now that summer is approaching and im not scared of stepping outside anymore, ive decided that i really need to get my shit together and start running again. to help me overcome this fear i have enlisted the best writer in the world haruki murakami.  his latest english translation is a series of journal entries as he prepares for various marathons in the US and around the world.

there are 700 of these animated gifs on this site and are excellent to just watch, all at once.

mobile phone dangly things featuring hello kitty masquerading as a piece of sushi…

my biggest regret of the moment is not visiting the new ikea store when i was in perth last week.

however, i now realise that the perth store is not the biggest thing in ikea land right now – it’s the kobe store in japan  which is celebrating  its opening by redocorating a monorail train completely ikea style.

more pictures here

Put my two favourite things together and this is what you get – TOSHOkAN SENSOU. The action comedy anime adapts Hiro Arikawa’s popular novel about battles fought to preserve libraries when a new law threatens to clamp down on freedom of expression in 2019.

See the trailer here.

I hope they translate this into english.

this is why i think that my ikebana teacher is the best in australia and i can only aspire to reach the levels of creativity that she has.  look at the amazing composition of the container, the materials, the background screens and the wooden poles to the side.

this was shown at the recent melboure international flower and garden show, which i visited to get inspiration for my upcoming arrangement, which requires both fresh flowers and vegetables. i have taken some pics which are on my flickr site to the right of this page so check more out.  the rmit floral fashion is really good too.

if anyone has any ideas for interesting flower/foliage/vegetable combinations then let me know. i am currently thinking big red chillies and pink lillies, which is kind of a cop out as i saw this combination at the show and really liked it.

i can’t believe that i lived in japan for so long yet NEVER encountered the phenomena that is the square watermelon, which was brought to my attention the other day. the square watermelon is not new – i am told it has been on high end japanese fruit store shelves for at least the past decade and even earlier on the tables of royalty.

apparently square watermelons are desirable cause they fit into fridges and can be cut nicely. to get the shape they are grown in glass boxes and assume the shape of the box.  costing around 10,000 yen which is about $100 AU one would *really* need to be a watermelon aficionado, or really rich, to want to partake of the juicy goodness that is the square watermeron.

this youtube origami looks a bit tricky. havent tried it yet though. the nick drake musical accompaniment makes what could be a pretty daggy origami instructional video quite ‘cool’.

you name it, there is a vending machine that dispenses it in japan.

probably the biggest vending urban myth is the ONE vending machine in inner city tokyo that dispenses used women’s underwear. no one has ever seen it but everyone talks about it. well apparently this is it:

vending is a national passtime, as seen by the images shown on this website. scrolling through the site brought back happy memories of sweet warm coffee in cans next to cold cans of coke, instant hamburgers, and pocari sweat. thanks bobo.

why wait for expensive ebook readers like kindle or whatever when, like in japan, you can download an ebook into your mobile phone. apparently over there one of the fastest growing genres is the cellphone novel.  writers, young kids who have grown up using cellphones,  are actually writing them from the phone keypad and uploading to websites (to then be downloaded by others). 

cellphone novels are not really a great jump from the manga that EVERYONE reads in japan which has short paragraphs and lots of space for imagining things, which is no doubt why they have been accepted quite readily over there.  plus you could say that japan has a tradition of literary succinctness as seen in haiku and tanka.

 read more about these from this wall street journal article and a translated excerpt of a cellphone novel (warning: don’t expect literary genius but it could possibly keep you occupied on the train ride home from work).

i love the concept of having one portable gadget (ie your mobile phone) that does everything you could ever possibly want to do - much like those all in one remote controls that you can get that for your tv, dvd, stereo, garage door, aircon, lights etc