Hiroko's Hitokoto

Last weekend, I went to Audio Expo at Tokyo Big Site with some friends visiting Japan. One thing I found very interesting was Sennheiser's "wearable audio speakers". The "Surrounder" rests on your shoulders and has left and right front and side speakers. Knowing that it would look really stupid, I couldn't resist trying it on... /;-). They sounded OK but I thought it needed more bass. The woofer is so close but you cannot feel the air vibration. Normally the company has great headphones, but this particular product was very different. I wonder if they are over-focusing on the Japanese market: i.e., trying to make a hybrid which is wearable as compensation for lack of space in the homes here? Anyway, check it out at http://www1.drive.net/sennheiserusa/pages/surrounder.html

Recently the most popular place for tourists coming to Japan is the local toy store. Pokkemon is a huge hit in the USA, and you can only buy 10 Pokkemon cards at a time. Now, if you think you can parallel export these cards to the States, I have news for you that you're not the only one. Apparently more than 60 companies have or make Pokkemon products, and the market size of overall Pokkemon business is JPY500B to JPY600B. The most popular disguise for Halloween this year was, of course, Pokkemon. They have a billboard in Times Square in NY for the movie, which started last week and earned $10.1M/JPY1.05M on the opening day. Posters for the movie are already a collectors item: one was sold on e-Bay for $1225 (JPY128,500). The 51-year-old man who bought it has no idea where he will put it though. I wonder if people in the USA know that Pokkemon has a dark side that many Japanese children became sick after watching a Pokkemon TV show with epilepsy-causing flashing lights...?

Lately, entrepreneurial seminars are the trend. Even elementary students can join the seminars, and experience the team building, business management, and financial reporting lessons offered by entrepreneurial boot camps. One such camp will open a shopping arcade,and let people simulate their business before going public. The idea is to educate children and teenagers, to nurture entrepreneurial spirit. It's interesting that the parents of kids who attend these boot camps are themselves part of the old guard -- rigid, and ready to hammer down the nail that sticks out. But ironically now they are enthusiastic about their kid's entrepreneurial education. Such parents want their kids to be different from the others, so they send their kids to these boot camps. There is so many of them doing that, are they just part of a new fad, or is this change for real?

So, you think that living in the Twentieth Century is complicated? Check this out: The fashion freak's exhibition is held at Tokyo Garden Museum in Shirogane Dai. It's about the history of haute couture from 1870 to 1960. Back in the old days in Paris, upper class women had to change their clothes at least 4 times a day (morning, afternoon, evening, and tea gown!). Then they had other clothes for visiting, the horse races, horse riding, resort stays, etc. Napoleon III's wife never wore the same dress twice, and the other courtiers followed her example, in order not to give a bad impression. Clothing was the major industry during the mid 19th century in Paris. More than half the 110,000 women who had job in Paris belonged to the clothing industry. I love clothes, but not that much. Guys, don't get so worried about your woman's shopping! Just be thankful you weren't born 100 years earlier!