Fire Hose + Toilet = Super Washlet
A special episode of “Toribia no Izumi” aired on Japanese TV saturday night, performing several awesomely weird experiments.
A viewer submitted a letter wanting to know how much blasting power a toilet washlet spray would have if replaced by a fire hose. Thanks to the cooperation of the Nara city fire department (and Nara mascot Sento-kun) they were able to conduct the test:
The child-sized dummy was thrown 13.7 meters. Such power would probably clean one’s butt pretty well, but inside a bathroom it would probably throw a person into a wall and cause serious injury.
Those interested in how the experiment was set up can watch the making of clip here.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Onimusha Pachinko
A commercial for a new Onimusha pachinko machine:
Pachinko commercials, like the exterior of pachinko parlors, tend to look pretty cool. Unfortunately, the product they advertise is an incredibly boring waste of money.
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Categories: General Japan
Gourmet burger restaurants in Tokyo
What is your favorite burger restaurant?
If you’ve never tried any private one unlike McDonald’s, Mos, Lotteria, First Kitchen, or the ones that you can find anywhere else, here are examples of yummy burger restaurants in Tokyo that are strictly selected by the subscribers of Tabelog.
10: Fire House
Double cheese burger is most popular and it’s for 1523yen.
9: 1010 Noel Drive
1010(ten-ten) burger is for 1010yen.
8: The Great Burger
Bacon cheese burger is most popular and it’s for 1250yen.
7: Village Vanguard Dinner
Pepper & cheddar melt burger is highly recommended and it’s for 1050yen.
6: Burger Mania
The owner of “Fire House(10/10)” and “The Great Burger(8/10)” opened Burger Mania 2 years ago. Ultimate blue cheese burger is highly recommended and it’s for 1300yen. Platinum burger (1500yen)is available with a limited quantity. It’s made from 3 slices of Kuroge Wagyu beef, not minced beef!!
5: Brothers
Lot burger as tall as 13cm is good. It’s for 1500yen.
4: Sunny Diner
Bacon egg 2×2 burger is for 1580yen.
3: Reg-on Diner
The owner of “Brothers(5/10)” opened Reg-on Diner but they are totally different tastes. ABC burger (Avocado/Bacon/Cheese) is for 1250yen.
2: Baker Bouce
Bacon cheese burger is for 1155yen.
1: Fellows
Chilli beans cheese burger is for 1500yen. It’s absolutely good.
Which burger do you like or dislike?
I’ve never tried any private burger restaurants because I feel like chooseing something else if I have to pay 1500yen for lunch. I’d like to try ABC burger(3/10) and chilli beans cheese burger(1/10) if I have a chance. :p
Contributor Bio: Kirin is a Japanese woman spending her life so far somewhere around Tokyo. She now works from home and is also spreading Japanese kawaii culture and etc. through her popular blog, Tokyo Kawaii,etc.
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Categories: General Japan
The Daily Yomiuri may soon disappear?
Our Man in Abiko shares some dirt on the fate of the Yomiuri’s English language paper:
1. The boss has been told to trim staff by 25%
2. The paper will be going to one edition in April from the current four.
3. About 10 Yomiuri staff will be shifted out to other parts of the company and 10 contract employees have volunteered to quit.
4. The latest ABC figures for the Daily Yomiuri are down 4,500 to 30,093, probably due to airlines stopping taking the paper for free (if you can’t even give it away, what does that tell you about the future of papers?)
5. With only a handful of foreigners left to mop up, Our Man can’t wait to see the quality of the writing this April.
As much as people like to bash the quality of the Daily Yomiuri, it would be a shame to see it fade away. I occasionally read its online articles, and although they lack the fancy pictures and the marketing put into the Mainichi’s English edition, they sometimes have really good columns.
Update: A clarification from Our Man.
Doubt that the DY will quit completely, by “Days numbered” in the original post headline Our Man meant for the journos working there, not necessarily the paper, though you don’t need a iPhone to read the writing on the wall.
Our Man doesn’t have all the answers, just some good rumours from a couple of trusted sources. Most papers have a handful of editions, the first for the DY is the Hokkaido edition which is printed at 7pm. The last edition is the Tokyo city final, which has the latest deadline (midnight or so).
So, presumably the latest news will be from 7pm the day before.
No idea what changes are afoot to the DY’s net.
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Categories: General Japan
Mini tsunami from Chile earthquake
An amateur video shows a small tsunami that was generated by an earthquake in Chile:
2010/2/28 about 17:30(JST) 4.5km from a sea,Niida river,Hachinohe city,Aomori pref. The tsunami height is about 50cm at the sea,at that time. And the Hachinohe bay faces north not Chile. Those are some breakwaters in the bay.
The earthquake in Chile caused a bit of an overreaction in Japan, with huge warning maps on every TV channel showing almost all of Japan’s cost highlighted in ominous red. Many train lines were shut down for hours in preparation for the arrival of the waves. Mini tsunamis did hit some areas, causing minor flooding, but nobody was hurt.
That was not the case 50 years ago, as this ATV news clip shows how a 9.5 magnitude earthquake in Chile created a tsunami that killed over 140 people:
The hyped up warnings were too much this time, but it is understandable that nobody in the government would want to risk not warning people enough and having a repeat of such a tragedy.
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Categories: General Japan
Korean cyber attack on 2-channel
Just when you’d expect South Korea’s uber-nationalistic netizens to be celebrating their country’s first figure skating gold medal, this happens:
South Korean Net users were angered last Wednesday when a Japanese user alleged on a 2-channel message board that figure skating star Kim bribed judges to edge out her rival Mao Asada of Japan, Yonhap said.
More than 10,000 South Korean users coordinated their attacks through South Korean Web communities to attack the Japanese site on Monday, the day that marks the 91st anniversary of the March 1, 1919 independence movement.
South Korean users attacked the Web page until 30 message boards out of 33 shut down from a server overload, the news agency said.
South Korean users recently opened a Web community to plan cyber attacks targeting the Japanese Web site, and have amassed more than 77,000 members, according to Yonhap.
The video embedded at the top of this post, a Korean-subbed version of a sort of investigative report by NTV’s Bankisha, also seems to have ignited anger. The report looks into why there was such a huge point gap between Mao Asada and Yuna Kim. It includes an interview with Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko, who says that Mao should have received a higher score. It is the most-viewed video on YouTube South Korea today and has a comment thread with hundreds of messages expressing anti-Japanese hate.
Update: Brian points out that the Korea Times is reporting that the attack on 2-channel was also triggered by hateful comments made about the murder of a Korean student in Russia. Those familiar with 2-channel are probably aware of the fact that all Korea-related threads (and even most threads unrelated to Korea) are often full of anti-Korean troll postings, so it’s unclear why the sudden mobilization of anti-2-channel cyber warriors has taken place now.
[hat tip to VGS]
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Categories: Anti-Japan