AltJapan

Yokai Gaiden

One of the great things about yokai is that they turn up in unexpected places... Occasionally, even in the code for video games. Check out this screen from Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for the DS, which Hiroko and I translated. Denroku is a bookworm who occasionally pops up to assist the hero with information gleaned from dusty old tomes, one of which was described in the original text as an "encylopedia of yokai." That's how we translated it.

But when we saw the final product, we were surprised so see that our pal Andy (who was the game's localization director -- you may remember him from the interview we all did together a few months back) decided to tweak the translation as an homage to our book Yokai Attack! How cool is that? Now you've got another reason to play through the game (which is a lot of fun, incidentally).

Ninja Gaiden DS on Amazon

Yokai Attack on Amazon

Yokai Attack on Facebook

Livin La Vida Yoda

Yokai Attack! co-author Hiroko Yoda's crusade to register her name on Facebook has gotten her a blitz of press. Boing Boing, Lucasfilm's official Star Wars blog, Star Wars fan site  The Force.net, bloggers Jean Snow and Lisa Katayama, and today, somewhat incredibly, London's Daily Telegraph. The quest finally ended last week when a Facebook service rep finally allowed her to register, confirming that "the name 'Yoda,' also being the name of a popular Star Wars character, is on [a] list of blocked names." Note to other Yodas out there: good luck signing up.

The really crazy thing about this is that Lucasfilm, who you'd think would be the one who actually cared, doesn't seem to have an issue with anyone using the name "Yoda." It was purely a Facebook thing. Why on Alderaan would they go to so much trouble to defend a trademark that isn't theirs? Whatever the case, all's well that ends well.

8/29 Update! Now its been picked up by Japan's Gigazine...

Yokai Shok!!!

"Shok" as in "shock," in that we're shocked and amazed that our new book Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide is finally available RIGHT NOW in North America and Europe, a month ahead of schedule! To commemorate, we launched a Facebook group for the book. Feel free to join up!

And "Shok" as in the inimitable SHOKOTAN, who seemed to enjoy the book (or at least didn't run away screaming) when Yokai Attack graphic designer Andrew Lee handed her a copy a few days ago.

New Jersey Ninja

On Wednesday at 2:35 a.m. police officers approached a car parked in the left lane of Route 46 east and found two Clifton men dressed in black claiming to be ninjas.

From the Clifton Journal. (Thanks, Rog!)

First monkeys in Shibuya, now ninjas in New Jersey. It's been a busy week. If ninjutsu covered parking strategies, these guys would've been set.

Pancake Positioning

Observe two packages of pancake mix sold in supermarkets throughout Japan. They're packaged in the same size of box; they retail for roughly the same amount of money; they both make "a big big pancake with a big big taste." The only difference: one's intended as your average, everyday pancake mix; the other is branded with the swanky Hotel New Otani name. (Which also, coincidentally, happens to be the site of the now legendary Battle of Tokyo Trader Vic's. But I digress.) 

Question: Given the near-identical nature of the products, how best to differentiate them? Super kawaii "working characters" to the rescue. These otherwise unassuming packages, identical save for the image they attempt to present to customers, illustrate one of the facts Hiroko and I discovered during the making of Hello, Please! Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters From Japan: the more exclusive a product's image, the lower the chance you'll see cute characters associated with it. 

Just take a look for yourself. Cozy 'n unpretentious Morinaga's on the left. Chic 'n glamorous New Otani's on the right. One features supercute anthropomorphic bowls, pans, pancakes, and even (in an absurdly elaborate story on the official website) a carbohydrate-laden mascot character. The other, aiming for a slightly more elegant sort of image, doesn't. Click to enlarge.

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle. Now pass me the syrup.

(You may remember the Morinaga instructions from that timeless AltJapan classic, "Makin' Pancakes the Japanese Way.")

Moths 'n Monkeys

No rogue monkeys spotted in Shibuya the other night (this Cloverfield-esque video someone shot captures the scene, if not the simian), but a big sphinx moth landed on me right before I got back home.

Life as Yoda

In the wake of the dreaded Facebook Incident, which ended yesterday after they relented and allowed her to register, Hiroko Yoda writes about life as Yoda:

I'm a Japanese woman, and my last name really is Yoda. It's a common family name in Japan. "Yoda" the Jedi Master is actually pronounced with a long "o" in Japanese, which makes it different-sounding enough that the connection only becomes apparent when you write out my name in English letters instead of kanji characters. So even though I of course saw the films here in Japan, I never made a connection between the character Yoda and my own name.

But whenever I leave Japan, it's a different story. People think I changed my name because I'm a crazy Star Wars fan, or that I'm just kidding around. Even people who know I'm not making it up are always giving me Yoda trinkets and keychains and figures, so I had this little shrine to him going on for a while. Maybe because I'm female, or because I look foreign, people don't usually make a lot of comments directly to me. But Matt gets stuff all the time. Whenever he has to tell my name to an airline ticket agent or a hotel receptionist or something, it's totally common to get a response like "Ha-ha-ha! That's a good one, sir! Anyway, what's her real name?" Once he was even asked semi-seriously "Is her first name, then, 'Master'?" And then there was this latest incident with Facebook. I tried signing up like ten times, and it always rejected my name. Finally we figured out that a filter was blocking "Yoda" because it thought I was trying to register a fictional name! They finally let me sign up, but it took several days and a lot of emails.

Ironically, since Matt's last name is Alt, he gets his own share of funny business from people who think he's using an Internet handle name in real life ("is your middle name ESC? Are you going to name your kid 'Tab'?") But Yoda sounds even more over the top in English, so it can be a lot harder to convince people that my name really is real.

So we do occasionally have a hard time, but on the other hand, it's nice to have a short and memorable name because people easily remember us. :) "Alt and Yoda" isn't an easy combination to forget. At least we hope so.

Incidentally, I also named my dog Luke. So his full name is Luke Yoda! (He is so old right now, he sort of does act like a real Jedi.)

Face/Off

Facebook won't approve Hiroko for an account, apparently because her family name is "Yoda." Never mind the fact that it's a common family name in Japan. Over 24 hours and no response from their customer service team, either. What, does George Lucas own that particular name now?

Darling wa Kokujin

Words fail me.

Darling wa Hakujin

Kitagishima (北木島) island. Location: in the strait between Japan's main island of Honshu and Shikoku. Area: 7.6km². Population: 1,336 people. Restaurants: 2. Main industry: supplying granite to the mainland, including that used to build Osaka Castle and the torii gate at Yasukuni Shrine.  

Top things to do? Hobnobbing with famous white people! Hiroko and I bummed cancer sticks off Pierce Brosnan downtown.

Meanwhile, waiting in our room at the island's lone minshuku: a spot of tea with the disembodied face of David Beckham, laser-etched into a slab of granite for all eternity. When tentacled aliens excavate this stunning artifact in an archaeological dig of our planet six thousand centuries hence, they will theorize it was a sacrament in some local religion.