Deserter is deserted - - Charles Jenkins' lawyer bugs out of Japan
Jenkins' lawyer leaves Japan
By Ryann Connell, Mainichi Daily News, Sept. 16, 2004
Capt. James Culp, defense lawyer of Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, will leave Japan to return to his home base in South Korea, U.S. military officials said Thursday.
Culp is going back to Seoul to handle other matters related to his responsibilities as an independent U.S. military counsel.
Maj. Martha Brooks said Culp's return to his base post had nothing to do with the Jenkins case.....
enkins is accused of four charges -- desertion, solicitation, <> unlawful separation and aiding the enemy...

Posted by trek/taro at 2:10 PM KDT
Updated: Thursday, September 16, 2004 2:11 PM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post

Hello Kitty is finally worth something in Japan

Wed Sep 15,12:55 AM ET / AP News
A set of coins commemorating the 30th anniversary of Hello Kitty is unveiled by Japan Mint .... A total of 200,000 sets of six coins valued between 1 yen (0.9 cents) and 500 yen (US$4.6) with a copper medal featuring the kitten's face packed in the Hello Kitty-shaped plastic case will be sold at 2,300 yen (US$21) from Wednesday, Sept. 15 by mail order.

Stop gRobal warming (Japan is getting mo' hot)
Global warming projected to cause more rain, flooding in Japan

Japan Today / Sept 15
TOKYO -- A Japanese team of researchers has found that continued global warming is expected to increase the rainfall in Japan ... the situation will heighten the risks of torrential downpours and flooding in various parts of the archipelago."

The gaijin/gaijin complex
Topic: Me
Q: Why approximately 50% of you gaijins out there are inclined to give a head nod when passing a fellow foreigner and the other half make a bold and obvious attempt to NOT make eye contact.

A: Ahhhh, the "gaijin/gaijin complex" has been that way since the days Lafcadio Hearn. Basically, the presence of another gaijin on your turf "ruins" the special-unique power a gaijin gets from surviving and thriving in Japan.

The archetypical of this attitude was the original henna gaijin, Lafcadio Hearn, who went to great efforts to ignore other foriegners, wear kimono and act more Japanese than the Japanese to make up for his own inadequacies.

So when you are passing a fellow foreigner who makes a bold and obvious attempt to NOT make eye contact, be aware that it just because you represent a threat to their ?special? Japanese experience.

Me? After more than 20 years here, I literally say ?HOWDY? to everybody.
And if dat don?t it freak ?em out... I give ?em my laser-like Taro smile that?s known to kill anal-retentive salarymen at 50 yards and force obatarian to give me their seat on the train.

130cm, 63kg, NAKED, Japanese elevator girl
Fujitsu units develop human-assisting robots
japantoday > technology Monday, September 13, 2004 at 17:56 JST
TOKYO -- .... humanoid robots able to guide people or transport things. ....on sale for 2 million yen each around next June.
Each robot is 1.3 meters tall, weighs 63 kilograms and can move to its destination with the help of eight cameras in its head and a newly developed high-speed three-dimensional image processing system...
.....The robot can get on an elevator and press elevator buttons by itself. ....

1000s in Tokyo rally to CELEBRATE 9.11 terror attacks!



11 Sep 2004 12:00 AM
AFP/Getty Images -- TOKYO, JAPAN: A Japanese civic group member carries a placard ... during a rally to commemorate 9.11 terrorists' attacks in the US three years ago 11 September 2004 at downtown Tokyo. Thousands people staged ....

As much as I hate bonehead Bush, I think it's a bit over the top to hold a rally to celebrate the 9.11 terrorists' attacks. Maybe somebody might wanna parade HAPPY on Hiroshima Day too? >

Krazy Korean Kabooooom!

Nice, cheery news.....
Banquet Given on DPRK Birthday
Pyongyang, September 10 (KCNA) -- The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) government arranged a banquet at the People's Palace of Culture Thursday evening in celebration of the 56th anniversary of the DPRK. Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, said at the banquet that President Kim Il Sung founded the DPRK on the basis of the tradition of building people's power established in the crucible of the anti-Japanese revolution under the banner of the Juche idea....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N Korea denies explosion had nuclear links
(The Telegraph, UK 12/Sept/2004)
...The latest blast took place in Kimhyungjik county near the Chinese border on Thursday last week, when North Korea marked the 56th anniversary of its founding.

Charles "Dumbo" Jenkins

Kabuki Combat Boot (riiiight, sure, like they wear boots in kabuki)
Kabuku, a line of kabuki-inspired boots from American outdoor footwear maker Timberland.

Traditions mingle underfoot
Designer draws inspiration from kabuki motifs
The Japan Times: Sept. 10, 2004]
The fashion world's recent craze for Japonisme -- manifested in a veritable tsunami of kimono-inspired looks on the catwalks of Paris and Milan -- may have come and gone, but designs based on traditional Japanese arts seem to be finding steady footing in the worldwide ....
....The word "kabuku" meant "to be odd or different" and was used for stage plays in which men wore women's makeup and clothes....

LICK ME!
Topic: Me
Now available in the U.S.A.----stamps with your own photo on it.
http://photo.stamps.com/
My X-mas cards are now ready....

Japan's suicide rate is the highest among advanced nations

Japan's suicide rate climbs to 10th highest in world
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Sept. 9, 2004)
...the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown. Excluding the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, Japan's rate of suicides per 100,000 people is the highest among advanced nations.
...Lithuania as having the highest number of suicides -- 44.7 per 100,000, based on 2002 figures, followed by the Russian Federation with a rate of 38.7 in 2002.
Japan had a suicide rate of 24.1 per 100,000 people (35.2 men and 13.4 women), raking 10th highest in the world. Figures for other countries included 10.4 in the United States for the year 2000 and 7.5 for the United Kingdom in 1999.
Commenting on Japan's suicide rate, the WHO's Mental Health division cited harsh economic conditions as a probable factor.
"Sufficient analysis has not been carried out, but work stress resulting from the recession seems to be a major reason for the increase," a division official said. "Just as Japan has a culture of 'hara-kiri,' there are probably also cultural grounds in which suicide it tolerated."

'Camp Sloth' for Japanese 20-nothing slackers
Young, disinclined to work? 'Camp' awaits
The Japan Times / Friday, September 10, 2004
They will stay for three months, keeping to a strict daily regimen, eating together and learning about self-discipline, work ethics and job-hunting.
Welcome to boot camp for the young and out-of-work.
It's the latest idea from the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry to keep the nation's jobless twentysomethings busy and off the state dole. Under a proposed plan, the government would spend up to 20 billion yen next year on sending the first 2,000 candidates for training at some 40 designated camps.
____________
モ?ベッタ... "

Posted by trek/taro at 12:57 PM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post

'Camp Sloth' for Japanese 20-nothing slackers
Young, disinclined to work? 'Camp' awaits
The Japan Times / Friday, September 10, 2004
They will stay for three months, keeping to a strict daily regimen, eating together and learning about self-discipline, work ethics and job-hunting.
Welcome to boot camp for the young and out-of-work.
It's the latest idea from the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry to keep the nation's jobless twentysomethings busy and off the state dole. Under a proposed plan, the government would spend up to 20 billion yen next year on sending the first 2,000 candidates for training at some 40 designated camps.____________
モ?ベッタ... "

Posted by trek/taro at 12:55 PM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post

NPR and Dr Andrei Codrescu should know better
Civilization is a Warm, Furry Pet
National Public Radio [USA] / All Things Considered audio
Sept. 9, 2004
Commentator Andrei Codrescu's girlfriend wants to play with small animals to relieve stress. They find a place to do so. He encourages more such places, as a way to keep us civilized. Andrei Codrescu CLAIMS that he has invented a entirely "new" business, RENT-a-PET(tm), and offers franchises.
See the old FG Forum thread: Rent-a-dog Odaiba
Also see NekkoTama, "cathouse" that's been in business for more the five years and the Dog's Town [sic] looking for franchisees.

Posted by trek/taro at 10:29 AM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post

Japanese A-bomb making devices found in Libya
Via Charko's weblog
Restricted Japanese devices found in Libya nuclear facility
The Japan Times (September 9, 2004) :
The government is investigating the discovery of restricted Japanese precision instruments in a nuclear facility in Libya... The International Atomic Energy Agency found the instruments, which can be exported only under strict control, during inspections between December and March ...
The instruments are typically used to precisely measure the size and three-dimensional shape of machinery parts. It is made by a manufacturer based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture...
_________________
モ?ベッタ... just part of the FG Forum

Posted by trek/taro at 2:02 PM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (3) | Permalink | Share This Post

The only true Americans are Australian-Japanese!
Did first Americans come from ... Australia?
MSNBC -- 9:59 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2004
EXETER, England -

....The claim will be extremely unwelcome to today?s native Americans, who came overland from Siberia and say they were there first.

But Silvia Gonzalez from John Moores University in Liverpool said that skeletal evidence pointed strongly to this unpalatable truth and hinted that recovered DNA would corroborate it.

?This is very contentious,? Gonzalez, a Mexican, said with a smile at the annual meeting of the British association for the Advancement of Science. ?They (native Americans) cannot claim to have been the first people there.?... there was very strong evidence that the first migration came fromAustralia via Japan and Polynesia and down the Pacific Coast of America. ...

Finding your inner turtlehead
thethisisabadidea blog

Find your inner turtle head

"
....learning about turtle heads and the difference between the Cantonese package stalk and false package stalk."

Zippy the Pinhead "does" Taiwan after Japan

The world according to Zippy
The Taipei Times / Monday, Sep 06, 2004, Page 16
.... Griffith has placed Zippy and Griffy in a few strips that took place in Japan, with lots of funny English terms and phrases that the Japanese use on T-shirts, product names and store signs. When asked if Zippy might visit Taiwan again for future strips, Griffith said, "It's true, the Japanese interest in the English language is very Zippyesque. Strangely poetic."
"Zippy did go to Taiwan recently -- it was in the strip from Feb. 18, 2004, titled "Ollie Ollie Oxen Free," and the animal statues in the four panels were inspired by photographs from Taiwan that an expat there named Aaron Spinak sent to me. "The photos were from a lawn sculpture store in Pingtung. "
--See Zippy other visits to Japan at the following:
zippythepinhead.com A roadside tour
zippythepinhead.com Nov-03
zippythepinhead.com 12-Feb-94
zippythepinhead.com 14-Oct-03

Sony executive loses slavery suit
Maid who won suit against Sony executive decries slavery
Associated Press --- 3:33 pm PDT Friday, September 3, 2004
LOS ANGELES - A Filipino woman who won $825,000 in a lawsuit claiming a Hollywood executive and his wife enslaved her said the case should be a warning to others.

Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine sumo sullied strange student alien!
Tokyo's ultra-right Yasukuni Shrine sumo seems to have been defiled by a strange foreign student!Getty Images, TOKYO - SEPTEMBER 4: Japanese student sumo wrestlers fight during Japan's university sumo cup at Yasukuni Shrine...