Lonely parrot mimics phone
A video of Yamada-san the parrot, who has learned to mimic a telephone call to summon humans whenever he is lonely:
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Categories: Animal Videos
Will the swine flu come to Japan?
Deadly swine flu is spreading all over the world! Will Japan be safe?
Some measures are being taken to make sure it doesn’t get into the country:
At Kansai International Airport, quarantine officials began asking people returning from Mexico to report fevers, coughing or any other potential symptoms to its quarantine office.
The airport installed a thermographic device in 2003 to deal with the outbreak of the respiratory virus SARS and will use it to check passengers from Mexico. Since there are no direct flights from Mexico to Kansai airport, the officials will check those who returning from the country via the United States.
However, swine flu has not yet been designated as an infectious disease requiring quarantine inspections, and airport officials will contact the health ministry whether to determine whether it is appropriate to isolate passengers who appear to have symptoms of swine flu.
Travel agency JTB has also canceled all its tour packages to Mexico.
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Categories: General Japan
Ridiculously tiny parking space
Video of a man in Kobe who converted a storage area under some stairs into a parking space:
According to the narrator, the man first measured the parking space, and then bought a car that fit into it.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
This Mother’s Day, give your mom some Ghana
I sometimes wonder what if people in Ghana know that Lotte named a chocolate bar after their country:
Do you think they’d like the idea that Japanese commercials advertise Ghana as a good Mother’s Day gift?
At the very least, their government seems to appreciate it:
On April 22nd 2004 a reception was organized at the Ghana embassy where the council presented a Certificate of Honor to Mrs. Kazuko Asai, for her dedicated service to the people of Ghana and in particular her devoted service to the rural communities of Ghana. Lotte Corporation on its part was awarded a certificate of Appreciation for their continuos effort in popularizing the name of Ghana through the naming of their products after Ghana throughout Japan and on the international markets. Lotte, which is the largest producer of chocolate products in Japan, uses Ghana’s premium cocoa beans. The vice president of Lotte received the award on behalf of his company.
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Categories: Japanese Food
Daito Manabe: LED in my mouth
The latest weird creation from Daito Manabe, the guy who used electrodes to turn his face into a music visualizer:
[via Danny Choo]
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Categories: Odd / Strange, Technology
Pacifism still strong with young Japanese
Kyodo reports that a survey has found that 60% of Japanese high school students oppose a revising Article 9 of the constitution (“the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes…“):
The latest survey, conducted last November by the Japan Senior High School Teachers and Staff Union on 12,286 students at 148 high schools in 28 prefectures, indicated that 60.9 percent of the students were against a possible revision of Article 9.
Meanwhile, the ratio of students who supported a revision stood at 11.5 percent, little changed from the previous survey’s 11 percent.
Among respondents who said Article 9 should be left unchanged, 73.2 percent cited as reasons that a revision “could open the way to war,” while 14.0 percent said, “Article 9 is something (Japan should) boast about to the world.”
Those looking for more to read about the topic might want to check out “Peace Education in Japan’s Schools: A View From the Front Lines” over at JapanFocus.
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Categories: General Japan