Bijin-Tokei (The Beauty Clock)

If you ask me if I am a feminist, or at least if I am sensitive to women's issues, I would say yes. I would publicly stand up to protect women's rights, I mean, my rights.

However, this "Bijin-Tokei (The Beauty Clock)", I could not pass up.

"Bijin-Tokei" is developed by a Japanese company, bijintokei, Inc. It is a downloadable gadget (widget) or application, and as the name suggests, functions as a clock.

Every minute is represented by a photograph of a beautiful woman holding a board telling the minute of the hour. A day consists of 24 hours. An hour consists of 60 minutes. Do the math. If you can stare at Bijin-Tokei for 24 hours non-stop, you get to see all 1,440 photos of beautiful women.

They (supposedly) took to the streets with a camera, spotted beauties of Tokyo, Paris, Seoul, and asked them to pose for a photo with a board. The product became wildly popular in Japan, and is enjoying 240 million PVs a month.

The clock is downloadable to PC desktop and to mobile phones including iPhone. If you would like the mac widget or google gadget, you can downloaded them here.

I found out about Bijin-Tokei through a business associate of mine. A politically correct- and global-minded man that he is, he hesitated for a moment to bring up the subject.

After explaining to me what it was, he inquired, almost coyly. "It would never fly in the U.S., or you think it would...?"

I could not help but say, "No, I'm afraid not."

For several days now since the discussion, I have often pondered. Why do I think it would never fly in the U.S.? Is it offensive? Because it somehow objectifies women? Is it in bad taste? I have actually downloaded the gadget onto my iGoogle desktop and I am waiting to see how I feel.

What do you guys think? I would like to see you guys weigh in on the issue. Just to be fair, though, bijintokei, Inc. is an equal-opportunity objectifier, and they have Binan-Tokei (The Good-looking Guy Clock) as well.

WAKEARI Gourmet

Maybe about a year ago I started hearing this expression WAKEARI Gourmet.

The expression WAKEARI Gourmet is applied to food products that do not meet "visual" quality standards, but otherwise are perfectly acceptable. Crabs, Cookies, Chinese dumplings, apples..., you name it.

These products, as you may guess, are priced much lower than their counterparts which do meet the quality standards. That is why, in this recession, they are attracting the Japanese consumers' attention.

I have heard many foreign visitors to Japan say how impressed they are with the aesthetics of supermarkets in Japan. Perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables which are neatly packaged and beautifully displayed... Supermarkets in Japan are like food galleries!, they say.

Being a Japanese expat in LA, I find the uniqueness of Trader Joe's and the airy open market feel of Whole Foods more exciting than the cleanliness of Japanese supermarkets. In my opinion Japanese people culturally are a bit too obsessed with how perfect their food looks. I remember working at Mister Donut one summer while I was in college. They had employees like me survey the display shelves one by one, screening out the baked goods that are misshapen and throwing them away. It worked to my advantage though, because we were allowed to eat them if we liked. Today they would be sold as WAKEARI donuts.

Personally I am hoping the current trend of WAKEARI Gourmet will change Japanese people's mind about how their food should look. I hope they will learn not to be so concerned about visual perfection. That way we may be able to stop wasting food and may be able to purchase them much cheaper at stores. (But then, some producers will no longer be able to make money off WAKEARI Gourmet???)

If you are curious, you may check out WAKEARI Gourmet News. http://www.gourmet-digest.com/