Old Fashioned Things Are Almost Always Better

I think there's been an ever accelerating trend all over the western world (and Japan) to get back to "old-fashioned ways." I think evidence of this can be seen nearly everywhere you look: The trend towards healthier lifestyles, more natural foods, the return of the popularity of canning foods or making your own jams and jellies at home, the popularity of retro fashions, designs, music and films....


It seems there is a hunger for the more "down to earth" ways of the past. Perhaps this is due to a bad economy or just due to a feeling that we've been heading down the wrong road through all these years of mass consumerism.　

A photo from a Yakitori in Asakusa circa 1969

I even think that this desire to return to the old ways is a catalyst for many of the political and social protest movements like Occupy Wall Street or even the wonderful popularity on the Ron Paul movement in the US election; People think things now aren't as good as they used to be. They want to get back to better times.


Recently, I've noticed this movement in Japan too. Did you know that some products that were very popular 40 or 50 years ago, yet near their death-beds in the late 80's and 90's in Japan have had a massive return in popularity over these last 5 years or so? Yes. It's true.  

One of the items that used to have a very uncool image amongst the young people 30 years ago was Hoppy. Back in the fifties and sixties, a cold glass of beer was a luxury for most Japanese businessmen. The solution? Hoppy. Hoppy is a non-alcoholic beer-tasting drink that, when added with Sho-chu (cheap) Korean liquor tastes like beer and gets the job done quite well, thank you. Hoppy was hugely successful before and during the days of Japan's Economic Miracle. It was still popular until about 1979 or so...


In the late seventies and early 80s, a new drink came on the market that just destroyed the competition and that was called "Lemon Sour" or "Chu-hi."  Lemon Sour is lemon juice and carbonated water with sho-chu. It is quite easy to drink, cheap and didn't have an old fashioned image like Hoppy, so all the young people started drinking that. I used to drink those too.


In those days, of the early 80s, Hoppy was considered a stale old drink from stinky old men, that is, up until about 5 years ago. That's when the old man who ran the company that makes Hoppy retired and put his daughter in charge of the company as president. She is one smart woman and she set out to revitalize the company and the image of the drink. And what a job she's done! Hoppy sales have exploded in Japan and is now being drank by younger people. Why? Well Lemon Sour and Chu-Hi actually are high calorie drinks with lots of sugar in them. Hoppy is very low calorie and almost no sugar. So, since Hoppy is very low calorie (lower than Lemon Sour or beer) and so is Sho-chu, so you can drink Hoppy and be feeling great at a few dollars cheaper per glass and at a fraction of the calories of beer or Chu-hi. 

The new president of Hoppy turned the company around and became a star of the business world

On a diet yet you want to drink but still want to look better? Hoppy it is! 


This "healthier" image has done wonders for the company and the drink. In fact, it is my personal drink of choice now as Hoppy is very low on purine so it is best for drinkers who might suffer from gout or other drink related illnesses.

These sorts of old style drinking places are everywhere and resurgent in Japan.

I've marked where it says, "Hoppy" so you can try it next time.

Another thing that has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity is... Hi-Lite tobacco. Now, in this day and age, a resurgence in popularity in tobacco seems and impossibility, but with the Japanese government continually raising the taxes on cigarettes, many of the western brands, like Marlboro or Lucky Strike have gotten very expensive in Japan. It seems to me that I have witnessed, over these last two years, a high resurgence of younger guys smoking Hi-Lite cigarettes.

Hi-Lite has a similar story to tell as Hoppy does: After the war, premium cigarettes were prohibitively expensive. Then people smoked cheaper brands. And the most popular of the cheapest brands (and strongest nicotine and tar - 14mgs!) was Hi-Lite. Hi-Lite was by far the best bang for the buck. Hi-Lite's package design hasn't changed in years and is very uncool. It's so uncool that it today fits in well, design wise, with the retro boom happening in Japan.

If I were this guy, I'd be drinking Hoppy and smoking cigarettes too... Maybe things weren't so bad for "ojisan" after all...

Another thing that has found a return to popularity and success in Japan is the kid's drink Ramune. Ramune was one of Japan's first "soda-pop" drinks. When the british brought over lemonade before 1870's, the Japanese thought they were saying, not "Lemonade" but "Ra-mo-ne." Some enterprising Japanese businessmen then decided to make Ramune and it first went on sale in 1870. Over the years, there have even been wasabi and curry-taste tasting Ramune....

Today there's all sorts of flavors of Ramune that kids like. My son loves it.

Ramune has been around all these years, and always available at festivals and matsuri season in Japan, but only in the last 5 or 6 years or so, has Ramune really gotten popular again. You might recognize Ramune by the unique shape of the bottle and, when you open it, a glass marble drops down inside the bottle too (never could figure out the reason for that). Ramune is even being sold in restaurants and grocery stores nowadays. I even saw it in a convenience store the other day! 

Besides these three small examples, I see a resurgence of retro style and of people wanting things to get back to the way they were before. I see parents of small children wanting their kids to go do more traditional Japanese things and to enjoy the things those parents enjoyed when they were kids.


It was a time when things were simpler than now and life seemed just a little bit better.

Oh, how I wish we could get back to the way (some) things used to be: Friendlier neighborhoods, less crime, lower taxes, less stress... Maybe our grandparents did suffer through a lot, but I think they can also be envied for living something that us folks today only dream about.


What sorts of "getting back to better times" type of things do you see where you live? Let me know.

Asakusa Jinta is a band that relies heavily on retro sounds and images of the Showa period (1926 ~ 1989). This sort of concept would have died a quick death up until just a few years ago but is very popular today.

Thanks to marketing expert and promoter Asami Shishido

Winners, Losers, Sports, Kids, and Adult Children: Taking Lemons and Making Lemonade

A young and talented writer I know had entered a essay contest. The winners were to be awarded a cash prize, the sum of which was to be divided up amongst the top five contestants. My writer friend was hoping that he could win part of that cash to visit Japan and extend his studies.

LIke I said, he is a talented writer and, in spite of very heavy and fierce competition, he placed fifth amongst thousands of contestants. 


Well done!

He was thrilled. Well, thrilled, that is, of course, until after the winners were announced with a tiny minor detail change: Due to budget cuts, the top five winners wouldn't share the prize money, only the top two winners would share in the prize money. 

Naturally he was disappointed. The contest organizers had broken a promise.


My friend wrote to me about his disappointment and this is what I wrote back:

Dear Peter,

Fifth place is excellent and you have nothing to be sad about. Sure, the prize part of the deal didn't turn out as you were promised, but take that as a lesson in life too... Often times things do not turn out as expected.

It seems to me that we learn these lessons well when we are entering the transition world from school to supposedly gainful employment.

Let me tell you about my own experience that your story reminds me of. But first, some background....


When I was a child we were pretty poor. 

As a child in the sixties I lived with my mom and dad and two brothers. I don't know how my mom made do. My father was merely a low paid US marine sergeant, who was always away from home as the Vietnam War was in full swing. We didn't have much yet my mother was somehow able to always give us enough and, while we didn't feast like kings, we had enough to eat. 


Like I said, my father was rarely home so I was raised by dear old mom.


As I got older, I realized how clever my mother was. She was smart and adroit enough at finances to turn my father's meager salary into buying a house and flipping it over to a bigger house each time on three separate occasions.

Even to this day, I am amazed when I think about how well my mother was able to make do with a very limited amount of resources. Anyhow, as you can guess most of my very early formative years were spent being raised by my mom.


But I digress....

When I got older and graduated from school, I got a high paying job. I was so thankful for that and have always tried to remember where I came from and who I am. It is for this reason that I have always felt that I should "give back" to society. I wanted to help kids and especially those who didn't share time with their fathers.

I started coaching 8 year olds in basketball and soccer... Most of those kids came from broken homes and I wanted to help them have fun and do sports and not be such a dorky kid that couldn't do three push-ups like me.

If you've ever coached a kids sports team, then you'll know how really smelly the entire league operation can be. Basically, it seems to me that a bunch of dads get together and make the league. Then, they have "trials" whereby the dads who set the league up take the pick of the best and most athletic kids and start the league from there.

The non-athletic kids (mostly the ones who came from broken homes and didn't have a dad around to teach them how to throw or catch a ball like yours truly) were left off the teams. Then, the local city youth department would hunt down people to volunteer as coach. There was always a shortage of coaches so there were always a few hundred kids left off of teams with no chance to play.


Pretty pathetic when you stop to think about it, eh?

That also meant that people like me got the kids who were to be on a team that was a punching bag for the teams coached by the dads who had already taken the most athletic kids...

So much for teaching kids about "Sportsmanship."

If these parents really were interested in Sportsmanship and fair play, they make the team selection random and by drawing. Of course, their own child should be on dad's team... But the entire purpose and rationale of a city run youth sports department (that is funded with our taxes) is to allow all kids a chance to play. Not a select few.

Anyway, one year, I started coaching 8-year-olds in basketball with my best friend Jeff. Jeff and I were both in our early 20s. Most dads were in their 40s or 50s. Jeff and I had brothers and, through that life experience, we knew that to get good at sports, the best way to teach kids was to have them play with older, bigger, stronger and faster kids.

So we played basketball with them. Our kids, through this coaching style, got really good, really fast. We took a bunch of mediocre athletic kids and turned them into a powerhouse team. 

Halfway through the season, we played the best team. They were undefeated (and coached by a dad who started the league so they had all the best kids). We had already lost two games but when we played them, we defeated them by one point in a tough and tight battle.

We were ecstatic. The kids were exhausted. The league and other coaches were in disbelief.

Anyhow, in that basketball league, the rules at the start of the season were that the top 4 teams played off for the championships at the end of the season.  By some miracle our team finished 4th and was to only team to beat the #1 team in the league.

They had only suffered one defeat, from us. We were sure we could beat them again in the playoffs and pull off a championship.

It was not to be, though.

What did the dads running the league do? They changed the rules before the last game of regular season so that only the top 2 teams played off. We were pissed off. We were ripped off. They lied to us.

Of course the top team, the one we had beaten, went on to win the championship. Pretty sh*tty, eh?

Those kids were great players and they won the championship. But their fathers were a bunch of losers.

Many kids sports leagues are a similarly disgusting affair. They are a reflection of what's wrong with our society and many organizations, people and clubs.

Nevertheless, we were happy about the experience and, after the final game, we had a pizza party for the kids. 


There, one of the least athletic kids came up to me and he said, "Coach Mike. You are the best coach I have ever had and I will never ever forget you. Thank you."


It brought a tear to my eye. It still does.


So to my writer friend who has his victory taken away, to my kids that I coached and to you, dear reader, who has sometimes had what was promised taken away, let me say, 


Fear not! You have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of. Sometimes life hands you lemons... But the truly wonderful and successful people take those and make lemonade. Winners take these experiences and use them to improve.


With each effort, the victory is just one step closer. Keep on at it and your day will come just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.


For Peter Dyloco