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Fun / foon Tokyo
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Tokyo's dread "Prole Gap"
Ok, off-the-rack jackets and suits tend to "gap" around the back of the collar....
.... I present to you all the dread Tokyo Prole Gap....

Click here to enlarge
GettyImages.com / Aug 12
TOKYO, JAPAN: Universal Studios Japan new President Glenn Gumpel (L) and Doc Brown look alike give thumb-ups in front of the Derorean car for the promotion of an attraction "Buck To The Future The Ride" of the Universal Studios Japan (USJ) 11 August 2004 at a Tokyo department store....

Posted by trek/taro at 4:33 PM KDT
Updated: Thursday, August 12, 2004 4:35 PM KDT
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The Japanese Post Office now sells condoms
Convenience store opens at Japan Post branch

(Kyodo) Aug 12
SAPPORO, Japan - - Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta shops Aug. 5 at a convenience store which opened the same day at Japan Post's Hokkaido branch in Sapporo.

Posted by trek/taro at 4:05 PM KDT
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Rock 'em Sock'em Robots 2004
Topic: Japanese Tech
Kickboxing match for walking robots
Weds. Aug 11
--This year's winner robot 2325-RV, left, developed by the Humanoid Project from Kyushu University, bangs on its opponent HAJIME ROBOT, developed by Hajime Sakamoto, with both arms during the semifinal match of the Sixth Robot-One Contest in Kawasaki...

Posted by trek/taro at 3:34 PM KDT
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Japanese troops in Iraq cease to exist without beer, porn & pork ramen

Japanese cannot send items violating Islamic law to GSDF in Iraq
Kyodo / Wednesday August 11, 11:09 AM
Families of Japanese troops deployed in Iraq are having a hard time picking things to send to their loved ones because they cannot send items that violate Islamic law, such as alcohol, magazines with photos of women in swimsuits, and even instant noodles with pork-based ingredients....
As alcohol and pork are banned under Islamic law, even instant noodles containing pork-based ingredients are forbidden, according to the manual obtained by Kyodo News.

Posted by trek/taro at 5:09 PM KDT
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
"Smiling faces of Afganistan" (Japan missing)
I just got this from the Japan rep of the UNICEF in Afganistan. Let's see there's Russia, Korea, Turkey but wait...no Japan, Hmmm. Japan pays zilions of yen for Afganistan but doesn't even get on the T-shirt.

Posted by trek/taro at 9:06 PM KDT
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Zillion defects found Japanese missile prototype
Oh, whatta joke. This Pongi missile system has been disfunctional for years now, sheesh.

Surface-to-Air Pongi!--->

12 defects found in MHI surface-to-ship missile prototype system

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 at 02:02 JST
TOKYO Kyodo-
A total of 12 defects such as design problems were found during tests of a surface-to-ship prototype missile system developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd...

Posted by trek/taro at 10:17 AM KDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 10:21 AM KDT
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Monday, August 9, 2004
Japan welcomes the Raelian Overlords!

Raelian movement founder Claude Vorilhon; TOKYO, JAPAN
AFP Aug 5 Raelian movement founder Claude Vorilhon, also known as Rael, and Brigitte Boisselier, head of the sect firm Cloneaid listen to questions during a press conference in Tokyo, 05 August 2004....Thursday they had dozens of cloned fetuses as the group expands its cloning services.
See also:
The Aliens Look Japanese according to Raelian Prophet
Dead baby cloned?
I have met him at his Tokyo Dome Crusade in 1991!
He's not as much fun as his UFO posters.
イベント:  No Sex Strike!
日程:    7月25日 &  9月12日

Posted by trek/taro at 10:53 PM KDT
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Saturday, August 7, 2004
In a fit of wild inspiration, Shiki Theater does 'Cats'...again
Musical ''Cats'' to be restaged in Tokyo
TOKYO, Aug. 6, Kyodo - Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical ''Cats,'' which became a sensation across Japan when performed by theatrical troupe Shiki (Four Seasons) Theater Company, will be restaged in Tokyo in November for the first time in eight years and the fourth time in the capital since its first Japanese performance in 1983.
The celebrated musical, based on British poet T.S. Eliot's ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats,'' has been staged 5,745 times in Japan, making it the country's longest-running musical. ..

Posted by trek/taro at 8:09 PM KDT
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Wanna eat at the "Tough Sushi Restaurant"???
In Japanese Katakana this sushi restaurant's name is the English word "Tough". Huh?

Posted by trek/taro at 6:40 PM KDT
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Let's BAKA Bomb happy Aug 15th!
Ohka rocket-bomb (aka the "BAKA Bomb") sits inside a bunker in Ibaraki Prefecture. Note the cherry blossom emblem on the fuselage.


ONE-WAY TRIP: They fell to Earth aboard `cherry blossom' rockets
Aug 7, Asahi Shimbun News
...Come Aug. 15, the nation will again look back to the close of World War II, 59 years ago. Crowds of reporters and curiosity seekers will again gather at controversial Yasukuni Shrine-the nation's central shrine to the war dead-to see which politico will turn up and to snap photographs of the dwindling number of veterans who come every year to march in their old uniforms.
How many of them, however, will visit Ohka (Cherry Blossom) Park, set at the edge of the immense Sumitomo Metals foundry complex near Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture, and a shrine in its own right?
There, a small granite altar stands in front of a crumbling air raid bunker, inside of which, beyond a wire fence, sits a replica of an MXY7 Ohka 11 rocket-bomb.
Cherry blossoms seem a ready-made symbol of the brief glory of youth, so it's no surprise that such a poetic name was given to this most desperate of weapons.
Looking like a spaceship, but actually little more than a torpedo with wings, the Ohka was meant to be slung under a bomber and dropped near its target. Only then would its pilot, a young man with a few weeks training, switch on its rocket and guide the craft to its end-a blossom of fire, mangled metal and flesh....more...

Posted by trek/taro at 2:08 PM KDT
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Thursday, August 5, 2004
Microsoft Japan's weblog service will suck

I've had a Japanese blog for some time now and I'm underwhealmed by the service's xenophobic ban on plain ASCII characters (JIS only).
Microsoft will do it wrong in the Japan--- they ALWAYS do till version 3. If you want a Japanese Blog check out what Gen Kanai's blog:

Compare Japanese blog services

July 02, 2004
IT Media has an interesting comparison of the over 26 different blog services in Japan. A year ago, I'm not sure any of these would have been on the list. ...

Posted by trek/taro at 9:23 AM KDT
Updated: Thursday, August 5, 2004 9:23 AM KDT
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Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Japanese Moxie (not)
Hot shit!
Japanese  Moxie Japanese  Moxie Japanese  Moxie

Via gettyimages.com, Aug 2--KAWAGOE, JAPAN: Elderly women burn moxa (dried medicinal herbs) atop an unglazed plate on her head in order to improve her health, at the Myoshin-ji Temple in Kawagoe, suburban Tokyo...on the hottest day of summer (doyo-no-ushi-no-hi) on the traditional Japanese calender

Posted by trek/taro at 7:01 PM KDT
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Give me that Ol' Time Shinto Religion
crazy shrine
Education minister stresses need to cultivate religious sentiment


Japan Today--- Aug 03
Education minister Takeo Kawamura on Monday stressed the need to cultivate 'religious sentiment' in moral education.

Posted by trek/taro at 6:58 PM KDT
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Japan Post employees cannot count higher than 10million?
Japan Post has 790,000 customers `over the limit'
The Asahi Shimbun / IHT/Asahi: August 2, 2004
The state-run agency is failing to comply with a 10-million cap on postal savings.
Japan Post is in the spotlight after a government inspection revealed that nearly 800,000 account holders in fiscal 2003 had deposits exceeding the 10-million-yen cap imposed on postal savings.
Sources said the inspection, the first conducted by the government's Financial Services Agency, found that the 790,000 account holders had a combined 2.1 trillion yen in excess, or nearly 1 percent of the 226 trillion yen in postal savings.

------


COMMENT: If the account says 10-million yen, it can't be added to: How can they "fail to comply"? Oh, oh, could it be that there's no income taxes on Postal Savings and politicians use it to "hide" income? Nah, that would be stupid way to handle bribes.

Posted by trek/taro at 11:05 AM KDT
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Monday, August 2, 2004
Learning to Bow to

Posted by trek/taro at 6:52 PM KDT
Updated: Monday, August 2, 2004 6:55 PM KDT
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Japanese teachers trained to stand
Rebel teachers forced to get training to stand up for national anthem
Monday, August 2, 2004 at 14:18 JST / Japan Today
TOKYO --

The Tokyo metropolitan board of education started a mandatory training program on Monday for teachers ... failing to stand up and sing Japan's national anthem, "Kimigayo," during school ceremonies.


Posted by trek/taro at 4:33 PM KDT
Updated: Monday, August 2, 2004 4:42 PM KDT
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A record: 628 people hospitalized in Tokyo in July due to heat
Here's further proof that Japan is not fit for living.
Record-high 628 people hospitalized in Tokyo in July due to heat
Japan Today / August 2
A record-high 628 people suffering heat exhaustion and heatstroke were taken to hospital by ambulance in July in Tokyo amid the heat wave, the Tokyo Fire Department said Sunday. Tokyo has been hit by a heat wave this season, with the mercury hitting an all-time high for the capital at 39.5 C on July 20...


Posted by trek/taro at 4:02 PM KDT
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Japan cops commemorative!
Via the French site of "cakos"...

JAPAN POST's commemorative issue reads: "Current Japanese Police Regulations were inacted on July 1st 1954, and this year is the 50th anniversaries. It protected right of the individual and freedom and for public safety and order maintenance, it guaranteed the management and management of the police who is based on democratic idea, the unit of police management in the metropolis and districts unification, efficiently accomplishing duty it was enforced in purpose."

Posted by trek/taro at 9:37 AM KDT
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Sunday, August 1, 2004
Red Panties and Pink Salt
I was out shopping yesterday and ran into two Japanesque oddies at ODAKYU Department Store:
1. "Tradition dictates that it brings good luck to wear red all year long during your birth year .... many in the Year of the Monkey prefer red underwear because "some monkeys have red butts too." See alss akapantsu, or red underwear for luck
2. Pink Rock Salt, blessed by pink monks.
VS

Posted by trek/taro at 7:39 PM KDT
Updated: Sunday, August 1, 2004 7:44 PM KDT
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Friday, July 30, 2004
It's official: Japan's Princess Masako is crazy

Japan's Imperial Palace Says Princess Ill
Guardian, UK - 30 July
TOKYO (AP) -
Crown Princess Masako, out of the public spotlight for months, has been diagnosed with adjustment disorder. ...generally defined as a psychological problem caused by a major life change. An Imperal Household Agency official declined to comment.

Posted by trek/taro at 7:53 PM KDT
Updated: Friday, July 30, 2004 10:39 PM KDT
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