Are you in the mood for some super-simple, good Japanese yakisoba? If you make a trip to Nagoya, Japan and are on the look out for a no-frills yakisoba shop then Fukuzo is the place. It has one of the simplest menus in existence with only 3 items!…

I came across an interesting post on the official Gmail blog regarding their new Gmail-embedded translation tool. One of the goals of this new function is to allow people without a common language to communicate via Gmail without having to go through the pain of writing or reading in a foreign language. This is a valiant effort and it is a tool of great potential. However; as anyone who has studied a foreign language knows there is a certain degree of art required when translating from one subject to another.

To test out this new Gmail feature I decided to let Gmail translate a speech I delivered in Japanese at a friend’s wedding last week. To do this I copied and pasted the speech into my Gmail and then sent the email to myself. I then opened the email selected ‘English’ in the scroll box. To my pleasant surprise it was comic gold. See below.

NOTE: you will need to activate the translate feature for this scrollbox to appear. See the Gmail blog for instructions.

Below is the original speech in Japanese. If you can read Japanese you will notice the speech is fairly formal with no laugh-out-loud funny comments…

Tired of your furniture and daily necessities taking up all the floor space in that tiny little apartment of yours? Apartment Therapy is featuring five great design ideas to help maximize your space in style from Italian designer, Tumidei Spa.

I especially appreciate how the bed (or in some cases multiple beds) can be stored away to create more floor space in most of the designs.

I Went to Nagoya recently and found an influenza poster that struck my interest. It is a poster of a boy gurgling to keep the evil flu germs away!

I was recently invited to a co-worker’s birthday party at Antonio Inoki’s Saka-Bar in Ikebukuro. For those who haven’t heard of Antonio Inoki, he was a WWF-like pro wrestler in Japan and is known best for his ‘Genki desu ka!!!’ catch phrase and an occasional face slap of celebrities on variety shows. As of late he has become involved in the izakaya business and has 4 locations in Japan.

Do you ever have the urge to relax and drink a Corona but are not willing waste your Yen on the expensive price tag at the supermarket. And don’t forget you have to buy a ￥130 lime! Well there is a way to lessen the damage on your wallet and still get a fix for your Corona addiction

For the past year, one of the hottest ‘owarai’ combos has been a duo called ‘Odori’(オードリー). One of their first major appearances on Japanese TV was last year in the popular comedy show GuruNai’s ‘omoshiroso’ segment

I recently returned from a business trip to Arizona where there are confirmed cases of Swine Flu. I wasn’t really worried about going to America and being exposed to this new flew but I knew upon my return to Japan that I would come upon scrutiny from Japanese health officials.

On my return flight from San Francisco to Narita all passengers were told to fill out a one page ‘Health Questionairre’. You are required to fill out your name, Passport #, address, phone #, etc. After the informational questions are finished the form moves on to the health-related questions.

A dehumidifier is a relatively compact appliance that essentially sucks the water out of the air and there are actually fairly efficient with power consumption.

If you often travel within Japan you probably know there are many hotels to choose from. The main types of accommodations include:

• Hotels/ホテル – A full service hotel, usually geared towards tourist
• Business Hotels/ビジネスホテル – A hotel with bare essentials in service for traveling business men, rooms are smaller. Business Hotels are similar to a Holiday Inn Express or a Comfort Inn, but rooms are smaller of course
• Love Hotels/ラブホテル – Themed hotel for two people of the opposite sex….hourly and nightly rates available