Illuminations, fashionable restaurants, Christmas cake, KFC, omnipresent Santa Claus avatars, Disneyland and the infamous love hotels. It’s Christmas in Japan everybody! Okay, so you may have heard about KFC providing the Japanese Christmas Day ‘turkey’ or seen the seas of beautiful blue neon lights, but what about the romantic side of Christmas? For many people, Christmas Day in Japan is Valentine’s Day, take two.

Just a brief post today, as I have the JLPT exam tomorrow. Have you heard of QR (Quick Response) codes? I came across them in Japan but didn’t think much of them at first, and I certainly didn’t realise it was possible to create your own! I was reading Nodehi’s blog post about it.　You can store things like URLs, email addresses or phone numbers in these little barcode blocks, but reading them yourself is a bit of a challenge, as these girls find out:

It’s that time of year again where we all start to get the Christmas feeling, and Nintendo Japan is as early as the rest of them with their latest batch of lovely members-only gifts. Last year included a Platinum Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, a Super Famicom-shaped Wii controller and a calendar. This year sees a Golden Wii wheel, a Super Mario hat (the real deal!) and…a calendar. Check out the Japanese page here or more of my thoughts on how to cash in on similar goodies below!

Youtube videostars - Nyoki Nyoki, Mydodolook and Magibon. This is the new form of entertainment, apparently. These sort of popular “vloggers” are sweeping in viewers from all over. And how? Through tactical kawaii (cute) façades and mind-bogglingly teasing gimmicks! How can a pair of girls who merely squeal ‘Nyoki Nyoki’ (’to grow up big’) and do callisthenics on camera be so captivating? What about Magibon, famous for simply staring at the camera with those big, anime-esque eyes and eating giant slices of pizza? She gets millions of views to her …

Another deep sea creature-related post that vaguely sings of bioluminescence. Just about, anyway. Behold! No longer is your USB key bound to those boring plastic cases! Accessorise your keys with a bit of squid. And not just any squid - a Firefly Squid, at that. I wonder if it glows blue when you plug in its tentacles?