It is being reported that a woman who came to Japan today on a Northwest Airlines flight from L.A. may infected with the swine flu. Doctors checking all the passengers found that the woman has symptoms matching the flu who tested positive for A-type flu when given a quick test. She has [...]

Spotted in New York City recently: Brad Pitt and sumo wrestler Musashimaru filming a new commercial for Softbank. Check out a full photo gallery here and here. [via FG]
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The nunchaku master featured in previous posts (Nunchaku Baseball & Nunchaku Badminton) appeared on The Best House last night:

In addition to his baseball and champagne bottle tricks, he also showed some new ones: breaking a cucumber held in a student’s mouth & blowing out candles of uneven length on a b-day cake!
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An orangutan at a Japanese zoo tries on some masks:

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TBS news visits a petting zoo in Toyama and asks parents if they are worried about the SWINE FLU:

Visitors are being asked to wash their hands and gargle their throats after petting the animals. As an employee points out, there is pretty much no danger of contracting swine flu from the pigs at [...]

Taro Aso visited in China yesterday:

Before meeting with Premier Wen, Aso went to a Japanese culture center and met with a Chinese artist who won Japan’s International Manga Award. He also listened to a humorous voice-acting demonstration from some Chinese otaku.
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With the Golden Week holiday beginning, several Japanese universities have sent out messages to students warning them about the dangers of swine flu.
A friend attending Nihon University sends the following excerpt from a warning e-mail sent out to all students:
日本大学は全学渡航禁止命令を出しました。
日本国内で一人でもインフルエンザが確認された場合、全学休講となります。
外出をなるべくひかえ人混みに行かないように注意。
Student travel is forbidden, and students are told to avoid going out – especially to [...]

Yokozuna Asashoryu is now a permanent resident:
Asashoryu, whose real name is Dolgorsuren Dagvadorj, has lived in Japan since 1997, when he became an exchange student at Meitoku Gijuku High School’s sumo club in Kochi Prefecture.
Foreign nationals must have lived in Japan for a duration of at least 10 years before they are eligible to [...]

A few improved versions of Chidejika, the cartoon deer that replaced Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as the official spokesman for the Association for Promotion of Digital Broadcasting:
First, we have a Chidejika/Kusanagi hybrid monster!

Next, we have some otaku-friendly anime girl versions of Chidejika created by a 2-channelers [via Itai News]:

Some pics of Chidejika wearing a leotard bearing [...]

It’s pretty common for people in Japan to wear surgical masks when they are sick or trying to protect themselves from illness, and the government has included the wearing of masks as a measure to be used by the general public if the swine flu comes to Japan.
An advisor to the British government does not [...]

Yes, Mr. Nakasone, I think we can agree that the above scene from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was pretty stupid:
“There was a scene in a hit movie last year in which the famous hero, facing a blast from a nuclear test, hid in a refrigerator,” Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said [...]

Street performer Broken Robot Nozomi puts on a sad show about war:

And has a sad experience with a dog:

And finally, a performance about the environment:

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