Bizarre Japanese Stuff: "They Show This to High School Girls and Little Kids!?"

There's plenty of weird stuff going on over here in Japan, the land I love... But some of them are figments of people's quite twisted imaginations and others, well, others are the results of people's twisted imaginations.

But which are which? Let's look at two today:

Daily reader Brad from Pensacola, Florida writes;

"Mike! Hi. What the heck is going on over there? I saw this video and photo on a site from the UK called Obvious Winner and thought, "WTF!?" I wondered if the English translation was correct on the video or if someone is just trying to blow my mind. What about it? Are the vegetables really committing suicide and is this really a kid's cartoon? And that photo of the guy with his pants down, that can't be real, can it? That's Photoshopped, right?


Please let me know before I quit my job and move to Japan.


Love the blog..."

Thanks Brad... Well... I am sometimes surprised too at what goes on here and this is one of those times. I don't watch TV but this video definitely looks to be an authentic Japanese cartoon. The Japanese love curry (though Japanese curry is more like beef stew than Indian curry).

The part about killing themselves - though they only say something along the lines of sacrificing themselves for the good of the greater curry - is the part that makes me drop my jaw. Watch it



Pretty bizarre behavior for a bunch of vegetables... Cartoon or no cartoon! But, this is Japan, so let me explain... In old Samurai movies there was always someone who took the fall for the rest of the gang, so, actually this is not so much committing suicide for the curry... It is a parody of Samurai films.

Still, if you didn't have that knowledge, this would be pretty bizarre!

Now this next photo is definitely fake I'd say. This is more likely the figment of the imagination of some nerd living in a western country who has way too much time on their hands.

The girls walking in the background do not look surprised and they are not running away... So I'd have to say, "Photoshopped!"

Any Japan residents care to agree or disagree? Still, it's funny photo for a second or two.

Best Place to Buy Fresh Vegetables and Fruit in Tokyo!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I've found another fantastic place that I just must introduce. It is a fresh produce and fish shop near Okachimachi station in western Tokyo. The shop is called, "Sakana no Yakata." It is a chain store run by a company called Yoshiike.

Sakana no Yakata - Go out South exit of Okachimachi station. Turn left. 5 seconds walk.

Folks, I went to that store for the first time ever and I was totally floored by how fresh the produce was and how incredibly cheap the prices were. It is the closet thing to a real Farmer's Market that I have ever seen in Japan.

The shop was packed with people on a weekday. They had tons of items on sale. Some items, like strawberries, I haven't seen on sale in quite a while.

Other items, like fresh bananas with five bananas in a pack sold for ¥30 yen (35 cents) a pack! My local store, which is dirt cheap (or so I thought) sells them for almost three times that price!

Look for the huge cod

Go out Okachimachi South Exit #1 and look to the left. You'll see "Sakana no Yakata" (魚の館）on the corner. Here is a map.