Yōkoso! to Tsukiji Market no more.

One of Japan´s favorite attractions are banning foreign tourists to visit it. The famous Tsukiji Market, the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind will shut access to tourists for a month and there are some talks that will probably extend the banning forever.

TOKYO — Tourists will be banned from pre-dawn tuna auctions at the Tsukiji fish market for at least a month, officials said Wednesday. “We have decided on a total ban as visitors are taking pictures with flash and touching tuna, which gets in the way of bidding,” said Akiko Ueyama, a spokeswoman for the Tokyo metropolitan government. “The market is not a visitor attraction but a place for fish bidding.”

Local authorities have long overlooked hundreds of people, mostly foreign tourists, flocking every day to Tsukiji market to see the tuna auctions. But the metropolitan government will now deploy guards to enforce the ban, which is due to begin on Dec 15. It will notify embassies, hotels and travel agencies of the move.

“We are also considering if we should continue it indefinitely,” Ueyama said.

The market, the source of fresh sushi and sashimi flown daily to top restaurants the world over, has long topped must-see lists for first-time visitors to Tokyo.

Source: Japan Today

It is really sad, but tourists virtually asked for it.  I dont know if they are using this as an excuse to shut the doors to “gaijins” or just the tourists don´t know how to follow instructions. (I think there are signs in english or other languages, or english translators staff). I just hope they reconsider the measure or at least instruct the tourists and employees how to deal with the situation because tourism is really decreasing with this kind of news and the global economy crisis.

Guess the only way We will watch this market now is visiting their website or watching videos at youtube!

USB Meal?: Keeping your bento box warm!

Japanese people dont even have time to microwave food or go to the office´s kitchen to heat their food.

Thanko saw the market segment and gave japanese a new device that will heat food in their cubicles. For about 1,980 yen (USD$20.49) you can get the USB Lunchbox Pouch.

This pouch can be easily connect to your computer via USB and warms anything that can fit the bag, like a bento box. The device can heat your food to a temperature of 60 degrees celsius. It also has a 6 month warranty!

It is really convenient and since at my office there are many people that use the microwave, I think this will save me time to use it and eat faster. For more information visit the website

Japan`s bicycle graveyard / The curse of Colonel Sanders!

Here is a photo that caught my attention.

A barge full of bikes pulled from the infamous Dotonbori river in Osaka. Now I wondered why this website called the Dotonbori river “infamous”.  I did some research about the river and found an interesting Urban Legend about it!

The river is in fact man made, it was carved through the area in the early 1600’s, being built as a drainage outlet for land reclaimed in the area. Today it is the focal point of the area. The Dotonbori Bridge is where people meet after huge sporting victories like the Soccer or Baseball. People usually get a bit too excited and some even jump off the bridge into the murky canal below.
Source: Happy Jappy

In 1985 a statue of Colonel Sanders was broken off the local KFC and thrown in the river when the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Championship Baseball Series. They faced the Seibu Lions and took their first and only victory in the Japan Series, largely due to star slugger Randy Bass,a gaijin (foreigner) player for the team.

The rabid fan base went wild, and a riotous celebration gathered at Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori, Osaka. There, an assemblage of supporters yelled the players names, and with every name a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leapt from the bridge into the waiting canal. However, lacking someone to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the rabid crowd seized a Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel had a beard and was not Japanese) plastic statue from a nearby KFC and tossed it off the bridge as an effigy.

This impulsive maneuver was to cost the team greatly, beginning the Curse of the Colonel.Urban legend has it that the Tigers will not win the championship again until the statue is recovered.

After their success in the 1985 series, the Hanshin Tigers began an 18-year losing streak placing last or next-to-last in the league. Brief rallies in 1992 and 1999 brought hope to fans, but they were soon followed with defeat.

During this time attempts were made to recover the statue, including sending divers down and dredging the river, but they all failed. Fans apologized to the store manager, but the statue remained in the canal and the Tigers “cursed”.

2002 World Cup

Although the leap into Dotonbori canal and the Curse of the Colonel is usually associated only with a Hanshin Tigers victory, in 2002 when Japan beat Tunisia in the World Cup, some 500 fans jumped into the canal as a celebration, in spite of heavy police security.

In addition, a Colonel Sanders statue was taken from the storefront of a KFC in nearby Kōbe, and its hands were cut off supposedly in imitation of Sharia law.

2003 Central League

In 2003, the Tigers had an unexpectedly strong season. Their chief rivals, the Yomiuri Giants, lost their star player, Hideki Matsui, while the Tigers gained a pitcher Hideki Irabu, who had returned from playing with the Texas Rangers. The Tigers won the Central League to qualify for the Japan Series, and many newspapers speculated that the Curse of the Colonel had finally been broken.

Fans were enthusiastic about winning the Central League, and repeated the celebratory leap into Dotonbori Canal. However, instead of the individual leapers representing the players, over 5,300 fans plunged into the canal.[1]

Many KFC outlets in Kōbe and Ōsaka moved their Colonel Sanders statues inside until the series was over to protect them from rabid Tigers fans. The newly replaced Colonel Sanders statue in the Dotonbori KFC branch was bolted down to prevent a repeat of the incident.

The Tigers lost the Japan Series, this time to the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, so the curse is presumably intact.

Death in the canal

For 24-year-old Hanshin Tigers fan Masaya Shitababa the 2003 celebration was a tragedy. He drowned in the canal, with all reports being that he had been shoved in by the revelers. To prevent future incidents, the Osaka city council ordered the construction of a new Ebisubashi bridge, beginning in 2004, which will make it more difficult for rabid fans to take the celebratory leap should the Curse of the Colonel be broken and the Tigers win again.

Read about the URBAN Legend of the KFC Colonel Sanders curse here!

Bicycles / River Photo: Quirky Japan Blog

It seems there are lots of stories in Japan about the Colonel Sanders.  A very popular character indeed. I think Ronald McDonalds is pretty famous as well.

Now back to the original news, surveillance cameras took pictures of some people throwing their bicycles in the river. Check the suspects…

…Please don`t throw trash to the rivers!

Japan´s Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus)

There are festivals in Japan, tons of them. I never imagined that this kind of festival is celebrated in Japan every year. It is really hilarious but guess that the all mighty “penis” deserve its own festival.

The Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis forms the central theme of the event that is reflected everywhere—in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan’s prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony. There is also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. Many travellers from Europe or US visit and attend the festival.
Photo: Steve goes Travelling
Source: Wiki

It seems this festival is really popular. Funny thing is that there are “penis” candies,  “penis” shaped Vegetables, and many more. Some people could feel embarrased about it, but generally speaking it seems people have a great time! (NSFW! images).

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