Jun 1, 2008
Shouts to the team at Kiwiology for adding this blog to their directory of New Zealand blogs. Ka pai!
Kiwiology is…
Kiwiology is a directory of kiwi blogs - the stuff that makes up the New Zealand blogosphere.
Blog topics include, but are not limited to:
New Zealand blogs, Kiwis blogging overseas, blogs about New Zealand politics, the environment and sustainability in New Zealand (or by people based in New Zealand), New Zealand’s economy, Kiwi businesses and business topics, New Zealand issues and current events and kiwis’ personal blogs.
Recent blogs (as of this posting) added to kiwiology include:
Also, if you have a New Zealand related blog, or would like to suggest one, you can add it here.
Apr 21, 2008
Above is a print by the Edo period printmaker Hiroshige depicting a hawk. It is in the style of Kage’e or shadow print, something I hadn’t seen before I stumbled on the post Kage-e: Shadow pictures over at the Pink Tentacle blog. You can see more shadow prints at that page.
I love the way it is so delicately clever.
Apr 4, 2008
We have all seen barcode tattoos, and have probably heard about evil satanic barcode conspiracies (they mean 666 and represent the end of the world of course!) but Japanese company Design Barcode KK (デザインãƒãƒ¼ã‚³ãƒ¼ãƒ‰æ ªå¼ä¼šç¤¾) has taken things a step further by taking the barcode and reworking it into the package design as a whole.
I found these while looking at Dark Roasted Blend - a collection of weird and wonderful things. They have some very fascinating photos:)
Mar 9, 2008
Ah Pink Tentacle. One of Japan’s more interesting blogs. Hot pink on black like a racy 80’s Cyndi Lauper video hacked up by a Harajuku fashion freak. All good. Just having a read of that blog, and saw a couple of posts about Akita. There was once a crying Virgin Mary statue in Akita City. Carved from a Judas tree. Is that ironic or just a coincidence? It stopped crying in 1981. Metallica was formed in 1981. Is there a connection? Just another conspiracy theory… And they say Jesus is buried in Aomori.
And also Kirichimpo: Phallic promotional mascot. I remember kiritanpo was a regional delicacy from Akita, I only tried it once because it normally has chicken stock in it. But I never saw anything like Kirichimpo when I was there.
Nice to see Akita news getting out there.
Feb 9, 2008
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Found this site: Japankeibai.com whilst surfing the intrawebs today. The website has a good number of foreclosed property listings, mostly in Tokyo as well as in Osaka and other parts of Japan. Still not quite sure how the service works, but the properties seem to be very cheap. I know a number of foreigners here in Japan who bought property here during Japan’s bubble period, and who paid some very high prices for those properties, and as a result are still paying off home loans from that period. Today things are a bit easier, and if these properties are as cheap as they appear to be then there are some really good deals on the japankeibai.com site.
As a little aside, when we were in Akita late last year we saw some properties being advertised for sale there. The cheapest houses were 1,200,000 yen - and that is for a house! In the middle of nowhere, and pretty run down, but insanely cheap! More normal and livable house started at around 3 times that.
Here is a list of the latest properties listed on the Japan Keibai website:
