Update: Now it’s BURNING BIDETS!

Japan flaming toilet troubles heat up further
Reuters.uk, UK – Apr 18, 2007—INAX, owned by JS Group, said it had not made public seven cases of malfunctioning “washlets” — a combination toilet and bidet common in Japanese homes …more...

Company: Toilets Might Catch Fire
Associated Press, April 16, 2007, 8:29 AM EDT, TOKYO — Japan’s leading toilet maker Toto Ltd. is offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused several to catch fire, the company said Monday.
The electric bidet accessory of Toto’s … popular Z series features a pulsating massage spray, a power dryer, built-in-the-bowl deodorizing filter, the “Tornado Wash” flush and a lid that opens and closes automatically…more.…

FLAMING SH1TERS!
Once sad facts of life here is that Japanese “white goods”—large electrical home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and the like—are always shoddy quality. I’ve owned three different bands of these Japanese squirting toilets, and all of them malfunctioned after a just a few years.
You would think that these Toto toilets costing $1,680 to $2,600 USD would never fail. However, Japanese manufacturers enjoy abusing their home market with poor quality products—Don’t let me start ranting about worst-in-the-world-quality of Japanese vacuum cleaners.
You might ask, “Why are high-tech toilets fitted with pressurized water sprayers a standard fixture in Japanese homes?”
Simple.
Japanese haven’t invented home central heating yet, so Japanese toilets need built-in heating for their seats. With a heated seat standard in Japan, additional functions were added over time. First heating, then squirting functions…….all the way to MP3 players

CLICK TO WATCH

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Now you might ask what has happened to the traditional “squat” toilets in Japan?
Oh, they still exist. You still can see squat toilets at train stations and other public venues since they are much easier to clean and they could be thought of as more hygienic since the users don’t have to touch anything.
However, with Japan’s “Aging Society” (most everyone in my upscale Tokyo neighborhood is over 60 years old), squat toilets cause a lot of knee pain and troubles. Therefore, 97% of Japanese homes built in the past 15 years have normal Western-style toilets installed.

In fact, Japanese toilets have become sort of joke among younger Japanese such as this novelty ashtray called the “Ashlet.” Young people get their laughs from this ceramic replica that looks exactly like the old-fashioned squat toilets and squirts out the water to extinguish the burning cigarette ashes when “flushed.” You can get your Ashlet squat toilet replica from the 3Yen’s sponsor, J-List: Order now while they last.

I was kind of shocked today when looking for kinky images at the 3Yen’s sponsor, J-List.com, I stumbled across this
Samurai Sword Ear Cleaner.

Ear picking with sword sounds scary to me but as I’ve said before, Japanese are very found of their long tradition of ear picking with mimikaki (耳かき). Heiwa Medic Company of Japan has tapped into that love of ear mining by turning their Q-Tips black. These Life(tm) black cotton swabs have scored great emotional favor with Japanese consumers by providing better functionality…and voila, a runaway hit product.

Life(tm) black cotton swabs
The first in the industry, our black ear swabs lets you clearly see the fruits of your labor. Using 100% the black cotton tips have two different shapes for better cleaning.

According to Heiwa Medic’s press release: What attracted longtime average white cotton swab buyers to switch to this unusual product was the enhanced feeling of cleanliness that came from simply being able to see clearly the amount of extracted ear wax on the black cotton tips as opposed to on the white counterparts. Also, variations such as spiral tips make it even easier to clean out ear wax.” A minor catch is that you might be shy if anyone else sees what you’ve collected.

I sort of laughed when I read our kind sponsor, J-List.com describe these Darth Vader Q-Tips as: “Black Spiral Cotton Swabs that are dynamite for cleaning your ears.” Somehow the words, “dynamite” and “ear cleaning” don’t belong together.
But hey, if the black and spiral shape works better, you ought to order ‘em now!

Makin’ bacon …
In Japan that every supermarket sells plenty of bacon, but buying bacon with less the 50% of its weight in sugar and water is nearly impossible in Japan.

But fakin’ bacon, is something the Japanese do mo’ betta’.

You just gotta check out Tohato’s “Let’s Order Some Bacon” flavored potato chips.
They look like bacon and they taste even better than bacon. Very light and crispy…I guess it would be a stretch to say that they were “healthy,” but compared to real Japanese bacon that’s way too watery and sugary…maybe.
I buy this “fakin’ bacon” at an upscale, better-stocked, Japanese supermarket in my neighborhood, but you can order them direct from our sponsor J-List.com.

Here’s some twisted, Do-It-Yourself, ero-goth, japanesque, horror …
Hell, you come up for a name or label for it.
The Japanese website, parumo_zaeega, called it changing clothes on a “horror girl” (ホラーな少女).

The creator Akirihito Ayamura calls his entire series, “CLARA who wasted away.”

The Flash-driven section linked below, is like putting clothes on a paper doll—-only more twisted and online.

†寫眞館† 　 綾村切人shiyoujiyo 寫 眞 mansion

And for more on the strange world of Japanese “Ero Kawaii” (erotic cute) check out our sponsor J-List’s steamy ero-manga collections and their chaku-ero (erotic photography) of the real Japan that Japanese instructors won’t let you see.

Fuwarinka anti-BO gum

I was surfing through my RSS feeds this morning and I spotted a Japanese favorite of mine on Boing Boing: “Chewing gum changes your BO.”

This Fuwarinka chewing gum claims to changes your body chemistry so that you exude a pleasant aroma after chewing it by employing a special aroma component from geraniol and linalool. It turns out that “geraniol” and “linalool” are respectively just rose oil and thyme with a college education.

But hey, the worst thing in Japan to have is, “oyaji kusai (親父臭い)” the pejorative term for that unpleasant greasy smell from “oyaji” older guys like me, especially useless salarymen.

So if you want to smell like a rose, you can order Fuwarinka Gum from our sponsor J-List.

Also check out the other bizarre Japanese chewing gum offerings such as Lotte’s “Black Black Gum” with three times the caffeine than coffee, their “IQ Supplement Gum”, or for that special Night-at-the-Museum Moai in your life, “Omikuji COLA,” a Japanese stick bubblegum that looks like Omikuji fortune-telling sticks from a Shinto shrine.

Hmmm. This “colorful” topic is starting grow on me.
A few days ago while reading a blog in Spanish blog about Japan, I stumbled across what I mistakenly thought was a “re-purposed” remix by “Colorful” of a Japanese anime on YouTube.

Well, it turned out that “Colorful” (カラフル) was the name of the sixteen-episode anime directed by Ryutaro Nakamura and the YouTube was just a Spanish fansub. See the IMDB for more info. You can try to check out all the “Colorful” videos, episodes 01 to 16, on YouTube. I was confused by the format of these video—seemingly just random. I learned that all of these were strung together from 16 animated short-shorts which were used as filler between segments on the Japanese late-night TV show called “WONDERFUL.”

Today I’ve also learned that the anime “Colorful” is based on the manga by artist Torajirou Kishi was published in Young and Jump magazine many years ago. After his huge success with the manga “Colorful,” recently he has put out a lavishly illustrated comic with a uniquely Japaneseque heavy metal feel to it called “Bloody Mary“, which the 3Yen’s sponsor, J-List.com, is offering in a quality TPB perfect bound format. Check it out.

NOTE: These “Colorful” videos on YouTube are like playing Wack-a-Mole: As soon as YouTube takes one down, 10 more go up. Just search the YouTube index for the title, ‘Colorful‘.
Buy me before I eat you.

Link thanks to Parumo_Zaeega

My erokawaii
Mari – diary:
….erokawaii? Yes, it means “erotic and cute.” This term “erokawaii” was first made popular when used to refer to Japanese singer Kumi Koda…..you may know her as a singer of the movie Cutie Honey. In 2006… her fashion style “erokawaii” was a big trend last year.

Ero Cawaii, erokawaii (エロかわいい), no mater how you say it in Japanese—it can be hot, but oh so cute.

Actually, only the term “erokawaii” is new—The concept has bee a driving force of Japan for years. As a fashion statement, it’s worse than Paris Hilton on a Britney Spears bad hair day. I cannot get enough of it, hee, hee, which isn’t difficult thanks to the 3Yen’s sponsor, J-List, who carries all sorts of erokawaii products such as these fun ero kawaii magazines or the hot video Ero Cawaii.
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For more erokawaii, watch this YouTube video of Kumi-chan, “WORK IT.”

My friend, the international man of mystery— Mr. M, just found the news story: “ Make A Virtual Friend Happy Through Saving” about the “The Bank of Life” game, which made me wonder where the devil I had seen that before.
Wait, wait. I wrote about it here on the 3Yen. D’oh!

Piggy Bank for the upcoming Year of the Pig
3Yen, 30 Dec …“Bank of Life” by Tomy –in Japanese called Jinsei Ginko[人生銀行]. The Bank of Life is a game style saving system the works much like the Tamagocchi game also by Takara-Tomy Corporation….

Not to be outdone by Tomy’s Tamagocchi piggybank, the company Sunart of Japan has made a more old , traditional, Japanese bank, the GOLDEN CAT POOP BANK called theUnchi-Neko Coin Bank.
As the 3Yen’s sponsor, J-List.com describes in their online catalog for a better bank, Maneki Neko, the Lucky Cat who, is a symbol of fortune, waves customers into Japanese shops.

How about ordering J-List’s crazy Unchi-Neko bank (Poop Cat) parody that features the famous cat nuzzling a golden spiral of poo?

This bank is emblazoned with a lucky fortune that reads, “Happy Poo will probably come close to you soon.” R-i-i-ight.
J-List says it’s perfect for, “manekineko and poo fans around the world!”

Buy now!

Click for video.
Junko Yamamoto’s “Forty-eight basic techniques in rest room
-The Japanese style by the women body-“

Ahhh, you gotta love Japanese college girls, especially art students. This senior graduation project atTama Art University sure is amusing even if the artist, Junko Yamamoto is wearing a leotard. Be sure to watch the short video with some English subtitles.

Actually, this isn’t the first eye-opening art project I’ve seen from Tama Art—they tend to encourage freedom of expression more than most universities in Japan. At the “First International Moblogging Conference” –that is, the first conference on mobile weblogs and cellphone cameras held in Tokyo in July of 2003, the girls from Tama Art blew away anyone and myself with there wildly sophisticated technical work of mobile blogging art. Called T’o'RIPSPACE, Ayako Idate, Maki Toida and Tomoko Yagi from Tama Art University demonstrated of software for sharing photos based on GPS location data.

As my Chicago homeboy, Justin Hall [Hi Justin, I know you are ego surfing out there] a stringer for the New York Times, Wired Magazine, Salon, etc. wrote that the Tama Art University girls surprised everyone with, “Their polished demonstration of a sweet tooth group moblogging photos of good cakes from favorite cafes was a delightful bit of colorful, tasteful tangibility.” All in all, not bad, not bad at all for art students who were not old enough to drink at the after conference bash.

Anyway as I said before, watch the short video art work [山本純子『便所四十八手〜女体による和式〜』]

Ok, ok, I hear you complaining that that art video lacks “edge” and the artist is wearing a modest leotard. Never fear. The 3Yen’s kind sponsor, J-List.com has plenty toilet-themed Japanese videos and games that would make Paris Hilton blush. For example, perhaps the worst bishoujo game ever: Peach Princess’ “Water Closet: The Forbidden Chamber.”

In this Japanese simulation/role-playing game with English subtitles lets you to choose different female characters and play through different scenarios from that character’s point of view. You take on the personalities of each of the characters such as Ikumi-chan, a traditional girl from a conservative Japanese family who loves the Japanese tea ceremony but has no bladder control. Whenever Ikumi-chan gets nervous, such as when she’s on a date with a guy she likes, she gets an incredible urge to urinate. Frustrated by her problem, she consults a urologist…
Well, you get the idea. It’s the only prevy game to score a perfect -50 on the game reviews at Something Awful, so you know it’s got to be B-A-D!

If you think that is disgusting but only anime, check out the J-List videos for Japanese “Whale Showers” shio -fuki (she-oh-foo-key), which is so raw I can’t even post a picture here!

Giant squid caught on camera
ITN 07.46 Wed Feb 14 2007
…. filmed alive for the first time by a Japanese research team. Giant squid, once believed to be mythical creatures, are deep-ocean dwelling animals that can grow to a massive size
The squid was caught attacking bait and emitting short bright light flashes, possibly to attract a mate or to communicate….

Ah, but what evil was this Giant Evil One was trying, “to communicate”?
It’s amazing how this elusive horror was video taped when the Japanese research team tried to capture it off the Ogasawara Islands, south of Tokyo. But the squid this 24–foot long (7m) monster died while being caught: the Great Cthulhu (クトゥルー) never will speak against its will.

At the bottom of the ITN, be sure to watch the video of Giant squid caught on camera.

And of course, to learn the secrets of the evil squid, check out our sponsor, J-List, video’s of mysteries of preverted Japanese tentacle sex as well as artsy-fartsy shashinshu (photobook) of dried squid and the fruits of the sea.