Archive for May, 2009

Indian Musical: Love in Tokyo

A clip from the 1966 Indian film “Love in Tokyo”:

[via Zaeega]

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

Privacy scare after photo of princess posted on the INTERNET

A tiny photograph that may or may not show a member of the Japanese royal family was posted on Mixi (part of the scary internet). Somehow, this very dull photograph showing a girl in a school uniform smiling has created an uproar over what is supposedly a horrible violation of her privacy:

“It has not been confirmed whether the photo actually is of Princess Kako,” said a Gakushuin public relations official commenting on the leak. “We cannot provide any information on how the boy obtained the photograph.”

Noriyuki Kazaoka, Vice-Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, said he hoped there would be no recurrences.

“We cannot confirm that it is (Princess Kako), but from the perspective of protecting private information, we think that generally, going ahead and posting photographs on the Internet without consent cannot be called appropriate behavior. We hope that this sort of thing does not happen again in the future.”

To view some photos of the princess that aren’t considered private, check out this Sankei article.

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Related story: A bilingual tourism PR magazine published by the Japanese government has comic strips telling foreigners not to violate the rights of geisha by putting photos of them up on the internet.

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Yukio Hatoyama: Freemason?

Saw some Japanese blog posts today that examined the following screen capture of DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama and determined that the thing he is doing with his hand is a masonic sign:

And, since there appears to be a crazy masonic-looking pyramid on top of a building next to a DPJ office, the whole party must be in on the Freemason’s conspiracy to control Japan! [A conspiracy that apparently dates back to at least the time of his grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama, who, along with Taro Aso's grandfather, Shigeru Yoshida, was a freemason.]

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Hundreds of flu-fearing residents line up to buy masks

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reports that newly confirmed cases of H1N1 flu peaked last week, and the infection rate is now in decline. The government has eased anti-flu measures and flights from abroad will no longer face quarantine checks. Schools that were closed because of flu fears are reopening.

None of that seems to have had much of an effect on residents of Takarazuka, about 800 of whom lined up yesterday at city hall to buy protective masks:

The masks went on sale at 10:00AM and sold out quickly. Some people had arrived as early as 7:00AM to wait, and because the city had only 500 boxes of masks available, hundreds of people went home disappointed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Sea of Japan, flu fears have whipped up xenophobic bullshit. Foreigners in South Korea, even some who have not traveled abroad in the last several months, are being treated as likely sources of disease. Parents of students are calling schools to inquire about the safety of having their children in the same room as a foreigner, and foreign teachers are being told to stay in their houses and avoid contact with other foreigners. Have any of this site’s readers experience something similar in Japan?

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Workers fail to capture renegade monkey

A wild monkey on the loose in Kisarazu:

Some 30 workers took part in efforts to capture the animal, but so far they have failed.

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Annoying mosquito buzzer draws tourists

Remember the mosquito buzzer that a park in Tokyo installed to prevent loud young people from gathering there at night? Well, it turns out all the media attention is actually causing many young people to visit the park at night, just so they can hear the sound made by the rare device:

Local residents aren’t particularly pleased with the presence of these tourists, but it does seem that many of them quickly leave after experiencing the annoying sound.
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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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