Hiroshima:
Topic: Concrete Japan

In Japan, incinerator becomes a work of art
Boston Globe | June 20, 2004
HIROSHIMA, Japan -- ''What a dump," as Bette Davis put it.
Visitors to the Hiroshima City Naka Incineration Plant are likely to utter the famous line from ''Beyond the Forest" with an entirely different intonation, however...to deal with trash in a country with little space to spare, and city authorities made the bold decision to build a monument to waste and put it on a site where people would have to take notice: over the city's main street....
.... This building is meant for quiet contemplation, either of the elegantly tamed nature outside or the treasures locked in the interior structure, their mystery protected by thick stone walls. No natural light penetrates this space. A single entrance beckons, and in this case, the approach is dramatic. Here are magical objects in dark surroundings that protect them from the damaging effects of sun. Your eyes adjust; you notice the splendor of an eighth-century ''Kanjoban." A bronze canopy and banners once used in religious rituals, it looks like a shower of golden lace falling in the stairwell. Beyond is a room with gold-colored walls that emphasize the preciousness of the contents: 48 small, ancient, gilt bronze Buddhist statues, each housed in its own glass case....
.... The building's message is that garbage is not only part of life, but an interesting part that deserves our attention. So the trash transformation is completely visible. Visitors watch it through huge glass walls. A touch-screen system in both Japanese and English explains every bit of the process; a timeline chronicles the history of garbage in the city. In the ''Refuse Pit," giant claw-like machines lift and aerate the trash, so it will burn better. The process is mesmerizing, something out of science fiction...

My comment

It always is a marvel of Japan to me that zillions are spent on the world's worst space program or history?s greatest science initiative failure, the 5th Generation Computer Project, but Japan has yet to make any viable effort in better garbage disposal. ASIMO and kick butt, but Japan doesn?t come near German tech. Even though millions of Japanese are dioxin poisoned by their low-tech, low-temp, incinerators, nobody here thinks of exotic tech like plasma burning of trash. Oh I forget, T.I.J.

Mighty Zeppelin bombs London
21/06/2004 / Telegraph.co.uk
Zeppelin flying in Europe to attract more tourists to Japan
Japan Today, Japan - Jun 17, 2004
PARIS -- A 75-meter-long zeppelin, scheduled to travel from Europe to Japan, flew Thursday over Versailles near Paris, taking part in Japan's campaign to lure ...

Japanese firm buys first new-look Zeppelin
Saturday, Jun 12, 2004
Friedrichshafen --- Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising.
The granddaughter of the original airship's inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was on hand as Japan's Nippon Airship Corporation took delivery of the 75-metre ship...

English engrish

Ya can't beat the original masters ...

Mr Brain's Pork Faggots(tm)

Get's Guru!
Topic: Me

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...

Virtual beautiful Tokyo
Topic: Concrete Japan
JPS Tokyo Photoreal Scenery Screenshots
Virtual-SIM fly over beautiful Tokyo such as this screenshot of the movie of Shibuya....

Seoul Subway beats Tokyo's
Seoul Subway Fights Jumping Suicide Rate
Guardian, UK - 18 June
... Electronic boards inside subway cars and platforms flash the sign:
``Giving up your life will inflict an unbearable pain on your family and the society!''
Statistics show 13,005 South Koreans killed themselves last year, more than the 12,458 who committed suicide in 1998 at the height of the Asian financial crisis, a traumatic period for the nation of 48 million people.
The suicide rate is marginally higher than in neighboring Japan, where 32,080 people killed themselves in 2003. Japan's total population is roughly 126 million. ..

Gimme some skin!
Skin Bra
TOKYO, JAPAN: Japan's lingerie maker Triumph International campaign girl Shinobu Ikehata displays the new silicone rubber made bra "Skin Bra" in Tokyo, 17 June 2004. Triumph have started selling semitransparent and flesh colored skin bras with a price of 8,500 yen (77 USD) each. AFP

Naming an alien child
Topic: adviceS
When Naming an alien child in Japan...
Keep it simple, popular and BI-LINGUAL.
Don't burden the poor kid with an alien name like mine. There many bilingual Japanese/English names which have beautiful kanji. Girl's names like "Ami", "Naiomi" and "Mari" always rank in the top 100 kanji names in Japan. Likewise, Ken is both Japanese and English.

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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Bill Gates is Chairman Mao
Topic: Media
Last night I got this week's issue of Newsweek Japan with Bill Gates on the cover looking like Mao Tse Tung.

He looks better.

See Microsoft's Cultural Revolution

Get GOOGLEy
Japan's toy maker Aoki Industrial employs new GOOGLEy technology
Via Getty Images
See also Spike Jones

Bush is No. 1 on Google for "idiot" & "miserable failure"
Topic: Media
Have you tried search for "idiot" on Google?


How about "miserable failure" on Google?

"Sea Monkeys" -- the movie!
Topic: Media

A sea monkey and a gentleman -a movie review

The Japan Times: June 16, 2004
...."Umizaru (Sea Monkeys)," an action movie based on a popular manga appearing in Shukan Young Sunday magazine. This time the heroes are Japan Coast Guardsmen training to be divers -- an elite group that constitutes only 1 percent of the JCG force. Think "An Officer and a Gentleman" in wet suits. To qualify, the trainees have to survive a 50-day course that is hell on earth -- or rather in the deep end of the pool.

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 ...

Japan's Koizumi to Bush: 'Kim Jong-the-ill wants to boogie with you'
N. Korea leader wants to dance with U.S
Sat 12 June, 2004 08:04 / TOKYO (Reuters) - - - - - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is so eager for dialogue with the United States that his negotiators to six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions will talk until they are hoarse...[Kim] made the remarks on the so far inconclusive talks on curbing the North?s nuclear arms programmes in a rare recent meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
?We want other countries concerned to play music so that we can dance well,? he was quoted as saying.
?He (Kim) wanted to dance (with Bush) so much as to get thirsty,? Koizumi told the US president in a somewhat cryptic expression, the influential daily Asahi Shimbun reported, quoting a source close to the premier.

Japanese firm buys first new-look Zeppelin
Saturday, Jun 12, 2004
Friedrichshafen --- Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising.
The granddaughter of the original airship's inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was on hand as Japan's Nippon Airship Corporation took delivery of the 75-metre ship, destined for sightseeing and advertising flights in Japan and a starring role at the 2005 world's fair in the city of Aichi.
The new craft designed by Germany's Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik ? named Zeppelin NT for ?New Technology? ? is filled with helium...

Teen Darwin Award for an exploding toilet in Tsukuba Japan?
Sounds like somebody forgot that you can't huff Shinna (thinner) and smoke cigs at the same time.

Teen killed by exploding toilet

(Mainichi Shimbun, June 9, 2004) TSUKUBA, Ibaraki -- A teen knocked unconscious when a hospital toilet here exploded died Wednesday, police said.
The 19-year-old, whose name has not been released, died as a result of the severe burns sustained throughout his body in the Tuesday night blast.
He had been unconscious in the agonizing few hours until his death.
Police said the victim, an unemployed youth from Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture, was found lying unconscious next to a bottle containing a liquid believed to have been the cause of the blast.
Forensic scientists are currently analyzing the contents of the bottle to determine what it is.

Posted by trek/taro at 12:07 PM KDT
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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....

Slackers at Okinawa golf courses & surfing threatened

Okinawa troop cut in cards?
June 8 / Asahi.com
WASHINGTON-- The Pentagon's move to re-position U.S. troops around the world should satisfy Japan in terms of the host role it plays, says U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld....
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