I wanted to wait until I confirmed a few things before I posted this, but now that I have my evidence, here goes. I’ve noticed a few people around the Web are receiving their orders from the Slusho Store (mine was shipped yesterday from Columbia, SC). Several people are claiming their shirts and hats are being shipped with Japanese newspapers. Jordan and Dennis, fellow 1-18-08 Bloggers, have both posted about their mysterious papers. I recruited my Best Man (he's had a few Japanese classes) to help me translate some of the pages that have been posted online. Here’s what he had to say in an e-mail.
Well, I don't know nearly enough of the 2,000 Kanji required to read a Japanese newspaper, but from what I can tell, it checks out as an actual paper. The date lines up as a paper that would be pulled to be used as packing material, and the stories seem pretty run-of-the-mill. I checked out the Japan Airlines story, and it's a valid story so I assume the rest are too. Here's a link to an entry on another site about the JAL Happiness thing:
http://www.shallwetravel.com/news/2007/07
Notice it is originally in Japanese, but has been translated.
Anyway, I’d say it's not a part of the marketing ploy. 8-) I had one of the developers look at it too (he lived in Japan for a coupla years).
-Kyser-
Also, “Christian,” has commented at Cloverfield Clues that the newspaper Dennis submitted is an actual paper called the Nikkan San, from Hawaii. Check it out here.
So, it appears that this is not really a part of the marketing strategy, other than to tie in Japanese newspapers with the supposed Japanese product, Slusho. Surely, JJ and his team would realize how rabid his fans are, and that we'd figure out the source of these papers. So, a fake Japanese company sends shipments of goods from South Carolina packed in a Hawaiian Japanese-language newspaper...
Why? What's the significance? I don't know. The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back! It's like you're unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting...
