Business Names

An American expatriate friend of mine told me that if he ever needed any dental work done, he would prefer to wait until he returned to the States, because he had heard that Japanese dental work was not good at all. Someone quizzed me one time why a lot of Japanese covered their mouth when they laughed. I said that it was perhaps out of modesty. Wrong, he said; it was because they did not want to expose their teeth. That was horrible, but was he right?

It did not help that the business on the picture above had the name Gross Dental Labor, and the name was repeated, making it look like Gross, Gross! I am sure it is the name of the person behind the business, not a name chosen out at random. Then again, when you go around Tokyo, you would see these mind-boggling company names: there is a bookstore called Book-Off, or this salon pictured below, whose name was Flash Bust-up Salon. WTH???

BNE Has Arrived in Tokyo

On September 17, 2006, New York Times produced an article by Jesse McKinley titled "In San Francisco, a Plague of Stickers Opens a New Front in the Graffiti War." It talked about the proliferation of white stickers with a big black BNE printed on them. Remember those ubiquitous stickers "Obey," the "Giant" (referring to Andre the Giant)? It is similar to that. In the report, it mentioned the possibility of the stickers popping up in Tokyo. Well, guess what? They are definitely here. Above is a couple of stickers that I found at the Shibuya bus terminal.


[Update: January 7, 2007]
The top-most pictures of this blog remain the only remnants of BNE at the Shibuya station. As of January 1, the authority did their annual cleaning and scraped all stickers and repainted walls and columns. No more trace of BNE, but late last night I spotted more graffiti in two different sites in the Shibuya area: one in a dark back road by a river (the two horizontal pictures down below) and one in a busy alley in the heart of Shibuya (the vertical picture on the right). So, who is this BNE?

Means of Collection

Pay up, no matter how they collect 'em. It has been at least a year since phone companies like NTT DoCoMo introduced cell phones that act as debit cards. Working together with East Japan Rail's Suica e-money (JR East's Integrated Circuit card that allowed debit card swiping on an electronic card reader), DoCoMo issued cell phones (called Osaifu-Keitai) that could be swiped over a reader and money debited from them; both were based on a smart-card technology called FeliCa, a contactless IC chip technology that was developed by Sony Corporation.

I have no idea how many people have taken advantage of this technology and convenience. I think one of the factors that would comfort me in owning a cell phone "loaded with money" is that I am in Japan, where I can be rather sure that my cell phone would not be targetted for theft. Imagine what a "debit" cell phone may attract outside of Japan. JR East introduced the Suica IC (integrated circuit) card back in November 2001, and since then, 17 million people had taken advantage of the technology.

Buses in Tokyo will soon use a card reader, too. It is slated to start the service early in 2007. In addition to cash and electronic buss pass, one can now have a card swiped over the reader. Since the bus is not owned by JR, I am not quite sure whether the Tokyo Bus system will adopt something similar to the DoCoMo and Suica technology.

On September 27, 2006, JR East, NTT DoCoMo, JCB Co., and bitWallet Inc. announced a platform that would allow different e-payment to be done (Suica, iD, QUICPay, and Edy, respectively). This makes it easier for customers to use their e-money not only on transportation but also at vendors.

For Women Only

This is certainly not new in Tokyo, but it was the first time that I happened to have my camera ready to catch the decals on such special train cars: for WOMEN ONLY. Ladies, you know how it is in public transportations during rush hours: part of your body being groped by mysterious hands and perverts rubbing their crocthes onto your behinds. When you confront them, some have the gall to reason that the bus or the train's movement had caused it to happen.

Well, at least in Tokyo there are special JR (Japan Rail) train cars and Tokyo Metro subway cars designated for "Women Only" during rush-hour and late-night rides. Ladies are guaranteed safe rides during those hours. Outside of that time frame, the cars are co-ed. Pictured here are shots from the Chuo Rapid Line train car, stopping at Shinjuku.

In Japan, the platforms are marked to match where the train doors would be, so that people waiting can actually start lining up at the right spots. As you can see, the picture at the bottom informs the ladies that the Women Only cars' doors would open in these marked spots.

The Agony of the Feet

I just found this interesting set of photos at Flickr by French photographer Claude Estebe. This portfolio had been exhibited in Japan in 2003, but thank goodness you can still view them HERE. For those of you who had lived or had visited Tokyo, this will be a great reminder of how Tokyo girls and women are daring when it comes to decorating their legs. Enjoy!