Guinea pigs eat watermelon
A video from this Japanese pet blog:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Animal Videos
Emperor Akihito visits Canada
The Emperor and Empress of Japan are in Canada right now. Here’s some video of their arrival:
The Globe and Mail has an optimistic article up about how the imperial visit will help improve Canada’s image in Japan.
Experts say this heavy media coverage offers a prime opportunity for Canada to break through some of the stereotypes it faces among the Japanese, who are expected to devour coverage of the tour.
“Japan, as do most countries, has quite a limited view of what Canada is,” said Ken Coates, the president of the Japan Studies Association and a professor at the University of Waterloo. “It tends to be, ‘Let’s go see some moose, some Mounties and some mountains.’ So this is a marvellous opportunity.”
Seeing as most of the news programs I saw today devoted less than a minute of coverage to the first day of the imperial visit to Canada, I don’t expect that we’ll see anything special about Canada.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: General Japan
F-22 at Kadena Air Base
An event today at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa gave the Japanese general public their first chance to see an F-22 stealth fighter up close:
There were also some 4th of July fireworks at the base.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Man dresses up like wife in failed attempt to receive a loan
A man was arrested in Japan earlier this week for dressing up like his wife and trying to take out a loan in her name. He had claimed that that difference between his appearance and the photo of his wife on her id card was because of failed plastic surgery.
Police, apparently considering the arrest to be important, went through the trouble of confiscating the clothing he wore and putting it on a mannequin. As cool as it was, it wasn’t enough for TBS and ATV news, who put their artists to work:
TBS prepared some illustrations reenacting the event, while ATV created the cross-dresser using primitive 3D computer graphics.
The most silly of these was:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: Odd / Strange
Body Paper Commercial
A new commercial for Gatsby Body Paper, possibly inspired by the silly lip syncing baseball players who were popular on TV a while back:
The paper, as you might guess, is used to wipe sweat off your body – a very useful product in the terrible humidity of Japanese summer.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: General Japan
Japanese man arrested for buying guns from the internet
A man in Hyogo Prefecture has been arrested for buying 22 illegal weapons from the internet:
As you can see from the video, the weapons look like they are mostly old rifles, pistols, and bayonets once used by the Imperial Japanese Army. The man, who was a collector with no intent to actually use the guns, had been illegally buying weapons from online auctions since 2003.
In other firearms/knife control news, oyster knives are now considered illegal weapons and a man who touched an unloaded rifle for a few seconds will likely be charged with a crime.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Categories: General Japan