This song is so infective that it has burrowed itself deep inside my brain and I have severe problems exorcising it, especially since it seems like they show it all the time now on tv. I just thought that I should infect some visitors that are not living in Japan here as well, but hey, it IS catchy, that is the problem…
After acknowledging that their prefecture is facing a mongoose invasion, Kagoshima authorities have set up traps to capture the alien species.
Several traps were laid in an area of reported mongoose sightings, with a piece of fried chicken as bait. If a mongoose were to bite on the meat, the trap would close and capture it.
Here’s a video clip showing how the first day went:
No mongoose was found in the cages, and one very scared cat was captured. When they the poor cat loose, he bolted away at tremendous speed.
The initial failure of the traps does not mean there are no mongooses in Kagoshima. TBS news, which had filmed the trap report, stuck around the area trying to find one of the animals. After hours of searching, they were able to get 7-seconds of footage:
This morning’s Minami Nippon Shimbun is running a photo of a mongoose, with one of the traps visible in the background of the photo.
NTV got a team of character designers from Pixar to create a mascot character for the 2009 edition of “24-hour Television” special (not to be confused with Fuji TV’s “25 hour Television” special) :
When watching this announcement on television, I was initially surprised that they were able to get pixar to design a character for them. After the character was revealed, it became clear that Pixar had created the character as an advertisement for its new movie, “Up,” so things made more sense.
A CNN video report about how Japan’s love hotel industry is doing well despite the recession:
“I’d hate to use the term “recession-proof,” but it’s certainly proven very resilient over the last six to nine months,” said Steve Mansfield, CEO of New Perspectives, which operates six love, or “leisure,” hotels in Japan.
One of them, the Bonita Hotel in Isawa, boasts a 257 percent occupancy rate. Rooms can be rented for three to 24 hours.
Mansfield’s company estimates the industry in Japan pulls in $40 billion a year in revenue.
The story is almost identical to a Reuters’ article that appeared in March – they even interviewed the same Stephen Mansfield. (Apparently they couldn’t find a Japanese person that owns any love hotels.)
Salarymen sit in an office watching news bulletins about North Korea launching missiles.
Large explosions are being reported in Osaka and Nagoya.
Missiles are headed for the Kanto region. Patriot missile batteries have failed to shoot them down.
Panic grips the office, but it is too late. The flash of a nuclear explosion covers the screen and Tokyo is reduced to a radioactive wasteland.
Viewers are then urged to consider the facts. North Korea has a lot of missiles with the range to hit Japan, and its only a matter of time before they can mount nukes on them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Kim Jong-il isn’t preparing to launch them at Japan!
And don’t forget China! They’ve got a huge military and they are supporting North Korea, and they’ve got missiles too!
By 2020, China could possess more military power than the United States. (As the shot zooms in on the deck of an aircraft carrier, we discover that it is Chinese!) If this happens, it is possible that China could advance on Taiwan and Okinawa.
After the seizure of Taiwan, it is likely the Chinese fleets could block the vital sea lanes that supply Japan with its food and fuel. The current Japanese government has no concrete plan in place to deal with such a situation.
If nothing is done to stop this, Japan will become a colony of China/North Korea!
What can you do to prevent the utter and complete destruction of the Japanese nation? Vote for the Happiness Realization Party. They want to drop the pacifist clause from the Japanese constitution, build up Japan’s defenses, and strengthen Japan’s alliance with the United States.
Some screen shots of the most sensational parts of the video, for those who don’t have 6 minutes to watch it:
Do you fear that Japan might become a colony of China?
The National Rhinoceros Beetle Sumo Championship was held the other day in Yamagata Prefecture:
Mainichi’s article about the competition states that the final sumo match ended when one of the beetles flew out a window and disappeared, a moment that is unfortunately not found in this video clip.
Around 430 elementary school students took part with their beetles. The winner of each match is determined by which beetle makes it highest up the 70-centimeter pole forming the arena after 60 seconds.
During the final “King Kabuto,” owned by Takuma Kobayashi, 7, started out very strongly; but finally chose freedom over honor at the last moment, leaving “King Joe,” along with owner Shoichiro Ito, 6, to scoop the prize.
According to Bizarre magazine, some members of the body mod community in Japan is really enjoying the practice of inflating body parts through saline injections:
For people keen to experience the inflating world for themselves, Keroppy advises a trip to Tokyo’s Department H. It’s a long-running club with an ‘anything goes’ policy, and Japan’s monthly pansexual gathering of drag queens, latex lovers, furries, freaks, goths, BDSM aficionados – plus the world’s top body mod experts. A quick scout around and you’ll find lines of experimentalists getting injected in their foreheads, arms and hands and waiting for the effects to take hold. “It takes about two hours to inflate, and then takes about a night to diffuse,” Keroppy explains. “It appears prominently in some areas and in others it gets absorbed. In the forehead it’s easy to see, whereas the arm absorbs it quite quickly.”
Othersiteshave looked at the photographs of two Japanese men with injections on their foreheads, proclaimed that the men deliberately wanted to create Bagel shapes, and conluded that there is now a Bagelhead beauty “trend” in Japan.
A few days ago, a nearly completed new apartment building in Shanghai toppled over on its side. A few Chinese netizens have reacted to the news by creating funny photoshops of possible reasons for the collapse:
