Regular viewers of Japanese TV will be familiar with the uaido shō (wide shows=variety shows) that dominate TV schedules in Japan. These consist of tarento (TV personalities) and comedians getting together to particapate in group activities, most commonly those staples of Japanese life, eating, drinking, shopping and travelling.
There’s only one thing that the people on these shows like doing more, and that’s (more…)
Japanese society is renowned for people’s concern for the wellbeing of the group as a whole. However, this means nothing to The Health Risk: they insist on coming to class for their weekly dose of social contact, even though they have a virus or infectious disease. (more…)
The last two Top TV Commercials have focused on products unique to Japan that have been advertised in a memorable way. This time round, I’m going to look at memorable Japanese advertising for a product that isn’t unique to Japan, but is familiar to people all over the world.
The Product: Fanta. Everyone knows the brand name, but as well as the usual orenji (orange) flavour Fanta, this series of ads also introduces the less familiar flavours of gurēpufurūtsu (grapefruit), howaito piichi (white peach), sumomo (plum), toropikaru furūtsu (tropical fruit), suiitii (sweety), gurēpu (grape) and sappari piichi (refreshing peach). For a full list of Fanta flavours sold in Japan, see Wikipedia.
The Ads: This series of 7 ads features a different teacher in the first six. The final one has all the teachers together with the school principle.
The teachers are: Mr Leather, an English (more…)
In the past couple of years the katakana loan word kureimā (claimer=complainer) has become widely used in Japanese to describe this kind of person: the Trouble Maker is someone who loves to complain about things, often to try and claim some kind of financial compensation (a discount or something for free), but sometimes simply because they enjoy causing trouble. (more…)
A quick comparison of the enormous range of Fanta flavours available in Japan with those available in other countries gives an indication of how much variety the Japanese like in their soft drinks. Fuelled by consumer demand for new products and limited seasonal editions, the beverage industry in Japan churns out an astonishing range of drinks that can best be described as ‘imaginative’.
With such a wide range of drinks, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are some unusual examples, and Inventorspot has listed its Top Ten Bizarre Japanese Soft Drinks. The list features a mixture of drinks with unusual Engrish names (like Hot Calpis) and those with unusual flavours/concepts (like Mother’s Milk). The unfortunately-named Deepresso coffee - which has also been the subject of countless blog posts on unusual coffee brands - also appears on the list, although Pocari Sweat is curiously absent.
If you’re teaching English to adults in a Japanese eikaiwa, chances are you’ll meet some great people. Speaking from my own experiences as a teacher, I met some of the most kind, generous and interesting people I’ve ever met.
Unfortunately though, the money-grabbing nature of the eikaiwa industry means that anyone can take English conversation lessons, even if they are hopeless at learning languages, have poor ability to interact socially, or are mentally ill.
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Following my previous Reblogging Japan post about kids’ beer, here’s a TV ad for the product from YouTube.
The Product: You need to be 20 years old to legally buy alcohol in Japan, but that hasn’t stopped the Sangaria company bringing out kodomo no nomimono (lit:children’s drink), a drink they basically market as beer for kids. Admittedly the product doesn’t contain any alcohol, but the fact that it’s blatantly portrayed as imitation beer means it’s the kind of thing you’d never find in a western country. (more…)
More uniqueness
Closer inspection of Japan’s wide range of canned and bottled beers reveals a couple of other unique attributes relating to packaging. Firstly, the country’s helpful attitude towards visually-impaired people(1) is evident on the top of all beer cans in the form of a Braille character next to the ring pull. This is to warn them that the can contains alcohol, so you can’t trick visually-impaired people into getting drunk (spoilsport breweries!).
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Too lazy or too wasted to pour yourself another beer? Never fear, the Asahi beer robot* is here!
*Batteries not included. And by the looks of this video, decent beer not included either.
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