Archive for November, 2009

Boxing bell alarm clock

A boxing bell alarm clock from Banpresto:

When the alarm goes off, a referee voice begins counting to ten. If you are able to get up and smash the snooze button, you can go back to sleep. If you’re down for the count, the bell will start ringing when the count reaches ten.

It will go on sale on December 25th for a price of about 2,900 yen. There is also a pro-wrestling version, which only counts to three.

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Another eyebrow dog

Forget about that last dog with eyebrows. Here’s Ran, a dog in Osaka with really thick eyebrows:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
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Crazy doggy bank eats your coins

An NTV morning news show plays with Choken Bako, a doggy bank that devours coins:

The doggy bank is available in black, white, and brown. It will go on sale on November 28th and be priced at around 2,310 yen.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
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Foreigners amazed by giant garbage claw

Some of ATV’s foreign reporter team, visits a trash processing facility near Tokyo Bay and gets to see a giant claw in action:

The trash lifted by the claw is burned at 1450°C. The leftover metal is recycled.

In the second clip, they check out the tunnel under Tokyo Bay:

They are given a special tour of the emergency walkway that runs under the road. In case of a fire inside the tunnel, there are evacuation slides every 300-meters that allow trapped drivers to escape into the emergency walkway.

At the end of the clip, they walk up a lot of stairs and get to walk around on the artificial island created as a ventilation shaft for the tunnel. (Warning: There is an absolutely stupid pun in the last few seconds of the video.)

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Lucky couple have samurai wedding ceremony at Japanese castle

This week’s “Nanikore Chin Hyakkei” had a segment about a samurai wedding at Matsue Castle:

The wedding was modeled after the kind of celebration that might occur if the groom had been a feudal lord. Their friends and family were dressed in samurai attire, taking on the role of the lord’s retainers.

The couple got to have this unique wedding because they had submitted the prize-winning entry to a contest celebrating the 400th anniversary of the castle. A local tourism NPO helped set everything up, so the ceremony only cost 30,000 yen ($337).

For tourism info about Matsue, check out this page.

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Anti-flu masks don’t work as well as advertised

A FTV news report about how protective masks that offer “99%” virus protection are selling well:

A study conducted by the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan found that most masks are far less effective than their packages claim. Of the fifteen brands of 99% anti-viral masks tested, twelve had filters with below 95% virus-blocking capability. Six of those twelve, six were below 80%. When one considers the fact that masks will not be a perfect fit for everyone’s head, the effectiveness of the masks is almost cut in half. Even the masks with very good filters are unlikely to provide total protection from the flu virus. The government will advise mask producers to change their packaging to better reflect reality.

Of course, this will have little effect on those who are buying and wearing these masks. Even when confronted with evidence that the masks are probably ineffective, people said they were going to wear the masks anyway because they need any protection they can get.

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