A while ago I posted about a neat book called Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan. I recently came across a post on LifeHacker on five secret Japanese tips to make life better. My favorite, and in my mind the most helpful, is how to make a baby stop crying.

1. How to make a baby stop crying
Dilemma: Sure, the baby’s cute. But why won’t he stop crying?
Solution: The secret to stop a crying baby lies in making the sound you produce during the mouthfeel stage of wine tasting.
Why this works: When babies are still in the womb, the noises they can hear are limited to those in the 6000-8000mHz range. The sound you make when you slosh the liquid behind your lips during wine tasting takes place at about 7000mHz, reminding the baby of a time when the world around was peaceful and the whirs and stirs inside Mommy’s tummy soothed him back to a sleepy state.

Thank You Lifehacker

I picked this one up because I was in the mood for something that wasn’t all about youth trying desperately to understand their own emotions while constantly missing opportunities to confess their love. That’s not really the focus of Tokyo Crazy Paradise, but that sub plot is pretty much still present. I guess you just can’t escape it.

Tokyo Crazy Paradise (I’m tired of typing that so it’s TCP from here on out) is a manga that takes place in the year 2020 in a crime filled and indifferent future Tokyo (I doubt Tokyo will ever be as bad depicted in this manga). In order to protect their daughter -Tsukasa- from the constant sexual harassment women face in that day and age, a married couple (both cops) decide to raise her as another son along with their 3 other sons. Shortly before we enter the story, that married couple got caught up in a Yakuza dispute and were both killed, leaving the 14 year old Tsukasa and her 16, 14 (her twin), and 13 year old brothers alone in this world. I don’t remember the brothers names because they play very minor roles in this manga (so far).
After being kicked out of their home by their indifferent landlady (this is where we join the story) Tsukasa decides to try and get a free meal off Ryuji, a Yakuza “friend” (whom she has never actually spoken too). Bad idea of course, but she is kind of young and very hungry. Because of this (and the help of a few lies + her skills at fighting) Tsukasa is forced to work as Ryuji’s bodyguard.
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There is a guy on YouTube with the profile name helpmefindparents. This guy is very funny! If you have an interest in Japan or are studying Japanese, you will find him even funnier.

I’m not sure if he’s for real or not. It’s really hard to tell for me. My Mom has already voted that it’s fake, but still funny.

Supposedly his story is that he was adopted into a Japanese family in Japan when he was just a little baby. He’s now 33 or so and he has decided to try and find his real parents in LA.
A lot of his videos are about his search, but some are just silliness, like How to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word.

Check it out, he’s a funny guy even if he’s just acting.

Paul plans on spending some time in Japan soon, and as a good friend I try and look out for anything that could be helpful for his trip. I’m pretty sure I can stop looking, because I’ve found probably the only resource he’ll need: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.

Urawaza is a term for little life-hacks and productivity tricks which have been featured in print and tv in Japan for some time. For the first time ever you can glimpse ancient hiccup cures and plant care secrets. Apparently the book includes 100 clever tricks, each with distinctly Japanese flair.

I have to get a copy of this quick. Because as of now, if I were chased by zombies, had to sing karaoke like a pro, or some other such nonsense, I would be stuck.

Thanks a ton to Lisa Katayama from io9

I’m currently working on two projects right now. One is a Flash site for NewThink, a small design/development company in LA. And the other is my weekly post for our main site… this week I’m it’s on Joints and Forces in Box2DFlash.

Still, I find myself daydreaming a lot while I’m writing code and I tend to slip in some reading every now and then. I’m studying Japanese right now (listening to Pimsleur while typing this) and I hope to visit Japan in the not TOO distant future.
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