Over on the twitter, 3Yen reader “zhanglizhen” and I have started exchanging photos of Japanese beauty salon with odd, dangerous sounding engrish names.
3Yen’s Twitter
And my all-favorite, “SNOTTY BOY BARBAR” (sic).
“Bagelheads“! Yikes, we manufactured a Japanese fad!
“Bagelheads” is just a name that was made up to joke about this body modification, but the mainstream press took the name as real, as you can see from the reports below.
Bagelheads the latest fad for Japanese teens: Mom hopes it stays in Japan
New Jersey On-Line — by Fiona Charles — Thursday July 02, 2009, 8:50 PM
Japanese teens are shooting silicone in their head to morph their faces. They call themselves bagelheads.
Have you seen the latest fad for teens in Japan? They are called bagelheads. Teens in Japan are injecting themselves with saline, which causes bumps in their heads.
The lumps and bumps created by the saline can be shaped and molded. The teens are calling themselves bagelheads. The disfigurement only last 24 hours. I have a hard time looking at these teens, and I just hope it stays in Japan and doesn’t make it’s way over to the States.
New ‘Bagel Head’ Fad Is Crazy!
RantRave - July 2
OK, Japan, we get it. You’re the king of weird.
A new “beauty” fad in Tokyo clubs has teens injecting themselves with bags of saline, disfiguring their heads! They call themselves “Bagel Heads” or “bagelheads.” ….more...
A quick Google search for the joke name “bagelheads” or “bagelhead” written in Japanese katakana results in zero hits:
“Bagelheads” is a great joke name for this 4-person “Japanese” trend, but both the Western mainstream press and the blogsphere is picking it up and reporting this fake tread as real, sheesh.
In addition, both of the reports express the facetious hope that this “Japanese” trend remains in Japan, even though it originated in the West, ha, ha.
According to ElliteChoice.org, Sega Toys of Japan are offering these indoor projector generated, green and non-polluting “Uchiage Hanabi fireworks.”
(more info)
Move over Mothra. Bugzilla is spotted in Yokohama
daylife.com YOKOHAMA, JAPAN - July 4, 2009
A Huge locust-shaped attraction is seen during the Yokohama-port Opening Festival Y150…. the port opened in 1859, as the result of the signing of Treaty of Amity and Commerce between United States and Japan in 1858.
Check out Mothra disguised as seagull in this classy Port Festival poster.
Ok, I admit it— I hate Japanese ramen since I was forced to subsist on it all during my university days. Now, with this creepy ramen-bot I have a real reason to hate it.
Two-minute ramen via robot
July 3, 2009 - Mainichi Shimbun (machine translation)
In Japan’s Minami Alps of Yamanashi comes the “Momozono Ramen Robot” started operation last November causes a topic… The robot was handicrafted by the ramen restaurant owner Tadashi Uchida who spent about a total of 20 million yen creating the device..more…
And if that doesn’t make you smile, check out the Smile-Bot that enforces happy employees on the rails…
Japanese railway to make workers take ‘Smile Scan’ test
Mainichi News, July 4, 2009—Keihin Electric Express Railway Co. has introduced a “Smile Scan” system to evaluate the grins of its station staff…more...
Living in Japan sometimes is like living in a campy science fiction program–In this case “Thrall Collars” for Japanese factory slaves….
Wearable Sensors Help Analyze Behaviors of Factory Workers
July 3, 2009 - Nikkei Tech-On! – DSS Co Ltd, a Japanese firm that edits and processes digital maps based on survey data, started a service of recording the actions of factory workers for long hours and visualize them.
The tools used for collecting the data are (1) the “ankle sensor” to be attached to the leg of a worker for recording his or her movement, (2) the “milestone,” which will be installed in various places in the plant to know how long workers stay there and (3) the “small video camera” to be put in the chest pocket of the worker to record his or her action. …more…
Not unlike the new film “UP” …Here’s the traditional Japanese answer.
What you are looking at is an odd twist to “Tanabata“ the Japanese star festival (ripped off from the Chinese star festival, Qi X) when Japanese write their wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on “tanzaku”, small pieces of paper, and hang them on large displays of bamboo fronds. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, but in this case they get UP.
Giant mutant Japanese cook threatens to paddle passersby in Chuo-ku Niigata Japan!
A huge replica of Yukiko Kobayashi was unveiled in Chuo-ku’s ”NEXT21” in Niigata Japan according to Mainichi Shimbun of June 29.
I have no idea why Yukiko Kobayashi, 
the C-List star of “Space Amoeba,” is now a giant paddle-welding mutant cook terrorizing the streets of Chuo-ku in Niigata, but perhaps she now is now the owner-chef of Kitchen PLANET Five.
The advertising revenue is getting a little thin for this Tokyo train.
actual pix
View the original/unaltered version of July’s Metro Manners poster here.
The poster above for July is one of a monthly series of the Tokyo Metro aimed at cajoling the so-called ‘rude’ Japanese public to have better train manners.
In previous months, posters reminded riders of their manners:
– Please PISTON outside
–Don’t read newspapers
–‘Please refrain from snotty…’
– The official start of the Japanese Vomiting Season
–No romance on the train, please
–Train posters–sometimes I can’t explain ‘em.
And many, many, more….
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