Archive for July, 2010

World’s Smallest Piano & World’s Smallest Drum Kit

NTV’s “Fukashigi Tanteidan“　features short performances using the world’s smallest piano and the world’s smallest drum kit, followed by a jam session using both:

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Nagasaki Archive: Google Earth + A-bomb Information

A new site has been launched that combines Google Earth satellite images with information about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki:

The site, dubbed “Nagasaki Archive” (http://nagasaki.mapping.jp/), shows photographic portraits of A-bomb survivors and the locations of destroyed buildings on a 3-D map of Nagasaki, allowing users to view the victims’ A-bomb stories and photos of the buildings by clicking them.

“We want to save these tragic past experiences as accessible digital data and hand them down to future generations,” said a member of the site’s production committee.

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Shimbashi Station Gets Whisky Highball Melody

If you’ve passed through Shimbashi Station recently on a JR train, you may have noticed that it’s got a new arrival melody:

According to the above clip from NTV news, it turns out that Suntory has paid JR for to change Shimbashi Station’s melody to a tune used in its whisky highball commercials. They picked Shimbashi because it is known as a hub for Tokyo’s salarymen, who are known as big consumers of alcohol. The tune will catch the attention of commuters, and seems to have also attracted national news coverage.

According to data from Suntory, the number of stores in Japan serving whisky highballs has risen from about 10,000 to 90,000 in the last two years and it is apparently a popular menu item. It may be a sign of a major change in Japanese drinking habits, or it could be just be a fad/boom that will fade away in a couple years.

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Water Bottle Rocketeer

Comedian Tetsuro Degawa becomes a water bottle rocket man:

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U.S. / British / French Governments Sending Representatives to Hiroshima Ceremony

The United States is planning to send an official government representative to a Hiroshima atomic bombing memorial event:

It would be the first time for the three Western nuclear powers to ever attend the peace ceremonies. The embassies of the United States, Britain and France in Japan have discussed their presence at the ceremonies since this spring and have agreed to console the soles of A-bomb victims and express their unified will for nuclear disarmament and abolition.

The presence of the three countries, which are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and have closely cooperated in their nuclear policies, could also send a strong, concerted message against North Korea, as well as Iran’s continued nuclear development program.

The revelation shows a major turnaround for the U.S.., Britain and France, which have never sent representatives to the peace ceremonies in the past. High-ranking officials of their respective embassies in Japan are expected to attend the ceremony in Hiroshima, and possibly the one in Nagasaki as well.

A lot of Hiroshima residents have been hoping that President Obama, who won a Nobel Peace prize for making a speech about nuclear disarmament, will visit Hiroshima. Obama has expressed a desire to make a visit, but it doesn’t look like that will be happening this year.

Meanwhile in Potsdam, the city from which Allied leaders issued an ultimatum to Japan in July 1945, an atomic bomb monument has been unveiled. The monument contains pieces of stone from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a message declaring a hope that atomic weapons will never be used again.

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Ringing a Giant Temple Bell

Kuonji temple in Yamanashi prefecture has a bell so large that it requires monks to use a special full-body technique to produce the necessary power to create a proper ringing sound:

When enough power is used, the bell’s ringing can apparently be heard at a distance of 4-kilometers.

[from "Nani Kore Chin Hyakkei"]

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