The Japanese are more interested in iTunes than in ring-tones, ramen rather than sushi, the economy more than sex, and dogs win out over cats (but only just). That's what Google Trends, the keyword-tracking tool launched in Japan last month, would have us believe.

Google Trends measures the frequency keywords are entered into the popular Internet search engine. Available in English for a couple of years now, it has just been made compatible with the Japanese language. Dedicated to tracking the quirks and shifting tides of Japanese public opinion, Week 3 wasted no time in putting it to the test.

We started with something close to the heart: "beer" — biru in the vernacular. Google Trends displays as a graph the relative popularity of the term in searches made from 2004 to the present. Japan-residents will know how closely the beverage is associated with summer here, and, sure enough, the graph indicates a near doubling of beer searches during the warmer months.