Twentythree

Remember when Tottori Prefecture finally got a Starbucks after all these years of being one of the few places in the world without one? Oh man, that was crazy.

Tottori is just one of those places. The kind of area that’s so quiet and uneventful that not even Starbucks, the corporate giant that’s more than happy to smother historic cultural heritage sites with their over-roasted beans and pricey lattes for a quick buck, spent decades more or less pretending it didn’t even exist. The Prefecture’s population of just over half a million is shockingly small by densely-populated Japan’s standards, and it’s just generally ignored by the rest of Japan as a place that, well… doesn’t have much to see, to put it kindly.

But wait a second! What’s this?! Tottori has been sitting on an amazing tourist draw in the form of a sand sculpture museum that features mind-boggling, award-winning and massive sand sculptures and they basically haven’t even really told anybody about it.

We sent one of our Japanese writers to check the museum out – because none of the English writers could be trusted around a bunch of fragile works of art – and he came back almost giddy with praise.

Our writer, Mr. Sato (yes, that one! Contrary to this, this and this, he’s surprisingly cultured and appreciate of the arts), said the museum’s exhibit at the time of his visit was entitled, “Germany: Travel Around the World in Sand,” and featured, well, a bunch of stuff from Germany. Although it seemed like more or less a hodgepodge of random bits from Germany’s history, the exhibit included such impressive and varied works as a sand sculpture of the Brothers Grimm, recreations of the construction and eventual destruction of the Berlin Wall, depictions of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and… probably some other stuff we didn’t pay attention to in history class.

Strolling through the massive, warehouse-like facility that housed the mammoth sculptures, Mr. Sato was reminded of that other sculptures-made-of-powdery-stuff attraction of Japan, Sapporo’s Snow Festival, and concluded that the sculptures of the Sand Museum were so awe-inspiring that Tottori could easily host a Sand Festival and draw hundreds of thousands of tourists just like Sapporo!

Sure, but Sapporo hosting a snow festival makes a ton of sense, since there’s snow everywhere in the Hokkaido capital, but what does Tottori have to do with sand? Well, as long-time readers of RocketNews24 will known, Tottori is home to the Tottori Sand Dunes, Japan’s one and only sand dune range, and the Tottori Sand Museum is located right next to it, meaning sculptors employed by the museum can literally just walk outside with a wheelbarrow when they need more building material.

In conclusion, Mr. Sato – admittedly maybe a little biased as a native of that other comically small prefecture, Shimane – gave the Sand Museum his seal of approval, proclaiming: “Who needs a Starbucks when you’ve got such an awesome claim to fame right here?!”

Although Tottori is unsurprisingly off the beaten path, especially for those here in Japan on vacation, take Mr. Sato’s word for it and put the Tottori Sand Museum on your list if you can work a trip in to your itinerary. You can find the official website (in English) here, and here’s a map, too!

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: This amazing sand sculpture museum is tiny Tottori Prefecture’s hidden tourist gem
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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When I was a kid, I loved it when my parents would take me to a McDonald’s drive-through because back then I found it incredibly fascinating and fun that you could order food from inside a car by talking to a box, and then drive around the corner and receive your food from a person in a small window. I even asked my mum if I would be able to order at a drive-through stand on my tricycle, or on foot. Obviously, the answer I got was no.

How times have changed! Now cyclists can pedal into a McDonald’s drive-through stand, and the best part is, their food comes in a neat packaging designed specially for transportation on bicycles!

In an experimental campaign, McDonald’s tagged up with advertising agency Tribal Buenos Aires to reach out to a new consumer segment in countries where cycling is a major means of transport. As a result, the McBike was created.

The service was given a one-day test run, first in Copenhagen, Denmark, then in Medellin, Columbia, and is slated to be trialled in Amsterdam and Tokyo as well. As far as the promotional video shows, the McBike service looks pretty awesome, especially in its Denmark-leg where they had an exclusive bike-through lane.

▼ Cycling through the drive-through lane! My childhood dream fulfilled.

▼ Unlike regular drive-through meals, a McBike meal comes in a cute little box with its own hanger.

▼ It’s like a pit stop for cyclists!

The greatest innovation of this campaign is probably the McBike packaging that smartly and conveniently hangs from a bicycle’s handlebars while keeping the meal intact with its built-in cup holder and two neat pockets which house a packet of fries and a burger. No more spilled drinks and fries!

Unfortunately, the McBike is still in an experimental stage, but it definitely looks promising! With more urban cities in the world working towards building more eco-friendly environments and more people choosing bicycles as their preferred means of transport, we can totally imagine the McBike lane becoming a permanent fixture at McDonald’s!

Source/Images: YouTube via Game Over

Origin: Drive-through for cyclists made possible with McDonald’s brilliant new McBike box! 【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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Get ready to have your tear ducts turned Inside Out.

Unlike in some countries, where even a steak restaurant will offer at least one vegetarian option, it can be difficult to find meat-free meals in Japan. There are, however, some vegetarian restaurants to be found in the capital, and I’m making it my mission to go around trying them all.

Today I’d like to introduce Karan Koron Shokudo, located right next to Yoyogi Uehara Station.

Karan Koron Shokudo has a pleasantly relaxed atmosphere. The interior decor is fairly simple, fitted out with wooden tables and a counter with a view into the kitchen, and there are some cute little ornaments and a few knick-knacks on sale which somehow give the restaurant a homey feel.

The focus here is on health and being kind to your body, so all the produce the kitchen uses are organic and there are no additives or artificial flavourings in any of their cooking. Their online menu states that they don’t use any meat, fish, or dairy, however strict vegetarians and vegans may have to ask about each specific dish as it also states that they do sometimes use katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) and other dried seafood, as well as eggs.

Now, onto the most important part; the food. For 1, 350 yen (US$10.80) you can get the daily lunch set, which consists of a varied selection of dishes containing between 15 and 20 types of veggies. I was served a garlic and herb croquette, vegetable stir-fry, sweet potato wedges, organic green vegetable salad and brown rice. The set also came with miso soup and a drink, making it a very filling option that’s definitely not bad for the price.

But what about the taste? In short, it was absolutely delicious. I really liked having so many different things to nibble on, and each individual dish had clearly been prepared with great care. That stand-out item was the croquette, which was crispy on the outside and filled with soft potato and flavourful herbs on the inside. Vegan food done wrong can be bland and cardboard-like, but I’m happy to say that this definitely wasn’t the case here.

For 900 yen, you could get the daily lunch plate, which on the day I visited was vegetable curry. I was a little wary at first, having had some not so great experiences with Japanese curry, but my doubts proved unfounded. While it wasn’t at all spicy in the hot sense, it was deliciously flavoured with herbs and spices, all while containing zero meat, fish, or dairy products.

Karan Koron Shokudo is an excellent place for a chilled-out lunch that’s both healthy and delicious. The only potential downsides I can see are that this may not be the best location if you’re looking for a place to dine out out with friends at night due to its homey but not exactly luxuriant tables and chairs, and, while some things are completely vegetarian and/or vegan, you’ll have to double-check about the use of fish stock and eggs. Those slight issues aside, I’d definitely recommend the restaurant to vegetarians and health-conscious folks alike, and it would also be a great place to show your non-vegetarian friends how delicious meat-free food can be.

▼Om nom nom. Vegetarian seal of approval.

Restaurant Information:

Karan Koron Shokudo
からんころん食堂
3 Chome-4-3 Nishihara, Shibuya, Tokyo 151-0066
東京都渋谷区西原3-4-3 アミティ代々木上原 2F
Official Website

All photos © RocketNews24

Origin: Karan Koron Shokudo proves meat-free doesn’t mean taste-free【Veg’n in Tokyo】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.

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How do we know something is important to us? Things can be objectively important — say to the world or life in general — but, at the same time, things that are objectively important aren’t always important to each individual person.

Likewise, we can understand a thing’s importance but, at the same time, not act in accordance.

Which is when you have to wonder: What’s the point or utility of people believing something is or isn’t important?

Taking a look at people, the way we act, the things we say and do, what we read, share, tweet, and follow, it’s clear everyone in the world believes things of no importance to hold importance.

It’s a sad truth, but most people hold the wholly trivial as being meaningful and important.

People have lived, fought and died for trivialities. We have started wars. Killed millions. Destroyed families. Ruined relationships. Ruined futures.

Even ruined our own lives, consuming pointless information, worrying about things of little to absolutely no importance, only to live a whole lifetime sifting through, categorizing and dissecting garbage.

I’m sad to say this is something that will never change. The systems we have in place won’t allow for an entirely wise and satisfied society.

The world is too big of a place, with too many egocentric beings, fighting for what little trivial resources are available to them — and that won’t change for a millennia, if ever.

Yet there is hope. Maybe not for the masses. Maybe not on a larger scale, but as long as each of us finds a few things in our lives — things that, in reality, do hold importance — we have a chance at creating a fulfilled life.

Giving things or people importance is as crucial as it is necessary for passion to manifest; without finding something or someone to hold significant importance or meaning to you as an individual, passion will be an impossibility.

We can only be passionate about that which we deem important. Otherwise, we wouldn’t find it worthy of our attention and care.

Because that’s what it means to deem something as being important: to deem it worthy of our time, attention, effort, care, love.

When it comes to relationships, one needs to be careful. When we fall in love, we immediately feel the apple of our eye is incredibly important to us.

We feel this intense need to keep them a part of our lives, to spend time with them, to care for them, to give them our time and attention.

This need almost always fades, however, because we either come to realize this individual actually is less important to us than we first thought or we fail to realize why this individual is important to us outside of the way this person makes us feel.

Although, when it comes to love and romantic relationships, there really is no such thing as objectivity.

It’s all subjective because it must necessarily involve us as individuals and the way we ourselves, for lack of a better word, feel about a particular individual.

I say “for lack of a better word” because emotions alone are never enough to create the necessary connection or level of recognized importance necessary to make a relationship work.

You don’t want to try and share your life with someone who only believes you to be important because of the way you make him or her feel.

The relationship will fail because, as the emotions begin to fluctuate (as they always do), your level of recognized importance will likewise fluctuate in his or her eyes.

The moment your partner begins to question how you make him or her feel, the love you share will begin to crack.

If your entire relationship is built upon the idea that either one or both of you deem the other to hold importance solely because of the emotional responses solicited by the other, then, eventually, your relationship will fall apart.

The trick isn’t to avoid questioning the emotions you feel toward the most important person in your life but rather to understand the reasons your partner is so incredibly important to you go far beyond basic emotion.

So what is the utility of feeling or believing something holds importance, knowing a particular individual means the world to you?

The tremendous need of holding on to this individual, keeping him or her as a part of your life you willingly give into.

It’s this need to keep the one you love as a part of your life that forces us into action; it forces us to do the only things worth anything in a world functioning on — if only partly — a physical plane.

It forces us to act. It forces us to change. It forces us to adapt, get innovative. It moves us.

It creates this need in us to let this person know, to show him or her how important he or she is to us — a need that may not always be intense but is always floating there just below the surface.

If you want to find the right person to spend your life with, then find someone who recognizes you as being important enough to fight for.

Someone who may not necessarily understand you the way you feel you need to be understood just yet, but someone who is willing to put in the time and effort to get to understand you on such a level.

You need to find a partner who finds you to be the most important thing in his or her world.

This is the only way you can guarantee your lover will care for you when you need care, fight for you when you can’t fight for yourself and — most importantly — someone who will stick it out when things get tough.

When it comes to people, they either recognize you as being unimportant, important for entirely selfish reasons or important for partially selfish reasons.

Those are the only three options, and the last is the only one that will allow for a successful, loving relationship.

For More Of His Thoughts And Ramblings, Follow Paul Hudson On Twitter And Facebook.

You Don’t Need Someone Who Understands You, Just Someone Who Wants To