Shūmatsu no fūru (終末のフール) - Kotaro Isaka

A novel by Kotaro Isaka who is well-known for works such as "Jyuryoku Piero (重力ピエロ)", "Shinigami no Seido (死神の精度, Accuracy of Death in English)" and "Ahiru to Kamo no Coin Locker (アヒルと鴨のコインロッカー)". Some of you may have watched the film versions of the above titles.

"Shūmatsu no fūru" comprises of 8 short stories, each of which features a different family living in the apartment complex called "Hills Town" located in Sendai, Miyagi. The story takes place in the world where an asteroid is said to strike Earth in 3 years and kill all the living creatures present.

Despite the unique setting, the story does not focus on the asteroid or the fear it caused amongst people. The author has chosen the time period after 5 years the initial public announcement of the incoming asteroid was made. After 5 years, all the craze and chaos that have been taking place around the world are winding down as we humans cannot live in the state of panic forever. People have come to accept and face the destiny that they only have 3 more years to live and are trying and find the productive use of the time. As a result, people are finding themselves in this peculiar temporary state of peace, which they know will come to an end as the judgment day draws closer.

In this rather strange context, people are struggling to re-discover what really matters in their lives. Many things they thought they have valued prior to the announcement such as money, career and fame no longer carry much meaning. The common question all the characters are facing is how and with who they want to spend their lives. Our society has grown so complex and so have our lives. It is at times quite challenging to figure out what you are really after in your own life. Isaka has done a fantastic job demonstrating what life is and should be about when you remove all the distractions and strip it down to its fundamentals by employing a rather dramatic plot.

I highly recommend this book but I believe there is only a Japanese version of this book available at the moment. Hopefully it will be available in other languages soon. Or they may decide to make this into a movie in the near future like they did with some of his past works.

SLAM DUNK 10DAYS AFTER complete

Slam Dunk, a comic series about a red dyed hair high school punk Sakuragi joining a basketball team, was enormously popular in the mid-late 90's along with Dragon Ball and Yuyu-Hakusho all of which were published on the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
The Slam Dunk series has come to a rather abrupt end in 1996 after the Shohoku High School basketball team, the team Sakuragi plays for, defeats the national defending champion Sannoh Industry Affiliated High School. Although the series had run for 6 years and published 31 volumes, the actual time span of the story is less than half a year. The abrupt ending of the series has left lots of unresolved stories such as Sakuragi's rivalry with his team mate Rukawa, his romance (or should we say lack of) with Haruko (his crush who happens to be a younger sister of the Shohoku team captain Akagi), various nationally famous players that got mentioned but never really came in direct contact with Shohoku, etc. Fans were also left to imagine what Sakuragi, who is highly atheltic but is a complete beginner to basketball and a notorious high school gang of the area, would have become of.
"10 Days After" originally was an event hosted by the author Takehiko Inoue in 2004 celebrating Slam Dunk series selling over 100 million copies total. Inoue borrowed an abandoned school building of Misaki High School in Kanagawa prefecture for this event (Incidentally, Kanagawa prefecture is where the majority of Slam Dunk story took place). He drew scenes out of the lives of the prominent characters 10 days after where the series took off on the black boards in the classrooms. Despite lack of major promotion, over 5,000 people came to the school to check out the drawings, excited to discover what happened to the familiar characters they grew up reading/watching after the main story line had ended.
Now due to high demand, they have compiled all the drawings into a book, which the author Inoue declares to be the very final piece of work to be published under the name of Slam Dunk. Inoue did not re-draw the pictures on paper, rather the images found in this book are all photographed images of the black boards from the Misaki High School in 2004.
The episodes found in the book are to be portraying what the characters have been up in the 10 days after the storyline has ended. It is quite a delightful experience to be re-uniting with these characters. Reading this not only gave me a reminiscent feeling but I have also come to realize how strongly established and likable (in their own unique ways) each of the characters was. However, don't expect to find anything new or a clue to any of the unresolved stories from the main storyline as these are more of supplementary episodes about the beloved characters. The author has moved onto his new works such as Vagabond and Real and it seems that the "10 Days After" was done solely for the purpose of celebration and thanking the fans, providing a little something to feed our imagination on but no resolution or new development.

Pepsi Shiso

Here comes Pepsi's limited-time flavor of the summer: Shiso. They've had Blue-Hawaiian, Cucumber and now this. It just sounded so bad I had to try it.

Well, let's just say that I most likely won't be drinking this again.. It's pretty weird to be *drinking* something that tastes like shiso (I love ume-drinks but shiso just doesn't work..) and when it's mixed with soda, it is just wrong. The sweet-shiso aftertaste lingering inside your mouth is quite unbearable.

Well, if you are keen to try something *different*, try it now before they stop selling them.. I doubt they'll be selling this much longer. But even if you don't, I can assure you that you are not missing out on much.

サントリー　ペプシしそ　500mlX24本

Life-Size Gundam Statue

Gundam in Odaiba!
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

We now have Gundam protecting Japan from nuclear missiles! The statue looms over the Odaiba water front area at 18 m tall inside the Shiokaze Park.

This statue was built as part of the eco-movement called "GREEN TOKYO GUNDAM PROJECT" advocating to increase the number of parks and public-showcasing of cultural projects across the Tokyo metropolitan area. It also aims to support the 2016 Tokyo Olympics invitation project.

Gundam 30th Anniversary Web Site (Japanese):
http://www.gundam30th.net/