Archive for April, 2009

Japanese veteran talks abour war experiences in China

The Japan Times posting a YouTube video to accompany an article about a war veteran? I’m impressed:

“He gave us five bullets, saying four were for fighting the enemy and one was for killing ourselves,” Koyama recalled. “I had been a salaryman the week before, and the first thing I learned on the battlefield was how to commit suicide.”

One of Koyama’s most terrible experiences was being taught how to execute Chinese civilian prisoners.

One day, Koyama saw seven or eight Chinese men from a village in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, blindfolded and tied to trees. They were being punished because they would not reveal the location of the Chinese Red Army. Seasoned soldiers ordered the green recruits to execute them for not cooperating.

“I was scared to kill a man at first,” Koyama said. “I felt much guiltier killing someone with a bayonet than with a pistol from 100 meters away.”

With his comrades, he tried to pierce a man’s heart, but was unable to because the victim kept squirming to avoid being stabbed.

Koyama eventually bayoneted the man in the stomach and shoulders. After his first killing, he said he was unable to eat. But eventually he started training new recruits to also execute their prisoners, justifying his actions by arguing he had no choice because it was war.

“It was hell,” he said. “I still cannot forget their blood spraying.”

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

The Kaiteki – the future of bicycles?

FTV rides around on “THE-KAITEKI”, a futuristic bicycle designed by Mitsubishi:

The bike’s body is made from a strong lightweight plastic and it has an electric motor that can take over when the cyclist needs some help. The battery can be recharged via solar panels or a docking station.

The second vehicle shown in the clip is a special electric bicycle/wheelchair hybrid aimed at elderly consumers. It is being developed by Yamaha and Nikko City and has safety features such as a brake that automatically stops the bike if it is rolling down a hill.

The last vehicle shown in the clip is GM’s experimental Segway vehicle. The news anchor seems to doubt GM’s claims about the vehicle’s safety.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Break out the facepaint, it’s time to impersonate some Black musicians!

There was a special competition that aired the other night in which Japanese people impersonated famous musicians. As usual on such shows, a few acts were impersonations of foreign musicians. Here they are!

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Moeyan as the Jackson 5 (the singer’s mother was an English teacher, hence the good pronunciation):

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I think this is supposed to be Earth, Wind & Fire:

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An older Michael Jackson delivers some Bad puns:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Post-hanami garbage causes problems for parks

As Tokyo’s peak cherry blossom viewing time draws to a close, let us ponder the giant heaps of trash we leave behind in parks when we finish our drinking parties.

In some parks, such as this one, visitors are asked to bring their trash home with them because there isn’t enough space in designated garbage dumping areas. This inevitably results in many people just leaving their garbage in the park:

A woman who lives near the park says she often finds lots of trash just thrown around, and sure enough, a walk towards the park finds a bag of mixed trash hidden in some bushes. Within the park, the special garbage dumping area has overflowed, and few seem to care about dividing garbage up into proper categories.

The reporter finds some young folks leaving trash in a spot that is not a designated dumping area. When confronted, they tell him that they will “come back and get it later.” Yeah, right.

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In parks with large populations of homeless, such as Ueno Park, the leftover trash can actually be beneficial:

In the above clip, homeless people help clean up all the junk revelers left behind in the park. In return, they get to keep any food or drink that they can salvage from the mess. Visitors to the park are surprisingly wasteful, often leaving enormous amounts of perfectly good food behind. The homeless regard hanami season as one of the best times of the year, as they get to enjoy lots of quality food and booze. (Check out that half-full bottle of sake the homeless dude finds!)

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Noriko Calderon begins second year of junior high

Noriko Calderon began her second year of junior high today. It will be her first year of school since the Japanese government granted her a special residency permit. Her parents, who will soon be deported, were there to see her off:

Her father, Arlan, 36, said it was good that his daughter would be able to continue to study in Japan.

The couple has decided to entrust Noriko to the care of her mother Sarah’s younger sister who lives in Tokyo, according to their lawyer.

The special permission will allow the teenager, who speaks only Japanese, to continue going to junior high school in Japan.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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A drink for skinny macho men

Suntory wants you to know that its new Protein Water is for slim macho guys, not gorilla-like macho men:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)