Fugu Japan
fugu out of the water
- Hajimemashite
Author:kaishi
Dreaming of Nihon.
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Fugu Japan
fugu out of the water~ 2008-10-30(Thu)
Denote, Connote...Emote! ~ Japanese Emoticons Wehe..I've been so busy lately I haven't updated. To those who have viewed my site arigatou gozaimasu! I am sorry for being so slow! Anyway, today it's all about Japanese emoticons! Every internet user uses emoticons. But have you ever wondered how they started? The :-) smiley that is so familiar to us was invented by Scott E. Fahlman (and probably some others) in 1982!!! Wehe! I was only a toddler then (FuguJapan has to shut up about age...). The :-) smiley face (yep, the one you see up there in this page..ehh..is that green program WORDSTAR or something even more ancient?XD) celebrated it's 26th birthday last September 19. You can view Scott's page on this emoticon here. If you want an extended discussion the history of Smiley, you can view this page which is in Japanese and if my translator is right, it includes an amusing discussion of the many faces of Koala (^O^) <--smiling face of a koala. In Japan, Japanese text emoticons are called kaomoji while graphical icons are called 絵文字emoji. Here's a full table of the emoji the three main mobile operators (Do CoMo, Softbank, adn EzWeb) in Japan use: whatjapanthinks takes note of current trends in Japan and in the survey below, he tells us about the frequency of emoji and kaomoji use in Japan. I think it generally shows that even in mobile phone texting, women like to emote more huh? XD Although it's the men who like using the japanese text icons more..I guess the emoji are too kawaii for them haha. Between the 11th and 13th of June 2008 433 members of the BlogCh monitor panel who owned mobile phones. 53.1% of the sample were male, 15.5% in their twenties, 49.9% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, and 7.6% of other ages. Research results TOTAL emoji USERS= 44% kaomoji = 30% neither = 26% Q1: Which do you use more on mobile phone email, emoji or kaomoji? (Sample size=433)
Q2: Have you added your own kaomoji to your mobile phone user dictionary? (Sample size=433)
Q3: Have you ever downloaded emoji? (Sample size=433) All Male Female
Now here'a another survey again from whatjapanthinks. The emoticons are cute! I wonder what number 16 means though. In the middle of June, goo Ranking surveyed its readers by means of a public internet questionnaire on what emoticons, or smilies, they often used in mail from their personal computers. The following table presents the top thirty results. As usual for goo Ranking, number one slot gets ranked with 100 points, and all the rest with the proportion of votes relative to the top vote. More detailed demographics, etc, are not available. Ranking results Q: What 顔文字, kaomoji, emoticons do you often use in mail sent from your personal computer?
So survey says, Japan's most emoted emotion is LAUGHING XD...well at least in 2006. Ehe. Well, here's another amazing fact. Do know what Japan's biggest emoticon looks like?  The biggest emoticon is in 2,210 meter-high Kumagetake mountain in Hokkaido . Kikuchi~san is the person who first spotted it in August 2005 while the snow was naturally melting. This photo was taken from the top of the nearby 2,291 meter high Asahidake mountain (original source) And since we're in the subject of emoticons, here are some of the cutest emoji!    These below from: anikaos ONIGIRI     ONION      RED FOX   LOVE/PUCCA     wee...hope you enjoy using them ^__^ FUGUJAPAN  2008-10-08(Wed)
Kawaii!!! Scroll down and you'll see what's kawaii for me! Kawaiiiii!!! The term is so overused not only in Japan, but in cliques and online communities who are jumping into the Japanese craze. The expression seems to imply "Ohhhh, it's SOOO cute!!" and, "I want it!!!" and is typically said in an ear-grating high-pitched tone. According to Wired.com, the Japanese teen magazine CREA called kawaii "the most widely used, widely loved, habitual word in modern living Japanese". Two Sides of Kawaii The "cuteness phenomenon" has prompted Sharon Kinsella, a Cambridge University researcher to write a study on the subject entitled Cuties in Japan. Kinsella's research has shown that the term kawaii appears as kawayushi in dictionaries printed during the Taisho (大正 lit. Great Righteousness, 1912 - 1926) to 1945 period. After the war until around 1970, kawayushi changed into kawayui but the meaning of the word remained the same. Kawaii is a derivation of a term whose principle meaning was 'shy' or 'embarrassed' and secondary meanings were 'pathetic', 'vulnerable', 'darling', 'loveable' and 'small'. In the recent Japanese-English, English-Japanese Random House Dictionary by Seigo Nakao (New York, 1997), kawairashii is listed meaning "lovely, cute" In the strict Japanese context, kawaii doesn't just mean cute. It also implies a parent-child relationship, with a "kawaii" character showing child-like innocence which needs to be protected. Says Takei Sugiyama Libre: The word "kawaii" in Japanese has a broader definition than the English word "cute". When applied to pop culture, "cute" will suffice; however "kawaii" refers primarily to the affection of a parent toward a child coupled with the protectiveness for the innocent and weak. Thus a pop cartoon character is considered "kawaii" because it exemplifies the innocence of a child and evokes general protective, caring instincts in the viewer. Other translations of "kawaii" can include "precious", "lovable" or "innocent".  Hagumi with Morita in the anime, Honey and Clover. Hagu is the ultimate kawaii character. Photo from: ucjas.pbwiki.com According to Onishi, the CanCam editor-in-chief, the word "kawaii " is not exactly an expression — we should consider it more of an exclamation mark from deep inside the psyche of girls and young women (Web-Japan.org). For Rini Yamada, kawaii is a lifestyle and an attitude. It's not just how we dress, its what we are, she says. However, there are those like Hiroto Murasawa, a professor of beauty and culture at Osaka Shoin Women’s University, who feel that kawaii is actually more negative and promotes an infantile mentality. Murasawa says that cuteness is "a mentality that breeds non-assertion ... Individuals who choose to stand out get beaten down"(Yuri Kageyama, Washingtonpost). This opinion is actually supported by the modern sense of the word kawaii. The term, says Kinsella, still has some nuances of pitiful whilst the term kawaisô derived directly from kawaii means pathetic, poor, and pitiable in a generally negative if not pleasing sense.  Pokemon. Another modern kawaii phenomenon. Photo from Nick at sugarshock. Fanshi Guzzu - The Kawaii Phenomenon hits the market The cute craze began in 1970 among teenagers who started a fad for writing notes and letters in rounded childish characters. The scholars dubbed the phenomenon the Anomalous Female Teenage Handwriting. Kids, on the other hand, called it burikko-ji (kitten-writing or fake child-writing". It was not long before the media, businesses and computer software saw that kawaii-ness was lucrative and capitalized on the term. Kawaii then became a general fashion for talking, dressing and acting like a child. This practice spawned a new verb: burikko suru ("to fake-child it"). Perhaps one of the best examples of those that hugely profited from this trend is the Sanrio Company. In 1971, Sanrio designed their previously plain stationeries with the cute characters we now know so well. This was the earliest example of fanshi guzzu (fancy goods). During 1990, Sanrio sold 200 billion yen worth of goods. In 1990, the fancy goods business as a whole reached an estimated turnover of 10 trillion yen (Cuties in Japan, Kinsella). In 2002, Hello Kitty alone was a 1-billion dollar a year franchise for Sanrio (Cute Conquers All, Bremner)..    creamiicandygraphics-do not use without credit The kawaii craze spread like a virus that at one point in the mid-80s , the peak of kawaii culture, some 55 percent of 12-18 year old girls were using it. Kawaii support did not seem to wane in the 90s and as Kinsella's study shows, 71 percent of young people between 18 and 30 years of age either liked or loved kawaii looking people, and 55.8 percent did not have any trouble expressing their fondness or love for kawaii attitudes and behaviour. Kawaii is trendy! As expected, the Japanese teen fashion has also banked on the kawaii trend. Kate Drake in a 2001 Time article entitled Kwest for Kawaii writes that every month, high schoolers in the capital spend roughly $275 each on gear and clothes, three times more than the average Japanese high schooler. What's more, when taken as a whole, high-school girls in the country spend around $2.5 billion annually! Even young housewives have come up with their own kawaii variation, combining it with the erotic to come up with the erokawa look - cute, but sexy.  Kawaii fashion by Commes de Garcons Photo by Itscoolclub.blogspot.com  Women dressed the way they want as long as the effect is kawaii Photo from Web-Japan.org Ingredients for cuteness So what does it take to be kawaii? Kinsella says that for a fancy good, it should be small, pastel, round, soft, loveable, not traditional Japanese style but a foreign in particular European or American style, dreamy, frilly and fluffy. Usually, they are also decorated with cartoon characters. The essential anatomy of a cute cartoon character is small, soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily appendages (arms), without bodily orifices (mouths), non-sexual, mute, insecure, helpless or bewildered. The description makes me think of porings, hanari tofu and tare panda!    Kawaii icons by creamiicandy-don't use without credit!  Kawaii Poring inspires Poring plushies Photo from Archangeli at flickr  Another Poring product - the Ragnarok Poring Mouse...kawaii!! Photo from thegadgetblog Kawaii Today Today, kawaii has reached far beyond the fancy goods market. Kawaii is used to market and describe accesories, anime and manga products, gadgets, toys (Tamagotchi anyone?) and yes, even people such as Jpop idols. Numerous blogs and websites are dedicated to the idea of kawaii such as Kawaiinot, Ultrakawaii and All Things Kawaii which links to hundreds of kawaii webpages. There are also online websites for kawaii products such as Shopkawaii, Kawaiigoods and Kawaii-imports. These shops sell anything from plushies to stationery to ipod accessories and even confectionaries. Be careful though, everything is so kawaii, that it could turn kowaii!!! :P  Tamagotchi Photo from Kawaii for me Now for my favorite part... Certified Kawaii Jpop Idol Ohno Satoshi from Arashi Certified Kawaii Pet The cheeky Shih Tzu Photo from michelleislove Certified Kawaii Cellphone The AU KDDI Sony Ericsson W61S, Spring 2008 Kawaii thoughts It is evident that kawaii is an evolving term and is a way to express ourselves. Considering its influence in pop culture, both in Japan and in other countries, it looks like kawaii is here to stay. So how about you, what do you consider kawaii? © kaishi@fugujapan ~fin~ from jealousykills.livejournal.comDO NOT CLAIM GRAPHICS as YOURS!! ONEGAISHIMASU!  2008-10-06(Mon)
Welcome to Fugu Japan (+^_^+)v I cannot see her tonight I have to give her up So I will eat Fugu. - Yosa Buson, haiku poet Hello minna~! I am excited about this website because I love Japanese culture and it is my dream to go to Japan again someday. As part of my Japan preparations, I have decided to post things I find interesting about the country. I am currently a graduate student and am going to work full-time again soon (sigh) so I may not be able to post everyday. But, this is one of my passions so I will do my best! *gambare to self* Ok, since this is my first post, I decided to write about FUGU...yay. Yes my blog title. I haven't tasted Fugu yet and am not really sure if I want to. Fugu is the Japanese term for pufferfish, blowfish, swellfish, globefish or blowie. It is a scaleless salt-water poisonous fish. To scare off its predators, it gulps in water to inflate and turn itself into a spiky ball. The deadly poison of the puffer fish does not turn off its human connoisseurs of taste. Fugu is considered a delicacy in Japan and is very expensive.  Don't let its kawaii-ness fool you! Deadly river pig Fugu is spelled with the Chinese characters of river pig (河豚) despite its being a salt-water fish . It's name comes from the Japanese, fuku ("to swell", "to blow", and ironically also "good fortune" haha). The fish's poison is called Tetrodotoxin which is 1250 times deadlier than cyanide and 160,000 times more potent than cocaine. Therefore, the preparations in cooking Fugu are very intricate as the chef has to make sure that all eleven poisonous parts are removed completely, including the skeleton, skin, ovaries, intestines and liver. If you do get poisoned, your muscles will get paralysed while you remain fully conscious. Eventually, you'll die from respiratory problems. There is no known antidote and the victim can undergo supportive therapy until the poison wears off.  Takifugu Rubripes or Tiger Blowfish, the most prestigious edible takifugu The fish are deadly even to themselves but not because of their poison. When fishermen catch them, the fish's lips have to be stitched up to keep them from killing each other! And I thought they were cute! Not all varieties of puffer fish can be eaten though. The Takifugu is a genus of pufferfish and there are 25 species found worldwide . So before you decide to go about pufferfish fishing, make sure you know which puffer fish are edible. Since eating poorly prepared fugu can cause instantaneous deaths, make sure that a licensed chef will also cook it for you!! Fugu is good for you and how to eat fugu So why eat Fugu? It is low in calories, high in protein and high in collagen. This is a deadly price to pay to be pretty ne? Fugu is usually eaten during winter where there are decreased levels of toxicity. There are many ways to cook it. Here are Fugu dishes. The descriptions are from Tokyo Cube: Fugu-sashi (Tessa) - Thinly sliced raw flesh and skin Photo from koichi.typepad.com The raw flesh and skin of the fish is thinly sliced, almost translucent, and has an elastic texture and is slightly chewy to eat. This is regarded as one of the most beautiful types of sashimi, and is served with a sour citrus sauce, chives and grated white radish. Fugu-chiri Hot-pot style with vegetables VIDEO-How to eat fugu chiri Ehh..oishi!!!!! Don't you just want to eat some now? T__T  Photo from kyushu.com The fish is cut into pieces and cooked at the table in boiling water with tofu, vegetables (mushrooms, Chinese cabbage, carrot and chrysanthemum leaves), and seaweed. It is cooked for a few minutes then served with a sour citrus sauce, chives and red pepper. Fugu-zousui - Mixed with rice and eggsAfter finishing the Fugi-chiri, salt, rice and egg is added to the rich hot-pot to make a porridge style rice, which is a warm and satisfying way to end the Fugu meal. Other types of Fugu dishes Fugu Karaage - deep fried and floured FuguA great contrast after eating the uncooked fugu. It is also an alternative if you don't like your puffer fish raw. Furu Hire-zake - Grilled fin in hot sake.The Best Fugu Ryotei A Fugu Ryotei is a fugu restaurant which can usually be recognized for the fugu lantern outside the restaurant doors.. The best fugu restaurants are said to be in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan. In the best fugu restaurants, puffer fish swim in a tank, oblivious to their fate until a customer orders one of them. An average 3-course fugu meal is 10,000+ yen.  Paulstravelpics.blogspot.com The original Zuboraya Honten in Osaka Anyone hungry for Fugu? Well, after reading all of those fugu articles, I can't wait to try fugu! If you have any interesting fugu experiences, pictures, links, I would love to read or see them. Wee...so that's all for my first post. Hope you enjoyed the culinary experience as much as I did. Oh, and check out the links below for more of Fugu!!! Fugu Restaurants around the World US US Restaurants that Serve Fugu Sushi Den - Denver, Colorado Japan Reviews of Fugu Restaurants in Tokyo Torafugu Tei とらふぐ亭 - Shibuya, Yokohama, Sushi Den - Fukuoka Japan Singapore Kuriya Japanese Restaurant - Singapore Aoki Restaurant Tatsuya Japanese Restaurants Holland Fugu Kuala Lumpur Kampachi Yuzu Japanese Restaurant Hajime Japanese Restaurant Fugu Blogs Pauls's Travelpics May's Fukuoka City Guide Interesting Fugu Article The politics of puffer fish: Battle in Japan over poison-free fugu by Norimitsu Onishi, 4 May 2008 by jealousykills.livejournal.com~fin~  |
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