Fun / foon Tokyo

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Run ASIMO. Run.
Honda's robot, ASIMO

ASIMO robot is running faster nowhere (Read the article)

As I previously mentioned in the Robosapien story, Honda has spent about 500,000 dollars for a life-size humanoid robot that one day might be capable for cleaning your toilet but not not your dryer?s lint-trap. As Tilden, the CEO of Wow Wee that made Robosapien said, ?For half a billion dollars I?m pretty certain I could hire Bill Gates as my pool boy.??

Honda?s Robot Advances, but to Where?
NYTimes.com, Japan, Dec. 15, 2004 WAKO, Japan---Despite the technological advances, Honda has not made much progress in determining just what the robot might be used for?. ?The robot, 4 feet 3 inches tall, demonstrated its form on Wednesday. It walked onto a wide stage, then, after a few steps, drew its arms closer to its sides and lifted its knees high as it broke into a jog, hydraulic muscles whirring loudly. Perfecting the running motion was a technological challenge, the robot?s developers said, because the rapid arm movements tended to throw the robot off balance?

Posted by trek/taro at 1:34 PM JST
Updated: Thursday, December 16, 2004 1:34 PM JST
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Japan: Tis the season to GET LAID

There are few things I looooove more than Christmas in Japan. Christmas here is second Valentine?s Day...actually bigger than Valentines. Any single person spending Christmas Eve in Japan is thought of asa total loser. To quote my friend Yves at 3.yen.com...

So what do people do during Christmas in Japan?
I guess a lot is left to the imagination, since romantic couple spend a lot of time isolated from the crowd, and all the love hotels are full, as well as most restaurants. What is not left to the imagination however is what people buy just before Christmas, not in sex shops but in major retailers. Tokyu Hands in Shibuya is a very popular department store where one can find almost anything, from bicycles to office chairs, to tiles and professional sushi knives. And, when Christmas is close, this:

For few more close-up shots of the Chrismas displaya 3.yen.com

Posted by trek/taro at 12:14 PM JST
Updated: Thursday, December 16, 2004 1:42 PM JST
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

OneWorld.net / News - Few See a Clean Escape from Corruption

Inter Press Service (IPS)
14 December 2004
Not many people around the world seem to believe that corruption can be contained let alone eradicated, experts said after a major international survey.

....?Citizens across the world appear to be pessimistic about the scope of corruption,? Robin Hodess, director of policy and research at the Berlin-based Transparency International told IPS in an interview in Paris. Speaking after the publication of the ?Global Corruption Barometer? by Transparency International (TI), Hodess said that most people think the fight against corruption that was stepped up since the late 1990s is having little effect.
The survey was conducted for TI by the opinion poll firm Gallup International as part of its ?Voice of the People Survey? carried out between June and September 2004.
?For instance, citizens in Peru have seen that the former president Alberto Fujimori, despite heavy charges of corruption, could find refuge in Japan, and escape prosecution,? Hodess said. ?Because of such cases, citizens do not see a positive impact of the fight against corruption, and their perception that something is wrong in politics and justice....
---
Click here Go to 3yen.com for more info

Posted by trek/taro at 12:43 PM JST
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Friday, December 10, 2004

Straightjacketed lady driver for Japan's new Oxyride battery
Diva ?driver? in a straightjacket? (Read the article)

Why is this lady ?driver? wearing straightjacket?

Maybe the new Oxyride battery that ?delivers 1.5 times the power of a
regular alkaline battery? causes users to mad from the price.

A driver takes
a position to drive an electric car powered only by two of the Oxyride
dry battery AA, seen set behind her head, developed by Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. prior to its test run ?..

Posted by trek/taro at 9:13 PM JST
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Thursday, December 9, 2004

We don' need no ed-u-ca-tion..."
??.we don?t need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom ? teachers leave them kids alone?

Reluctant teachers: ?Why should English be studied?? Japan Times / Dec 09 )

Study showed early English education useless Kyodo News / Dec 09

Hmmm, let me see. Japanese can?t speak it. Japanese teachers can?t teach it. Students can?t learn it. So why bother?

Posted by trek/taro at 10:09 PM JST
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What Japan is really like
Topic: Concrete Japan

Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
by Alex Kerr

Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub (February 10, 2002) ISBN: 0809039435
"A woman named Kato Shidzue, writing on her hundredth birthday in The Japan Times, lamented: `There must be many foreigners who come to Japan full of dreams about the country`s scenery after having read Lafcadio Hearn only to be surprised and upset at the sight of the Japanese so heartlessly destroying their own beautiful and unparalleled cultural legacy.` Sadly Ms. Kato is wrong. One looks in vain in the foreign media for expressions of surprise or conern at what has happened to Kyoto. It would seem that Western visitors fail to distinguish-perhaps it is parts of their condescension toward Asia- between well-preserved tourist sites and a thoroughly unpleasant city-scape. The fact that Kyoto has nice gardens on its periphery is enough to make them overlook the unwelcoming mass of glass and concrete cubes in the rest of the city."

Posted by trek/taro at 12:08 PM JST
Updated: Thursday, December 9, 2004 12:14 PM JST
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Wednesday, December 8, 2004

A natural killer Ts and an Okinawan sea sponge walk into a Japanese brewery....

Tell me if you heard this one:
A natural killer (NK) cell and an Okinawan sea sponge walk into a Japanese brewery....

Marine Sponge Leads Researchers To Immune System Regulator
University Of Chicago Medical Center
Date: 2004-12-07
A Japanese brewery, an Okinawan sea sponge, and some clever detective work have enabled an international research team based at the University of Chicago to solve a biological mystery, and the solution suggests a novel way to boost the body's defenses against cancer.
Discovered less than 10 years ago, natural killer (NK) T cells are unusual because they target lipids, often bound to carbohydrates, rather than proteins....

Posted by trek/taro at 9:47 AM JST
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Monday, December 6, 2004

Japanese public broadcaster hires real ?Ghost? writers

NHK pays mysterious TV writers in kickback scam
Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 6, 2004
Two people that a fraudulent former NHK producer had registered as TV program scenario writers may have got paid by the network for work they never carried out? [he] wrote scenarios of the program, either, and nobody who actually worked for the program knows him?.

NHK?s woes are neverending?and for good reason.
With the conversion to digital broadcasting NHK is now EXTORTING monthly fees for each household of 1,395 yen ($13) plus 2,340 for NHK
?BS? satelite without providing value for that money.
If NHK was a cable package maybe they could collect 500 yen (about $5.00 USD) per month for their 3.5 channels of programming.

Posted by trek/taro at 1:58 PM JST
Updated: Monday, December 6, 2004 2:34 PM JST
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Sunday, December 5, 2004

Japanese vinegar
?su.no.mo? vinegar drink in a soda can (Read the article)

su.no.mo?

Japanese think that vinegar and fruit juice is a good canned soft
drink. Japanese also have big fad going on for the past couple years
that drinking ?black? vinegar will provide great weight loss benefits?.
riiiiight.

Click on these TV commercials in Japanese here to see all the fun.

su.no.mo drink

Posted by trek/taro at 9:39 PM JST
Updated: Sunday, December 5, 2004 9:40 PM JST
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North Korean TV promotes lesbian love duets
Rob Pongi says..... I now bring you a short video of North Korea's 'The Genius Teenagers' from a recent broadcast on Korean and Japanese TV:

:

Yikes! North Korean lesbian singers openly gay on state TV...Wow that's avant-guard!

Posted by trek/taro at 8:15 PM JST
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Thursday, December 2, 2004

Ai-chan the squeaker loses!

Sheer Class
ITTF News Dec 2
China won the Junior Girls Team title at the 2nd ITTF World Junior Table Tennis Championships in Kobe, Japan on Monday 1 December 2004 ...
In the final they beat the host nation, Japan, by three matches to nil.... Japan has a splendid team, Ai FUKUHARA, Nozomi HASAMA and Yuka ISHIGAKI are players of high calibre but in the Kobe World Memorial Hall they were given a lesson, a severe lesson.....

Posted by trek/taro at 2:27 PM JST
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Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Peuge-Toyo-troen Chimera-moblie

Photo/PSA Peugeot Citroen,
French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen unveiled Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2004, the styling of three compact cars developed jointly with Japan's Toyota. From left are the Peugeot 107, Toyota Aygo, and Citroen C1. The three cars share a common platform and will be built in Kolin, Czech Republic....

Posted by trek/taro at 9:32 PM JST
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Japanese senility robot

Japanese robot to chat lonely elderly out of senility
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's growing elderly population from will be able to buy companionship ...Snuggling Ifbot, who is dressed in an astronaut suit with a glowing face, has the conversation ability of a five-year-old, the language level needed to stimulate the brains of senior citizens....

Posted by trek/taro at 9:16 PM JST
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Japanese police state strengthens

police state

Crime leads Japan to toughen penal code for first time in century

TOKYO (AFP) - Alarmed by a rise in violent crime, Japan?s parliament
has increaded penalties for felonies in the first major revision of the
penal code in nearly a century. The upper House of Councillors approved
the bill which raises the maximum prison sentence other than life to 30
years from 20 years?.

Posted by trek/taro at 9:03 PM JST
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Look out Japanese anime. Here comes China!

China Hurries to Animate Its Film Industry
NY Times. com, by Howard W. French (Technology) 7PM 30 Nov
With "Thru the Moebius Strip," China is serving notice to the Disneys and Pixars of the world that its day is arriving in the lucrative business of 3-D computer animation. ...

Posted by trek/taro at 3:37 PM JST
Updated: Wednesday, December 1, 2004 3:38 PM JST
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?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...

Posted by trek/taro at 2:06 PM JST
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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....

Posted by trek/taro at 12:34 PM JST
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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....

Posted by trek/taro at 10:00 AM JST
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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.?

Posted by trek/taro at 6:48 AM JST
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Tuesday, November 30, 2004

"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

Posted by trek/taro at 10:30 PM JST
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OneWorld.net / News - Few See a Clean Escape from Corruption

Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japanby Alex Kerr

Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
by Alex Kerr