How many times have you passed on a glass of wine because the kind you wanted was only sold by the bottle? The Japanese have a good thing going called "bottle keep" that takes care of that problem by allowing customers to drink what they want out of a bottle of wine and save the rest for later. The restaurant puts the customers name on the bottle and keeps it in the back until their next visit.

What an awesome way to make the most of a bottle of wine (not to mention impressing friends and family with the VIP treatment!). Obviously this idea isn't reserved only for the Japanese so now I'm be on the hunt for a restaurant that offers this service (or something like it) in my area.

Salt, possibly the world's most essential mineral, is unusual in that it can be collected in two ways; by mining or by boiling sea water to pare it down to its salty essence. Due to the labor-intensive process of collecting it, and the interesting flavors imbued by the life of the sea itself, sea salt is typically prized above rock salt.

In the world of sea salt, the earliest known sea salt produced by the Japanese may be the rarest of all. Called Amabito No Moshio ("Ancient Sea Salt"), unpolluted sea water is collected from the Seto-uchi inland sea, infused with seaweed to develop the "unami", and then processed by cooking in an iron kettle, put into a centrifuge, and finally, cooked over an open fire while stirring constantly. The salt is worth over $40 per pound.

The island where most of this salt is produced is called Kami-Kamagari, and has a population of less than 3,000. Archaeological digging has uncovered salt-making pots dating from the 2nd or 3rd century AD -- a find which, in 1998, encouraged the locals to take up the production of this ancient sea salt, again. Salt expert Mark Bittman says the flavor is "savory" and "unctuous" and suggests it on meats, rice, roasted potatoes, even a chocolate souffle!

The Zettel'z 5 light will not only illuminate your home or office, but it will also provide a conversation piece and interesting focal point because you can actually do some reading while admiring this lamp. It's made up of 80 sheets of Japanese paper hung in such a way to disguise the bulb inside, diffusing the light in an interesting way. Designed in 1997 by Ingo Maurer, 49 of the paper sheets are printed and 31 are blank, and the rest of the lamp is made of stainless steel and satin-frosted glass. £571

When I first heard the name Willow Chair I pictured a softer looking design with rounded or flowing shapes, but in reality the focus is on vertical and horizontal lines. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1903 for The Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow, it's inspired by his interest in Japanese design. You can see the shape of a tree formed by the checkers and straight lines of the chair back, and now available from Design Icons it's made of black lacquered ash with a cushion of leather, velvet, or cotton. £1155


Via Retro to Go

People pay money for water every day, even though it's free in the majority of places on Earth. So if we're already paying for it, why not pay a lot for it, right? Well that's apparently the philosophy of the Japanese, who for a while now have been making big business of buying very expensive desalinated seawater concentrate from off the coasts of Hawaii. Called Kona Nigari, it sells for $33.50 per two-ounce bottle of concentrate and is meant to be diluted in a bottle of regular water (add $1.99 to the bill). It's credited with aiding weight loss, stress reduction, skin tone, and digestion. And apparently this Hawaiian seawater is special -- people pay more for the Kona Nigari than for similar concentrates from waters closer to Japan.

Via Lussorian

These are just darling, don't you think? They're the latest stick type mp3 players/USB drives from Sony. Available in a beautiful mix of pastel colors (blue, gold, pink, and violet) and black (classy), the cap is covered with a design in Swarovski crystals. Sony has announced that the 'NW-E010 series' will be available by the end of next month in the Japanese market (they get everything first it seems!) and no word on when they might make an appearance here in the U.S. Pricing is expected to be around 18,800 yen for the 2GB versions and 24,800 yen for 4GB.

It's hard to find the perfect suit, but this gold weave suit out of Japan is apparently "better than feeling a million diamonds" and "like swimming in gold." Well it's more than "like" swimming in gold -- if you get in the water while wearing this baby you actually are swimming in gold -- the precious metal is woven right into the fabric. Valued at $82,000 the suit goes through a month-long weaving process where gold fibers about the size of a human hair are incorporated into the material. And also available in the same sparkling golden fabric is an even more expensive long dress valued at $243,900.

I wonder if they're scratchy or silky? And an important note from the designers on the swimsuit: it's not meant to go in the water.

What?! ...whatever.

Described as looking like something growing up out of the forest floor (a flower bud in KuKunochi to be exact), the Tsubomi chair fits its inspiration of a bright future quite well. Warm, inviting, and fluid in design, any room featuring this chair will need fewer decorative accents as it has the artistic look of a sculpture, albeit an upholstered one. Created by the 3 person design team Leif.designpark based in Japan, Tsubomi draws greatly on Japanese culture and history for its inspiration, meaning, and appearance.

Via CribCandy

The Web Time Series Elite Watch is, in my opinion, probably more of a conversation piece than a convenient way to tell the time -- which you do by looking where the colored lines intersect with the numbered lines (the hour on the top, the minutes on the bottom). Available in Aqua (blue resin) or Satsuma (orange resin) it boasts Super 2035 inner workings, a 4 year battery, and a hidden butterfly clasp on the strap. I won't deny it looks awesome, though I think the frustration of using it may increase your risk for migraines (so use it at your own risk!). ¥16,800, $169.

Via TechEBlog

With electronics usually sporting black or silver color schemes, this gold SA-&S1 CD player from Marantz is setting itself apart with an appealing gold finish. It's not super shiny and it doesn't look like it's trying too hard, but is still gold, which is interesting. Put that with features like little to no sound-degrading vibrations, protection against electrical interference, and micro-precision metals making for an exceptionally clean data read-out, and it's a nice piece of electronics.

It's a good looking seemingly well-made CD player, but I don't know about paying $10,000 for it? Unless that's real gold used in the finish, then maybe...

A high price tag should buy you beauty and functionality, but the two don't always coexist for some reason. Take the Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional HG Japan, a new limited edition keyboard that was created by a collaboration between Fujitsu and Daitetsu-Yatsui Urushi Workshop. Daitetsu-Yatsui Urushi specializes in traditional Japanese lacquer techniques, so the basic blank Happy Hacking Keyboard has carefully-coated keys, each of which were hand-painted and sprinkled with gold dust. It is beautiful, especially when compared to most keyboards out there, but a blank keyboard might not even be appealing to highly skilled typists. Price: $4,240.

[via popgadget]

Diaddict, a designer Japanese brand that specializes in jewelry, has recently come out with a one-of-a-kind, diamond-studded strap for mobile phones. The accessory features a 6.02-carat yellow diamond, as well as 2.1-carats in clear, white diamonds, a .61-ct. blue diamond and a .36-ct. pink diamond. Stunning to look at, it is currently on display at the Takashimaya Co. departments store in Nihombashi, Japan. Its listed price is 100 million yen ($842,000) .

When I think about putting cars together, I think of two things: built-it-yourself model car kits and taking my car to the mechanic. The complexity of a "real" car is often what keeps novices away from tinkering with them - along with the fear of not being able to get it back together properly. Mitsuoka Motors, a Japanese auto company, just introduced the "K-4", a micro car for one that you can assembled yourself with the instructions they provide with it. The K-4 is ideal for those who want to be "hands-on" with cars, or just don't have need of a full-sized vehicle. It still takes about 40 hours to put together the 500+ pieces, but it looks to be easier than a conventional vehicle. The car is about 8-feet long and has a maximum speed of 31 miles per hour. Price (approx): $6,460.

The University of Tokyo and Japanese company GS Yuasa have come up with this little gadget called the SHOJI (Symbiotic Hosting Online Jog Instrument) which purportedly examines a whole host of physical analytics (light, temperature, humidity, infrared radiation and ultrasonic waves) as well as human variables (presence, movement and tone of voice) and translates that information into a row of LED lights that visually represent the overall 'mood' of the room. While this may prove more of a dorm-room gimmick a few years down the road, Tokyo companies are hoping to use this technology to monitor the atmosphere inside branch locations without actually installing Big Brother.

Thanks to our pals over at Engadget for the heads-up!

This gem of a USB drive is made by SolidAlliance and is known as the Mottainai. The 2 GB memory stick looks like gold, although it is actually made of bronze, and has beautiful, multi-faceted crystals from Statsuma Kiriko embedded in it. Apparently, it was made "as a tribute to the Japanese craft industry," although we suspect the manufacturer didn't mind the idea of adding a little bling to computers, either. Price: $765.

[via SciFi Tech]