Japanorama's Top Twelve Twisted Topics of 2008

2008 may have been a tough year economically, but it's been a great year comically, at least where weirds news and articles about Japan are concerned. 2009 is sure to bring another year's worth of fun & frivolity from the farthest east. For now though, let's enjoy a dozen of the weirdest & wildest from Japan - and Japanorama!

January - Paper Airplane Set to Soar from Space Station

Remember those pre-financial crisis times, when spending money on ridiculous things was the norm? We're not sure how much it cost Japan's space agency, JAXA, to design, build and launch a few custom paper airplanes to the International Space Station but it had to be a lot. Ironically, the planes were doomed to burn up quicker than Lehman Bros., Circuit City and Indymac. (link)

February - Move Over World of Warcraft, Hello Kitty Online is Here!

Role-playing games like World of Warcraft worry many with their ability to addict players who need to spend at least some time on things like work, school and a social life. Hello Kitty Online isn't going to help the situation much. Master marketer Sanrio just keeps finding new ways to promote their signature character, Hello Kitty, as if being the adoration of pre-teens everywhere isn't enough. Welcome to Kitty's world... all your babes belong to us! (link) 

March - The 6 Stages of Drunkenness in Japanese Cellphone Charms

This set of 6 drunken businessmen cellphone charms charts the descending spiral of a drinking, drunken and finally dozing salaryman who's gotten into the sake a wee bit too much. Japanese love their hardworking office workers and indulge them when they blow off steam... or other things. (link)

April - New Bizarre Beauty Trend: Placenta Drinks and Supplements

What won't women slather on their faces in the name of beauty? Bird excrement? Done. Hog placenta? Yep - and no, I'm not kidding. Nihon Sofuken markets a line of placenta products that can be taken as pills, applied as a face mask and even drunk - though I'm guessing you'd actually have to BE drunk to drink it. (link)

May - Bizarre Breast Puddings From Japan

Everybody loves pudding; everyone loves breasts. With me so far? Then you'll agree that marketing Sweet Breast Puddings in anthropomorphic packaging is the greatest thing since, well, pudding and breasts. So right and yet so wrong... and just one more way modern Japanese culture gives the funhouse mirror effect to something so obliviously obvious. Makes one wonder, though, is the problem in perception theirs or ours? (link)

June - Weird Rice Bag Babies Go Against the Grain

Welcoming a new baby is a wonderful thing that anyone would like to share with far-off friends and relatives. You could send a card with a photo of the li'l squirmer, but that's so old school. New hotness: rice bag babies! Yoshinaya will print your baby's name & photo on bags of rice that each weigh exactly what your child weighs at birth. Just imagine receiving one of these and wondering... "honey, what goes with rice for dinner tonight?" (link)

July - Colorful Sanitary Napkins Cheer Up a Blue Period

Whisper "Silky Soft Slims" are no joke, though they ARE designed by a comedienne. Who knows what Naomi Matsushima was thinking, why she thought it and - horrors - when she first came up with the idea for these sanitary pads attractively patterned (?) in stars and camouflage. Stop this woman before she designs again! (link)

August - The Top Ten Strange and Unusual Japanese Chewing Gums  

From "Man Smell" gum to gum that brushes your teeth to a chewable bust enhancer, Japan boasts more bizarre gums than a cow with gingivitis. Some of the concepts - like wine-flavored gum - are questionable at best, but you have to give credit to a gum manufacturer who includes a book of paper "after-wrappers" in a plastic tub of loose chiclets. (link)

September - Sarah Palin's Japanese Eyeglasses Spark Fashion Trend

What would the 2008 U.S. presidential election have been without Sarah Palin? Less interesting certainly; a closer race perhaps. Love her or hate her, the controversial governor of Alaska made a visible impression and still does - as a fashion plate. Palin's carefully constructed look owed much to her choice in eyewear, that being clear-rim MP-704 glasses from Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co. in Japan's Fukui prefecture. Masunaga only sold 12,000 pairs of Palin's preferred peepers last year but sold 9,000 within 10 days of her landing on the political stage. (link)

October - Stranger Than Sushi: The Buzz on Japanese Insect Foods

Eating raw fish give you the shivers? If so, the thought of insect sushi will have you shaking like a paint-mixer on overdrive. Then again, we cheerfully eat lobsters, shrimps and other "sea bugs" so their landlubber cousins likely taste... like chicken? (link)

November - Men's Premium Bra Offers Hope for Japan's Overly Endowed   

Just when you thought Japan had exhausted all avenues of weirdness comes the Men's Premium Brassiere. Wearing one of these means either you're supremely confident in your masculinity or you've given up completely, no shades of gray in between. They do come in black, white, pink and red however. (link)

December -  Tokyo Metro's Manner Poster Series Scolds Subway Slobs

We round out our Top Twelve with the curious series of subway manners posters commissioned by Tokyo Metro in an effort to stem so-called bad behavior on Tokyo's superb subway system. The oddest thing about these posters is the catch-phrase "please do it at home"... which must have Tokyo housewives itching to teach some manners to the head honchos at Tokyo Metro. (link)


Whew, that was some bizarre year, wonder what 2009 has in store? Stay tuned, but if you miss it I'll be back - same bat-time, same-bat-channel - for the Top Twelve of 2009!