Aokigahara is the name of a forest in Japan, but this isn’t an ordinary forest. Aoikigahara implies “forest of trees” but most Japanese like to think of it as a place where people with suicidal thoughts go to escape this messed up world.

It’s sad, I know. I remember that day vividly when I first encountered a dead corpse lying there on the bottom floor of my apartment. As I recall, a Caucasian man no older than I, took his own life by jumping off on the top floor. Sorrowful and depressing thoughts went though my head as if I was stuck by menacing blows to my heart. Nothing could have prepared me for that day. The images of that man will continue to haunt me forever as I live on my life.

This photo was taken a few weeks back during the Hanami season. For those in the dark, Hanami is the Japanese word for ‘Cherry Blossom Viewing’. It is during this window period that many people come out and drink under the cherry blossom trees.

Check out this mini-sized Cup Noodles I’ve found in the supermarket today! Yes, I bought it just for the sake of telling everyone outside Japan; at just how small this Cup Noodle is. Bought the mini version for ¥98 ($1).

Let me tell you that pizza in Japan is not cheap. Just the other night, it was a combination of laziness and hunger that tempted me to get a hand delivered pizza for a grand total of ¥2520 ($30) for a large Pizza. How does the taste compared to Domino’s in America? Lackluster taste in my opinion. In fact, anything American is quite a disappointment.

Well, Just after 1.65 was pulled for technical difficulties, Sony has now released 1.66 for download.
here is a change log for all the new functions since 1.65:

1. A “Notification Alert” option will be added to Settings, so you can toggle alerts on or off
2. “After 10 minutes” will be added to the time options under Power Save Settings
3. An Arrow icon will now appear when PS Vita finds new activities in the LiveArea
4. Caps Lock will be supported in the On Screen Keyboard
5. Addition of installation progress bar for downloaded games and DLC.
6. minis with a preset expiry date (i.e. those obtained via PlayStation Plus) now load correctly.
7. The [System Music] setting in Settings > [Sound & Display] now affects BGM in PS Store, near and Sign-Up screens as well as the Home menu.
8. When searching for location data, users now have the option to ‘Retry’ and ‘Cancel’ when a failure occurs.
9. A progress bar is introduced for application installation.
10. A direct link to PlayStation Store is made available for new applications that users may discover on near.
11. Users can now update data at any time within near, provided they are within the same location.
12. The display time of notification alerts has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
13. Functional improvements have been made in the following games and applications: Unit 13, Gravity Daze, near.

PS: I would also like to mention to those who have a Japanese PSN account, you now have Facebook and Foursquare available in the applications section.

Whether you are stressed out from loosing your $40 like I did ( or in my case, ¥4000 ) or not, I can personally vouch for Nobuo Uematsu’s fantastic music. Uematsu’s work includes a lot of Final Fantasy titles. He is mainly a video game music composer and his music gained famed while working with Square Enix (formally Square Soft). Youtube Playlist

This week in news brings you the latest of whats going on in Japan. The top stores are raising the consumption tax, shutting down all of Japan’s nuclear power plants, and only four of ten top consumer brands are Japanese.

Japan is proposing raising the consumption tax to 10 percent!
Yes, you read that right! The Japanese government is proposing to raise the consumption tax to a maximum of 10 percent by 2015! The reason? To cover for the huge amount of social security payouts (AKA pension system). The current tax in Japan is 5 percent. The first raise will be in 2014 with 8 percent followed by a 10 percent hike a year later. Source: Japan Times

All nuclear Power plants will be shut down in May.
There are currently 54 nuclear power plants in Japan. The last nuclear power plant to shut down for maintenance will be in May, which is located in Hokkaido. A nuclear power plant shuts down for maintenance every thirteen months of operation. Ever since the Fukushima incident, None of the nuclear power plants have been allowed to be restarted. After May, Japan would need to rely on mostly imported oil. At present, All 54 nuclear power plants supply 33 percent of the nations power. Source: The Washington Post

Only four of ten top consumer brands are Japanese

Here is a list compiled by Venture Beat:
1. (11) Apple
2. (1) Google
3. (2) Uniqlo
4. (7) YouTube
5. (6) Disney
6. (4) McDonalds
7. (3) Panasonic
8. (5) Nissan
9. (39) Dyson
10. (9) Rakuten
The numbers in parenthesis indicates last year’s previous rankings. I’m personally not surprised that Apple has become one of the most  popular consumer brands in Japan since almost everyone from a JR high school kid to a grandma owns an IPhone. Source: Venture Beat

Even before knowing who Horiyoshi was, I knew of this man’s art work. Back in college, I remember flipping though some of his work in tattoo books that I was reading though and awing in amazement at some of his beautiful pieces. It’s too bad that Japanese tattoo is considered such a cultural taboo, otherwise, He would be up there with that sushi chief I posted the other day; a true national treasure.

If I were to get a tattoo, I think this would be it! This painter is located in Kyoto and draws these amazing dragons that almost accurately portrays the ancient-mystical drawings of the creature. Skip ahead in the Youtube video to about four minutes to see the completed drawings. Painter’s official website.