The 'blank where the Japanese live'
Topic: Japanese life

Novelist Kenzaburo Oe once told journalist Patrick Smith that the West has just two images of Japan: The Japan of samurai, geisha and Zen on the one hand, and the Japan of Sony Playstation, anime and high-tech efficiency on the other. "Between the two, there is a blank where the Japanese live,"

--- Bruce Rutledge, "Kuhaku & Other Accounts from Japan" Chin Music Press, 2004

Climax Bargaining?
Topic: Japanese life
Summer sales are "CLIMAXING" in Shin Yokohama, hee, hee.

It's 39.5C/103F in Tokyo (Why do people live here?)
Topic: Japanese life
The temperature in Tokyo hit 39.5 degrees Celsius ---that's
100.4 F and NHK Morning News says the temp never dropped below 30 C in the past 24 hours! More than 190 were hospitalized.

Mercury hits record 39.5 C in Tokyo, some 190 ill
TOKYO, July 20, Kyodo -
A heat wave hit central and eastern Japan on Tuesday....Nearly 190 people were taken to hospital with heatstroke nationwide, according to a Kyodo News survey as of 11 p.m.

Four die as heat wave hits Japan
Sydney Morning Herald,
A heat wave in Japan has killed four people, most of them elderly, and left at least 10 others in serious condition in hospital, officials said Friday. ...
Torrential rains flood buildings in Saitama Prefecture
Mainichi wrote:
SAITAMA -- Torrential rains hit northern Saitama Prefecture late Thursday, flooding seven buildings, police and a meteorological observatory said Friday.

BOO! Today is Halloween.
Topic: Japanese life
Did you light a lantern at Yasukuni Shrine?

The 13th of July is first day of traditional OBON when the Japanese light a fire to welcome the spirits of family ancestors back. Ever serious about their religion, the Japanese moved OBON to next month so the travel industry could make more money selling tickets for two OBON periods.
---refer to O-bon - Japan's Halloween

a Mickey Mouse copy of Japanese rip-off of a Chinese Festival , sheesh.
Topic: Japanese life
This is a Mickey Mouse copy of Japanese rip-off of a Chinese Festival , sheesh.

July 1, 2004, AFP--TOKYO, JAPAN: Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who play Altair the Cowherd and Vega the Weaver, wave to spectators from the float to celebrate Tanabata or the Star Festival at the Tokyo Disneyland 01 July 2004 for the special event "Star Festival Greeting", will be carried through 07 July. In Japanese legend the two lovers, the star Altair and Vega, who are separated by the Milky Way on most days of the year, meet just once a year on July 07.

Tanabata Star Festival - one of the lamest Chinese "borowings" of the Japanese culture...it's on par with the "Tooth Fairy". Combined with Mickey Mouse, OMGWTFBBQ! ---To read more about Tanabata...

"In Japan we have 4 seasons..." (Sheesh.)
Topic: Japanese life
STANDAND JAPANESE QUESTION: "In Japan we have 4 seasons; how many seasons do you have?"

"In Japan we have 4 seasons..." reveals a far darker aspect of the Japanese. That is, Borg TV worships the Regularity-Sameness of Life. The "flower news," "start of the official swimming season," and the like on NHK shows the Japanese ingrained love of Sameness and Predictability. Sheesh.

AUSLANDER RAUS! Gaijin go home!
Topic: Japanese life
A banner hanging in Shinagawa Station announces a "Measures Targeting Illegal Foreign Workers Month," sponsored by the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, for June.

VISA VILLIANS

The Japan Times, June 29
.... On May 27, Japan's Diet amended the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act," enacting stricter punishments. The maximum fine for visa expiry increases tenfold from 300,000 yen to 3 million yen. Banishment from Japan doubles from five to 10 years. Those who come clean at Immigration before being caught will merely be deported faster.
This is on top of already-tough detention conditions: Several days confined to a room with other criminals (sometimes at a daily charge of 60,000 yen). Access denied to family, a consulate, or even a lawyer.
What's going on? The National Police Agency claims that hordes of illegal aliens (estimated somehow at 250,000) are ratcheting up Japan's crime rate...
... But do the new punishments fit the crime? After all, equating overstayers with hardened criminal activity (like burglary or murder) overstates the seriousness of the matter.
"Overstaying" in itself is a bureaucratic procedure, not necessarily a willful act to deprive others of life, liberty, or property. ...
... So let's get this straight. People thrive by bringing foreigners here, give them lousy conditions and few civil protections, and then blame them for rising crime numbers? A full third of which are not "hard crimes," but rather visa violations -- often instigated by Japanese?
Any hope for some improvements? Not ...

Japan quietly gives up most of its space program
Topic: Japanese life
Japan Scales Down Troubled Space Program
Scotland on Sunday
Japan is planning a major scale-back of its troubled space program by focusing on smaller satellites and relying more on other countries for launches....the current satellite program is too complex – and have linked its numerous failures to a combination of the long time needed to develop a satellite and an overly ambitious launch schedule...

Shinichi Fukae: Top Wal-Mart b ass man
Topic: Japanese life

Japan's Shinichi Fukae Poised to Make Bass-Fishing History on Lake Champlain Open
PR Newswire -
BENTON, Ky., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Reigning Japan Bass Angler of the Year Shinichi Fukae of Osaka, Japan, is poised to make professional bass- fishing history in New York on Lake Champlain June 23-26 if he holds on to his 33-point lead over his closest American challenger to win the Wal-Mart FLW Tour's coveted Land O'Lakes Angler of the Year title....
...top American anglers visiting Japan for fishing tackle shows, which attract extraordinary crowds, are often mobbed by autograph seekers and treated with rock-star-like reverence. "I've been there five times, and basically every time it has been absolutely insane," said Randy Blaukat, a Fujifilm pro from Lamar, Mo., who is also sponsored by Japanese lure maker Megabass. "The last time I was there, people stood in a line that stretched at least 300 yards ....

Posted by trek/taro at 2:44 PM KDT
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Mo' Dancin' for Lil' Kim and Bush
Topic: Japanese life

How 'bout some line dancing for Lil' Kim?

See the previvous post: N. Korea leader wants to dance with U.S
Getty Images / NASHVILLE, TN - JUNE 12: A country-music line dancing team from Tokyo, Japan runs through a routine in a western clothing store during the 2004 CMA Music Festival ...

SURPRISE: Abusive teachers don't report abuse in Japan
Topic: Japanese life
This is like saying that priests should be reporting more child molesting. Sheesh.

Poll: Many teachers don't report abuse
Yomiuri / Jun 08
....Nearly 50 percent of teachers said they hesitated to report possible child abuse cases to the authorities even if they suspected that their students might be mistreated....

In Japan...if ya gonna go, it's mo' fun freaky.
Topic: Japanese life
Japanese video baron dead at 53
Mizunami, Japan, Jun. 6 (UPI) -- Yuki Endo, president of Japan's Geo .... one of Japan's largest software rental outlet chains, died at 53 years of age after trying to regain control of his runaway vehicle...
....when the lid of the trunk on the car suddenly popped open. Endo stopped the vehicle, got out and walked back to shut the trunk when the vehicle suddenly started moving forward.
Endo ran back to the driver's seat, opened the door and had the top half of his body in the car as he tried to stop it as it rolled downhill at an increasing pace. However, the car rolled into a guardrail, crushing him. ....

A. Tittyboo in Tokyo
Topic: Japanese life
Via the patrick.com blog who wrote:

According to the Gartner Group, patrick.com is rapidly becoming the top site for information on restaurants in Japan with the word titty in them. This is quite an honor, but I refuse to rest on my laurels, so....

Pervert zebra on the loose at Japanese truck stop
Topic: Japanese life
Kinky kicking zebra busts out of a truck at a rest stop to out the hot action in the women's restroom. The driver, of course, had to run into restroom, hee, hee.
Zebra Escapes From Truck on Japan Highway
Tuesday June 01, 2004 12:23pm
TOKYO (AP) - A zebra kicked its way out of a truck at a highway rest stop on Tuesday, leading the driver into the women's washroom in pursuit. ....

'New Spin' on Sex Ed with traditional 'Asian' values
Topic: Japanese life

JAPAN: Experts Put New Spin on Sex Education
TOKYO, May 27 (IPS) - Japanese health experts and officials are revising sex education in schools so they focus more on individual teaching yet accept traditional Asian values - pragmatic changes that they hope will make the subject more interesting...
Can you imagine how kinky traditional 'Asian' sex ed is gonna be? "Traditional values" such female child trafficing, night-crawling, the emperor having enthronement sex with his mother.... ?
In the countryside, yobaiよばい/night crawling used to be the way young guys could sample ladies. As long as you kept a dew-rag tied under your nose, the girls would claim they didn't know who you were (bloody obvious in villages of less that 100 people). A LOT of cousins mated that way.
Today, yobai is common on group osen trips. After midnight, after 20 rounds drinks, there's PLENTY of moving around after lights out on company onsen trips.
---->Via the
Mainichi newspaper's WaiWai column:
... The time machine's next destination is to the Akebonocho neon district of Yokohama, for a visit to Yobaiya Honpo (Night-crawling headquarters). "Night crawling," the Japanese practice of stealing into a sleeping lady's boudoir for purposes of making clandestine whoopie, has roots in remote antiquity.
With the lights dimmed and 19-year old Saki feigning sleep on her futon, the reporter creeps into her dimly lit room. He parts the folds of her yukata (sleeping gown) and allows his fingers to creep up her reposing thighs towards the promised land. Already damp with lust, she makes purring noises and, in short order, the two are coupling in erotic samurai combat.
"In the old days, men used to cross over the hills and sneak into a neighboring village in order to perform night crawling," Saki sighs wistfully. "I get the feeling they had energy you no longer see in the men of today."
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/waiwai/0210/021011cathouses.html

Posted by trek/taro at 5:09 PM KDT
Updated: Friday, May 28, 2004 5:14 PM KDT
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Japanese suck the life out of bent bats
Topic: Japanese life
Ishigaki's planned airport to suck the life out of rare bats, ...
Asahi Shimbun, May 28
ISHIGAKI, Okinawa Prefecture-A 25-year war with airport planners on this picture-postcard island is coming to the crunch....At stake are populations of rare bats. For residents, there's the prospect of the new airport and the gleam of tourist yen ...the airport plan will destroy three of the five bat caves in the Mount Karadake site...the natural habitat for three types of rare bats: the Yaeyama least horseshoe bat, the leaf-nosed bat and the Ryukyu bent-winged bat.

Posted by trek/taro at 2:48 PM KDT
Updated: Friday, May 28, 2004 2:49 PM KDT
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Topic: Japanese life

"mu koan"

Chinese master called Joshu in Japanese (Chao-chou (778-897) was asked whether a dog had a Buddha Nature. He answered "Wu!" in Chinese. Since the Japanese pronunciation of wu is mu, I know Joshu was simply making a noise like a cow --"MOO!-- and not answering the question at all. In the "Gateless Gate," the Chinese master called Ekai in Japanese states the unanswerability of the question:

Has a dog a Buddha-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Buddha-nature.

--Ekai (1183-1260) via 'Zen Flesh, Zen Bones' p.165

GENKI juice: Do-it-yourself frog oil aka snake oil
Topic: Japanese life
Here's do it yourself snakeoil... or more properly in Japanese "FROG OIL" Gama no Abura / 蝦蟇の油 ....

NATURE IN SHORT / Getting to the root of Japanese pick-me-up drinksThe Daily Yomiuri / May 25
... a man in front of me was purchasing one of those small bottles of Jiyo Kyoso pick-me-up drinks that the Japanese love so much. I noticed he gave the cashier a 5,000 yen note, but only received coins for change....
I was stunned. This was a 50 milliliter bottle, small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. What could possibly make it so expensive?..The most common ingredient in many of the more moderately priced drinks, however, was a substance called Osei, or Polygonatum rhizome extract, made from a plant which was listed as naruko-yuri in Japanese. ....as soon as I realized what was going on I rushed out and harvested some Polygonatum rhizomes for myself. After several years of aging in a glass jar, my white liquor tonic is just starting to mellow out. I always take a tiny sip just before my first-year anthropology class. It gives me just that little extra boost I need to teach...

Is this a Japanese male or female? You make the call.
Topic: Japanese life
Via the NinjaShot blog:
" In Japan, baseball is very popular sports. It means that there are lots of enthusiastic fans. Thiswoman is fan of Tigers, that is name of baseball team."

Posted by trek/taro at 12:25 PM KDT
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"Bring out The Gimp." in Chiba Japan
Topic: Japanese life
Pensioner turns young wife's lover into 'gimp'MDN / May 19
MATSUDO, Chiba -- An old man who used a chain leash on his young wife's lover, then bound him and locked him inside a wooden box has been arrested, police said.
Hiroshi Ohashi, the 64-year-old pensioner who also nailed himself inside the wooden box in which he is alleged to have used to keep his wife's 39-year-old lover imprisoned at knifepoint for 13 hours, was arrested for kidnapping.
Ohashi, who in the past has been convicted for arson, stated only that "that court case was bulls**t! Give me a retrial."