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Hehe! I just baked my first ever loaf of bread. All thanks to Yakitate Japan!! The bread in question is Japan #2, which is made using a rice cooker. The reason why its called Japan #2 is because its the main character's second self invented bread. The name Japan is a pun on the Japanese word for bread, pan, which I presume is derived from the French pain. Its one of the few actual recipes you get from the show. I think one reason being not many people in Japan own a decent oven but everyone owns a ricecooker.

Yakitate Japan starts out announcing that its a "serious, biographical ballad of a boy who possesses Solar Hands". Its about a Japanese boy setting out to make Japan's national bread, punning his way to victory. I love how it approaches the issue of race, culture and identity in such a lighthearted manner. Its pseudo nationalistic view is expressed through food and again demonstrates the amazing Japanese ability of assimilation.

I actually made two loaves. My dad put the first one in the oven and it turned out really hard like biscotti. The second one we got right. Took 6 hours in total to make the damn thing but at least it tasted pretty good. Here's the recipe! Next up is some proper baguette!

I recently finished watching the rather engaging MONSTER. An anime from Japan that is hardly for kids, it runs more like a psychological thriller series just that the actors don't
suffer from acting flaws.

Naoki Urasawa is the mangaka responsible for this series and he also did the amazing 20th Century Boys, which captivated me so much, my girlfriend got upset with me for paying more attention to it! (BTW, she was the one who introduced me to this)

MONSTER is about a Japanese doctor saving the life of a young boy who turns out to be the monster in question. Philosophical and disturbing at times, the series is lit up by some terrific characters like the man pictured here, Inspector Lunge of the BKA.

Check out this wiki entry for more info.

Tonia Welter is a German product designer who has a penchant for computer related accesories or so it seems. Her ideas seem to weave facets of life into daily tech usage as exemplified by the Tidy Tippist pictured above. With the electronics woven into the tablecloth, it also manages to function as a workable keyboard.

Whilst I like the idea of a machine washable, coffee spill friendly keyboard, I find the design lacks a lot of practicality as well. Its quite simply unergonomic. You can definitely eat over the thing and not worry about wrecking the keyboard but you'd find typing a chore on such a flat surface.

She's also got some other stuff like an inflatable plastic bag as a laptop carrier/disguise. She even goes to extent of having black insides for the plastic bag so the all black laptops would look even more conspicuous.

Then there's the USB jewellery, which is kinda funky and interesting. Her cufflinks are one product that will be produced whilst all the other projects are patented prototypes not quite ready yet.

Linked off we make money not art.

Hehe the latest thing that me and my girlfriend are into is WoW, World of Warcraft. Possibly the biggest, baddest online game yet. That's my undead rogue riding a bat by the way. And I was level 10 at the time. What's great about the game is a strong, friendly community. I only had one Alliance guy "laugh" at me whilst most of the time, people were friendly and helpful.

For those that don't know, the game is split into 2 factions, the Alliance and the Horde. The Alliance is made up of humans, dwarves, elves and gnomes, your typical good guy fantasy characters. The Horde has got the undead, trolls, orcs and tauren (a beast race). Early reports suggest the Alliance is largely made up of tweens playing elves.

Another strong point about the game is that there is a focus on questing and following a storyline as opposed to blind powerlevelling in many other MMORPGs. A good variety of races and classes also help to improve this. Each character also gets to pick two extra professions like blacksmithing or tailoring to make their own kickass items ingame. On top of that, everyone can learn stuff like first aid, cooking and fishing. There are details like how staying in an inn for a while makes you feel rested and if you rest long enough, you get an XP boost when u come back ingame. This helps reduce the downtime in between sessions.

Overall I have to say I'm fully impressed by WoW and my only gripe is that my girlfriend doesn't even want to watch the movies anymore!

If you haven't already caught One Piece. You should. The single best anime/manga to have come outta Japan in a long time. Whilst the premise doesn't seem as exciting as some other shows. Its terrifically written and I love how everything is weaved into an intricately detailed work of art. Everything happens with reason within this fantastical pirate world. There are adventures, mysteries and bending of physics in this world where reindeer talk and there are cities in the sky. It creates a believable fantasy and at its heart contains a moving story.

Here are some links to get you started.

Kaizoku Fansubs
One Piece Manga

I bought this ultra cheap wallet on my recent trip to Bangkok which my girlfriend hates! Its one of those trifold nylon type ones and its got bright yellow edges and a mildly crumpled flower printed fabric covered in glossy PVC. Anyway, its just a stop gap measure until I find "the one". Myabe it could be these but maybe not long term. Still the concept is cool. Poketo collaborates with a buncha artists to make clothes and accessories and their wallets in particular are rather eye catching. The one pictured is by French artist AK.



Here's an example of what it looks like inside. Rather simplistic. Its got space for coins and cards. I like that they used transparent PVC for the inside so you can still see the artwork. Nice.

I used to visit the Karmaloop website a lot as they always had lots of nice stuff. This Paul Frank MP3 case is something I think is particularly apt since the motif used is the Danger Skurvy Pirate. The box packaging also says "Stow yer MP3's you music pirates! (argggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh)"

This promo shot for a Threadless tee, Emo Bear, really cracked me up and it wasn't until I saw these photos that I realised why such an ugly red shirt was ever printed. I mean... its been a long long time since I've ever watched Care Bears and besides, joke or no... That thing is still pugugly. And I wonder if the person wearing it will actually have it backfire on him/her instead.

Credit goes to the Threadless crew for constantly having ridiculous shots of their staff!

Hahaha! Check out this scrolling LED belt buckle!

tokidoki for LeSportsac. American bag brand LeSportsac joins forces with tokidoki to launch a series of bags. The familiar nylon bags that already come with bright, graphic patterns now come in tokidoki's limited edition print, not unlike Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton.

I first caught wind of these from my little brother, who read about it off a magazine called Play. I wasn't particularly interested at first for whatever reason, until my girlfriend redirected me towards them again.

I checked out the website then hurried her to go out to buy during lunch before I finished typing this entry. All the bags come adorned with white background graphic printed nylon, a carabina, black straps and in some instances, leather bits with shiny green rivets, shiny green zip pull things, shiny green ball chain, shiny blue metal ringers and an accompanying "qee"! Phew! The detailing was mad!

I convinced her the Bella Bella (Girl Girl) bag was coolest because it had a longish shape and 3 zips across the bag! Not to mention the zips were multi-colored! They look kinda like multi-colored stitching almost as each tooth differs from the ones next to it. The zip The inside is green nylon, with a black tokidoki tag inside.

We bought it at the DFS here in Singapore after a friend alerted her that it was sold out in Takashimaya. Check your local LeSportsac outlet soon!