Health Potions
Image by timtak
At a store selling heath potions, the salesman does a samurai pose (the bottles are meant to be the samurai's hairstlye) for the camera.
The Japanese are very keen on these medicines. They are advertised extensively on television and stocked at all chemists and many convenience stores. They contain various minerals and vitamins, extracts such as "royal jelly," and importantly caffiene and nicotine in fairly large quantities. Their effect is largely thus comparable to having two cups of esspresso coffee and a cigar. The adverts suggest that drinking these potions makes you "genki hatsu ratsu" (particularly fit in mind and body), keep fighting for one more try, or take off in a personal rocket backpack.
The reason for the Japanese belief in such medicines is probably related to the following:
1) The tradition of imbibing east asian medicines (Kanpou Yaku) which makes extensive use of various plant and animal extracts and minerals. This tradition continues not only in the health potions featured above but also a general tendency to believe that alcohol, black vinegar, green tea, "green juice" (ao-jiru) vegetable extract, and extracts of certain types of mushrooms have medicinial properties.
2) The Japanese salaried employee is often so busy that he or she has need of drugs such as this to get him (or her) through the day. When I working in a Japanese company employees would bring a case of health potion to the office for everyone to drink.
3) Japan has a culture of linguistic humility where it is considered in bad taste to tell people how much work one is doing. One has to be oblique. But visual signs of endeavour are acceptable, so drinking a health potion at ones desk is a way of telling colleagues that one is trying very hard. Visual expression of "genkiness" and positivity in general are quite acceptable, as can be seen from the photograph above.
4) For Japanese men, machismo is bound up with extent to which they can work hard and long hours. As well as actually facilitating this feat, some health potions excentuate the machismo of the act by having blatantly phallic symbols on the bottle. (Perhaps the samurai hairstyle as being mimiced by the gentleman in his photograph is phallic, as noted elsewhere, the traditional headware of shinto priests, the bird hard, is said to be phallic.)
5) As found in Catholic cultures where believers eat the body of God on Sunday, the Japanese have a tradition of consuming food - particularly rice cakes - which is believe to be imbued with the spirit of their deity. The rice cakes consumed at New Year are traditionally believe to have this spiritually envigorating function. (It is also notable that members of Catholic cultures in Europe also seem to be fond of potions too. The French are fond of medicinial teas and the consumption of esspresso cofee in both France and Italy seems to have a ritual quality).
Fruit - Healthy Fruit Smoothie Drink
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New York City is Alive and Well
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Join the Facebook Fan Club!
We have a nice growing community over there, and I drop in on occasion to put in little bits of news that just can't wait on the daily blog post. I do want to keep the blog a regular once-a-day event. However, sometimes there are cool things you might want to know over on the Fan Page. I also encourage discussion, finding more friends, and the like there. So, come join and have a good time!
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I had a great time in New York!
I just got back from NYC, where I went out to get ready for the book launch event there. While there, I shot a secret video with Steve Simon (which may not be secret for long), and I went out with Cali Lewis to shoot some HDRs in Times Square! Cali is the host of Geebrief.TV - a show you should watch for sure if you like tech and spunkiness. Anyway, after shooting some HDRs, we went and had Italian food with Cali, Neil (her hubby), and my friend June Arunga. I handed Neil my camera and he shot this pic of us together…
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Daily Photo: New York is Alive and Well
It's been a few years since I have been to New York, and Times Square is better than before! I was actually in New York on 9/11, so it's always good to go back to the city and see everything is still awesome. Maybe next time I come, we can all do a flash mob and hit B&H Photo for a while - that would be fun!
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A Day in Ho Chi Minh City
Image by Ronald HN Tan
Allez Boo - Wanted to try Hanoi Beer but it was out of stock. So I went for BGI at VND 40,000.
Photos used at blog post - ronald-tan.com/2010/04/24/a-day-in-ho-chi-minh-city/
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