This video is stupendously good fun - all the tunes you hear at all the stations on the Yamanote line in Tokyo in a groovy retro gamer stylee.

… but this commercial really appeals to me. Well, except for the giant furry pink bear. The less said about that, the better.

Remember Gunkanjima? The little rock in the ocean, off the coast of Nagasaki, that once saw duty as a coal mining town? No? Well, you can review the original post from way back when here, and perhaps you might want to take a look at the wikipedia entry here. It’s a beautiful, haunting place, a testament to how we interact with our environment and what happens when we just stop.

It would look really, really good filled with zombies.

Something more grounded in reality, and a lot more moving than that suggestion can be found below - a video taken when someone who grew up on the island in its heyday goes back to see the ruins. Stunning, moving and fascinating.

via videosift.com

Once upon a time, there was a world where you couldn’t buy a piece of plastic that had a microchip embedded in it. In this world before IC cards, you had to allow yourself enough time to buy a ticket when you went to the train station.

Seriously, who has time for that? No-one, that’s who. So some bright spark came up with the precursor to the IC card - commuter passes. Pieces of plastic, it is true, but flexible! Bendy! No microchip! And best of all, they came in all manner of varieties. With pretty designs.

Sadly, the convenience of the IC card behemoths, Suica & Passmo, means the end of these commuter passes - it’ll all be over come the 14th of March. Which is a shame, as I’d just started collecting them.

Here’s a little gallery of the ones I’ve gathered to date.

Slideshow

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.

The International Herald & Tribune reports on a new suit available from Konaka in Japan, from February next year.

By utilising a special fabric that remembers its shape, the boffins at Konaka have managed to make my dream Christmas present - all you have to do, according to a PDF posted on their website, is reverse the jacket and trousers, put them in the shower for a few minutes, then turn them the other way around, repeat the process, then wait for them to dry.

Awesome.

It’s just the kind of thing I’m looking for, what with all the interviews I’ve been going to lately and dry cleaning being as expensive and time consuming as it is.

(picture from nicolette wells’ flickr stream, used under the creative commons license)