Whale mascots advertise Japan International Sport Fishing Show
Greenpeace may have Mister Splashy Pants, but the Japan international Sport Fishing Show has some cute whale mascots of its own (and they know how to use fishing rods!):
[via AltJapan]
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Categories: Japanese Food
Noriko Calderon speaks to the international press
Noriko Calderon, a girl born and raised in Japan who is facing deportation because her Filipino parents entered Japan illegally, spoke to the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan yesterday:
Noriko expressed her fears about what decision the government will make about her case. The current deadline for a decision is February 13th (Friday), but the so far the government has repeatedly issued new deadlines to provide itself with more time to consider her case.
A Japanese lawyer supporting Noriko told the reporters that many European countries would grant special residency to children in situations similar to those Noriko is facing, and that he’d like the Japanese government to adopt such a policy stance.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
24 carat gold hina dolls
A Reuters news video showing a pair of 24 carat gold hinamatsuri dolls put on display yesterday in Tokyo:
Japanese jeweller Tanaka Ginza unveiled the 24 carat gold dolls which weigh 2 kilogrammes each.
The dolls, representing the Emperor and Empress of Japan, are a 1,000-year-old tradition dating back to a time when dolls were suppose to help ward off evil spirits and help with the coming of Spring.
Similar dolls usually decorate homes ahead of March 3, which is traditionally known as Girl’s Day.
The dolls are being sold for a price of about $120,000.
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Categories: General Japan
Sony Gadgets
The Onion makes fun of gadget hype:
Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work
Related story: A couple weeks ago, Sony announced it would post its first annual loss in 14 years.
[via BoingBoing]
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Categories: Technology
Pictures of foreigners from 17th/18th century Japan
In 1635, Japan closed its borders to foreigners and began a 200 year period of seclusion, but that hardly meant that the Japanese stopped obtaining information about the rest of the world. Limited trade continued with the Dutch, Chinese, and Koreans, and through these contacts the Japanese authorities were able to learn quite a bit about what things were like in other countries.
The Dutch traders based in Nagasaki were a particularly useful source of information, so the city became a hub for Japanese scholars who studied foreign countries. Many European books and maps were translated into Japanese, creating a steady (although limited) flow of foreign technology and ideas into Japan.
Kyushu University now maintains a digital archive of many such old books and artwork relating to the outside world. Below is an interesting selection of pretty color images [via 空] from a 1714 guide to the world, followed by some scans of a guide published in 1688.
Images from 1714
England / Russia
The Netherlands / Spain
Categories: General Japan
Japanese Emoticons
Trying to figure out the meaning of an emoticon you saw on a Japanese website, or just want to find some neat-looking Japanese smilies? Look no further, dear readers: Ken Y-N of What Japan Thinks has launched Evoticon.net, online super site for Japanese emoticons!
As you might expect from the site’s title, it has a feature that lets viewers vote and assign ratings to their favorite emoticons. The highest ranking emoticons are placed on the front page of Evoticon.
I have not yet had the time to browse every single emoticon (the database contains thousands), but here are a few of my favorites from the sections I have seen so far:
Some “Hot! Hot! Hot!” faces:
_(ﾟﾛﾟ_)ﾎｯﾄ! ﾎｯﾄ!(_ﾟﾛﾟ)__(ﾟﾛﾟ_)ﾎｯﾄ! ﾎｯﾄ!(_ﾟﾛﾟ)_
ｼｬｹｶﾞﾂﾚﾀ♪(*￣(ｴ)￣)o/￣￣￣￣￣￣~ >ﾟ )))>彡
∥wc∥ ヽ(*・ω・)ﾉ ﾌｳｯ♪
Peeking out from behind a wall:
| |_･) ﾁﾗﾘ!
A pig saying, “congratulations!”:
才乂〒~├ゥ♪(＝｀(●●)´＝)ﾉ
An angry face saying “f— you” in katakana:
(｀ε´ﾒ)ρ))ﾌｧｯｸﾕｰ!!
Dull faces expressing a lack of interest:
ふ━━( ´_ゝ`)━( ´_ゝ`)━( ´_ゝ`)━━ん
Check out the site, and please share your favorite discoveries in the comments section of this post!
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Categories: General Japan