Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

2 Comments

Facial furore

After thoroughly enjoying my facial by the appropriately named Dr. Facial, I thought I’d treat myself further by popping along to the Flash Bust-up Salon on the same floor.

bust-up

However I was informed in no uncertain terms that the treatment was for ladies only, as man breasts are apparently not ‘bust-upable’. Understandably aggrieved, I went back to see Dr. Facial to inform him about what had happened, but he didn’t see the problem. In fact, after I complained some more he got rather roused, resulting in him giving me a mouthful and then telling me to leave.

4 Comments

Saintly service

As maid cafes begin to saturate certain areas (almost) as much as Starbucks, conveyors of coffee and cosplay are becoming increasingly hard pushed to come up with new and geeky gimmicks. The people behind the newly opened St. Grace Court in Akihabara however appear to be on to a winner, ingeniously combining morality and maids with these nun inspired outfits.

maids

With surroundings a little more sombre than the usual themed cafe, the staff also add to the ambience with their coy demeanour and heartfelt Christian beliefs.

more maids

And whilst their clothing may be a little cheekier than the garments sported by their convent-cloistered counterparts,

maids in miniskirts

they all faithfully bid customers farewell with an earnest, “God bless you!”

say your prayers

7 Comments

Mozilla maids

As far as market share goes, the usage of Mozilla’s Firefox browser remains stubbornly low in Japan compared to other key regions such as Europe and North America. A sorry state of affairs that has forced managers at Mozilla to try and rectify the situation with several promotional events aimed at spreading Firefox awareness, plus at the same time tempting the millions of Microsoft users to make the switch.

Yet whereas the giving away of gifts such as CD-ROMs, postcards and stickers may well win over one or two web users.

firefox freebies

It can’t hold a torch to the marketing masterstroke of maids in miniskirts.

maids in miniskirts

Mastery over Microsoft appears assured.

4 Comments

Crap car capture

After finally swapping the busy trains for the, erm, equally busy roads, I can now happily indulge in the wearisome web practice of taking pictures of routine random stuff whilst out and about in the car.

However due to the inherent danger involved, and considering it was my first time, I somewhat cowardly made sure I was safely in ‘park’ before attempting the manoeuvre. Although I did rather rebelliously refrain from switching the hazard warning lights on.

on the road

(click image for higher-res reflective rubbishness)

2 Comments

Samaritans sucked in

”Make money by dating quality women”

Part of an advertisement campaign for a job aimed at men with a few spare evenings free.

Now call me cynical, untrusting even, but an ad like that would make me a little cautious to say the least, especially as it went on to boast, “Dating with rich, quality women is your job.” Yet amazingly around 10,000 men applied, happily coughing up over 30,000 yen (150 pound) each in application and introduction fees — which could arguably be viewed as a rather odd procedure, considering the supposed wealth of the women they’d soon be dating. Still, with earnings of 30,000 yen for a few hours out on a date, or up to 70,000 for taking the trouble of spending the whole night with the lucky lady, they’d soon get their money back. Plus more on top, so to speak.

And so they all promptly paid up, netting the four companies running the scheme over 300 million yen (1.5m pound). Yet none of the men got a single date with a woman of any quality, as it was all a big scam. Can you believe that? By being sent pictures of prospective ‘dates’ which were either shots of the female phone operators hired by the fraudsters, or cut from magazines like this one,

a quality woman

the men’s minds were obviously clouded by their desire to help out these wealthy and well balanced women; who due to reasons unknown felt the need to pay out large sums of money to date — and possibly sleep with — random strangers.

And to think that these sympathetic salary men were conned by unscrupulous individuals intent on benefiting from such benevolence; the chief perpetrator apparently being 49-year-old Noriyuki Sato, who has thankfully been arrested for fraud.