Archive for June, 2006

Wacky Japanese Gadgets

Techeblog.com has a cool feature up about the ‘Top 10 Strangest Japanese gadgets and accessories‘.  Here are my 2 favorites:

Oh baby, an ear cleaner with a built-in camera!  Get one of these and your day’s of blindly scraping around inside your ear are over!  I think I might order one….

An alarm that attaches to your ear and automatically vibrates when it detects you are beginning to fall asleep.  Perfect for the sleep-deprived Japanese!

Head on over and read the rest of the list!!

World Cup suicide

So Japan got knocked out of the World Cup.  A lot of people were disappointed about it, but everyone seems to be over it.  Or so we thought…

Taipei, June 25: A Japanese man hanged himself in Taiwan today after the Asian Champions failed to secure a single victory in the World Cup, a report said.

The 60-year-old man identified as Yoshio Takanashi was found dead at the home of his Taiwanese wife`s parents in the city of Taichung, the Cable Televisin News Network Ettoday reported.

It said his wife told police that her husband had stopped watching television following Japan`s dismal performance in the competition. -Zeenews

So, did he kill himself because of the World Cup loss, or maybe he was just engaging in the unrelated Japanese pastime of suicide?

Oh well, it seems on a whole, the Japanese are taking things a lot better than Korea is…

Hot Dog Hype

As I am typing up this entry, the front page news at Yahoo.com includes an article entitled ‘Man gobbles down 22 hot dogs in 12 minutes‘:

CRANBURY, N.J. – With sweat pouring down his face, a 42-year-old courier from Moonachie methodically gobbled 22 hot dogs in 12 minutes Friday to win a regional hot-eating competition and a slot at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July eating contest in Coney Island, N.Y.

Pat Philbin, known in the competitive eating circuit as “Pat from Moonachie,” beat 12 veterans and newcomers to competitive eating to be crowned the New Jersey Turnpike Regional Hot-Dog Eating Champion at a highway rest area.

Sound remarkable? Not really, considering the fact that the defending world champion, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, has eaten over 44.5 hot dogs in each of his appearances at Coney Island since 2001 (he has won every time since).

Kobayashi is the world’s greatest competitive eater. While significant portions of the world are starving to death, Kobayashi entertains the people of America and Japan by shoving enough hot dogs to feed a North Korean family for a year in only 12 minutes. Just taking a look at this video of Kobayashi eating hot dogs at a previous competion should show you that American fatties like Pat Philbin don’t stand a chance this year.

So, does anybody know where to get a real hot dog in this country?  I’m not talkin’ about those terrible konbini hot dogs, I’m talkin about real hot dogs.

Test scores are serious business

It’s been a top news story in Japan for the last week, but if you’re outside of Japan you probably haven’t heard about it:

A Japanese boy burned down his home, killing his stepmother and two younger siblings, for fear his parents would find out he had lied about his score on an English test.

The 16-year-old, whose name has not been released, is thought to have set fire to the house in Nara, western Japan, and left his stepmother to die along with his seven-year-old brother and five-year-old sister, domestic media reports said on Saturday.

The boy’s parents had been due to attend a meeting with teachers about his exam results that same day, reports said. The teenager told police his father, a doctor, had put him under extreme pressure over his academic performance, Kyodo news agency said.

The boy was attending a very prestigious high school, one which sends over 100 students a year to top national universities.  He had been #1 in his graduating class at junior high, but in the competitive environment of an elite high school he was no longer the best.  His father insisted that he get top scores, making the boy study until 2:00 or 3:00AM many nights.  The studying took place in a room that was nicknamed the ICU (Intensive Care Unit).  The boy seemed to sacrifice all enjoyment in his life for the sake of test scores.  Unfortunately, he was unable to reach his goals.

His latest test results were not so great, so he decided to kill his family before they found out about them.  After starting a fire that killed his stepmother and siblings, he fled to Kyoto.  At some point he must have remembered that the World Cup was on TV, so he decided to break into somebody’s house and watch it.  Shortly after the break-in he was arrested by police.

I really don’t know what to make of this incident.  Certainly the boy is responsible for a horrible crime.    Was he driven insane by the pressures placed on him by his family?  Did Japan’s messed-up education system mess him up?