Fun / foon Tokyo

Friday, April 23, 2004

Dressmaking: Best way to extend a Japanese study visa
Topic: adviceS
Immigration officials search schools for illegal workers
(IHT/Asahi: April 22, 2004) Worried that foreign students are using vocational schools as a cover to work illegally in Japan, the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau searched 10 schools recently and found eight had problems accounting for their students. The schools were in Tokyo, Saitama and Tochigi prefectures. Many were dressmaking schools.... have seen a dramatic drop in Japanese students because there are fewer younger people due to a falling birthrate and the low popularity of sewing.
Foreign students are a godsend for school operators and possibly the future of the domestic industry for such products.

Posted by trek/taro at 3:16 PM KDT
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typical tokyo toe-wear
This is just your average pair of Tokyo shoes, hee, hee, really.

"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!"

Posted by trek/taro at 1:17 PM KDT
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Tokyo high-jumper arrested after clearing 8ft!
Topic: Japanese life
Tokyo police nab high-rise burglar
Tokyo, , Apr. 22 (UPI) -- Tokyo police have arrested a man suspected of leaping from building to building and robbing them through unlocked upper-story windows.
Hiroyasu Tsuchiya, 47, is a former scaffolding worker...entered about 100 offices on the upper levels of buildings in Tokyo since last June, and stolen about $175,000.... jumped onto the balcony of a real estate company on the fourth floor of an office building April 8 from a neighboring building 8 feet away....

Posted by trek/taro at 12:53 PM KDT
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I hear Japanese voices in my head.
Topic: Japanese Tech
Hypersonic sound. This is a focused beam of sound used to deliver marketing noises or other messages in a very personal way. The sound is inaudible unless you walk into its narrow path.
---> New Scientist, " We hold these freedoms to be self-evident..."
It sounds entertaining.
Yes. It does have fun possibilities....it's sudden and it acts inside your head, as if you're hearing something through headphones..... installing this in soda machines right now on Tokyo's streets. As you walk past, you'll suddenly hear inside your head the sound of the ice cubes dropping into the glass and the soda making that "psst" can-opening noise. You are going to be startled, you won't know where the sound came from and then you'll realise, wow, I was just hijacked by an advertisement.

Posted by trek/taro at 12:42 PM KDT
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Wednesday, April 21, 2004

"It's me, send money" scam in Japan
Topic: Japanese life
'It's me' scammers dupe same woman twice
Mainichi/MDN, April 21, 2004
WAKAYAMA -- A woman fell victim to a pair of "it's me, send money" fraudsters twice after the scammers told her that the money she had deposited into their account was not enough,.... 54-year-old woman from Naga, Wakayama Prefecture, received a call ....from a young man who said he had been caught by a moneylender and was going to be taken away if he didn't pay..... the woman deposited about 1.4 million yen into the account. Later the same man called back and said the amount the woman had deposited was not enough, so the woman reportedly deposited a further 1.5 million yen into the account.

See also Captain Japan on this "ore ore sagi" scam.

Posted by trek/taro at 4:15 PM KDT
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'nother Nam.
Is there no stopping these numbskulls? Time to dust off the Cookbook...

Senator says US may need compulsory service to boost Iraq force
Tue Apr 20,12:34 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A senior Republican lawmaker said that deteriorating security in Iraq (news - web sites) may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft.
"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.
"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some ....

Posted by trek/taro at 3:58 PM KDT
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Scoop-the-Poop College: 'Your career is in the bag'
Yamazaki College: "Your career is in the bag"

1st junior college for animal caretakers launched
japantoday.com - Apr 21 2004 4:30:0 GMT
...Yamazaki College of Animal Health Technology aims to train "animal health technicians" to work in facilities ...
Official textbooks --->

Posted by trek/taro at 1:44 PM KDT
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Let's scorpion sushi!

Ginger and scorpion SUSHI

New York's Museum of Natural History's "Adventures in the Global Kitchen," a program that highlights cultures around the world through their cuisine.

Hmmmm. I wonder what part of Japanese cuisine features scorpion sushi, hee, hee?

Posted by trek/taro at 1:06 PM KDT
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Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Handicapped Sakura in Korea
The REAL Question is: "WHY IS THIS TRAIN AN EXACT COPY OF JAPAN AND IS SAKURA A HANDICAP IN KOREA?!"
Via http://www.delabit.com/nekobaba/

Posted by trek/taro at 11:38 PM KDT
Updated: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 11:38 PM KDT
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Banryu cell phone controlled robot
Topic: Japanese Tech
SANYO reveals new and improved "Banryu" home-robot

Robot Controlled By 3G Phone
20th April, 2004
...Banryu's friendly appearance, long dragon-like neck and its ability to walk and smoothly climb steps with its four legs are anticipated to draw attention
The robot can be controlled remotely through the local area network (LAN) using a personal digital assistant (PDA) or via a third generation (3G) mobile phone using images from the integrated camera placed in Banryu's head.
K-COOL! I WANT ONE TO TORMENT MY CAT FROM WORK.
"VERSION UP! It now looks like a "guard-dragon."

Posted by trek/taro at 5:22 PM KDT
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Japan is an upside-down world
Topic: Japanese life

Rest-of-the-story

Posted by trek/taro at 1:38 PM KDT
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Bat Checklist
Bat-passport: Check.
Bat-cash in sacks: Check.
Bat-tickets: Check.
Bat Utility Belt packed: Check.
Bat-Bladder Drugs: Check.

"To the Batmobile!"

Posted by trek/taro at 1:34 PM KDT
Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 12:16 AM KDT
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Monday, April 19, 2004

Must-take items to live in Japan
Topic: adviceS
QUESTION: What to bring to Japan to live.

Bring lots of deodorants.

It's hot but Japanese deodorants are a joke, an expensive joke.

Bring Shoes!

You'll need a pair of unused atheltic shoes for use only indoors at most health clubs. You can't just walk into a Japanese gym with your street sneakers and cut-offs. You gotta have DELEGATED new exercise shoes and preferably delegated exercise clothing too. If you're like me, finding size 12 EEE gym shoes is gonna be a pain (Cost-co Japan and Sports Authority here have them sometimes).
Once I needed deck shoes for yacht party on the Trump Princess. US Embassy very begrudgingly got them for me from the Navy Exchange on Yokosuka only after calling my US Senator a couple of times. The same problem can happen for some US medications not approved in Japan.

Posted by trek/taro at 5:13 PM KDT
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"Lost in Translation" lost on Japan
Topic: Media
Via Gen Kanai's blog April 19, 2004 11:00am ...
"Lost in Translation" fails in Japan
..."Lost in Translation" is offensive enough to the Japanese that the distributor has only screened it in one 300-seat, indie-movie theater in Shibuya. ...more...

As Taro always says...

If the shoe fits, take it off at the genkan.

Posted by trek/taro at 4:19 PM KDT
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1960s, B&W, doo-wop Japanese styling
Topic: Media
Via Bitter Cinema
QUOTE: "An interesting collection of Japanese television advertising from 1960 to the present from Shiseido , a cosmetics company that has been around since 1872. I especially like the b&w; 1960 doowop guys with the checkered jackets and portable grooming kits. "
Also check out 1960s JAPANESE RECORD JACKET GALLERY<

Posted by trek/taro at 3:41 PM KDT
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Made in "JAPAN" Computer Girl?
Topic: Media
Via the Veronikaah livejournal blog, here is COMPUTER GIRL.
Veronikaah says, "The main reason why Computer Girl RULES is that she was designed in Japan, as was her box." However, "Song Yun Toys" is neither Japanese name nor a Japanese company. It's Korean which is equivalent to saying "Aeroflot is a French airline."

Posted by trek/taro at 12:14 PM KDT
Updated: Monday, April 19, 2004 1:46 PM KDT
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Let's FILTH!
Topic: Japanese life
Daily Life in Japanese High Schools.
ERIC Digest.
At the end of the academic day, all students participate in "o soji," the cleaning of the school. They sweep the classrooms and the hallways, empty trash cans, clean restrooms, clean chalkboards and chalk erasers, and pick up trash from the school grounds. After o soji, school is dismissed and most students disperse to different parts of the school for club meetings.

COMMENT: "O-sogi"? Just say no.
That is, Just-say-no to the total FILTH of Japanese schools. The students pretend to clean and the teachers pretend to not notice. The older the students, the worse it gets. By the time of public university, you need to wear a bio-hazard suit to teach. (Smaller rural schools although sadly lacking in paint like all Japanese schools are cleaner because the moms pitch in to make cleaning days worthwhile.)

Posted by trek/taro at 11:44 AM KDT
Updated: Monday, April 19, 2004 3:19 PM KDT
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Korea must exceed Japan in all things
Korea Aging Faster Than Japan
Hankooki Apr 18 2004 11:46AM GMT
...The UN forecast it will double by 2019, making South Korea one of the most aged societies in the world.
This is even faster than Japan where the doubling of the elderly proportion took 24 years. Though the UN predicted Japan will see the ratio exceed 35 percent in 2005, the growth rate is lower than that of South Korea....

Posted by trek/taro at 11:30 AM KDT
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Sunday, April 18, 2004

OMGWTfgBBQ: Mission Complete
Topic: Me
On Sunday April 18th down and across the street from Snob Hair...

BBQ Chicken legs, nachos, beer and fiberglass insulation was consumed in Mass Quanties.

Posted by trek/taro at 10:04 PM KDT
Updated: Sunday, April 18, 2004 10:43 PM KDT
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Saturday, April 17, 2004

The more things change...
...the more they stay the same.

The "Loftcube" by Werner Aisslinger 2004.
VS

Matti Suuronen's design of "Futuro" of 1968.

Today's price?
$140,000 for the Loftcube vs a 2001 auction price of $25,000 USD
See: More Futuro info or Official Futuro Film site "What's FUTURO?"Japanese site

Posted by trek/taro at 8:50 PM KDT
Updated: Saturday, April 17, 2004 11:08 PM KDT
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Ginger and scorpion SUSHI

"To the Batmobile!"

Bring lots of deodorants.

Bring Shoes!

If the shoe fits, take it off at the genkan.

BBQ Chicken legs, nachos, beer and fiberglass insulation was consumed in Mass Quanties.

The "Loftcube" by Werner Aisslinger 2004.VSMatti Suuronen's design of "Futuro" of 1968.

The "Loftcube" by Werner Aisslinger 2004.
VS

Matti Suuronen's design of "Futuro" of 1968.