Archive for August, 2008

Weird Games Roundup

Ok, so maybe “two” doesn’t make for much of a roundup, but this pair of recent Japan-side releases (both available August 28) compensate for lack of quantity with their sheer quality.

First up is キャプテン★レインボー (Captain Rainbow), an adventure/action game for the Wii featuring a cattlecall of b-list (perhaps rather, c-list) Nintendo celebs. Early on in the game, you run into Birdo, who is probably most notable as the egg-spitting transvestite mini-boss from Super Mario Bros. 2. Chris Kohler at Wired.com perhaps best summarizes the encounter (and the mood of the game as a whole) with the following scene:

Birdo is seen by the island’s robot police officer as he/she comes out of a public toilet. (The line he delivers as he comes out: “Wow, that was huge. That was like giving birth.”)

The officer throws him in jail for using the ladies’ room when he’s clearly a man. Birdo asks you to go to his/her house and find “evidence that I’m a woman.” So you do. This is how it happens. As you walk into Birdo’s bedroom, you hear … a buzzing. The pillow on her bed is vibrating and buzzing. You walk up to it, and Captain Rainbow looks under the pillow to find … an item that’s censored out on the screen. It’s covered up with a question mark. “Proof that the owner is a woman,” it says, leaving it at that.

So you bring what is in all likelihood Birdo’s vibrator back to the police robot, who accepts it, whatever it may be, as prima facie evidence that Birdo is a chick.

Next up is a perhaps less familiar but no less weird offering for the DS, a 15+ rated “touching” game, To LOVEる. What sets To LOVEる apart from its peers is the milk-squirting mini-game. The object of this mini-game is to squirt sweetened condensed milk onto a strawberry that the girl on the screen is holding and moving around. Inevitably, the player more often than not misses the strawberry and as expected, the girl is subjected to the inexorable dictates of physics.

Thanks to Kotaku for the lead to the video and fast forward to 3:07 to view the milk-squirting game.

Police issue drug-related arrest warrant for Australian rugby player

Mainichi reports that Japanese police have issued a drug-related arrest warrant for an Australian who plays for a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rugby club:

Police obtained the arrest warrant for 31-year-old player Simon Kasprowicz, who belongs to the Sagamihara Dynaboars. However, details of the case have yet to be made clear, and officials have put off announcing any punishments for him.

A rugby official has used the incident as an opportunity to single out foreign players as a source of drug trouble:

“The continuation of drug incidents is extremely regrettable,” a Kanto region rugby official said. “I want teams to also properly investigate the actions of their foreign players.”

Man arrested for threatening Crown Prince Naruhito on 2-channel

The latest in a series of actions by police that show they’re taking online death threats seriously:

Police say they have arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly posting an Internet threat to kill Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito.

Takeshi Yamamoto, an unemployed man in Gifu Prefecture has been charged with posting the threat, which caused a police alert on an anonymous bulletin board, Kyodo News reported Saturday.

The man reportedly has admitted to posting the message, ”I will kill the crown prince,” through his home computer Aug. 13. But he now maintains it was just a hoax.

Abandoned hotel used for ALT shootouts

English teachers living in the countryside of Japan don’t have a whole lot of entertainment available, so they have to be creative. Here’s some YouTube videos of ALT’s in Kochi Prefecture who use an abandoned hotel for BB gun shootouts:

Radiation leak was “no more harmful than a routine chest X-ray”

The United States has issued its final report on the case of an American submarine leaking radiation in Japan:

The United States assured Japan on Friday that the trace levels of radioactivity which leaked from the U.S. Navy submarine Houston during its visits to three Japanese ports were, even when combined, no more harmful than a routine chest X-ray and promised to ensure “stringent performance standard” in the future.

A final report given by the U.S. Embassy in Japan to the Foreign Ministry said the incident was the first of its kind in the more than 50 years that the U.S. Navy has operated nuclear reactors and reemphasized that the leakages posed “no adverse effect on human health, marine life, or the environment.”

Shanghai World Financial Center opens to the public

FTV takes a look at the newly-completed Shanghai World Financial Center (“Shanghai Hills”), which was developed by Japan’s Mori Building company:

The building was meant to be the world’s tallest skyscraper when it was planned, but years of delays have meant that it is now the world’s third tallest building. However, it still boasts the highest observation floor, as well as the world’s highest pool.

Some details:

The first two floors are commercial with the third to fifth floors for conference centers. The seventh to 77th floors will house offices. The 79th to 93rd floors will be the Park Hyatt Shanghai hotel, which is expected to test run on Monday.

The 94th to 100th floors are an observatory for sightseeing and will be open to tourists on Saturday. The observatory on the 100thfloor at 474 meters above ground is the tallest of its kind in the world.

It is expected to receive 3 million tourists annually. The admission price ranges from 110 yuan (16 U.S dollars) to 150 yuan.

In the FTV clip, Mori Building Co. founder Minoru Mori stated that he hopes the skyscraper will be a seen as a symbol of friendship between Japan and China.

Note: More information on this building project can be found in our November 2006 post about nationalistic disputes over the design and name of the Shanghai World Financial Center.