Good morning maybe you don’t know
There’s something in the air that’s going around
Precious and fragile something inside
A new beginning to my future days
I see the lighter sweeter affair
There is no coming down… Yeah
’cause the most beautiful season of my life is here now
A new day
I’m moving on because I’ve found my own way

Grand Funk Inc

At the current exchange rate, that works out to about $552.35 for five strawberries, or about $110 for one strawberry.

Each strawberry is about 65 grams, so they’re much larger than your standard strawberry, but goodness.

$110 for one strawberry?!

But wait, it’s January and that means the strawberries are larger now than they were last month.

And guess what, strawberries that weigh in at 80 grams will set you back 50,000 yen a piece.

That’s $552.35 for one strawberry.

Craziness.

You can find out more at the bijinhime website.  (bijinhime is the name of the strawberry.)

Zensho, which operates 71 Wendy’s burger restaurants in Japan, said it planned to close all of the outlets by the end of the year.

I’m not a huge fan of Wendy’s, but I can’t help but feel a little sad.

86% of those people also happen to be women.

My grandmother actually falls into this category. If I’m not mistaken, she turned 101 this year (or was that 102?).

The oldest Japanese citizen is currently a 114-year-old woman living in Okinawa.  The oldest man is 112 and lives in Kyoto.

Current life expectancy sits at 86 years for women and 79 for men.  But I wonder, how long will this last?

Western food has become quite popular in Japan and I get the feeling that isn’t going to help extend life expectancies.  Many of the people living into their 90s and 100s are people that lived on diets that consisted of a lot of fish and rice — something that has been changing quite a bit over the last decade or two, with the influx of Western food.

While I have nothing against Western food, I do also tend to believe that people should stick to foods that originated in their localities.

It’ll be interesting to see how life expectancies change over the next 20-40 years.  I have a feeling it’s going to start dropping.

Lotteria: Zetsumyo Burger

For those wondering, here’s the fine print on how to qualify for a refund if you aren’t satisfied.

• No refunds if more than half of the burger has been eaten
• You’ll need to return to the same store you purchased the burger from on the same day you purchased the burger. You’ll also need the left-over burger and the receipt.
• You’ll have to answer a questionnaire on why you felt the burger wasn’t good.
• Refunds will only be of the burger itself. So if you bought the burger as part of a set, only the cost of the burger will be refunded.
• If you used a coupon, only the cost of the burger itself will be refunded.
• If you purchased the burger with an invitation card, you do not qualify for a refund.
• Only 1 refund per customer.
• There are only a limited number of burgers and there is a deadline for when this campaign ends.

Maybe a Koji Suzuki fan?

Or maybe you just like reading in the toilet?

Then perhaps you should check out Hayashi Paper‘s (Shizuoka Prefecture) newest product, the World’s Scariest Toilet Paper.

Each roll of toilet paper carries a horror story called “drop,” penned by Japanese famed horror story writer, Koji Suzuki (鈴木光司).  Clocking in at about 2,000 characters long, or about 86 cm worth of toilet paper, the story seems a bit short, but that’s also apparently one of it’s selling points.  I guess if these things were too long, you might end up going through an entire roll just to read the whole story.  Environmentally, that might be deplorable, but couldn’t that lead to more sales?

The horror story toilet paper is set to go on sale starting June 6th and will be available for purchase online and from major retailers.  One roll will cost 210 yen (or roughly $2).

Sources:
雑記帳：鈴木光司さんのホラー短編、トイレットペーパーに (Mainichi Shimbun)
鈴木光司氏のホラー小説がプリントされた、日本一怖いトイレットペーパー (Oricon)
Hayashi Paper Company

Ward officials said residents have complained about noisy youths gathering at the park late at night. Restroom taps and other property in the area have been vandalized, with the total cost of the damage reaching about 700,000 yen in one year. The ward had paid a security company about 3 million yen a year for late-night patrols, but it decided to install the device after receiving a suggestion from a ward office worker.

The device will be connected to a timer that will activate the unit from 11pm to 5am.  Park officials are expecting to hear some objections to their use of the Mosquito, but with so many residents complaining about the noisy youths, they really had no other choice to at least give it a try.  If testing goes well, officials may decide to install the device at other “problem” parks.

Melc Co. sells the Mosquito for about 200,000yen a pop.

Source: Tokyo ward to install sonic ‘Mosquito’ device at park to drive away loitering youths (MDN)

Bandai released a new item on April 18th in the Cook Joy product line called Somenya (そうめんや).  Purchasing the product will enable you to eat nagashi somen (流しそうめん) right from the comfort of your own home!

weee... Nagashi Somen

The unit requires assembly (18 pieces in all) and can easily be taken apart for storage or transport (comes with it’s own cloth carrying bag).

Somenya is targeted for children older than 6 and comes with a somewhat hefty price tag of 8,400yen (or roughly US$84).

You can get more information about Somenya at the official site, or through the official press release (both are in Japanese).