Results tagged “japan” from theInput.net

The Japanese have a traditional wrapping cloth called a 風呂敷 (Furoshiki) that has been used to carry items and clothes for centuries:

Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning "bath spread", derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the sentō (public baths). Before becoming associated with public baths, furoshiki was known as hiradzutsumi (平包), or flat folded bundle. Eventually, the furoshiki's usage extended to serve as a means for merchants to transport their wares or to protect and decorate a gift.

Usage of furoshiki dropped off after WWII, but has seen renewed interest in place of shopping bags for a greener alternative to carrying goods around. There's many different methods of folding furoshiki to carry different types of objects, and Dr. Vino brings us a video of using a furoshiki to carry wine bottles, which makes for a great presentation:

To see a bunch of different folding techniques for other types of objects, Furoshiki.com has a neat chart of folding techniques.

Some amazing video of a cool little Japanese toy called ロクロク(Lokuloku) that can be completely squashed down to a flat puddle and will return to its original shape in seconds:

They're available for about $3 in Japan. Want.

Via Gizmodo Japan.

Some really neat scans of a book written in 1867 regarding Japanese customs, with illustrations. It was written by a Royal Marine serving in Japan.

My favourite passage is the one dealing with rampant spying as a social check mechanism:

Via Boing Boing.

From the land of the rising sun come Pokémon Christmas lights. Want.

Phillip Torrone, the editor of MAKE magazine, took some neat pictures of Tokyo's 築地市場 [Tsukiji Fishmarket], the largest fish market in the world:

Another stop on the MAKE tour was the Tsukiji fish market, it's one of the largest in the world and it's pretty crazy. You need to arrive before 4am to get a really good experience. There are hundreds of old-style bicycle with roller type brakes, I'm not sure why but they were all the same - they carried out boxes of fish to other trucks and beyond the market. As you move around the market it gets a little dangerous dodging extremely fast fork lifts, the skill the drivers have is pretty incredible.

Pink Tentacle brings us 自由国民車 [Jiyu Kokuminsha]'s list of the 60 top Japanese buzzwords in 2007, giving us some neat insight into what was at the top of Japanese people's minds.

My favourite is:

KY [abbreviation of kuki ga yomenai - 空気が読めない]: This is (not a reference to the lubricant, but) an abbreviation of the Japanese expression kuki ga yomenai (”can’t read between the lines” or “can’t sense the atmosphere”), which is used to describe indelicate or unperceptive people. Example: That guy is so KY.

It couldn’t be helped [shouganai - しょうがない]: In a June speech, former defense minister Fumio Kyuma said: “I understand the bombing (in Nagasaki) brought the war to its end. I think it was something that couldn’t be helped.” His controversial remarks were widely interpreted as a justification for the US atomic bombings. He resigned three days later under a firestorm of criticism.

Now to assimilate the list into my vocabulary for reference...

There's been a couple of heavy entries lately, so to lighten the mood I give you double dutch jumping dogs, brought to you by the masters of cute, the Japanese:

Via Cute Overload.

Charlie Stross of Antipope.org writes some funny impressions and insights after his long planned trip to Japan:

They've got our future, damn it.

It's not the shiny future of jet packs and food pills — oh no, that's not what Japan is about. Nevertheless, they've got it and they're living in it, damn them. They've got express trains that run on time and accelerate so fast they push you back into your seat like an airliner on take-off. They've got skyscrapers with running lights, looming out of the sodium-lit evening haze — a skyline just like the famous nighttime scene from Blade Runner except for the shortage of giant pyramids (and they're building one of those out in Tokyo bay). And they shave their cats.

In the future we will all have shaved cats. And six story high pornography boutiques that sell Hello Kitty! novelty toys on the ground floor. And 200mph super-express trains blasting between arcologies through a landscape scorched by the waste heat of a hundred million air conditioning units. And beer vending machines on street corners. And skyscrapers cheek-by-jowl with temples that are modern reconstructions of buildings dating back to the eighth century (said reconstructions only slightly older than the Christopher Wren iteration of St Paul's Cathedral).

Welcome to Japan ...

Osaka police will be using rabbit shaped lights for their police vehicles, proving once again that the Japanese have completely decimated everyone when it comes to cuteness:

I was reading kotaku in the last couple of days and found an entry by Brian Ashcraft detailing his experiences with Japanese burial customs in the death of his grandmother-in-law.

Shortly after, I stumbled upon this link detailing another more in-depth account of Japanese burial customs.

If you've ever wondered why it's taboo to eat with mismatched chopsticks, or love Japanese culture like I do, then they're quite an interesting read.