When last reported here on the 3Yen, Honda had made an improved HAPPY HAT™ for mind-reading, computer interface control.
Why do I say, “HAPPY HAT™”?
I think the girl above wearing the S.Q.U.I.D. cap in the above photo is a member of Aum Shinrikyo, the poison-gas, death cult who gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin poison gas attack in the Tokyo subways.
Aum used to promote their “Perfect Salvation Initiation” headgear, aka HAPPY HAT™, as a method of attaining enlightenment. As shown in the picture (right) of their fruitcake guru Asahara Shoko, the Happy Hat™ was electrode-laden shock cap used on Aum members issued a series of low voltage currents pulsing through the brain from small electrodes placed onto the scalp.
Many times outside Eibsu Station in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo, I watched the Aum cultists wear these caps and sing a chant that went:
Every child has a HEADGEAR, a HEADGEAR, a HEADGEAR
As you can see in the photo above, I am putting on my ninja outfit as I prepare to dodge the projectile vomiting of salarymen and battling with the dunk OLs on the train (shown below). It’s Friday night at the height of the Japanese Bonenkai season (end-of-year parties).
The always amusing Rinkya.blogspot.com is offering this “Elegant-Entertainer Stocking Stuffer” —Five diamond rings to wrap your napkins at 800 yen each . To buy…
A familiar sight everywhere in Tokyo, looking out from my building’s webcam (below), I can see the many blue plastic tarps of the homeless camped that dot the riverbank below Denenchofu, the Beverly Hills of Japan.
Everyone here pretends they are not there, but I was pleased to see today that there’s a new book, Tokyo Blues, documenting them for the first time. And, more importantly there’s in a free PDF version of the book to download free of charge (5.3 MB).
Somehow I felt like I had a strange connection to Tokyo Blues.
If you are like me, often you run across a website that reminds you of a person you haven’t thought of for years…especially a hot acquaintance. Today, while reading Boing2, I ran across this book about the ubiquitous blue tarps of Japan by “Nurri Kim,” which made me reminisce, “Hmm, I remember a ‘Nurri’ from six years ago—What a hot babe—I wonder what she’s up to now?”
Upon reading the PDF version I noticed that Adam Greenfield wrote the afterward of Tokyo Blues. Damn, I know Adam and Nurri! I even attended their Escaping-the-Concrete-Horror-of-Tokyo going away party. Small world.
I was about to complain that the Japan Times has been filching stories again from the 3Yen, but then I saw the byline of the story was one of our 3Yen contributors, hee, hee.
Nyotaimori: a Japanese tradition? –”Female body arrangement” may exist in Japan, but you’ll have to look underground to find it— The Japan Times – Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009
For at least as long as nyotaimori — the practice of serving sushi on the body of a naked female’s torso — has been making inroads overseas, the media has been raising the same question: Where does the practice fit within the context of Japanese culture?...more…
As I have written here before, naked sushi aka “Nyotaimori” eating off a naked female is rare in Japan and is most often just a “catered” option. That is, you rent a room at or near a sushi restaurant, order the proper sushi, and separately hire a woman.
Life is important.
Make it important.
It has been said more than tens of thousands of times,
You are important.
If you just ask somebody for help, you can live.
It is public advertisement.
(Translation of the Japanese suicide prevention campaign featuring Chiaki Kuriyama aka Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill as well as Girl #13 Takako Chigusa in Battle Royale.)