Japan Video Topics 2007/10
Try new products for free at Sample Lab
Sample Lab is a new store that opened in summer 2007 in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku area. Targeted at trendsetters and early adopters, especially women in their 20s and 30s, and sited in one of the area's most fashionable new buildings, Sample Lab allows its members to try out the latest - and often unreleased - products, and to take many samples home for free. In return, members agree to complete surveys that help designers and manufacturers to improve and fine-tune their products for the mass market.
Revealing the hidden side of industry
Educational tours that take you behind the scenes to learn about how industry and the social infrastructure really work are increasingly popular in Japan. Facilitated by today's heightened sense of corporate social responsibility, tours are based on the same idea as school social studies trips, but also visit sites not be suitable for schoolchildren. Citizens interested in how their society functions can now sign up for a first hand look at sights such as a vast underground power plant and a giant hangar where aircraft engineers maintain jumbo jets.
Eating on the train - ekiben boxed meals
No Japanese holiday trip by train feels complete without enjoying an ekiben, the special boxed lunches sold on trains and platforms and at station stores. Eating a delicious ekiben as the scenery glides past is guaranteed to get anyone into a holiday mood. And since these boxed meals are always produced locally with fresh regional ingredients, they make an excellent and inexpensive introduction to the cuisine of the areas you visit.
A designer's ideas transform local industries
When Kiyoyuki Okuyama, a world famous designer especially known for his automobile designs, looked at his birthplace of Yamagata, he saw a region with a long tradition of craft industry that was in danger of dying out. Japan's famous old regional-based crafts had been decaying since the post-war industrial modernization. Okuyama started a project that is revitalizing these industries - combining modern design concepts with traditional craft skills to create unique products and brands that are selling well abroad.
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