Archive for November, 2006

stupid driver + train tracks = a big mess

Around 11:15pm last night, a woman was driving her car across train tracks. The gates went down, signaling that a train was coming. What did she do? This video will explain:

Instead of driving through the barrier, the woman decided to get out of her car and flee in terror. According to Mainichi, she said the following:

“The gate closed (before I got my car out of the crossing) so I panicked,” the woman was quoted as telling investigators.

Situations such as the one the woman found herself in are the reason why the warning gates at most Japanese railway crossings are made out of bamboo. Rather than serving as indestructable barriers that force drivers to abandon their cars, resulting in train derailment and delays for thousands of passengers, the gates are designed so that they can be easily driven through without causing serious damage to cars. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are forced to snap a bamboo railway crossing, do not worry: you just need to report what happened at the nearest station and pay a repair fine. The cost is usually less than 10,000 yen ($100), which probably less of a hassle than having your car bashed into scrap metal by train…

News for November 28, 2006

News/Links for this morning:

-The LDP decided to readmit 11 of the 12 postal rebels who petitioned to rejoin the party. Takeo Hiranuma, who refused to attach a written pledge to accept the LDP’s conditions that include promising to support the privatization of Japan Post, was no allowed back in the party.

-Pink Tentacle writes about Dual-mode vehicles, Bus/Train hybrids that will make public transportation in the countryside a lot easier.

-Mainichi’s WaiWai explores Ageha, a monthly magazine made by cabaret club hostesses for a cabaret club hostess readership.

-Police searched the offices of a pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) yesterday in connection with a woman’s attempt to smuggle medical supplies into North Korea.

-The Party Pooper reveals why Korean slugger Lee Seung-yeop re-signed with the Yomiuri Giants to a four-year extension through 2010 instead of going to the Major Leagues: because he’s scared of the competition.

-Woman who cut off her newborn son’s private parts was sentenced to 5 years in prison yesterday. Despite the fact that she gave her son severe injuries that took seven months to heal and serious after-effects, the judge decided to reduce her sentence from 8 years to 5 years because of her unhappy childhood and the fact that she was regularly abused by her common-law husband.

-Space Daily reports on Japan’s spy satellites.

-Mari has translated the results of a poll showing actions by boyfriends that women hate. Is is so wrong to wash one’s face with a the wet towel at a restaurant?

-Kobe Shimbun photographer was busted for trying to take pictures up woman’s skirt at a pachinko parlor. Maybe he was taking pictures for a feature story on panchira?

-A View From Taiwan comments on the growing ties between Japan and Taiwan.

-Japanese couples love to shop for rings together, according to What Japan Thinks.

-Ohhhh snap! Asashoryu pulled out the Ketaguri (蹴手繰り), how dishonorable! See the video here!

Evening News update:

-The Economist has taken a look at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

-Pingmag explores the wacky world of Japanese pop-up books!

-The DPJ wants to make high school manditory. I can just see it now: high schools specially geared towards taking in the kids who would have never gone to high school in the first place and the unfortunate foreign ALT’s assigned to teach English there….

-ALSOK will soon be deploying security guard robots to shopping malls. It has not yet been determined how the robot will react to people crowding around it an taking pictures with their cell phones.

-Americans applying for long-term visas in Japan will have to submit their fingerprints to the FBI for a criminal record check. Uh oh…

-We only bring you the hardest-hitting news stories: A profile of Roy, Shinzo and Akie Abe’s dog.

-The naked dead body of an 18-year-old girl was discovered in a Nagasaki hotel room last night. Police are looking for the man who originally checked into the room.

-A dream come true for the hikikomori in the apartment next door: Japan’s first online 4-year university will be opening next year!

-An Osaka woman who wrote of a pure love story between a schoolgirl prostitute and a host club gigolo was awarded the grand prize in the first Japan Mobile Phone Novel Awards.

-The Education ministry has received 3 more suicide letters from anonymous writers claiming to be bullying victims.

-Kabukicho’s host clubs are working hard to clean up their image. The quote at the end of the article should truly win you over to their cause.

Shanghai City Govt. doesn’t like Mori Building Co.’s “Shanghai Hills”

A week ago it was announced that the Shanghai World Financial Center, a skyscraper that the Mori Building Company is constructing in China, would be given a new name. The new name, “Shanghai Hills,” would have put the building’s name in line with Mori Building Company’s other famous building projects in Japan, namely Roppongi Hills and Omotesando Hills. However, the authories in Shanghai were not very happy about the name change:

SHANGHAI’S place naming office said yesterday that the new name of the “to be” tallest building on the Chinese mainland is illegal as it hasn’t been approved, Youth Daily reported today.

The office ordered the project developer, Mori Building Co Ltd, to publicly clarify the situation since the company released the new name of its building without government approval.

“The company’s action has posed negative impact on the public and brought trouble to the city’s urban management,” the office said in a notice to the developer.

Property developers can’t mislead the pubic with a “nickname” or an informal name, the notice said.

Mori held a news conference on Monday to announce plans to change the name of the much-delayed 101-floor complex in Pudong’s Lujiazui area from Shanghai World Financial Center to Shanghai Hills World Financial Center.

“‘Hills’ is simply a nickname of the building,” an official in charge of the company’s media relations department told the newspaper yesterday.

“The company won’t be registering the new name as ‘Shanghai Hills,’ but we will follow the office’s notice,” the official said.

The building, which began construction eight years ago but was delayed by financial troubles, is now scheduled to open late next year. It will be 498 meters tall, which is 72 meters taller than the Jin Mao Tower, the tallest building on the mainland.

If the company were to open the building under the new name without government permission, it could face a fine of up to 30,000 yuan (US$3,750).

Some industry insiders speculated that the name change is partly to avoid confusion with another project nearby which is developed by Hong Kong developer Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Sun Hung Kai’s project, which is due to be completed by 2010, is known in the industry as International Finance Center, a namesake of Sun Hung Kai’s landmark development in the Central area of Hong Kong.

It isn’t the first time the project has faced difficulties, as the following video clip and excerpt from this article show:

…’misreading can blead to the frusttaion of the architect, as shown the recent saga of the Shanghai World Financial Center, currently under construction in the same area as the ‘Oriental Pearl.’ The architects, Kohn Pedersen fox, intended to reflect the Chinese cosmic model of ‘square fearth and round heaven,’ with the tower’s square column intersected by two sweeping arcs, resulting in a slender crown punctuated by a large circle….The Shanghainesee, knowing that japanese money was behind the project, decided to see this figurative motif as two Japanese army swords holding a Japanese flag over Shanghai – a regrettable metaphor in light of 20th century history – and the construction was halted.

Nothing spices up the architectural world like ignorance-fueled nationalist hatred!

Hard Gay’s wedding photo!

Back in August, I reported that Razor Ramone HG (Hard Gay) had married bikini model Anna Suzuki. Their official wedding ceremony was held yesterday, and here is their official wedding portrait :

And a close-up of Hard Gay sans sunglasses:

News for November 27, 2006

Some news this morning:

-The scripted Q&A townhall meeting scandal continues to grow.

-Nonpayment for elementary/junior high school lunches in 2005 totalled more than 1.8 billion yen, or 0.53 percent of the amount that should have been collected, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey. Uh oh, better force those poor people to pay up!

-New Tokyo Tower?

-More new stories and opinions for today at Trans-Pacific Radio!

Afternoon update:

-Bullies might actually get suspended from school? I’ll believe it when I see it. Also, Foreign Dispatches has posted an interesting take on the bullying issue.

-AU has created a cell phone with digital radio capabilities. Neat.

-The Yomiuri Shinbun reveals that 70% of local government heads are against term limits. You think?

-A foreigner’s look at the savage Japanese, from the June 15, 1852 edition of the New York Times.

-A survey has found that 28% of workers in Tokyo/Osaka work over 12 hours a day. Horrible.

-Used Pachinko machines, which are being thrown away and eventually shipped to recycling facilities in China, might pose a serious risk to the health of people and could be considered hazardous waste under international law, complains the Japan Times.

-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Europe in January to drum up support for Japan’s tough stance on North Korea.

-Why is Hyundai failing in Japan? Some have reluctantly admitted that using Korean wave stars to promote their brand has been a failure, mainly because the only fans of Korean dramas in Japan are old housewives that don’t usually purchase large sedans.

Air Wrestling (Video)

Are you a fan of air guitar? How about air pro-wresting?

Or the ancient tradition of air sumo wresting?