Archive for April, 2010

The Hikawa Maru Celebrates its 80th Birthday

Yokohama’s Hikawa Maru has celebrated its 80th birthday:

The above news clip includes a brief summary of the Hikawa Maru’s history. It started out as a luxury liner, then it became a hospital ship during the war. After the war, it was used to ferry troops home. She is now part of the NYK Maritime Museum.

An elderly couple, who met while serving as crew members on the ship, are shown touring its restored interior. They are very happy to see that the ship they loved so much is being preserved as a museum.

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Flying to Narita Airport

ATV’s special foreign reporters try out the luxury helicopter service that offers rich people a quick trip from Roppongi to Narita Airport:

After the chopper ride, they check out some of the duty free shops inside Narita Airport, interviewing some shoppers about their purchases. They are also shown some of the popular souvenir snacks, the top three being Shiroi Koibito, Hiyoko, and Tokyo Banana. [My Personal Recommendation - Tokyo Banana. They're like a high quality banana cream Twinkie.]

Note: Every time I post a video from these people, people always leave comments asking about the brunette. Her name is Sahel Rosa. She’s an orphan from the Iran-Iraq war who was adopted by an Iranian woman who brought Sahel to Japan when she was a small child. She’s written a book in Japanese about her life: 戦場から女優へ.

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Haiku Herman in Japan

The EU’s weird president loves to recite haiku, and did so at a recent press conference in Japan:

After fielding several questions from reporters, Mr Van Rompuy recited a haiku.

“The sun is rising / sleeping yet in Europe / but still the same sun,” he said at the end of the joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Mr Van Rompuy – known to some as Haiku Herman – is an avid writer of haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry. He sometimes writes on political themes, but has refused to comment on the meaning of his latest work.

Herman has already published a haiku book, and if you go to HaikuHerman.eu, you can get him to recite a poem about your website.

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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Tiny High School Student Meets Really Tall High School Student

Super small Indian girl Jyoti Amge was back in Japan recently to film a Guinness World Records special. During her trip, she visited a Japanese high school, where she met basketball player Ramu Tokashiki:

Tokashiki may not be the tallest girl in Japan, but the fact that she might be representing Japan at the next Olympics makes her worthy of an interview. After the interview, Amge (“Amu-chan”) gives her a Bindi as a gift.

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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Sake Drinking Contest

A clip of contestants chugging down big bowls of sake at the Dorome Festival in Kochi:

The men chugged 1 sho of sake (about 1.8 liters) while the women chugged half that amount. The fastest man finished in 11.4 seconds and the fastest woman finished in 10.3 seconds.

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Protestant-hating Vandal Still at Large

A vandal has been causing damage to Christian churches throughout the Kansai region. As of December 2009, over 50 churches had been vandalized, with the first recorded attacks having occurred in 2008.　　

Last week, several churches in Hyogo and Osaka were vandalized and yesterday 2 acts of vandalism took place at a church and Christian pre-school in Osaka. Here is a Japanese TV news report that explores the mysterious crimes:

An examination of all the church attacks reveals a few interesting pieces of information:

• The acts of vandalism occur in the middle of the night.
• The vandal uses fire extinguishers to smash windows and cause damage to the churches. The fire extinguishers are stolen from nearby apartment buildings.
• People have reported hearing the sounds of a motorcycle speeding away from the scene of each crime. The vandal is able to cover long distances, sometimes hitting several churches in a single night.
• Only Protestant churches have been vandalized. No Catholic church has been targeted.

In January, one church received a letter from someone claiming to be the vandal. The author of the letter seems to be blaming the Christian god for unhappiness in the lives of his friends and family and is attacking churches as an act of revenge. As the identity of the vandal is unknown, it isn’t clear if the letter was actually written by him or her.

Some experts have speculated that the criminal’s choice to target only Protestant churches probably means that he or she had some sort of connection to Protestantism in the past. Since the attacks have continued for over a year now, the criminal probably has such a deep grudge that it is unlikely that he or she will suddenly feel satisfied and stop vandalizing churches.

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