Happy Mascots: Random Encounters #4

More weird and wonderful Happy Mascots! You can run but you can not hide! There is no escape! Watch out, here they come!

It looks like a domino piece, but it's more likely to be a pair of conjoined Mahjong pieces.

Not sure what this is meant to be, but it definitely looks happy. Lives next door to the Mahjong twins.

"Greensaurus" on a bag of green peppers. Note the shape of its cute head!

Happy Mascots: Dental edition

Small businesses here are just as fond of having their own Happy Mascot like the big ones do. The poles carrying telephone and electricity cabling often carry ads for small local businesses, such as dental clinics. Here are a few I've spotted in the neighbourhood.

Having confident teeth is a good thing. A cute koala promoting a children's dentist.

A tube of toothpaste is not a cat toy.

The giant squid video

Earlier this week it was widely reported that Japanese researchers had managed to film and capture a live giant squid. The not even fully grown 7.3-meter female died in the process, unfortunately.

I finally found a site that actually has some footage, you can watch it here on CNN.com. Fascinating stuff. Squid-mania continues on squid.us.

First second job interview in Japan

As previously reported, my second first job interview in early November had gone surprisingly well. By the end of the interview, I had been asked to do some freelance work as test of my abilities in the Maya software package. For those that don't know, Maya is a 3D modeling package and is the most commonly used in the games industry in Japan. The other famous packages (3D Studio MAX and Softimage XSI) are also used, but companies that use them are less common, so it's best to have Maya on your CV if you apply here - even if you're still learning the software.

I had been told at the first interview that the details of my freelance work would be emailed to me a few days later. The few days passed, and a little later I got an email requesting me to come over to the office again to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) and presumably talk through the work. Naturally I agreed to that, but then a few days later I was emailed an invitation to meet the company president for a second interview.

So about a week later I returned to the office. Knowing there was no apparent doorbell by the front door, I phoned reception who were able to point out there was a door with a doorbell on the side of the building.

The interview itself went well once again. There was another English-speaker present this time to help out, and among the specific questions there was also some small talk. I was still a little confused as to the purpose of this meeting, expecting to still get the freelance work, but it turned out it was no longer thought to be necessary. In fact, I was asked how much I was hoping to earn, and after that I was told I would be emailed a salary offer later that day!

The offer indeed came to my Inbox that evening. It was less than I'd hoped for (isn't it always?), but having only a very rough idea of what to expect I checked with some friends in the business here what they thought of the offer. "Not bad" and "Doable" were their answers, along with some stories of their first "offers" and what some of their Japanese colleagues are "earning". So while I'd have to swallow some of my pride, I knew I had been quite fortunate to get a reasonable offer in such a short time - I decided to accept it.

The job wouldn't be starting for another good few weeks however, and in the week of this interview another invitation for a first interview elsewhere had come in. Well, there'd be no harm in going to that... Stay tuned!

Happy Mascots: Random Encounters #3

Here are a few more specimens of Happy Mascots I recently spotted while on "Mascot Patrol". Always carry a camera!

An insectoid parking lot superhero ensures your car is parked safely.

A happy cupcake. His brethren were tasty.

A truly weird self-opening door with floating eyeballs. The company name appears to be shouted by somebody who has gone inside!

Happy Mascots: Docomodake!

Here's something that's not an uncommon sight in Japan - a large, inflatable mushroom sitting on the street just staring ahead of him.
But don't worry! He's not down and out, loitering or slacking off. He's hard at work -- he's a Happy Mascot!

He's part of the Docomodake family, who have been drafted to promote NTT Docomo, a mobile phone network provider.

The Docomodake website offers plenty of the usual downloadable goodies; wallpapers, Christmas and New Year cards, animations and a pair of nicely animated TV ads.

Happy Mascots at the Post Office

In the run-up to Christmas and New Year it's busy all day at the post office. The Christmas cards, gift parcels and the all-important New Year's cards are all being sent out now. The zodiac of the coming year is the Boar, so card shops and the post office are filled with images of boars.The post offices in Japan however aren't just busy with people (and boars) - they're also heaving with Happy Mascots! The Japanase postal service appears not to be content with just having one, and some of these mascots are created to promote a specific service.
Let's go meet a few, shall we?

The one on the far left is the most commonly used Post Office mascot. His hat follows the design of the zip-code boxes, often printed on envelopes and postcards - as demonstrated by the Happy Mascot standing next to him. My favourite is the red stamp, gleefully holding a white envelope. Finally, there's every postman's natural enemy in a romper suit with the Post Office logo on it.

A pair of philatelist penguins promoting stamp collecting.

Finally, a boar dressed as a postman - most likely a temporary employee.

Mochitsuki

Yesterday my father-in-law, an active member in the local community, took me to a local rice cake making event. The rice cake is called mochi, the traditional way of making it is called mochitsuki. About 80 people had turned up for this year's event, which took place outside a community center a few blocks away from our house. Mochitsuki involves pounding rice into paste using large wooden mallets, so it's fun for the whole family.

The rice is first steamed (not boiled) above fires. It is then put into a mortar, where it is first kneaded and subsequently pounded into a thick paste using big wooden mallets. The rice is kneaned first to stop the rice from flying about when it is pounded. While the rice is being pounded, another person wets and turns the rice between each hit. Although you're encouraged to keep a fairly high rhythm to this, I found it quite difficult to do so with the kind old lady sticking her hand in the mortar every time!

After the pounding it is cut and molded into shapes and is eaten with either sweet or savoury flavourings. I tried two sweet varieties (one in red bean sauce, the other with toasted soybean flour) and one savoury (mochi with fine chopped radish). Mochi is incredibly chewy so it took me ages to finish the portion I'd been given. I much preferred the sweet variety.

Traditionally mochi is food for the Japanese New Year. Because it can be kept for a very long time, it would be made just prior to the new year and could be consumed throughout the winter. It can be further prepared in many different ways. For example, it can be added to soup or small pieces of dried mochi can be deep fried to make a crispy snack.

After the mochitsuki, I was invited to join the organisers in a lunch with beer and shōchū, which is a kind of Japanese vodka that's quite nice to drink with hot water.

Later that (birth)day, I took the family out for dinner at an Izakaya (Japanese "tapas-bar").

Read more about Mochi on wikipedia.

Happy Mascots: Random Encounters #2

Going for a walk in Japan you are almost as likely to see Happy Mascots as you are human beings. Here are a few more from places I pass or visit regularly. As noted before, any object can be turned into a Happy Mascot - organs and planets being no exception!

This smiling globe served as a light source above a small construction site just off Shibuya station.

A happy heart asking for a high five. He lives next door to last week's smiling house. Why, it's another smiling house! That's not very original!

So there you have it: a happy heart, a happy home and a happy planet. What more could one ask for?

Inakaya

On Monday, my wife and I had something to celebrate, so on the advice of a friend of mine we went to Inakaya, a small restaurant in the heart of Roppongi. He strongly dislikes the area, so for him to recommend a place there it had to be pretty special.

The restaurant itself has only one table, around which on three sides sit all 25 or so guests. On the fourth side of the table sit two chefs in front of a grill and some other traditional cooking equipment. Fresh meat, seafood, tofu, vegetables and other foodstuffs are laid out in baskets over the table, which basically serves as the menu.

Each order you make is shouted out by the waiters and repeated in unison by the two chefs and all the other waiters present. A chef then grabs the required ingredients from the area in the middle and proceeds to prepare the order. When it is done, the dish is presented to you by the chef from where he's sitting using a long oar, while shouting the name of the dish. Bottles of beer and sake are also "handed" to you by these chefs, but certain dishes (sauces) and drinks are brought to you by the waiters.

Among other things, we tried dried stingray (which has a strong taste) and crispy bite-size crabs, which are eaten whole - and are delicious.
During the meal there was some additional entertainment in the form of a short ritual when the chefs are replaced, and when some rice cake was prepared, for which some younger guests were asked to help pound the rice.

The only downside to this restaurant is perhaps its price tag. While not immensely expensive for West European or American standards, it is so for Japanese. Most of the clientele is indeed foreign, so the waiters also speak English. The portions are of a good size and beautifully presented, and of course you pay for the service and atmosphere. All in all recommended if your wallet allows it.

Map and restaurant information can be found here at the Tokyo Food Page.

Happy Mascots: Buru-Buru-Kun!

Sometimes, you don't even have to leave the house or switch on the TV to be greeted by a Happy Mascot.

Buru-Buru-Kun (you can pronounce it Blue-Blue-Kun if you prefer) came to us on a flyer in the mailbox, advertising Blueberry-Eye vitamin capsules. I've read that blueberries are good for your eyesight, and I have this particular blue-eyed Scandinavian specimen to thank for that knowledge. His style of dancing is quite interesting as well, with its Street Fighter-style chops and air-punches.

Desktop wallpapers, his full profile and dancing TV ads can be found on Buru-Buru-Kun's website.

Second first job interview in Japan

On Wednesday the 8th of November, I had my second first-job-interview in Japan. This one was at a relatively small development house. The reasons I had applied here quite early on was because the company website had a recruitment page in English, but also because they have made some very unique games in the recent past, the visual style of which I love.

Following the previous day's interview elsewhere, I was a little more nervous. As per usual, I'd arrived at the station nearly half an hour early. So once again, I took to exploring the area a little after I had located the building I needed to go to. When I decided to go inside, I encountered a slight problem: the building had no doorbell! The front door only served a tiny hall with an elevator, so nobody inside could see me standing there either.
Thankfully within a minute or two, an employee of the company arrived and opened the door for me using his swipe-card. I told him I was there for an interview, and he took me upstairs to the relevant floor and let reception know I had arrived. A receptionist showed we where to sit, and not long after four employees arrived to interview me. One of them introduced himself as the English-speaker and said he would translate, to which I (naturally) replied that I would try to speak as much Japanese as I could.

The interview went much better than the one the day before. The questions were numerous and specific, and I was able to understand and use a lot more Japanese, answering a few questions even without the English-speaker's help. It seemed they had already made up their mind to a degree, because they offered me some freelance work as a test to see if my Maya software skills were up to par. Needless to say I accepted that, and the details would be sorted out later.
Again, the interview lasted only about half an hour but this time the result exceeded my expectations: I'd just been offered work by a Japanese game development studio!

The day didn't pass without an awkard moment though. After the interview, I bought some sushi and took a seat in park to eat my lunch. While I was sitting there eating my lunch, I was approached my three plainclothes policemen. Of course I was surprised, helped by the fact that these policemen all looked rather young. Still, their badges looked real enough, their clothes were quite typical for plainclothes police (jeans, sneakers, puffy jackets and hip-bags) and I figured the penalty for impersonating a policeman in this country wouldn't be something a student would risk. They asked to see my alien registration card (a.k.a. gajin card), what I was doing in the area, and if they could search my bag. One man put on a pair of white gloves and had a look. He asked if I had a knife in my bag, to which I could only answer: "Ehh, why?". Anyway, the three men were all polite during the whole routine and thanked me before they took off. Putting things into perspective, I guess it's in a policeman's nature to stop 'n' search minorities, the ones in Japan being no exception.

The friendliness of the Japanese people shone through again not a minute later though, when a cheery old man walking by said "Oishii desu neee?" ("Delicious, isn't it?") while pointing at my tray of sushi.

So what happened with the freelance work I was offered? Did I pass the test? Stay tuned!

Roppongi Hills

Roppongi is an area of Tokyo that's the home of many embasssies, foreign companies, foreign restaurants, The Hard Rock Cafe... I think you get picture. It also carries the reputation of being one of the sleaziest areas and in response to that there's been a recent surge in large property developments, the first being Roppongi Hills which opened in 2003. A few weeks ago I had to be in the area so decided to take a look.

The quite good looking Mori Tower is the center piece, which is surrounded by restaurants, an art museum, cinema, the offices of TV Asahi, and countless luxury shops predominantly owned by the big Italian fashion brands. For architecture-tourists I'd say the area is worth a look. (Left: a panorama photo put together quickly without proper stitching software).

While I was there, there was some sort of outdoor promotional exhibition by BMW. Aside from a few of their latest 4x4s, racing cars and motorcycles being on display, there were a few interactive exhibits to make it all a bit more fun. Visitors could have a go at playing a F1 game (I think the game was Grand Prix 3) from inside an "F1 car"; it wasn't particularly impressive but enough to warrant a queue of about a dozen people. Elsewhere there was a yacht racing simulator with a yacht-sized steering wheel. The graphics for the water, sunlight and surroundings looked pretty good for its purpose but the model and texture of the boat itself were downright shoddy.


Not far from Roppongi Hills the National Art Center Tokyo is nearing completion and is due to open January 21st, 2007. The building looks impressive enough from the outside, so I'm quite keen to have a look inside.

Happy Mascots: Random Encounters #1

Of course not all Happy Mascots come with a complete back story, name, bloodtype, favourite food, theme song, website or merchandise. So far I've listed only those that have, but there are countless more that don't have the financial backing to break it into the big time. So let's have a look at a few of these! Any object can be turned into Happy Mascot - just put a face and/or some limbs on it!

A smiling house on the window of an estate agent's office nearby.

The world's first water drop with a medical degree.

Running with scissors outside the barber shop.

Plan B

Before coming to Japan, I already had a backup plan to keep me busy while I would be looking for a job here. I had already notified several colleagues and ex-colleagues in other companies that I would be available to do freelance work.

So far, Plan B has been working to a satisfactory degree. I've been doing some work for people in Los Angeles and London, and I've spoken about possible work with someone in Sweden. The work on each little project has been completely different from the others.

One of the companies I've been working with is AirPlay, a mobile games developer started by some ex-colleagues of mine based in London. Their first game, Super Yum Yum, got excellent reviews and was nominated for a BAFTA game award a few years ago. That year they were the only game nominated which didn't carry an existing brand/license. They've recently released Super Yum Yum 2, which is also getting great reviews. Check it out!
As is usual in the games biz, I'm not at liberty to talk about what I've been working on (until it is officially announced by the publisher).

Working with a time difference of 8 to 17 hours (Europe and LA, respectively) turns out to be easier than I'd expected. By the late afternoon, when I'm finishing up my work, Europe gets to work and we discuss the work either using Instant Messenger or Skype. If my employer in Europe decides he wants some other changes, he can always send me an e-mail, knowing it will arrive well before I start my work the next morning.

To anyone reading this who is looking for a freelance artist: I'm still available until the end of January. (There's a hint in there about the status of my jobhunt, but more on that later!)
You'll find my contact details on my CV at videogamesartist.com. =D

Happy Mascots: Tarako Kewpie!

Among the enormous population of Happy Mascots, there are some that are able to reach true celebrity status. Tarako Kewpie currently enjoys massive fame, with its theme song scoring high in the charts recently, and its likeness dangling from many mobile phones.

Tarako is actually blobs of salted Alaska pollock roe, which indeed has an orangy-pink colour. It's quite tasty with spaghetti and some dried seaweed, and makes for a very easy dish.

The popular theme song is performed by a duo of girls wearing large tarako-shaped hats who go by the name of Kigurumi. Their full-length video can be found here on YouTube, as well as the video for the Xmas "Wall of Sound" version. (Note: Japanese media companies aren't too happy with YouTube, so Japanese clips are frequently removed from the site).
It's a very clever trick to give a Happy Mascot human form, because as such they've been able to appear on TV shows. Whenever I pass one of the game arcades around here, I always hear the Tarako song coming from one of the toy-grabber cabinets, which is filled with the keychains of the mascot. On Saturday, I saw Kigurumi hats, the CD and a full-size Tarako costume for sale in a shop nearby, with of course the music playing from a speaker directly above it.

For true surrealism, be sure to have a look at the TV ads in the gallery of the Tarako Kewpie website. The marching armies of Tarakos have to be seen to be believed.

It must be noted that Tarako Kewpie is an offspring of QP Corporation's far more human-looking mascot, which is just a cute baby.

Happy Mascots: Tempurin!

Yes, her head is a pudding with whipped cream and a cherry on top!

Meet Tempurin -- Happy Mascot of job agency Tempstaff! Tempurin is 24 years old, and no doubt that she loves her work. Outside Shinjuku station there is currently a huuuuge billboard of her, several stories tall.

She can't handle a drink too well, unfortunately - in a TV ad depicting her on a night out she piles the cherries from her cocktails on her head! You can see the ads, read her CV, watch her dance, and change her outfit when you visit her swanky quasi-3D room on her website. Despite having a video game controller on her couch, I'd say she's not much of a gamer: the games on the site are limited to tic-tac-toe and a sliding puzzle. So you might as well get back to work.

Happy Mascots: the Hamrins!

Every time I go to either of the two supermarkets around here, I know there will always be a few characters there to bring a smile to my face. Among these are the Hamrins! -- Happy Mascots of Nippon Ham! In the meat section is a TV screen playing a video on a loop, all day, of these four singing and dancing meat-inspired characters. Fun for me, but presumably dreadful for the supermarket staff that have to work within earshot of the TV.
Sosegita has two sausages on his head like antennas, Hamyuu has two slices of ham on her head like Mickey Mouse ears, Bacoron wears a bouquet of asparagus-bacon rolls, and Yakibeta wears a pair of grilled pork headphones.

The Hamrins may not actually be from earth. They fly in a spaceship named the HAM 86 which is adorned with a giant fork and two knives. What, no chopsticks? Definitely alien.
Of course, they also have a giant robot at their disposal who happens to be called HAM 87. There's a fifth member of the group called Meacoron (from Meatball); I think she's part of the live band because she's not featured in the video.

The instructional video to learn their song's lyrics and their dance moves can be viewed here, among many other things on the Hamrins website.