A few days ago, a Japanese dollmaker Kyugetsu unveiled a shockingly realistic hina doll that resembles Japanese figure skater Mao Asada. The company said they wanted to show support for her efforts in figure skating competitions during the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Hina dolls are traditional Japanese figurines, meant to celebrate the annual Hina Matsuri (Girl’s Day festival) which is held on the 3rd of March every year.

Let’s compare the doll with the real Mao!

Mao Asada as hina doll (left).

A news report about the Mao Asada hina doll:

Soccer is quite popular in Japan and sometimes they play it with binoculars. Let’s see what that looks like (from an 80’s Japanese TV show):

Japanese TV reports about a dog that is quite possibly Japan’s most spoiled dog. Merumo, a materialistic 10-year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is a top model for Japanese dog magazines and holds the title “The Best of the Best of Breed 2004″  given by the prestigious Pedigree Award.

The TV crew visits the apartment where Merumo lives with her two owners (or servants as the case may be). The elevator has a special security system that won’t let you enter the 9th floor without owner’s permission to protect the dog from uninvited guests, curious kids, possible kidnappers, robbers and other villains.

Let’s check out some highlights from the report:

※ Merumo gets a haircut twice a month and spends 8000 yen per visit (about $90).

※ The dog is sensitive to heat so the owners invested into marble flooring for the living room at a cost of nearly 3,000,000 yen (about $34,000).

※ Merumo quenches her thirst from a silver Gucci bowl. When she goes out, they can carry her around in a Louis Vuitton bag or walk her using a Hermes brand leash worth 85,000 yen ($950) and a collar that cost separately 65,000 yen ($726).

※ The owners rent a separate room in the building that serves as a closet for Merumo’s clothes. They even sell some clothes to Merumo’s fans who want to buy her clothes for their own dogs.

※ Since Merumo is a Japanese dog, she also has her own kimono (80,000 yenov or $895).

※ The dog owns 10 fashionable fur coats (one cost 180,000 yen, about $2000) and a lot of other clothes and accessories that cost altogether about 3 million yen (around $34,000).

※ Merumo’s daily meals are prepared from expensive vegetables and first-class Matsuzaka meat. They buy his food at luxurious Takashimaya department store.

What about the owners? The husband and wife don’t have any children, run a private dance school and also have two just as spoiled cats that keep Merumo company. They don’t buy any expensive clothes for themselves and purchase cheap food from a local supermarket. At the end of the report, the wife justifies Merumo’s extravagant lifestyle by comparing him to a child. She says that many parents would spend large amounts of money to send their child to the best schools, so they spend this money on the dog instead.

Japanese airline company ANA (All Nippon Airways) last year made a bold step forward in the boring world of old school airline commercials with a refreshing new ad which is part of their The Art of Arrival campaign, designed by a British advertising agency Cuba.

What’s so unique about this ad which has also been shown in movie theaters in other countries, is that it was made to look like a cinematic anime cartoon that captures the joy of passenger’s arrival instead of promoting comfort during flying which is what we see in most other airline commercials.

Let’s have a look:

The concept is executed brilliantly from start to end and we can admit they’ve done a fantastic job squeezing such a variety of movement, animated scenes and sound into one single minute.

There is another version of this commercial where they replaced Beethoven with Gene Kelly:

The Art of Arrival even helped increase the airline’s international traffic by 5.3% during the holidays of Golden Week despite a 10% capacity reduction.

ANA is famous also for other (non-anime) commercials. Below are two ads which I have seen before on those small TVs in Tokyo trains:

They even dare to make ads with dancing airplanes:

So, you’re planning to fly ANA on your next trip to Japan? Speaking from own experience, I’ve flown with them before on route Los Angeles – Tokyo and I’ll say the flight was a very comfortable one in all aspects and their service was one of the best I’ve seen in airlines.

But alas, there was still no Beethoven to be seen anywhere upon arrival!

Do you know Quentin Tarantino? Of course you do! His movies like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, and the latest Inglourious Basterds are pretty famous in Japan. This time Tarantino stars in the newest TV ad for the Japanese mobile carrier Softbank: