, Famima Cafe wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It had a faintly sweet, oddly perfume like aroma. It was a bit thinner in mouth feel than others, but had the traditional coffee flavors; nutty and chocolaty. There was a note of apple like sweetness to it that made it stand out, however. Unfortunately, the aftertaste was a long-lingering char flavor.

Ministop

Ministop’s coffee was subtle and certainly not in-your-face…at first. I actually had a hard time picking out any flavors from it. This coffee too had a slightly sweet and nutty aroma and a very light body. As it cooled a lot of citrus and berry-like flavors could be picked up. The aftertaste was a lingering char flavor, but slightly more astringent than the others. At first I liked this one best, it was similar to canned coffee in its unobtrusiveness. As it cooled, however, it started to lose me. Certainly it was the most fun to drink due to its ever changing and elusive flavor. But an enigma is not what everyone wants from their cup.

Lawson

Lawson’s Machi Cafe stands out because it is the only konbini coffee out of the fours featured here that the staff pours for you. Also, their machine is the prettiest. The coffee was mild and mellow. It was the most middle-of-the-road and left little impression on me. The aroma was similar to hazelnuts and vanilla. The strongest flavor in the coffee itself was cocoa powder. The aftertaste here too was char-heavy, but has a sweetness to it. Just fine in it’s simplicity.

Now, I’m sure there is a lot of variation from shop to shop. How often the machine itself is cleaned thoroughly, how old the beans are, and even the water used can greatly effect the flavor of the coffee. But hopefully most of the observations I made still hold true from place to place. I scored the coffees that were simple and unsurprising higher because those coffees generally had less unpleasant aftertastes.

Overall the coffee quality was better than expected for all of these shops. As I said before, they aren’t serving gourmet coffee in these stores. But, true to their names, they are serving convenient coffee. It’s cheap, it’s caffeinated, and it’ll satisfy your needs.

Also see how we rated canned coffee in Japan.

A new film has been released in Japan challenging the anti-whaling and dolphin-hunting attitudes of foreign activists and filmmakers.

Directed by Keiko Yagi, Behind the Cove purports to show the truth that the Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary The Cove did not show.

That film, directed by Louis Psihoyos, was an unflinching look at dolphin-hunting in Japan, specifically around Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, whose annual drive now regularly attracts foreign protesters, especially those associated with the quasi-militant environmentalist group Sea Shepherd.

Clearly low-budget and rather slapdash, the trailer for Behind the Cove seems to show the makers hounding foreign protesters in Taiji, and also interviewing some on Skype.

It is being positioned as a “refutation” of The Cove and promoted as a the “quiet Japanese speaking out”. Currently on release with English subtitles at a movie theater in Shinjuku, it remains to be seen if it reaches a wide audience. (It has also been invited to screen at Montreal World Film Festival.)

Ric O’Barry, one of the stars of The Cove, was recently detained at Narita Airport and stopped from entering Japan allegedly to participate in protests against the dolphin drive in Taiji. US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy is just one of the many prominent people who has voiced criticism of the Taiji hunt.

Opposition to anti-whaling and anti-dolphin hunt protesters is generally not taken up by casual advocates of whale or dolphin meat per se. The noisiest counter-protesters and those who seek to argue for Japan’s right to hunt whales and dolphins (as either coastal whaling, like in Taiji, or pelagic whaling in the deep seas, which is a very recent development in Japan) are often ultranationalist in tone, and whose online anger may actually do more damage than good to their cause.

Dolphin driving and other forms of small-type coasting whaling, such as hunting for Baird’s beaked whales, have a long history in Japan, though only in certain communities and areas. While these customs and traditions are coopted by nationalists as “Japanese” to form part of their agenda, the truth of the history is actually more ambiguous.

Whale meat is rarely eaten in Japan today and the catch from the government-funded, highly contested pelagic hunts often go unsold. However, for Baby Boomers whale meat has a nostalgic factor since it was a common dish served at schools in the postwar years when whale consumption peaked. It was only in these years that whale meat became a truly national phenomenon. But this rise in consumption was actually a matter of circumstances, caused by the scarcity of other meat immediately after 1945 and the occupation authorities’ decision to restart whaling to alleviate starving.

Understandably, many Japanese who would not regard themselves as advocates of whale or dolphin meat, nor as nationalists, feel affronted by the way foreign individuals and organizations attack fishermen, and how nations like Australia embark on legal actions against Japan to halt its hunting. In this sense, Behind the Cove taps into this feeling of indignity and wounded pride that is a natural response to the “anti-Japan” condemnation. The irony is that it is elements of the Japanese Fisheries Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs that have attempted to brand whaling as inherently “Japanese”, thus framing the attacks on a national level.

By coincidence, a documentary film made by a Japanese director (Megumi Sasaki) that attempts to look seriously and neutrally at the issue of whaling and whale meat in Japan is currently under development.

Revealingly, the Japanese marketing for the historical whaling film In the Heart of the Sea also took a radically different approach to the American campaign, renaming the film The Battle with the White Whale and placing the male “warriors” at the forefront of the publicity.

Recently McDonald’s Japan released a new menu item that is simultaneously surprising and intriguing both the populous in Japan and abroad: Chocolate-drizzled french fries. If you’re anything like me you had a series of thoughts something like this when hearing the news. “Gross.” “Why would they do that?” “I wonder what it tastes like…” “Should I try some?”

Yes, this daring little menu item is interesting indeed, and it’s the reason why I broke my long-standing McDonald’s fast. I guess their marketing team is doing a better job than I thought.

Before I get into the actual experience of what eating these bad boys was like we should talk about why they exist. McDonald’s isn’t doing too well in Japan these days. There have been hundreds of store closings nationwide as well as huge dips in sales — suffering a net loss of $19.4 million in the first nine months of 2015 alone. A series of scandals including foreign objects in their food have eroded the trust that many Japanese have in the corporation. My Japanese father-in-law has referred to the company as both “No good” and “Over.” Needless to say the stockholders aren’t too happy with this turn of events and the golden arches needed to start trying new things.

One of the new things that McDonald’s is trying is the McChoco, chocolate drizzle packs for their french fries. That’s right, these aren’t special french fries made for dessert purposes, they are the standard McDonald’s french fries in a fancier box with a few add-ons. Your McChoco Potato (or, as labeled in English, McFry Potato Chocolate Sauce) will set you back ¥330 (about $2.80) and come with a double-barreled squeeze package containing white chocolate and milk chocolate goo as well as a fork (which I recommend using). Once you’ve gathered your courage you can put on your artist hat and try to draw some fancy chocolate lines on your fries freehand. After that all there’s left to do is dig in.

Now, we’ve established that the fries taste like McDonald’s fries, so what about the chocolate? It’s sweet. Very sweet. The milk chocolate is similar to a sugary chocolate pudding in flavor while the white chocolate stuff tastes like cake frosting. It’s a salty and sweet combination and we’ve all come to accept that flavor pair, right?

Here’s how it went for me:

1st bite: Nope.

2nd bite: Hmm… OK.

3rd bite: Getting used to this… starting to make sense.

4th bite: Wait, do I like this?

The truth is they taste exactly like what they are, McDonald’s fries with sugary chocolate drizzle on them. Have you ever had a chocolate covered pretzel before? It’s something like that except a lot saltier. The best bites were the ones most saturated in chocolate, believe it or not. Other bites with less drizzle were overpowered by the flavor of the fries. I’m a bit surprised that Donald (Yes, his name is Donald McDonald in Japan) didn’t supply me with more chocolate sauce than I knew what to do with. After all, this is the company famous for super-sizing. But actually the amount of chocolate dressing you get is a little skimpy.

Here’s the final verdict: These fries, available until mid-February, won’t change your life. They are an interesting idea, and they aren’t disgusting. But in the end they are just french fries with chocolate sauce. If you are expecting anything else from this experience you’ll be disappointed. But if you don’t think too much about it, you might enjoy parts of what happens in your mouth.

Would I get them again? No. It’s been hours since I ate them and the aftertaste is still there. Do I regret getting them? Not at all. I lived on the wild side of fast food for a brief moment and lived to tell the tale.