Japan is Licca-fying. (Oh, stop. It's the name of a toy.)

The other day I was on the subway and noticed an ad for honeymoon packages from a travel agency. What I noticed wasn't the advertised product itself (I'm not quite on the market for a honeymoon) but rather the...

OK, so the ad had Licca dolls on it. Or, to be precise, a Licca doll and her...boyfriend (or husband?) doll, whatever his name is. [Disclosure: Actually, at first I thought it was a Jenny doll, because all these dolls look the same to me. And to be honest, I thought "Licca" (リカ) was spelled "Rika", but oh, how ignorant I am.]

And I was like...oh. OH. O. M. G. The young people of Japan are turning into Licca dolls!!!

It's true, folks—or, at least, in my eyes, it's true. The more I looked at the ad, the more I felt like I was seeing merely doll versions of countless couples and young women and men that I had seen walking around in cities of Japan. People with brown hair. Huge eyes. Pale skin. Super skinny limbs.

According to Wikipedia, Licca dolls were developed in the '60s by Takara, with Jenny dolls following suit in the '80s. They both have their backstories (and wardrobes full of pretty clothes), but you can probably imagine the kinds of gender ideologies that have been packed into them over the years.

And of course, since they were manufactured as Japanese versions of Barbie dolls, there's also a particular racial element to that ideology as well. And these have taken on additional layers with globalization and media marketing that spews out all sorts of funny beauty ideals for people all over the place.

I felt more than slightly disturbed. There's nothing wrong with these things, really—dyed hair, makeup that makes your eyes look like those of manga characters. I mean, I think it'd be cool if I could actually learn how to use eyeliner. But...it's also kind of creepy, this whole...looking more and more like a plastic doll thing.

No no, that's not quite what I mean. There's nothing wrong with these things, really—when in ISOLATION. Dyed hair: fine. Makeup techniques that yield astounding before/after photos: fine. Skincare regimens that make your skin look clear, bright, and "white": fine. Plastic surgery of all types: fine. (Well...hmm.) But when taken all together, something about it just unsettles me. But it's also so real. Whoa.

Oh, just listen to me. I sound like such a naysayer. ::sigh:: It's cool, people. Don't mind me. Please carry on looking like the happy plastic couple in the picture. I'll just sit over here in a corner being weirded out...


[But actually, all this thinking about Licca dolls and Jenny dolls has reminded me of my experience with Barbie dolls—or, just one doll, to be precise. I am now itching to tell that story. Maybe next Friday.]

How to Eat Breakfast

Call me racist, but I think Japanese people shouldn't sit on chairs to eat at tables.

OK OK, it's not so much that I think Japanese people shouldn't own dining sets, it's just that I find it disturbing when I see a furniture catalog in a Japanese 7-Eleven that features "Western" furniture that just screams, "Hi, I just came out of a dining room in a country on the other side of the globe!"

I mean, what are you going to eat when you sit at these tables in your little island nation, people? Are you going to sip Earl Grey and eat spotted dick, or are you going to have your rice with miso soup and maybe a side of salted cod roe? Please.

And why can't we eat stuff that's grown in our locality, or at least within close range, rather than importing things using gallons and gallons of gas?

(Even in the States I am confused by marketing phrases like "urban chic" and "elegant classic". How can my style be boiled down to adjective + adverb?)

Money Grows on Trees!

If you're looking for a way to earn money just by sitting there, look no further. Cash Grower can help you plan your finances, make investments, and grow your cash. You don't have to be a millionaire, and it's never too early or too late to start. You've got financial goals—let's talk about how you can achieve them.

Here's a brief background: Cash Grower is an online financial consultancy that offers advising on personal finance, investment, and retirement planning. Like Capital One 360 (an online baking service), we do away with the brick-and-mortar storefront to focus on providing you with prompt, online consulting.

Unlike our competitors, (like LearnVest, Plan & Act, and NestWise (which closed in September 2013)), we empower you to choose what kind of advising you need, and when. You don't have to tie yourself to a yearlong consulting package, and you can adjust the frequency of the advising to match your financial ups and downs. We have a clean, easy-to-use Website that offers tips and videos to help you learn more about growing your assets.

Our target customer segment includes people of all ages, with any level of net worth. We can assist you when you are starting out your new job, are managing a family, and are nearing retirement.

As an online financial consultancy, social media is key. We use LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google+ to connect with you. Don't worry, we won't bombard you with information. Our LinkedIn account connects you with other professionals interested in financial planning. Our Facebook page has you chatting with other "Cash Growers" so you can encourage each other to reach your goals. Our YouTube channel offers videos with experts on how to get into investing and more. Our Twitter feed alerts you when we post something new (or just read a cool news story). And our Google+ account lets you search for anything you thought you saw, but can't quite find because it's been a few weeks.

We've honed our SEO so that if you search for "online financial consulting" (or "personal finance" or "investment 101") we're sure to be among your top hits. Even though we don't have a storefront, we offer online troubleshooting in multiple languages—get this: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese! Being online means we're here to work with you on your goals anywhere, any time. (Well, within reason—we go on vacation once in a while; we've got to do something with all that cash we've grown.)

If Not Here, Where? How InsideTrack Innovates

The "MOOC Revolution" has been a long and quiet one. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman deemed it a good idea in a discussion of Andrew Ng's Coursera (#40 on Fast Company's list of 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2013) in his article "Come the Revolution" from May 2012. Of course, "online education" is nothing new—even when I was in college in the early 2000s, lectures were streamed and assignments submitted online, much to the delight of pajama-clad undergrads. So it's no surprise that companies like Coursera, Udacity, and EdX occupy the Top 3 positions for the 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2013 in the Education Industry. But what makes InsideTrack (#8 in Education Top 10) "innovative" is the company's aim itself: "motivating 350,000 students...to complete their education".

InsideTrack isn't a sexy company. You'll know that if you look at their homepage. Its use of social media tools isn't extensive, either—they have a blog (hosted on their own domain), a Twitter account, and a LinkedIn company page. (Their Twitter account follows 1,610 accounts, while only 735 accounts follow it in return.) So how does this 12-year-old company based in San Francisco manage to make it into the Top 10 in its industry in terms of innovation?

The answer is simple: The social media that it does use, it uses well—and appropriately for the goals of the company.

Their Twitter feed is comprised of links to articles related to education and professionalization. Its LinkedIn feed is pretty much the same. But InsideTrack isn't here to make friends with you or share cat photos online. Its goal is to get more people through college, so that they can have a college education under their belt. If the InsideTrack brand had a voice, it would be that of your supportive but stern guidance counselor. This, in fact, would be a case in point of a "boring" company benefiting from the use of social media by using it "well".

If you want a company that is innovative, have a goal and a vision and stick to them. InsideTrack offers one-on-one college counseling through its online platform to motivate students to finish their degrees and find employment. Not innovative enough for you? Try naming three people in your life who are actively engaged in doing that for you. Even with policies like the California DREAM Act, a college education is an unattainable goal for many, with a hefty price tag to boot—and the increase in the number of for-profit universities isn't making the situation any better, especially for student debt. MOOCs are great for making courses from elite universities accessible to more people around the world—and with projects like One Laptop Per Child, there is more value in that each day. Even without the $1,000 MBA, MOOCs and online courses offer flexibility to people with busy schedules or restrictions that make traditional universities inconvenient. But if your goal is to make a difference from the ground up, you might achieve more by getting coaches and counselors to listen to and talk with students, to help students achieve their goals—even if you don't set a up a Facebook page for your company.