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Fun / foon Tokyo
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Akebono is a cheater
Topic: Japanese life
210cm, 350+kg Akebono vs 185cm, 110kg Musashi... guess who wins?
Feast your eyes.


Akebono pile driver beats on the head of Musashi and is red carded in the 2nd Round. Restarts the 2nd Round with meaningless weak hits at Akebono fat. The 3rd Round has Akebono SLOWLY walking around and Musashi gamely neko punching fat.


Decision: Musashi wins on points 'cause Akebono is a cheater.


I guess Akebono had to figure out a way to lose since he was winning against a Japanese, hee, hee,
Musashi, Japan's K1 Champion VS Akebono
See the results posted on the official site at
http://www.so-net.ne.jp/feg/k-1gp/top585.htm



K-1: Former yokozuna Akebono bites dust again in K-1 fight

Kyodo
Saturday March 27, 8:42 PM

Former sumo grand champion Akebono lost his second straight bout since making his K-1 debut last year when he was defeated by Musashi in a unanimous decision in the K-1 World Grand Prix in Saitama on Saturday evening.


Pix via Nekobaba



Posted by trek/taro at 11:00 AM JST
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Saturday, March 27, 2004
Japanese ladies love lushes
Topic: Japanese life
Note this picture is from the Wasada University famous "Super Free" drinking/rape club.
Women teed off by teetotalers
(Mainichi and wire reports, March 27, 2004)
Young Japanese women are almost 10 times more likely to prefer a boyfriend who drinks than one who abstains from alcohol, according to a survey by brewer Takara Holdings Inc.
Takara's survey found that 60.6 percent of women in their 20s or 30s wanted a boyfriend who boozed as opposed to just 6.6 percent who preferred he either didn't drink or was easily intoxicated.

Posted by trek/taro at 11:46 PM JST
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Stargate found at Tokyo Dome!
Topic: Japanese life
For more details about the Tokyo Dome Stargate...

Posted by trek/taro at 2:46 PM JST
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"DANGER! DANGER! Will Robinson"
Topic: Japanese Tech


See the Japanese video of our new Robot Overlords here at
http://www.enryu.jp/
Click on the link that says QT6_format or wmf_format
This above picture is via the English article at http://www.freepressinternational.com/tmsuk.html

See also the description in my my Japanese blog.

Posted by trek/taro at 1:58 AM JST
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Friday, March 26, 2004
Czech it out!
Topic: Japanese life

See the full-size picture and comments on the Easterwood.org site........For the first time since they've been keeping records of these things, 4 highest division sumo wrestler enter today, the 12th day of the current Spring tournament in Osaka....<

Posted by trek/taro at 3:34 PM JST
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Get ChipsCan 2004
Topic: Japanese life
get chips can
"GET chipscan 2004," the Japanese solution!All your chips and drinks in one huge can.
Via http://www.pepsi.co.jp/campaign/chipscan2004/index.html#

Posted by trek/taro at 2:30 PM JST
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Tokyo SkyPerfecTV schedules for April
Topic: FAQ
SkyPerfecTV
http://search.skyperfectv.co.jp/prog/channel/

AXN Ch 725
http://www.axn.co.jp/information/english.html
http://www.axn.co.jp/timetable/index.html
http://www.axn.co.jp/timetable/images/pdf/monthly_03_e.pdf
http://www.axn.co.jp/timetable/images/pdf/monthly_04_e.pdf

LaLa TV Ch 372 http://www.lala.tv/timetable/index.php

03-3249-7210
English:3211#
Sex in the City is now playing
http://www.lala.tv/regular/drama/satc/index.html
http://search.skyperfectv.co.jp/prog/channel/372.html

Super Channel Ch 360
http://www.super-ch.com/
http://www.super-ch.com/pdf/200403/Super2004_03_eng.pdf

Discovery Ch 321
http://japan.discovery.com/schedules/pdfe01/2004apr.pdf

Cartoon Network Ch 726
http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.jp/english/
http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.jp/english/sch_det_e.asp

BBC Ch 252 oddly Japanese only???
http://www.bbcworld-japan.com/program/images/Thismonth.pdf
I guess add +9 hours to GMT on the British schedule
http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_tvlistings.asp?pageid=668

and oh yeh, farking FOX Ch 722 is Japanese only
http://www.foxjapan.com/tv/

Posted by trek/taro at 1:44 PM JST
Updated: Friday, July 30, 2004 4:12 PM KDT
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Tokyo courts, bah!
Topic: Media
Last week, the Tokyo District Court ordered a publisher not to distribute the magazine with an article about the divorce of the daughter of former prime minister Tanaka. The Court called it an "invasion of privacy." However, 740,000 of the 770,000 copies printed had sold like hotcakes. Now the Yahoo eBay price is 2,000yen per copy about $18!
Tokyo court bans weekly's publication over Tanaka's daughter
Kyodo / Wednesday March 17, 12:30 AM

The Tokyo District Court has issued a temporary injunction banning the publication of Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine which had planned to run in its latest issue a story about the eldest daughter of House of Representatives member Makiko Tanaka, the daughter's lawyer said Tuesday....
In its March 25 issue to be published Wednesday, the popular weekly, published by the Tokyo-based Bungei Shunju Ltd., planned to run what it calls an "exclusive scoop" on Tanaka's eldest daughter.
According to her lawyer, the story says that the daughter got married despite her parents' fierce opposition and divorced after only one year and returned from Los Angeles....
Her parents are Tanaka and her husband Naoki. Tanaka, the daughter of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, is widely known as an outspoken politician and has served as foreign minister.

Notice how this story fails to name the "daughter" who is the secret love-child of Makiko-chan and Taro. Maybe she doesn't have a name.

Court halts weekly over story on Tanaka daughter

Posted by trek/taro at 1:35 PM JST
Updated: Friday, March 26, 2004 1:50 PM JST
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Wal-Mart in Japan
Topic: Japanese life
Sorry, but just this once I'm gonna NEKOBAKA this entire article, FAIR USE because nobody is reading this blog. It will be removed by 10pm March 26 Tokyo time.
Japan: The American Revolution
Forbes.com
Thu Mar 25, 6:33 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=64&u=/fo/20040325/bs_fo/3a99979c322369997604a9a322d74e22&printer=1

Full text--
Wal-Mart's entree into Japan is Seiyu, the country's fifth-largest grocer, a 400-store chain with $8.9 billion in sales. When it agreed to sell Wal-Mart a 6% stake, the company was nearly bankrupt and had little to distinguish itself from its competitors, says Seiyu President Masao Kikuchi. Two years later it still seems to be struggling. Revenue fell 17% as it posted a loss of $65 million in 2003. Walk around a Seiyu store and you will be hard-pressed to notice any difference from before.

Look closer, though, and you see a revolution in the works. Fifty-three Wal-Martians have converged to move Seiyu's point-of-sale and inventory tracking systems over to the standard Wal-Mart setup. It will take three years for them to switch over all 400 stores, and then they'll move on to Seiyu's distribution centers. Store managers will know how many items of each individual brand were sold, how many are on the shelf and how many are in the warehouse.

The future of Japanese shopping as Wal-Mart sees it lies in the Futamatagawa store, near Yokohama. First, the company moved most general merchandise upstairs and put all the food onto the first floor. The entrance has been turned into a wide, inviting funnel crammed with fresh fruits and vegetables. A greeter hands out baskets to arriving customers and answers questions. Wal-Mart has made the elevators to the parking lot big enough to hold shopping carts and has radically increased the number of cash registers. Sales of food at the store are up 50% from last year.

But not everything is going according to plan. On the second floor, even though clothing prices have been cut by 20% as generics replaced brand items, sales have fallen 10%. The Japanese, apparently, like their brands. Still, overall revenue at the Futamatagawa store has risen 17% since Wal-Mart made its changes.

The real challenge for Wal-Mart will be dealing with the convoluted and opaque Japanese distribution system. Realizing that many manufacturers will sell only through their traditional wholesalers, Wal-Mart has decided to work with them when necessary and help educate them in how to cut their own costs. To wean suppliers away from middlemen, Wal-Mart holds out the carrot of access to its 5,000 outlets around the world. At the same time it's trying to encourage Seiyu buyers to turn to Wal-Mart's global partners like Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson and Kellogg.

Wal-Mart is learning from Seiyu, as well. Its systems will have to adapt to the rigor of Japanese shoppers, many of whom can tell just by tasting a piece of fish whether it has ever been frozen; prices can drop five times a day as the fish ages.


Posted by trek/taro at 1:19 PM JST
Updated: Friday, March 26, 2004 1:20 PM JST
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Hitachi ruins the worldwide launch of the iPod-mini
Topic: Japanese Tech
iPod minihttp://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/jan/06ipodmini.html
iPod Mini was released Feb in USA and in April Worldwide
Arrrg, I needed to get a cheap second iPod with recording functionality for Mrs Taro and now they will neither ship to Japan nor sell a jPod-mini here.

Global iPod mini launch delayed
Apple delays the global launch of its popular iPod mini by three months due to US demand.

BBC / 25 March.
...reports of shops being out of stock and a thriving export trade on eBay...Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of Hardware Product Marketing, told BBC News Online that...the problem lies with the miniature hard disc drive at the heart of the iPod mini: Apple is buying all the stock of drives as fast as Hitachi can manufacture them. "We're actually consuming just about all the 4GB, one-inch drives they make. As they make more, we'll get more," said Mr Joswiak.


Farking Hitachi, go figure.

Posted by trek/taro at 11:34 AM JST
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"Clone Wars" in Japan
Topic: Media

Star Wars: Clone Wars

(Episodes 11-20)
Begins March 29 (Mon.)
Every Mon. thru Fri. 19:00-19:05, 24:30-24:35
Star Wars: Clone Wars continues the saga where the live action feature film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones left off - at the beginning of the Clone Wars....
Cartoon Network Japan, Clone Wars info
On SkyPerfecTV Channel 726
http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.jp/english/

http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.jp/english/sch_det_e.asp
http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.jp/english/200403/01.html Or read my foul Japanese site were my insane provider, Jens Spinnet, tries to ban English from personal blogs. Sheesh.

Posted by trek/taro at 10:39 AM JST
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US pet/spouse visas
Q: How long does it take a Japanese to get spousal visa's for work in the States?

For a US spousal visa, see http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/tvisa-main.html
Best amount of time is 3 weeks.
Worst time amount of time is 8+ months.
Average time amount of time is about 3 months.

BOTTOM LINE: Always plan ahead.

The smart idea is to apply for the "pre-entry" spousal visa, the " I-130 petition", get the pre-approval, then hold on to the pre-approval papers till the time they are actually needed: "after an immigrant petition is approved, can the foreign relative start the second step".


Also http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/visa/tvisa-7137c.html
"U.S. military personnel and American citizens who are long-term residents of Japan do not need to appear at the Embassy and are strongly encouraged to send in their I-130 petitions by mail. "
Find your exact situation and choose the proceedure here
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/visa/tvisa-7136.html

Posted by trek/taro at 9:02 AM JST
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Thursday, March 25, 2004
This site is now fully legal in copying headlines in Japan
Topic: Media
Court denies copyright for Web news headlines
(Mainichi--Mar 25)

A damages suit filed by the Tokyo head office of the Yomiuri Shimbun against an Internet service firm that used the newspaper's headlines without permission was rejected in the Tokyo District Court ...denied that the headlines were creative expression. "These headlines were created within 25 characters, and either stated objective facts, or used only very short qualifying words, and cannot be described as creative expression"

Posted by trek/taro at 4:09 PM JST
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Mysterious Dr. Evil strikes again
Topic: Media
BWAHAHAHAHA! Mysterious Dr. Evil Kim strikes again. Will Iraq be next on the oil-for-nukes-for-cheaper-gasoline plan?

Report: Iran, N. Korea building secret underground nuke plant
East-Asia-Intel.com/ Mar 23--- North Korea and Iran are building a secret underground facility in northwestern North Korea to produce centrifuges to enrich uranium, according to a Japanese press report. The Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported March 10 ...

Posted by trek/taro at 3:48 PM JST
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Just no mayo pizza, pleeeease?
Topic: Japanese life
All I ask is no mayo on my pizza.mayo fish egg pizzaseaweed pizzamayo sweet potato pizza
Mayo fish-egg pizza, seaweed pizza, and mayo sweet-potato pizza via the so-called "California Pizza".

Posted by trek/taro at 2:08 PM JST
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Only 83 women trafficked into sex industry in Japan
Topic: Japanese life
Gee those 83 women must have been real busy servicing all of Japan in 2003. Maybe it's a typo and should read "83 women per hour" at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Office alone.
nipple
83 women trafficked into sex industry in Japan in 2003
Japan Today, March 25

TOKYO --The National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday that is has uncovered 83 cases of women who were trafficked into Japan and forced to work in the sex ...


Compare and Contrast with: SPRAY...
Nyukan't be serious! - Fun at the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau

"....Before you, the Tokyo Regional Immigration Office, architecture reminiscent of some mental hospital or dog pound. ....Are you a prostitute? No my friend, at the Tokyo regional immigration beuro, you're an entertainer! Break a leg."

Posted by trek/taro at 11:40 AM JST
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
UFO sighted over Tokyo
Topic: Me
EXTRA! EXTRA!


Stealth Starship sighted over the Land-o-Concrete!(tm)



Posted by trek/taro at 10:07 PM JST
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'New' Electronic Paper announced for the 400th time
Topic: Japanese Tech
nipple

First-Generation Electronic Paper Display to Be Used in New Electronic Reading Device


azom.com/ / March 24
Royal Philips Electronics, Sony Corporation and E Ink Corporation announced today the world's first consumer application of an electronic paper display module in Sony's new e-Book reader, LIBRIé, scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late April. This "first ever" Philips' display utilizes E Ink's revolutionary electronic ink technology which offers a truly paper-like reading experience with contrast that is the same as newsprint....resolution in excess of most portable devices at approximately 170 pixels per inch (PPI)...a user can read more than 10,000 pages before the four AAA Alkaline batteries need to be replaced.

Posted by trek/taro at 4:50 PM JST
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WTFFGBBQ! April 18
Topic: Me
FIELD TRIPPY! FIELD TRIPPY! WTFGBBQ!

Meet the TARO MUSEUM on Sunday afternoon, 1-ish, April 18, 2004 for the unofficial WTFGBBQ!

Cafe patio, gardens, forests, thatch-roofed Japanese village cum open-air museum, BBQ pit, and the modern art craziness of TARO! Razz And a surprise guest FG, "Kurohinge1", will be coming all the way from the Real World to visit. Taro will throw bento on the barbie as well as mad cows, sick chickens, cholera hogs and dead veggies but no natto ice cream.

TARO Museum info here


http://www.taromuseum.jp/english/d_a.htm


More Minka-en village open-air museum and BBQ forest info here http://www.city.kawasaki.jp/sisetu_e/minka.htm

Posted by trek/taro at 4:06 PM JST
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Chinese defeat the Japanese Coast Guard, again
Topic: Japanese life

Japan VS Chinese


Chinese activists land on disputed island claimed by Japan
Kyodo / Wednesday March 24, 12:11 PM

Flag-waving Chinese activists landed on an island claimed by both China and Japan on Wednesday, evading Japanese Coast Guard boats that tried to block them and triggering an official protest from Tokyo....
On Wednesday, a Chinese protest ship approached Uotsuri Island and dispatched a group of activists on small paddle boats that evaded a Japanese Coast Guard vessel...Japanese officials protested the landing.

Posted by trek/taro at 3:49 PM JST
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