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Fun / foon Tokyo
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Crime/trauma scene cleanup job is better than teaching English in Japan
Oh, gross: A job I couldn't bear
Dallas Morning News (vile "free" subscription required), TX -
09:18 PM CDT on Monday, August 16, 2004

Michael Tillman's students have to be tough. During a class last week, the group shouldered in close for a sober view of training exhibit A, a beat-up mattress soaked to the springs with partially congealed blood and studded with flecks of tissue and bone. They listened earnestly as the lecture commenced. I edged toward the door and fought a powerful urge to vomit.
It wasn't the worst the students would see and smell that day – they had yet to cover "decomp," Mr. Tillman's brisk shorthand for the natural effluvia produced by a corpse in the later stages of decay --- and they were paying $1,400 apiece for the privilege....
One woman who said she has an undergraduate degree in literature from Texas A&M told me that she spent the last five years in Japan teaching English. She wants a career change, and she figures that decontaminating trauma scenes is a valuable service.
"Someone has to do it," she said matter-of-factly. "If you think you can handle it, you can help people who can't."
read the full text here....

Posted by trek/taro at 2:13 PM KDT
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Monday, August 16, 2004
Tokyo Gov Ishihara works to increase the number of call-girls

Tokyo governor gets hard on world's oldest professionals
Mainichi.co.jp, WaiWai, by Ryann Connell
August 15, 2004 - -

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's battle to drive sex businesses from the capital may well be appearing to work on the surface, but is in reality making the flesh trade sleazier and dirtier by driving it underground, according to Spa! (8/10-17).
Ishihara's clean-up campaign that really kicked in from July has already started wiping out erotic massage parlors and imekura, or "image clubs," establishments where customers can ask to be serviced by workers clad in selected outfits such as schoolgirl uniforms or maid's dresses.
Popping up to take their place, however, are the seedier varieties of call-girl businesses, which only need to register with the national government above Ishihara to be permitted to operate.
"I suppose the government is aiming for increased tax revenue by having a greater number of call-girl operations registering with it. But, sex businesses operating without a storefront can easily do things on the sly and I fear the sex business is going to be driven underground like it was in the past," adult entertainment industry writer Namedaruma Shimamoto tells Spa! "....

Posted by trek/taro at 3:06 PM KDT
Updated: Monday, August 16, 2004 3:09 PM KDT
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No wait. Bobby Fischer isn't a German Jew, he's Filippino.

Fischer said to have Filipino family; RP asylum sought
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug 16
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines -- Filipino chess grandmaster Eugene Torre has asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to grant American grandmaster Bobby Fischer asylum in the Philippines, saying that Fischer had a family here.
"I spoke to (First Gentleman Jose Miguel) Arroyo and I asked him to raise the possibility of Bobby's asylum here. There is a good reason. He has a wife and child here. He wanted them out of the limelight because he was afraid the US might try to get to him through his (Filipino) family ...

Posted by trek/taro at 2:39 PM KDT
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Sunday, August 15, 2004
Let's Loser Day! 3 ministers visit Yasukuni
<---poster in front of Yasukuni

3 ministers visit Yasukuni Shrine
Japan Today, Aug 14
TOKYO---Three members of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Sunday to mark the 59th anniversary of the end of World War II ...


Posted by trek/taro at 2:14 PM KDT
Updated: Sunday, August 15, 2004 2:16 PM KDT
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Saturday, August 14, 2004
Boobies! Bull! Bjorked!

Boobies!


BULL!


Bjorked!


Posted by trek/taro at 10:47 AM KDT
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Friday, August 13, 2004
Blogging's prior art: the "the BLOGG"
SF author Rudy Rucker's is running a guest column on BoingBoing and has uncovered the orgin of "Blogging"... Dr. Seuss!

Dr. Seuss's The Shape of Things...-presents the silhouettes of various things: "A bug, a balloon, a bed, a bike/No shapes are ever quite alike." Among all these familiar items and animals, exactly one nonsensical creature is depicted and described:
Suppose you were shaped like these or those,
Or shaped like a BLOGG!
Or a garden hose ....

Posted by trek/taro at 8:55 PM KDT
Updated: Friday, August 13, 2004 8:57 PM KDT
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Cheerleader Ninjas for the Japan's Olympic hopes
Cheerleaders and Computer Geeks Battle Catholic Schoolgirls to Save the World from Global Internet Zombie Domination! --- the film classic--"Cheerleader NinjasZ"

Caption via GettyImages.com: Members of Japanese cheer team perform during a promotional show...Four teams from the US, Australia, China and Japan arrived here to raise the spirits of the city ahead of the opening of Olympic games in Athens Date Created: 12 Aug 2004 12:00 AM

Posted by trek/taro at 3:53 PM KDT
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Tokyo Summer Swim Fun
Via gettyimages.com / August 13
Caption: TOKYO, JAPAN: People crowd a swimming pool at Tokyo's Toshimaen amusement park 12 August 2004. Tokyo's temperature rose to 34 degree Celsius 12 August.

Posted by trek/taro at 3:36 PM KDT
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Heat Beaten
"Tsutsushinde, shochyu omimai moshiagemasu."
(With utter modesty, I wish you comfort in the midst of the summer heat)."--The Japan Times: Aug. 5, 2004

Posted by trek/taro at 2:50 PM KDT
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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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