YeinJee's Asian Journal

Remember the bizarre cosplay of Kirsten Dunst on Tokyo streets? Well, the music video is out (or leaked?), with Kirsten singing and dancing to The Vapors’ 1980 hit Turning Japanese. Slightly unsafe for work/kids with explicit anime images.

Titled as Akihabara Majokko Princess, the video is produced by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and directed by McG (of Charlie’s Angels movie etc.) for an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern museum.

The video won’t last long, watch it while you can… And yeah, I’m loving it.

[Update] As expected the video is removed from Youtube. I’ve embedded with new vids for a few times, but I guess that’s it for now.

Interesting (or absolutely bizarre depends on how you see it) video of how some Japanese otaku celebrated their New Year’s Eve at a maid cafe and idol stage in Tokyo’s Akihabara… [video via Japanprobe]

Introducing the prettiest digital clock ever.

Bijin Tokei (literally beauty clock) is a web application with cute Japanese girls showing you the time on your PC, iPhone, gadget, website etc., which refreshed automatically with a new image every minute.

Read the rest of this post »

American actress Kirsten Dunst shot a video in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku district in a seriously-too-colourful-and-wicked sailor costume on August 27.

The video will be used for an exhibition later this year at Tate Modern in London.

[Update] The music video is out.

[More images][via Japanprobe and 3yen]

A Japanese ramen restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, is experimenting with two robotic-chef to cook the noodles; would be really cool if the whole restaurant’s operation is automated, with robots serving the dishes as well…

Tokyo has knocked Moscow off the top spot as the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, according to the latest Cost of Living Survey from Mercer.

Currency fluctuation is the major factor for the ups and downs; London, Seoul, and Sydney etc. are dropped significantly because of weakened currency.

10 most expensive cities in 2009 [2008 ranking in brackets]

1. Tokyo, Japan (2)
2. Osaka, Japan (11)
3. Moscow, Russia (1)
4. Geneva, Switzerland (8)
5. Hong Kong, China (6)
6. Zürich, Switzerland (9)
7. Copenhagen, Denmark (7)
8. New York City, USA (22)
9. Beijing, China (20)
10. Singapore (13)

A life-sized 18m Gundam model was assembled at Odaiba Island in Tokyo to mark the 30th anniversary of “Mobile Suit Gundam”, the very first Gundam anime series which evolved into a highly successful franchise over the years…

The real scale Gundam can do a few simple tricks, no big deal… but the details of the model itself is still pretty impressive.

The Gundam is going to be displayed for only two months unfortunately, it could turn to be Tokyo’s new tourist attraction if it’s kept for a much longer period.

Video via Akibahobby; check out some of their pics [Jp] as well.

Eating beer cans, swallowing swords, wielding light saber, lesbian kiss, fire show, wacky performance, loud music, booze, dance, girls… that’s what you are going to see from the below video… [by ronindave@youtube, via Japundit]

Founded in October 2005 by ex-French drag queen Adrien Le Danois, Tokyo Decadance had the goal to mix all the most creative, flashy, crazy, exaggerated, extreme, bizarre styles of the Tokyo streets.

The event is now the rendezvous of gothic, cyberpunk, fetish, manga heroine, lolitas, yamanbas, ko gyaru, drag queen, punk, Tokyo jet-set, partymonsters, and also salaryman and ‘normal people’.

The wild party is occasionally on tour in some European cities beside the monthly show in Japan [check out Decadance' Myspace]