Archive for September, 2010

Dolphin Blooper Video

Remember that video of a dolphin jumping out of its tank at an aquarium in Okinawa? In the English-speaking media, the video was presented alongside statements from animal rights activists who claimed that the animal hated being held in captivity and was trying to “escape” or “commit suicide.” The aquarium responded by stating that the dolphins were not being treated with cruelty, and that the incident was just an accident.

Last week, I saw clip on Japanese TV. It wasn’t on a news program: it was on a “Super Cute Animals” show, and it was presented as a surprising blooper (complete with goofy sound effects & laugher and applause!!):

The accident is described as if it happened because the dolphin was excited and too eager to please the audience. The celebrity faces in the corner of the screen seem pretty shocked, but once the cute-voiced narrator points out that the dolphin was soon returned to the pool without any serious injury, everybody can smile again.

Not being an animal psychic, I can’t claim that I know why the dolphin jumped out of its pool. From the looks of the video, the animal had probably been trained to stick his head over the edge of the pool as part of the dolphin show, and ended up accidentally going a bit too far. It was an unfortunate incident and some measure obviously needs to be taken to prevent it from happening again. I’m not sure why this kind of clip was included in the show; it obviously was not very cute. Aside from one clip of an alligator eating a baboon (which was presented in a non-cute manner), the entire program as pretty much cute animal clips.

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Baby Monkey Rides Wild Boar

A cute sight from Kyoto’s Fukuchiyama Zoo (Sandanike-Koen Zoo):

「ウリ坊に乗るニホンザルの赤ちゃんが人気 」

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Is That Castle Burning?

Is that castle on fire? Nope! It’s just the hideous air pollution from a nearby smokestack:

An unsightly smokestack ruins one’s view of Kawanoe Castle in Ehime prefecture. Probably one of the most depressing things featured on the “Nanikore” show.

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Wild Boar Attacks Buddhist Temple

The monks at Mii-dera in Shiga prefecture have often seen wild boars in the forests near their temple, but they were shocked when one descended upon their temple and tear up some shoji wall panels:

They didn’t get any video of it, but the video clip does show some footage of another wild boar incident. As you can see, wild boars can jump with incredible power, especially when they feel trapped or threatened.

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Golgo 13 Monkey Dies

Golgo, the elderly boss monkey of a group of macques on Takasaki Mountain in Oita prefecture has officially been declared dead:

The monkey had been named Golgo because he resembled the badass main character of the Golgo 13 anime/manga series. He was very popular with tourists who visited the mountain.

The park employees who feed the monkeys keep a file on every monkey and conduct a census every September. Nobody had seen Golgo since mid-July, so they are now assuming that he is dead. Golgo was 31-years-old, which is about 100 in monkey years.

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P.S. – If you thought of this when you read this story, you’re cool:

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China Favors Knock-off Arita-yaki Porcelain Over Authentic Arita-yaki

Producers of Japan’s famous Arita-yaki porcelain recently discovered that a display of their products in Shanghai cannot use the Chinese characters for “Arita-yaki” because the characters have been registered as a trademark by a Chinese businessman:

According to the prefectural government, a Chinese individual who sells tableware applied to China’s Trademark Office in November 2002 and was awarded a 10-year registration in November 2004.

Arita learned of the registration when officials checked the Trademark Office’s Internet home page to prepare for an exhibition of Saga products to be held at a Shanghai department store starting in late September.

Because the Japanese side can’t use the characters — “you tian shao” — in pinyin reading, it will use other names, including five kanji reading “Made in Arita, Japan,” or “Arita-Ceramics-Japan” in Roman letters at the exhibition.

The town of Arita has been famous for porcelain-making for hundreds of years, and locals are obviously annoyed by the fact that the Chinese government won’t let them write the name of their product in Chinese. “Arita-yaki” can join a long list of Japanese product and place names that have been shamelessly registered as trademarks in China. In some cases, the names are already famous in China, but in this case few Chinese people seem to have heard of “Arita.” The owner of the trademark probably registered the characters hoping that he could profit from it if the name might eventually become famous in China.

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