83-year-old man arrested for indecent exposure
An 83-year-old man has been arrested in Saitama Prefecture after he flashed his private parts to a group of elementary school boys:
The man has told police that he was only trying to give the boys a sex education lesson.
According to Itai News, the old man had been engaging in similar activities for about 5 years. Local kids had actually given him the nickname “Master Jiji” (jiji being a word for “old man” and master being the first half of a word that describes what the old man would do to himself after dropping his pants).
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Odd / Strange
Canadian bakes cute cakes in Japan
A FTV news report about Chris MacDonald, a Canadian who creates and sells cakes in Japan:
Chris lives in Bizen City in Okayama Prefecture. He got into the cake business after marrying a Japanese woman in Canada and moving back to Japan with her to take over her family’s Japanese confectionery shop.
The Panda-shaped cake he invented has proven to be a huge success. The shop sold 10,000 of them last year and they now sell about 50 of them a day (at a price of 8000 yen each). Chris loves seeing the happy faces of customers who buy his cakes.
At the end of the segment, they ask Chris to make a special cake version of FTV news anchor Taro Kimura. The final product is quite cool.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Japanese Food
Tokyo CGM Night
Back in September, people from all walks of Japanese internetness gathered under the banner of networking. Somehow I got invited then, and yet again. This time Danny Choo hosted and organized the event, with Andrew Shuttleworth co-hosting, and the number of attendees was even greater than before.
Here’s my humble recap, in video form:
Also, check out Danny’s recap with extensive links.
Folks who gave me their card:
- Webnet IT An IT services company
- CScout A trend researcher. Also, there is a blog.
- Samurai Factory Internet tool creators
- Bluebridge They created a tool to facilitate communication and scheduling.
- Jib TV An online TV content distributor; unfortunately and ironically not viewable within Japan (yet), but those of you outside can watch as much as you want.
- six apart Makes blogging tools.
- my Gengo A quick and inexpensive human translation service
Bloggers I met:
- Kynapple A very smart model from England. Also, check out her Youtube link in the video.
- I Rub Your Brog A photoblogger.
- Clement. A post-grad Malawian student in Japan.
Japan-based Youtubers I met that weren’t linked in the video annotations:
- http://www.youtube.com/user/hikosaemon
- http://www.youtube.com/user/cruxay
- http://www.youtube.com/user/channeireview
Contributor bio: Claytonian studies Japanese in Saitama and blogs at The Hopeless Romantic.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Celebrity News, General Japan, Japanese Girls, Odd / Strange
Natsume Soseki’s Nose Hair
Natsume Soseki
Yes, that’s right: he liked to pluck out his nose hairs and arrange them in lines on sheets of writing paper!
One of Natsume Soseki’s pupils, Hyakken Uchida, so admired his teacher that he collected some of the nose hair papers. Unfortunately, they were later lost during World War II.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Odd / Strange
The hayfever season has arrived – do you have a mask?
The dreaded “kafunsho” (pollen allergy) season is beginning! Stores across Japan have put up displays of products aimed at protecting humans from exposure to cedar pollen.
Here is a clip from a FTV news report about some of the newest anti-pollen products on sale at Tokyu Hands in Shibuya:
Just as in previous years, protective masks and safety glasses are the most popular items. Some of the masks and glasses have designs aimed at making them look stylish.
The reporter also tries a new product – “moe” chocolates containing an ingredient that supposedly helps people overcome hay fever. It’s a bit soft, but tastes pretty much the same as normal chocolate.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: General Japan
Crustacean Deathmatches on Japanese TV
Do Crustaceans have feelings? I sure hope not, because TV Tokyo set up some pretty brutal duels between them on a recent program.
The particularly segment was meant to show how the mantis shrimp is an unbelievable badass. A single mantis shrimp was paired up against other menacing sea creatures, resulting in ultra-violent cage matches.
The first battle was between the mantis shrimp and a crab of the species forestia depressa:
After pummeling the poor little crab into oblivion, the mantis shrimp feasted on one of it’s claws!
The second battle was between the mantis shrimp and a tough-looking elbow crab:
The eblow crab delivered some strong punches, but in the end it was knocked out by the mantis shrimp.
The mantis shrimp then moved on to duel a huge Japanese blunthorn lobster:
There was no clear winner in this bout, but the judges gave the victory to the mantis shrimp.
Having defeated an assortment of crustaceans, the mantis shrimp advanced to face its final opponent- a sunadako octopus:
Strong as the mantis shrimp was, its punches were no match for the octopus’ tentacles!
This was:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Animal Videos