Looking for some good Japan-related to read this summer? Here are a few suggestions:
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1. Basho: The Complete Haiku – by Matsuo Basho (translation and supplemental information by Shiro Tsujimura and Jane Reichhold)
This newly-released book claims to be the first English translation of the complete collection of haiku by master poet Matsuo Basho. [...]

W. David Marx has written a great review of ABC’s I Survived A Japanese Game Show:
Let’s say an enterprising Romanian television network wanted to make a “reality show” in the American mold. For authenticity’s sake, Executive Producer Bogoescu and his team travel to the United States, where they work with a few lower-level TV hands. [...]

Hokkaido’s ultra-popular Asahiyama Zoo has opened a new wolf area:

The new area is supposed to simulate the habitat of the wolves that once inhabited Hokkaido’s forests. A special tunnel has been constructed so that visitors can experience an unique view from domes inside the wolf enclosure.

Kyodo News reports on the popularity of buying and selling privately owned plots of land within military bases on Okinawa:
The plots, rents for which are paid by the Japanese government, are becoming popular as a safe investment vehicle because their rents increase steadily despite growing concern about the health of the economy, the brokers [...]

People turned out in Tokyo yesterday to protest the upcoming G8 summit:
The protests, which have become a fixture at Group of Eight summits, came as Japan tightened security ahead of this year’s July 7-9 gathering in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
Two separate rallies in the nation’s capital gathered over 1,000 people, including anti-capitalists, labour union members and [...]

Japanese kids tend to enjoy watching a delicious tuna fish be cut apart, but what about whales? One small town sends groups of schoolchildren to watch whalers cut and prepare Baird’s Beaked Whale* meat:
As pro-whaling and pro-conservation countries square off on the other side of the globe, curious Japanese schoolgirl Yuna Suzuki, 10, got [...]

The Kobe Shimbun reports that Kobe Port Tower’s mascot needs a nickname. The character’s official name, Kobe Port Tower-kun, is terribly uncreative, so the Kobe Port Promotion Association is turning to the general public for nickname suggestions.
Anybody got some good ideas?
[hat tip to Ken Y-N of What Japan [...]

Yesterday while making my way from the boonies into Osaka City proper via good ol’ Keihan Honsen, I was about to dispose of my emptied cup o’ coffee upon disembarking at Yodoyabashi station, only to be thwarted by freedom-fighting plastic covers on the dust bins:

However, upon entering the gates to transfer to the connecting Osaka [...]

A few months since Japan Probe published the story about the latest additions to our cell phones, NTT Docomo is at it again.

This time their goal is to make controlling our cell phones as easy as possible, alleviating the incredibly difficult process we currently use of pushing buttons with our fingers. Instead, we will be [...]

A taxi driver injured during the Akihabara knife rampage shows his wound to the press:

He had been driving his taxi near the crossing where the incident took place and had rushed out to provide aid to injured people, becoming a stabbing victim himself in the process. The taxi diver has since been released from [...]

A translation of the results from a poll currently being conducted on Yahoo! Japan:

It may be an unscientific online poll, but I’d say it’s a pretty good indicator of the fact that a majority of Japanese people care about the abductee issue and don’t want North Korea to be rewarded until the problem is resolved.
[hat [...]

If you are looking to escape the heat and humidity of Japan, Hokkaido is the place to be in the summer. There are many places worth visiting and summer time is the perfect time for a lot of these places. One place that will be publicized this year is the hot spring resorts [...]