Hi, what’s the location of this store. I’m in Tokyo at the moment, and can’t find it for the life of me! Comment by claire — April 10, 2010

The store is located in the minato town district of tokyo. i havent been there in the last 2 years since ive moved ^^.

I was just about to post a link to their page for you, where you can check out their gewds, but the Homepage of the Happily store changed

from the pink and white layout back to the old and boring AM/PM one, also it says that AM/PM merged with FamilyMart in 2010,

and since Happily was just a “modified” AM/PM conbini it might be gone by now.

aww damn, their 600 calorie bentos were to die for :<

a crowded plaque makes haiku out of bar names:

.

below, a perfectly ordinary cup of yogurt

But if you take the top off. . .

Over 1,000 words of text! It looks like some Dr. Bonner, schizophrenic shit. Yes, the yogurt is trying to sell me A WEB-CAM.  Now, multiply this by EVERY OBJECT YOU CAN BUY in shops here and you have some idea of the advertising overload – what we call 情報汚染 (literally , “information pollution.”)

.

Went to look for a new apartment or small house because the old one got a lil bit to small for three of us since mina moved back in, i wanted something with a bigger living room,space for my home office, 3 seperate rooms, one for each of us and a larger kitchen. Ive found one,
this house was advertised as having a “SPECIAL MACHINE IN FLOOR!” I couldn’t resist checking it out. Most places have “Hot water!” or “nice view!” maybe “Air Condition!”  but. . . SPECIAL MACHINE IN FLOOR????

curious?  HELL FUCKING YES!
Ok, so when ive watched the place for the first time a month ago with mina, the real estate guy removed a secret trap-door to show us the mystery device:

then you can see the . . . conveyor belt?!? this thing is built fucking solid like a industrial robot D: ..

Bending over, you can see the THIRTEEN BOXES arranged in a circle. You punch in the number of the box you want into a remote, and the machine rotates to that box, plops it in the conveyor belt, and lugs it up to floor level, lifting the trap door up with it. WTF.

This is maybe the most awesome…insane..overkill crawlspace trapdoor thingie ive ever seen….
I asked the real-estate guy why this thing even exists and he didn’t know, this one was a first timer for him aswell and he kept scratching his head while reading the floorplans and the manual of the machine someone scribbled on it. I assume it’s for  smuggling. “Odd numbered boxes are heroin, even numbered are guns. . . except for #13. That’s the MYSTERY BOX. That one contains the souls of abducted pets.”

i fucking love it..   just cant stop playing with it, and i dont even have a bed to sleep yet :p  i might not even need my bookshelves anymore ^^

In Japanese, shitamachi (下町） literally means “lower city” – in other words, down by the river. But it’s as much an economic distinction as a geographical one: shitamachi neighborhoods tend to be ramshackle and full of collapsing buildings. (of course, the “new trendy” sections of Tokyo are often full of super expensive apartments the size of closets, while on the other hand, shitamachi people often own their own property, so who is to say you should judge a book by its cover?)

Anyway, I like shitamachi places because they often have a cool, post-war vibe. The buildings look like they were thrown up in a hurry after the bombs. It’s not slick or cool  Actually, shitamachi is popular ..
Anyway, here are some photos from  an east-Tokyo neighborhood called Mukoujima:

The cluster of buildings above is so random it looks like some Katamari Damacy shit!

(more…)

.

This is quite possibly the best commercial I’ve seen this year (partially subtitled for your enjoyment)

Aliens, awkwardness, and a blonde girl speaking Japanese with a terrible accent. This commercial has got it all!

.