The man who saw three centuries

Tomoji Tanabe was born in 1895 (!) and is now at 111 the world's oldest man.
He keeps a daily diary, drinks milk, stays away from alcohol and smoking and...doesn't want to die.
The world's oldest person, a woman, is also Japanese, with a whooping 114 years.

The number of Japanese living beyond 100 has almost quadrupled in the past 10 years, with the once exclusive centenarian club expected to exceed 28,000 this year.

Experts often attribute this longevity to a Japanese diet rich in vegetables and fish.
I'm not sure about that. What about all the Tonkatsu, Ramen, Yakiniku they are eating?

Les tetes a claques

Mince, il faut que j'arrrête de regarder ces clips à longueur de journée.
De l'humour Québécois au meilleur de sa forme, j'adore!

Tetes a claques - Le pilote Part 1
Uploaded by motiontwelve

Tetes a claques - Le pilote Part 2
Uploaded by motiontwelve

Leur site web est par la.

Hair

Hair is a constant fascination in Japan.
The (very strong) consensus is that one should have:
1)lots of head hair.
2)NO facial or body hair.
I would go as far as saying that this is valid for both women AND men.

The pressure to have abundant hair has turned the life of thousands of unfortunate "scarce" men into a social nightmare.
A nightmare promptly exploited by companies selling all kinds of dubious treatments for re-growth (most of them at the limit of fraud, probably), aiming at giving ageing (or not that ageing) men their dignity back.
Hair implants and wigs are also popular.

Here are a few funny TV commercials that say it all:

Addicted

Only for you, because I like you...

Roland, Jeanne, et rollmops

Après le camembert Gérard, la pâte d'olives Roland.
J'attends toujours le salami Germaine et le fromage blanc Christiane...


Et après le camembert Gérard, le camembert Jeanne d'Arc. Fabriqué en ... Lorraine. Je savais pas que Jeanne était célèbre la-bas.



Eh oui, on trouve du rollmops au Japon! Ca fait drôle..

Kawagoe

Last Sunday we visited Kawagoe (about 30min north of Tokyo).
The city is also known as "Little Edo" (Koedo) after the old name for Tokyo, "Edo".

The old town is very picturesque with its Kura-style buildings (old storehouses) and impressive windows and roofs.





Along the main street you can find many shops like this one, proposing local sweets or handcrafts.






Kawagoe is famous for its sweet potatoes, and on the local "Candy Street" (actually I'd rather call it candy "corner") one can find such treats as sweet potato chips, sweet potato ice cream, sweet potato coffee, and even sweet potato beer.

As you may imagine, "little Edo" has numerous temples and shrines. Here, the beautiful entrance to one of them (unfortunately I don't remember its name).













I do remember the "foot massage shrine" though.
Stones and pebbles of various sizes are arranged along the alley leading to the shrine, and one has to walk on them with bare feet.
Needless to say, I couldn't make it (yes, I'm a sissy, and it hurt).


As for the modern part of Kawagoe, well, it looks like a typical Japanese city. With more lanterns, maybe.

For a web page on Kawagoe, it's here.

onomatopoeiamania

Japanese is without a doubt the language with the most elaborate, complete, and colorful set of onomatopoeia. They make our "ouaf ouaf" and "miao miao" look pale and ridiculous.
I was wondering if this proliferation of onomatopoeia was in part due to manga culture.
One thing that seems to account for their richness is that in addition to those onomatopoeia which imitate nature and animals, Japanese recognizes two additional types of onomatopoeia: one that suggests states of the external world, and another that names internal mental conditions and sensations (according to John Whitman, in "Chit-chat among Japanese Farm Animals").
Here a re a few examples, you can find more on this page


boka boka - hitting something (or someone) hard

deko bako - bumpy

doki doki - heart beating fast from excitement

fusa fusa - full and attractive head of hair

gata gata - trembling with cold

gucha gucha - soft and wet

guzu guzu - lazily, slowly

kara kara - very dry

kari kari - someone scratching their head in puzzlement

pachi pachi - clapping hands

paku paku - eat in big mouth fulls, eat fast

shiku shiku - crying

tsuru tsuru - slippery, smooth