?Mira Gino? minicar designed for mini-crashes by miniskirted drivers
align="left">Daihatsu launches Mira Gino minivehicle
The Japan Times Online---....The Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary said the Mira Gino is targeted at female baby boomers as well as their daughters. The model, first introduced in March 1999, is now geared toward nostalgic and modern tastes with its curved exterior design, the firm said..
It is the first minivehicle to meet safety standards set by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry aimed at minimizing injuries to pedestrians hit by vehicles...

Great for Japan: Preserving an umbilical cord in acrylic resin to make a personal ?hanko? seal
Golden umbilical cords to keep birth memories
IoI, 01 Dec
....Parents can preserve their child's umbilical cord in acrylic resin to make a personal seal or even have it gold-plated. In this Confucian society where family values are highly prized, suppliers also offer services for parents to have traditional Korean calligraphy brushes made from their child's hair....
... Agamo, which makes calligraphy brushes from human hair and preserves umbilical cords in personal seals, hopes to branch out to Japan. "We got the idea from mothers just storing umbilical cords and navels in an album or what-not," said Agamo's Suk Tae-jino....

Fugitive ex-president and fake Japanese citizen, Fujimori wins Peruvian poll
Peru's ex-president Fujimori leads in poll
LIMA, Peru (AP) --- He may be a fugitive with nearly two dozen criminal charges facing him, but former President Alberto Fujimori is still Peru's most popular politician, according to a survey released Tuesday.....Fujimori, who is fighting extradition from Japan, hopes to make a political comeback despite his fugitive status on nearly 20 criminal charges against him, ranging from embezzlement to authorizing death squads....

KARATE, KID! The Musical
"KARATE, KID! The Musical is an outrageous and unconventional riff on the beloved ?80s film. Under the manicured guiding hand of a mystical
maintenance man, Daniel-San Larusso wages war against pill-popping, white trash deviants; well-styled, bloodthirsty karate students; rampaging hormones and many more ?unsavory things.?

"Sasara" snow train in Sapporo in Japan's northernmost prefecture

NHK WORLD DAILY NEWS---Snowplow train begins operating in Sapporo
In Sapporo in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaidoa, snowplow streetcar equipped with bamboo brushes began work on Monday to clear the city tram's tracks.
The snowplow has 30-centimeter long bamboo brushes called "Sasara." They are mounted on both ends of the car and rotate 250 times a minute to remove the snow on the lines.....
--->See video

"Ho, ho, ho!" Retarded Japanese "Kurisumasu" news
Retarded Japanese Kurisumasu news

NHK WORLD DAILY NEWS, Nov 30
A huge floating Christmas tree is attracting visitors to a historic warehouse area in the northern Japanese port city of Hakodate....After being decorated with 36,000 miniature bulbs at Hakodate port, the tree was loaded onto a transport vessel by crane on Monday. It was taken to a seaside tourist spot lined with red-brick warehouses....

Condom sales shrivel in Japan
Condom sales shrivel as Japan logs onto cyber porn HindustanTimes.com / 30 Nov. 2004
....as a passion for the Internet leads the Japanese to choose unprotected sex, if any sex at all, the nation's largest condom manufacturer said ahead of World Aids Day on Wednesday.
Domestic shipments have shriveled 43 percent from the peak in 1980 of 737 million to just 419 million condoms in 2003 ....more....

Japanese "Soapland" is good for the heart
Reuters Health- Regular saunas may improve blood flow to the heart and prevent heart disease, according to Japanese researchers.
The benefits of repeated sauna therapy are similar to those of exercise, lead author Dr. Chuwa Tei of Kagoshima University in Japan, told Reuters Health. But saunas have an advantage, he added, because they can be used to treat people who have trouble walking and they do not overload the heart.

Japanese "brain cloud"
"brain cloud"

The Wichita Eagle / Tue, Nov. 30, 2004
D.J. Johnson was 34 when the numbness began, intermittently at first....Then, in May 2001, his fingers went numb and stayed numb... Johnson, now 38, got lucky.
The image showed that his right internal carotid artery was small and got progressively narrower, ending in what looked like a cloud or puff of smoke.
Richard Berger, chief of interventional neuroradiology at Wesley, had seen that puff of smoke before, as part of his fellowship at Mayo Clinic, and knew that it was an indication of moyamoya disease.
Moyamoya is a rare, progressive disorder that affects about 1 in 2 million people in the United States. It was first described in the 1960s in Japan, where it affects about 1 in 1 million people.
Moyamoya means puff of smoke or cloud of smoke and describes the appearance of the tiny, fragile blood vessels that the body forms in an effort to continue supplying blood to the brain....

J is for Japan
class="quote">Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
PDF file

J is for Japan and U is for U.N. are the best pages.

Sesame Street's Bob the music teacher: ex-expat of Japan

J is for Japan

Before he joined 'Sesame Street,' Bob McGrath -- who plays Bob the music teacher -- was a teen singing idol in Japan, where he had more than 30 hit singles and performed before sold-out crowds.
See Bob info and Bob's website

Godzilla Stomps the Hollywood Walk of Fame
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=6947661Entertainment News Article | Reuters.com

Dancing Satyr to expose himself in Tokyo for the 1st time!
Dancing Satyr to go on display at Tokyo National Museum in '05
Nov 28
The Dancing Satyr, a bronze statue miraculously retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily, Italy, in 1998 after lying on the seabed for about 2,000 years, will be put on display at the Tokyo National Museum in Taito Ward from Feb. 19 to March 13.
The statue's wavy hair, faraway look and body brimming with vigor have the power to overwhelm its viewers.
The statue will also be on display during the 2005 Aichi World Exposition...

Fake translations for fake Japanese laws

EDITORIAL
Found in translation
The translation of laws and ordinances into foreign languages would facilitate international business and promote investment by foreign companies. It would also help support the establishment of legal systems in developing countries, especially those in Asia, introduce and increase knowledge of Japanese legislation in other countries, and familiarize foreign residents with life in Japan.
At present, only a few translations of official legislation are posted at the Web sites of individual government offices, such as the English version of the Constitution by the Prime Minister's Office, the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law by the Ministry of Justice....

The so-called "translations" of the Japanese immigration laws are famous for the total LACK of any detail. It is 101% immpossible to take a Japanese immigration law, point to a detail and demand redress. The immigration law is only 25 or so pages but the secret adminstrative guidelines run tens of thousands of pages. ---Taro

Who watches the watching of the watched in Japan?
THE SPYING GAME
WATCHING THE DETECTIVES
Nov 28---The Japan Times----
"Friday and Saturday nights are my busiest times," says the 38-year-old, who is one among the rapidly rising numbers of private investigators in a country experiencing an upsurge in divorce, crime and missing persons.... job as a private investigator specializing in uwaki (extramarital affairs) for one of Tokyo's fastest-growing detective agencies is straightforward: Catch his targets on video walking into one of these hotels with someone on their arm, and present the results to a waiting partner.

"Sharving eyebrows" Japan's severe social problem in high school

High school baseball players told to stop shaving eyebrows
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Nov. 28, 2004---The Japan High School Baseball Federation has taken the unusual step of
telling schools to tighten up against players who have had their
eyebrows shaved or those wearing shabby clothes.....The latest trend
among schoolboys to shave their eyebrows has already created a stir
among education officials who are outraged over the fashion.....
_____________

GUTS! (Japanese "guts pose")
In Japanese, the engrish term "GUTS!" (ガッツ) and striking a "guts pose" (ガッツポーズ) for a photo have a special and deep meaning, hee , hee.

Check out Mr Guts! Make you own "guts pose."Make you own "guts pose."

Swallowing a roll of toilet paper, murderer remains quiet

Man arrested over murders fails in tissue suicide bid

OMUTA, Fukuoka -- A man under arrest in connection with the murder of four here had attempted to kill himself by swallowing a massive amount tissue paper in a detention cell at a local police station, prefectural police said.
Following the incident, he was rushed to hospital where he refused to be treated. He has since kept silent about why he swallowed paper.

Two thousand fans in one Tokyo high school gym
About 200,000 similarly-designed clay figures are on display on the floor of a Tokyo high school gym during an exhibition titled 'Asian Field' by British sculptor Antony Gormley, Saturday, Nov. 27, 2004 / AP Photo, via fiiker photostream

Another concrete example of Tokyo life
Topic: Concrete Japan