Tomy Car makes fishcakes fun

It’s been a while since we’ve covered novelty food on these pages, but this was too good to go unmentioned. Traditional fish cake manufacturer Odawara Kanko and toy maker Takara Tomy have teamed up to create Tomy Car Kamaboko, in the shape of the iconic model toy cars.

Taking into account recent food scares, the manufacturers stress that all the colors are created from natural food products like spinach (car windows) and squid ink (tires). The set, which includes both patrol car and bus varieties, will be available from this month in Odawara area souvenir stores and online for ¥680 ($6.40).

Odawara is a city south west of Tokyo that is famous for kamaboko and the city’s processed seafood loaves are a popular souvenir or gift from business or travel in the region. This new style certainly adds spice to what is considered a painfully traditional food product. It also fits in nicely with the cute and fun lunch box trend we wrote about earlier this year.

Tags: food, Novelty, Souvenirs, Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

Rain clouds, real time weather forecasts for mobile phones

The capricious tendency of typhoons (now in season in Tokyo) to change their course at whim means that no matter what the weather forecast predicted in the morning, the details of exactly when and where you might get caught out in a trouser leg soaking down pour are hard to pin down.

While we tend to think of this as a fact of life, the National Weather Association has teamed up with mobile phone provider NTT Docomo to offer a “rain cloud mail messaging” alert service. Yes, this means your mobile phone alerts you of the approaching presence of a big fat rain cloud that you probably can’t detect from within your cubicle. It also means that you know to go pick up your take-out lunchbox from the convenience store now because in 30 minutes it could get ugly outside.

Specifically, subscribers to the service, which has a monthly service charge of ¥105 (about $1), input their location and the strength and proximity of the rain clouds about which they would like to be notified. At the bottom of the mail is a link to the current 6 hour forecast for your area on the National Weather Association mobile site.

Meanwhile those with GPS capable phones can take advantage of a new service called “10 minute furidasu” (“furidasu” means “begin to rain”) from Dwango and Life & Business Weather that offers a rain forecast in 10 minute intervals based on your current location.

The ¥105 a month service rates the weather within a 1kg radius on a seven-point scale from “clear” to “violent rain.” This type of live feed is also intended to track “guerilla rain,” the aforementioned shoe soaking variety that, due to its strong but short-lived nature, could easily be avoided with accurate, up to date information.

Not only are these services time and place specific, they are also season specific. Like the UV level forecasting services we covered during the summer months, these new rain sites address a concern that is fortunately (for us) not year round. On the other hand, together they display a level of customization that makes the standard nightly news forecast seem down right obsolete.

Tags: Mobile phones, Weather
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

Mugen Peri Peri opens boxes forever without papercuts

Bandai has done it again, and we’re slowly learning how many enjoyable small tasks there are that we want to do forever on a little toy. Popping Bubble Wrap…pinching out soybeans…now we’re opening packages?

The Mugen (infinite) series of toys from Bandai Asovision has now brought us the Mugen PeriPeri, a keychain toy that aims to replicate the pleasure of opening a package for the first time. Snacks, boxes, and other tear-open packages tend to reveal good things, so perhaps experiencing this sensation boosts endorphins and sends us into pleasure mode.

Now that we’re over the novelty of these toys (not that they aren’t fun, mind you), what does it say about Japan? Foreign press would likely spin these toys as “weird, wacky Japan” items that show how crazy Japanese people love to pop bubble wrap and open boxes so much that they want to carry them around. These videos certainly don’t help to dispel that idea:

For us, these toys have much simpler and innocent secrets to success. Clearly, the Mugen PuchiPuchi bubblewrap simulator was a creative stroke of genius, but what pushed it into critical mass was the power of the internet, bringing 30,000 visitors to the product page on the first day and catapulting it into the press without needing a massive ad campaign. This is highly unusual in Japan, but is a boon for manufacturers in a world of declining ad budgets.

Either way, our next product suggestion would be for the Mugen Apple, a toy that allows you to recreate the feeling of opening Apple products forever. We might even stand in line for it!

Tags: Asovision, Bandai, gadgets, Mugen PeriPeri, Toys
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

Hitokara at Home bridges phones with home karaoke

Despite dropping numbers, karaoke is still the official after-school pastime of Japanese youth. Besides being a technology driver by being early adopters of mobile phone, e-money, and interactive loyalty programs, karaoke also plays a large role in the music industry by upping the demand for karaoke-friendly tunes.

Last year Sega released their mobile karaoke service called Hitokara, meaning (karaoke for one). The free mobile phone service began with 35,000 karaoke songs available for download, ranging from pop tunes to traditional Japanese mucis, but has since expanded to include over 43,000 free songs for it’s 1.5 million members. Now Sega has made a real world accessory for its digital service called Hitakara at Home, which connects the mobile phone to enhance the karaoke experience.

The Hitokara at Home is a miniature karaoke box including speakers, microphone and an LED lit mirror ball for when the lights go down. Users can connect the mobile phones to the device, choose the songs, and rock out at home or with a friend. Consult your doctor before mixing with karaoke pills!

Tags: Entertainment, Karaoke, Sega
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

Tama Depa, interactive Tamagotchi shop opens up

We were pretty disappointed with the closing of Shamrock Air, the cute concept store with the aircraft-like interior that required shoppers to pre-register online for a boarding pass to enter. Taking its place at the highly visible entrance to Harajuku’s Takeshita Dori, however, is a new Tama Depa with a few nice concepts of its own.

Tama Depa, produced by Bandai, is a contraction for Tamagotchi Department Store, meaning the shop carries just about everything Tamagotchi you or your child could possibly want.

Not only to play with, but also to eat, as Tama Depa specializes in “Tamagotchi donuts” visible (and smell-able) from the street.

Fans who sign up for a Tama Depa membership online are rewarded with an animated version of the donut take-away case for their Circle Link avatar. Circle Link is an SNS forum for character loving school kids organized into “circles” for members who follow the same character.

And who wouldn’t want to be a fan of Tamagotchi in exchange for free (unfortunately virtual) donuts? Membership also promises more avatar goodies in the future as well as off-line event notification.

Another way to get your hands on virtual donuts is to pass by the front of the store. Here, an interactive monitor takes the faces of those standing in front and puts them on the screen with an animated donut in hand.

The inside (sorry, no photos) is also fully decked out with video screens.

The opening of Tama Depa, on September 20th, came just ahead of the announcement from Bandai that color tamagotchis are on the way.

Tags: Bandai, Characters, Digital POS, Harajuku, Retail, Tamagotchi
Category: Marketing & Ad Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

Organize your mess: Stock Back from Cubisto

Following up on our coverage of the simple yet brilliant Lessev Mobile Station, here’s another new product that falls under the “tidying up unsightly aspects of modern life” category. The Stock Back from Cubisto is designed to neatly and prettily organize your newspaper and magazine recyclables.

According to the marketing manager for Cubisto, people typically pile up these recyclables in an out of sight place because they are unattractive, and because they don’t see them, forget to put them out on collection day. But since the Stock Back is designed to fit into your designer apartment, you can put it right where you can see it. Makes sense to us, in Tokyo these items are picked up only once a week and if you miss a few times they can really pile up. And become heavy. The Stock Back is made from tough, durable “eco” felt and is designed to simplify the (required) process of tying everything together with a plastic string.

Finally, the bottom slides open to release the paper goods right on to the collection pile. Designed by, and mostly for, women this means less lugging, struggling, and bending. And while it may not get the geek love that the Lessev Mobile Station does, the Stock Back gets a leg up for blending simple product design with another current fascination, ecology.

Tags: design, Eco, Recycling
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

2D love for PC savvy girls at Web Kare

Considering the not-so marginalized male population who openly admit online to preferring “2D” girls over the real, live thing there has got to be a proportionate number of lonely 3D girls out there fed up with competing for the remaining eligible segment of the population.

Or perhaps it is another example of the current trend of taking digital world success stories and tweaking them to suit the growing tech-savvy female population. Either way we are seeing a continued number of new “love simulation” role playing games for romance-hungry school girls (and admittedly probably some older ones too).

The latest, launched this month from contents creator Link Think, certainly doesn’t try to candy coat the concept—its called Web Kare (“kare” means “boyfriend”).

Set on a campus, Web Kare is a PC based game that also incorporates a profile page, facebook wall style “minilog,” blog parts, and BBS. Like other SNS that encourage user-generated content, the BBS is called “Oekaki” (“draw a picture”) and is a space for members to upload their original Web Kare inspired illustrations.

After registering, members can choose from four preset boyfriends (representing the usual types: sporty, bad boy, intellectual, and the older man) although the potential for making the acquaintance of new love interests exists as the game unfolds.

Changing between any of the four can be done by the simple clicking of a button. There are also events that can be attended together and users can maintain animated photo albums to record these “shared” memories. Perhaps the most impressive function is that voice actors provide voices for the characters, making this replacement for the real thing that much more convincing.

Tags: Romance, RPGs, SNS, Web 2.0
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Press coverage

Online graffiti a hit for classroom nostalgia

New website Kyokasho.net offers up hundreds of textbook images (“kyokasho” means “textbook”) of great figures of history for your digital defacement pleasure. Using tools such as a grey lead pencil, a red pencil, and a rubber eraser, users can create online textbook graffiti that recalls tedious school days gone by.

Play begins by first choosing from one of five subjects (Japanese language, Japanese history, world history, music, and the arts), then a target figure. For each historical person, a mock textbook page has been created using text from the Japanese version of Wikipedia. Defamers (or the curious) can also browse galleries of user-created characatures. The use of photos is made possible through the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).

Since opening in July, Kyokasho.net has already recorded over 10,000 user-generated images. Of the 350 personas up for grabs, the most popular so far is Taisho period novelist Ryounosuku Akutagawa with 930 images created to date. Coming in second is Mozart with 401 and Meiji period writer Masaoka Shiki with 341. No, I’m sorry we have no idea why other than that Akutagawa (pictured above) is the first image in the first subject listed.

In addition to the nostalgia factor, a representative from contents creator Marici explained that he hoped the site would offer a creative and constructive outlet for the frustrations many (especially in the online community a la 2 Channel) feel towards society of late.

Another recent case for the timeless and universal appeal of scribbling anonymously where you are not supposed to is Kokuban.in. Launched in August, Kokuban.in (“kokuban” means “blackboard”) offers users a clean slate and six colors of digital chalk to create their own classroom graffiti masterpiece.

A little over a month after opening, the site already has 400,000 user-generated images. There are a lot of manga-inspired illustrations, but also landscapes, still life etc. Each day Kokuban offers a theme for inspiration and variety.

Looked at together, Kyokasho.net and Kokuban.in are examples of the hit potential of a clever blend of retro/low-tech and web 2.0 capabilities.

Tags: Retro, UGC, Web 2.0
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

McDonalds wireless hotspots for Nintendo DS

On May 27th Nintendo, in cooperation with McDonalds, started a new wireless information and gaming service in 21 restaurants around Tokyo. This is part of the Nintendo Spot project to give DS gamers wireless access to the internet on the train and in McDonald’s restaurants.

Different to Europe and America it is hard to find a restaurant or bar in Japan offering a free WiFi hotspot to connect your computer or mobile gaming device to the Web. That is because Japanese usually use their mobile phones to connect to the internet, but also because of security concerns about open networks. Another important reason is that restaurant owners in Japan aren’t interested in having their customers lingering around in the often overcrowded spots in downtown.

McDonalds, which are always interested in being up-to-date with technology, (such as Felica RFID for Contactless Coupons), now are offering their customers more information and gimmicks through portable devices.

In 21 restaurants around Tokyo, Nintendo DS users can browse various campaign information from the McDonald’s Website, as well as download trial versions of games. So if you want to get the recipe for the new “Cheese Katsu” Burger or improve your Kanji knowledge just grab your DS and go hang out at McDonalds!

Tags: gaming, mcdonalds, Nintendo
Category: Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Marketing & Ad Trends, Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Press coverage

CScout Japan at the PSFK Conference Asia

It’s confirmed! CScout Japan will be taking part in the PSFK Conference Asia in Singapore on October 10th. We’ll be on a forum on “Asian Youth Trends” moderated by Ian Stewart of MTV along with other Asian trend professionals from around Asia, and trying our best to tie together what is indeed a highly variable geographic and cultural area.

Also representing the Tokyo beat will be architect Mark Dytham of Klein-Dytham and PechaKucha fame (tonight at SuperDeluxe!), and Daryl Arnold of Profero.

If you’re in Singapore, or are able to come, make your reservations here. We’re looking forward to a full day of creative inspiration from the great panel that PSFK has put together. Hope to see you there!

Tags: Conferences
Category: Fashion & Lifestyle Trends, Marketing & Ad Trends, Technology & Gadget Trends
Other categories: Press coverage