New math: liquid menthol cigarettes

Advanced charcoal filter times menthol flavor thread equals SkaMen!

I can't tell if the "flavor thread" in these cigarettes is really liquid or if they deliver "menthol feeling UP" in some other form. All the ads for them have these photos of emo guys with blue and green waves splashing against their heads. If the pictures were in black and white, you'd swear it was meant to be a freeze frame of a fatal head wound in progress.
There's another brand of Japanese cigarette that has a crush capsule of menthol in the tip. A slower--and more refreshing--alternative to cyanide capsules.

Terrorists, 1; Care packages, 0

It's kind of good, in a way, that the Japan Post announced last Friday that tomorrow was the last day they'd ship anything over 453 grams (a pound) to the US. Only in one small, specific way: I've had a package sitting on my desk (and before that, on top of the magazine rack, and before that, under the coffee table) waiting to be mailed. It's been sealed so long that I don't remember exactly what I put in it. I finally took it to the post office today while I still could. The woman, who is my favorite post office worker of all time, weighed my box as usual and didn't mention anything about the new restrictions. When I asked about it, she handed me the Japan Post press release that had been making the rounds online and said it was true that they wouldn't send anything over the weight restriction after tomorrow. She pointed out that the box I sent today was just a few grams over and wouldn't have gone. I asked, in an awkward sentence, if that was by order of the US. She said yes, and emphasized that they didn't know how long it would last. Her tone of voice was not too far off from the one you'd use to say, "Well, Andy's locked himself in his room again and he's never ever coming out. You know." But, until further notice, this is the deal.
So, this stupid new rule is good news for Crystal, who will finally get some nifty Japan goodies.
It's terrible news for everyone else. Because they won't get as many KitKats sent in a single box. And because this security thing feels farcical. Even if it isn't---even if there's some excellent reason why 452 grams of explosives is not a concern, or, for that matter, a few milligrams of anthrax---even if the people making these disruptive decisions do know what they're doing, it doesn't feel that way. It feels like they're running around, again, screaming DO something!! at each other and tossing out useless band-aid suggestions. (Remember the duct tape?)

 

This is Japan Post's tag line. One way to translate it is "Creating a new normal." Let's hope that is isn't what's happening.

They are really, really sorry about the construction

Signs that say "Sorry for the trouble caused by the construction" are pretty common in Japan. They usually include a mix of pre-printed and handwritten info about exactly what is being built and how long it will take, and a cartoon of a construction worker standing with shovel in hand, head bowed, often caps it off.
This construction site in Roppongi took the apology sign to the next level with a cartoon worker doing dogeza, a deep, solemn bow formerly common and now mostly reserved for the most serious of offenses. The text is straightforward (no jokey "pardon our dust!" tone), but I imagine the image is meant to be humorous. Er, right? Sometimes it's hard to tell.
Speaking of apologetic bowing and hard to tell, this oldie but goody is one of the subtly hilarious videos from the series "The Japanese Tradition." Not too long ago, a website with a famous truthy name posted this as if it were a helpful cultural guide. I think the editor should try one of the last few bows in the video for that one. Please enjoy. But don't go doing the ninja bow the next time you're late for work.

Turn off your phone, fancy man

This Tokyo Metro Manners poster has a lot going on. Background: there are signs and announcements on many trains asking that cell phones be turned off near the priority seats, ostensibly to protect people with pacemakers. Don't get me started on that one. Though, if I had a pacemaker and there were any chance, however minimal, that having a few square feet in the city where there was a slightly reduced amount of electromagnetic radiation trying to scramble my heartbeat, I guess I'd want people to turn off their phones there. I suppose. But I've digressed.

So, here, we have the usual put-upon poster lady sitting in a priority seat with her child. (And what's happened to her usual partner in moroseness, now that she's had the kid? Has he abandoned her? Is that why she looks so glassy and vacant?) Lurking above her is a golden-haired man (foreigner? host?) in a flashy white coat. He whips his phone out and holds it aloft. Is this some kind of a threat? Is he going to throw it? Make an inconsiderate phone call? Zap all the pacemakers in range? No! This prince of a man is simply shutting off his phone. He is surrounded by a sparkly aura of good manners. Mother and child are agape.
I would be, too, if I ever saw this happen. Shutting off phones near the priority seats is the most flagrantly flouted of all the manners.

Crowdsourcing earthquakes

 

What are you doing now? Shaking.

Well, not now now. Yesterday. "What are you doing now?" is Twitter's ice-breaker question. Everybody knows you don't have to answer it literally, and usually people don't. But they do when there's an earthquake. 

I haven't noticed too many recently, then I felt two good long jolts yesterday. One early in the morning, and one after work. I happened to be sitting at home looking at Twitter during the evening one, and apparently, so was everyone else I know. Those screen captures from my phone are just a small segment of all the quake messages. And those are just from the people I follow.

In the ensuing chat about how ha, ha, everyone tweeted the same thing at the same time, I mentioned that I thought I'd read or heard on the radio that the US Geological Survey used Twitter as one way of tracking quake activity. Talk about monitoring -- I got a  message from @USGS about a minute later that said "You heard right," and included a link to this story about how the USGS uses Twitter to track and map earthquake experiences around the world. The agency is doing all kinds of interesting things with social and interactive media. It will be fascinating to see what they can develop with it, and how similar work can be used in disaster and public health scenarios. They mention filtering for "earthquake" in a few other languages. Hope they've got 地震 (jishin) on their list.