A kirin - or qilin - is a mythical beast, orginally from China, who brings luck and prosperity wherever it goes. Somewhere along its colourful path through history, it managed to get itself confused with the giraffe, in case anyone was wondering about the modern meaning of the Japanese word. Interestingly, Kirin brewery like to play for both teams; their Kirin Lemon brand of lemonade features a lemon with a giraffe’s head as its character. The qilin shows up on the product I myself am most acquainted with - the various beers that Kirin are probably most famous for.

What then is this secret of which I speak?

Next time you’re out and you see Kirin’s qilin logo, have a closer look. For the beast bears three tattoos upon its back, spelling out its name: there’s a キ(ki), a リ(ri)　and a ン(n). Now, the only one that’s easy to find is the first one - it’s nestled just behind the qilin’s ear. The other two? Well, I did a rough approximation and I’m not even sure I got them right. Hard to tell on a low pixel shot like this -

You’ll just have to check yourself - before you sink the third one.

This post at Bedazzled, reminded me that, for some weird reason, we actually bought a couple of boxes of cereal recently. (I generally have a couple of boiled eggs for breakfast, sometimes a full on Ulster fry if I can manage it.)

One thing about the homebrew Japanese cornflakes is that the boxes are pretty cool looking; here’s a box of Ciscorn Frosted -

And the malt choco variety -

Next time I go shopping I might splash out and buy some Frosties, so you can see that Tony the Tiger stays the same, only the writing changes…

A team of audacious thieves, apparently disguised as a cleaning crew, made off with one of Tokyo’s most famous landmarks in the early hours of Saturday. The statue of “loyal dog Hachiko,” a popular rendezvous spot on the north side of JR Shibuya Station since 1934, was reported missing shortly after dawn, when a newspaper delivery truck driver spotted the bare pedestal and notified policemen at the nearby “koban.”

Full article here : http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070401×1.html

Other juicy parts of the article (for those who don’t like clicking):

A network technician described what clearly appears to be a well planned caper. “Five men in khaki work duds, wearing hats, safety glasses and gauze masks, moved in about 1:43 a.m., after the trains had stopped running,” said the man, who declined to give his name.

“They set up traffic cones and ‘Men Working’ signs, and then raised several blue vinyl work sheets around the statue. It took them about 10 minutes to get it off the pedestal.

“They put it on a hand truck and threw a drop cloth over it. On the video you can see them wheeling it toward the street before they disappear from view.”

Hachiko’s a major meeting place for the young and hip in Tokyo and now the dog is gone  - where are the people going to meet? I suppose you could meet at the place Hachiko used to be.  The full story of why Hachiko is such an important icon to Tokyo can be found in the original Newspaperlink above.

So, in my previous post about setsubun (link) I explained one part of the ritual - the throwing of beans at the demon to encourage him to get out off your house. If you go to a shrine though, there’s another side of the whole thing; priests busting some moves throwing free stuff to the crowds. Who remain relatively calm given the circumstances; free snack treats winging their way into their grubby little mitts courtesy of a man in a big pointy hat. How come the Pope never goes in for this kind of thing :
Read the rest of this entry…

I swear if you only do one thing today it should be to go and look at the new commercial for Cheese Curry Cup Noodles.
Absolutely fantastic - a human cheese man thing doing beatboxing and shooting cheese out of his fingers. Perhaps the weirdest thing I have seen all day.

Of course, if I had time I might have figured out how to grab it and put it on YouTube for the whole world to enjoy, but you know - I’m a busy,busy man. Who suddenly has a craving for cheese curry noodles…

Link.

Rae and I stumbled upon some wet tissues in an Akihabara computer shop. I couldn’t resist and picked up two tubes.

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The packs feature some alternative uses for the tissues, unfortunately I can’t translate, but hopefully the pictures should speak for themselves.

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The “Princess” tissues.

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The “Salaryman” tissues. Note the frame with the bloke with his necktie on his head. A sure sign he’s drunk out of his mind. Often during End of Year Parties, employees entertain their co-workers with magic tricks, karaoke or other “skills”. Many practice for months beforehand.