Toyota, Hello Kitty and the Whopper

Sometimes a reporter feels like the fighter in a video game, throwing punches, kicking, twirling and jumping to take on several enemies from all sides, writing a story about Toyota reaching the one million mark on hybrid vehicle sales one minute, while writing a story about NEC Corp.'s Hello Kitty laptop the next minute.
Today I went to cover the opening of a Burger King restaurant.
A long line had formed outside the fast-food restaurant.
Where else but in Japan?
The Japanese business partners behind Burger King's return to Japan are the same people behind Krispy Kreme.
They know how to attract media attention yet manage to put a talk-of-the-town spin on their stores.
That's very important to attract the long lines, which in turn set off more talk and attract more people.
(1) Japanese have a greater tolerance for hourslong cues because they were brought up in a conformist-oriented rigid society that has required them to be one of the masses in a tiny place.
(2) Japanese assume mass interest is a good indicator for quality and desirability, rather than thinking that individuals may have different preferences.
(3) Japanese are afraid about being left out, and so ignorance or disinterest in something that draws long lines is by definition undesirable, dangerous and possibly a sign of derangement.
In Japan, being one of a crowd is (1) the way it is (2) a good thing (3) patriotic.
Being an individual is (1) weird (2) evil (3) not Japanese.
But Japanese are also having a lot of fun being in long lines. It is an event.
Guys were standing in lines at Burger King with their dates.
And the dates looked happy. They didn't think their man was cheap or dumb, but rather an "oshare" jolly guy.
The stereotype about Japanese being subdued is hogwash _ at least among Whopper lovers.
Well-behaved expressiveness was rampant at the the trivia quiz show at the store opening.
What was Japan doing in 1957 when the Whopper was invented?
"Hai!" "Hai!" "Hai!"
OK ... YOU!
"Ganbatteta!"
SeiKAAAAI!
It went on and on, and they each got a Burger King T-shirt.
Being part of a mass (at least a modern-day Japanese mass) is (1) fun (2) hip and so far, thank god, (3) innocent.

Taro Okamoto's Tower

An encounter with Taro Okamoto's Sun Tower from a window of a winding train was the highlight of a trip for a story about American beef.
Maybe it was the way the monument held its head _ so strangely animalistic while being so robotic and manmade, so full of intelligence yet so devoid of thought _ eerily and suddenly making its presence known through the trees.
It was very surreal.
It didn't fit, yet it fit so perfectly.
A reminder of how an artist's statement _ view on life/death and the meaning of art _ speaks to us today.
It was almost painful.
Maybe it was also the way a coworker shared that moment of Truth and Joy.
The AP photographer jumped up:
"Ah, taiyo no to da!"
This moment came back to me recently because my son and Amanojaku taiko drummer Isaku Kageyama talks about Okamoto on his blog.
In that, Okamoto , whose famous motto was: "Art is Explosion," says something like:
Art isn't pretty.
Art isn't comfortable.
Art isn't well-done.
Okamoto was fully aware of the real-life context in which his piece was going to be perceived, and that's how he delivered his message so effectively.
The tower became complete only in that moment, when the photographer and I saw it and felt it.
Standing proud and ashamed, a mutant monstrosity built to herald an Expo, the work is a genius of Modern Art.

Buzz on bacteria story

Some buzz is abuzz on my story about using bacteria as a storage medium on this fascinating exchange among people who are into what's called ID for "intelligent design," and argue living things were designed by a higher intelligence.
They oppose a materialistic approach to science, and are saying, "No," to Darwin.
If Man can encode bacteria, then who encoded bacteria in the first place?
... Datte!

Paper-like Display

My story about Sony's thin display that bends like a piece of paper.
Some technological breakthroughs are more than just a gee-whiz.
If prices are the same, then the switch to ever thinner displays is the way to go.
Another link to my story.
This story shows how business/technology stories often make for the biggest news out of Japan.
I already said this, but we must be vigilant about what Sony (and other Japanese companies) are up to.

Great Japanese albums

Sixteen experts, including my son and taiko drummer Isaku Kageyama with Amanojaku, put in their two cents worth in compiling a list of great Japanese recordings _ including Yellow Magic Orchestera (whom I just checked out the other day in Yokohama), Hikaru Utada, Shoukichi Kina.
Isaku's recommendation: Toru Takemitsu's "In an Autumn Garden."
Thirty years ago when YMO arrived, they signaled change in being among the first in modern Japanese music to be aware of their position in the global music scene.
YMO wasn't imitative. YMO was intelligent in knowing what modern Japanese musicians could/couldn't do. YMO pursued a unique sound that was electronic, modern, mathematical and so so Japanese.
Still, YMO's language was universal (and it's not just the English lyrics).
It is in speaking to the world that art becomes Japanese.
It is in being aware of one's position in the world that one becomes Japanese.

Sony proves important, professor reads bacteria

My story on Sony was the most e-mailed technology story on Yahoo! the other day. It was the only Japan news on the Top 10 List (including general news).
It goes to show how crucial it is for us to intelligently pick what intrigues ordinary people (not just investors).
There's more to a story than what drives stock prices.
I also did a story about research on storing information on bacteria.
Hard drives, memory cards and paper get lost/destroyed. But bacteria will be around millions of years from now.
The professor was telling me all this with a straight face, sitting in a cottage-like office on a campus filled with trees and tranquility on the outskirts of Tokyo.
But I had to burst out laughing.
I asked him if it bothered him most people would find this odd, if not outright amusing, maybe ridiculous.
That doesn't phase him at all.
Science is like art _ meant to entertain and fill people with the dream for eternity.
It's someone else's problem to figure out practical applications or implications of Pure Science.
At least he had an answer. But maybe that's why I'm a reporter, not a scientist.

Nissan's new technology

Today, I went to visit the new Nissan Advanced Technology Center , where the automaker is concocting the latest technology like cars that produce no pollution and cars that are smart enough to avoid collisions.
The place is very futuristic looking with a lot of light and open spaces, presumably to encourage collaboration (in style).
The cafeteria looks down into a pond.
It's a beautiful work environment.
What stands out is that the engineers are brimming with pride.
Nissan went through some hard times.
But it looks like it's come roaring back since entering the 1999 alliance with Renault.
It's investing in the future by investing in technology.