日本のサブカルチャー (nihon no sabukaluchaa) Japanese Subculture 4
初音ミク(Hatsune Miku)
Hatsune Miku, sometimes referred to as Miku Hatsune, is a virtual singing idol developped by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo city. She is the second Vocaloid sold using the Vocaloid 2 engine, and her voice is sampled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita.
Hatsune Miku has perfromed at her concerts onstage as an animated projection, that is a new style of enjoying music. Her popularity has spread around the world with the performance collaborating even with classical music. She performed as the opening act for Lady Gaga’s concert.
The Shinkansen is a super express train also known as the "bullet train". It started the service in 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Asama-Nagano shinkansen
The Shinkansen network has been gradually expanding since then and now is almost nationwide from Shin-Aomori Station located in the northern part of Honshu the main island to Kagoshima-Chuo Station in the southern part of the Kyushu island.
Hayabusa-Tohoku Shinkansen
If you take the Shinkansen between these two stations, it takes about ten and a half hours, which is much faster than the three days it takes by taking local trains one after another. The top speed at the time of starting operation was 210km/h but now it is 320km/h.
It has a worldwide reputation for being extremely punctual and safe with very few delays and an extremely low mortality rate.
Sample food was originally made as a way of attracting customers who could see it in a glass case outside of restaurants and imagine what they wanted to eat. In the Taisho Period, some one hundred years ago, the sample food was made of wax but these days the ingredients are plastic and silicone.
They look like real!!
Samples of a crepe
It is helpful and indispensable not only for foreigners but also for Japanese people especially when we cannot decide what kind of food we want to eat in a restaurant area where there are a variety of Japanese food restaurants such as Washoku-ya, Udon-ya, Soba-ya, Tonkatsu-ya, Ramen-ya in addition to multinational food restaurants. It's very nice that you can easily draw a picture in your mind of your food and the amount you want and then decide a meal before you get in and hear "Irasshaimase" from a restaurant worker.
You can buy mini versions of sample food on key chains and phone straps for souvenirs.
Daruma are dolls without hands and feet representing the sitting
meditation (zazen) posture of Bodhidharma, founder of the Zen sect. His
legs were said to be paralyzed because of the continuous meditation on
top of a rock for some nine years with his legs crossed.
だるま市 (Daruma Fair)
Most daruma are made of papier-mache and painted red except for the face. The bottom is heavy and works as a tumbler. Because it bounces back to its original position when it's pushed over, it serves as a good luck charm. There is the custom of painting in the eyes, which are usually white,when a wish has been fulfilled.
Vending machines are everywhere throughout Japan. Products in them range widely, from drinks cigarettes, sweets flowers, cup noodles to underwear. Vending machines are probably more widespead in Japan than anywhere else in the world.
Even when stores are closed items can be purchased from vending machines, so they are convenient for consumers. in addition, it is said that they would be provisions in the case of natural disasters.
The biggest reason why vending machines have proliferated in Japan is "safety".
百円ショップ (Hyakuen shoppu, 100-yen shop) (Acutually 108 yen including consumption tax)
100 yen shops are very popular in Japan for not only the cheap price but
also the quality for the price. The
goods in 100 yen shops are abundant
in varieties of daily neccesities such as kichenware, underwear, bags,
cosmetics, gardening materials, food and so on.
There are
thousands of 100 yen shops across Japan, ranging in size from
multi-story department stores to small corners in shopping malls. Some
of the largest 100 yen shops in Japan are Daiso Harajuku in Tokyo, Daiso
Sapporo Chuo in Sapporo city, Hokkaido, Daiso Osaka Keihan City Mall,
Daiso Kobe Sannomiya Centergai, and Daiso Fukuoka Kotsu Center near
Hakata Station.
In the past, cooking rice was not as easy as now. Housewives had to watch the rice cooking on a stove( in many cases a fire), hoping the grains didn't burn or stick to the pot. Thanks to the invention, it contributed for them a lot to decrease cooking time.
Kamado
First Electric Rice Cooker
IH Rice Cooker
Since Toshiba Electric Corporation produced the first fuccessful electric rice cookers in 1956, electric rice cookers have developed to IH (Induction Heating) cookers which enable to make rice tastier.
Vending machines are everywhere throughout Japan. Products in them range widely, from drinks cigarettes, sweets flowers, cup noodles to underwear. Vending machines are probably more widespead in Japan than anywhere else in the world.
(Acutually 108 yen including consumption tax) 
100 yen shops are very popular in Japan for not only the cheap price but
also the quality for the price. The 
