Archive for October, 2010

Coolest Marimba Performance Ever

An awesome marimba performance of Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” & Dmitry Kabalevsky’s “Comedians’ Gallop” by T.J.P.P.A.L ( Tsutomu Jyutori Percussive Performers Art Lob ):

And, as a bonus, a clip of some little Japanese kids playing the same Kabalevsky piece:

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Japanese Human Tetris: 2010

“Tonneruzu no Minasan no Okage deshita” resurrected its “Brain Wall” game last week:

This game first appeared in 2006, but did not become world-famous until 2007. Videos of “Japanese human tetris” went viral, and TV channels in over 20 countries began to create licensed local versions of the game. Check out Wikipedia for a comprehensive list of international variations of this game.

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Bees Terrorize Japanese Elementary School

A swarm of bees descend upon a Field Day event a couple weeks ago at a elementary school in Yamanashi prefecture:

At least 15 people were stung by bees, which swarmed about the crowded school grounds and formed scary blobs on the school’s playground equipment.

According to an expert, the bees were probably the survivors of a hive that had been destroyed by giant hornets. A recent increase in complaints to the local government about giant hornets seems to support this theory.

Related Link: This is how you get bees off your playground equipment.

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Dollar OK: Japanese Stores Accept US Dollars

Want to take advantage of the strong yen without leaving Japan? According to this news report, businesses near Yokota Air Base have started accepting US Dollars:

The stores want to attract business from Americans, but they are also marketing this to Japanese people who are hunting for good deals. When you compare the prices listed in yen and dollars, the dollar prices tend to be much better:

• A Chinese restaurant offers a meal for $10 / 1,110 yen. [$10 = about 850 yen]
• An “American Antiques” shop is selling glasses for $10 / 1,800 yen.
• An apparel shop is selling a USAF sweater for $10 or 4,000 yen.

The association of local shops adjusts its yen/dollar exchange rate every Monday. At the time this report aired, the actual yen to one dollar exchange rate was around 84 or 85, and the shops were offering to change money at a rate of 82 to one dollar.

The whole thing feels like a trick: are they really doing this to attract business from Americans? If so, the whole effort seems poorly executed. You can also see from the video clip that the signs the stores are putting up are mostly written in Japanese, and that antique store even managed to misspell the word “dollar.” If their real goal was to get members of the US military to spend their money, they probably should have hired a few English-speakers to help them make nice English language signs. The prices also seem fishy: that Chinese restaurant’s $10 meal looks like it shouldn’t even be worth that much, and it seems highly unlikely that members of the US military would need to buy a USAF sweater at an off-base store. The whole thing feels like a gimmick that is designed to fool unsuspecting Japanese into buying products for prices that aren’t especially cheap.

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Who Decides the Top Headlines on Yahoo News?

FTV visits the offices of Yahoo Japan for a behind-the-scenes look at the headlines that appear every day on the Yahoo.co.jp front page:

Most of the people who work on the Yahoo News team used to work for traditional media outlets such as newspapers and television networks, but their job at Yahoo is not to report the news. Instead, they check and select the most important headlines from the newest stories provided by the over 150 newspapers and media organizations that have contracts with Yahoo.

At any given moment, only eight headlines can appear in the “topics” widget of the front page. Television screens help them observe what the major networks are covering as top new stories, and they try to place the most important stories near the top of the eight. On the day of this report, the Senkaku island dispute with China was a major news story, so they gave it the top place. After selecting a Sankei Shimbun article as the main story, they add related story and reference links to the article page. Sometimes they dig deep and find related stories from regional newspapers .

The most difficult part of their job is writing good headlines. Space in the widget is limited, so they have to write something that is under 13 characters. The headlines must convey the main point of the article without making any strong assertions or exaggerations.

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Dancing Barber

“Nanikore” finds an awesomely strange barber in Hiroshima who dances while he cuts hair:

56-year-old Masakichi has been dancing for decades now, and has won several dance contests. About ten years ago he decided to combine his dancing with his hair cutting work. Through his dancing, he entertains customers: nobody will get bored waiting to get their hair cut when they’ve got crazy dances to watch. Getting on TV also provides some free PR for his business.

It make look dangerous to have a dude wildly dancing around while also trying to cut hair with sharp scissors, but his regular customers seem to trust him.

Any readers in Hiroshima who want to try out this guy’s services? The name of his shop is Biyoushitsu Masakichi. It is located is a short walk from Kamiyasu station on Hiroshima’s Astram Line. The address is: 広島市安佐南区上安２丁目４６－１９ [ TEL: ０８２－８４７－００３０]. Here it is on Google Maps:

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