Archive for June, 2011

Lady Gaga Tells Fans to Visit Japan

Lady Gaga came to Japan this week to participate in a charity concert for the survivors of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. Here are a few videos of her appearing before the press:

She is doing her best to help Japan’s tourism industry recover:

The singer, in Tokyo for a benefit concert for tsunami victims, said she was making a point of going to and enjoying the city and its food, and that her fans should do the same thing.

“I can’t say enough to people all over the world that the majority of Japan right now, Japan in general, is very safe,” she said. “It’s fine to come here. It’s beautiful.”

Many performers and athletes have cancelled appearances in Japan after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami that caused widespread destruction and set off a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant about 140 miles north of Tokyo.

[...]

“The most important thing, and the best thing, we could do for Japan right now is to boost tourism, and so everyone come to Japan and come enjoy the beautiful country,” she said.

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Hooters Beer Garden in Odaiba

Hooters is opening a summer beer garden in Tokyo’s Grand Pacific Le Daiba hotel:

Because it’s a beer garden and not a full-fledged restaurant, it will only be open during summer: from June 20th to August 31st. ＜p>

It will be the second Hooters in Japan. The first restaurant opened last year in Akasaka.

In addition to it’s famous wings, Hooters is serving some Japanese-style dishes. There will be a “Hooters Curry” lunch set, as well as edamame:

Here is a copy of an advertisement flier, from the Hooters Japan website:

Only non-Japanese women in the advertisement? It seemed like every waitress in the video clip was Japanese…

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Is Fukushima’s Radiation Killing Babies in North America?

For the last couple weeks, anti-nuclear blogs and comments across the internet has been alleging that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident has caused a 35% increase in infant mortality in several cities on the West Coast of America. Al-Jazeera English has even reported about it.

Is there any truth to this claim? Michael Moyer of Scientific American has looked at the “study” being referenced, plotting the data for the cities in question alongside data for other cities that the authors had left out of the study. He also looked at the data over a wider time frame. This is how it looks when plotted:

There is no “spike” in infant mortality on the Pacific coast of America.

Surprise, surprise! It’s politically-motivated bullshit:

“….the authors’ statistical claims are critically flawed—if not deliberate mistruths…

…picking only the data that suits your analysis isn’t science—it’s politics. Beware those who would confuse the latter with the former

.”

Read the rest here.

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Ishihara Wants Japan to Militarize

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara shares some controversial opinions about the future of Japan:

• If it wants other nations to treat it like an adult, Japan needs nuclear weapons.
• Japan needs a military regime. Otherwise, it will become the vassal state of another country.
• Japan needs military conscription.

The video of his remarks has received over 66,000 views, making it one of the top-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today.

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Charity Postage Stamps

Japan Post has released a new line of postage stamps that will raise money for survivors of the March 11th disaster:

The 80-yen stamps are being sold for 100 yen. The extra 20 yen goes to charity.

Japan Post has printed 70,000,000 of these stamps. It’s their largest-ever charity stamp project.

If you’re in Japan and you need to mail something, be sure to ask for some of these stamps!

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Restaurant Overwhelms Customers With Free Side Dishes

“Nanikore” visits a mom-and-pop steak restaurant in Tokyo where the main attraction isn’t steak:

The restaurant is called Steak Fuji. It’s a very short walk from Tobu-Nerima station on the Tobu Tojo line.

If you order a steak & rice meal from the menu, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed with all kinds of extra dishes!

Why do they give away so much extra food? Apparently they didn’t want customers to feel bored or impatient while waiting for their steak to cook, so they started serving free side dishes. Over the years, the number of side dishes increased. Now every customer who orders a steak gets a huge number of side dishes.

Obviously, many customers cannot finish all of the food in one sitting. The restaurant is kind enough to help them pack up the leftovers in doggy bags.

Are they losing money? The restaurant owner says he doesn’t care. He’s just pleased to see so many happy customers.

Note to those interested in eating there: According to photos on Tabelog, it looks like they have a somewhat complicated menu. If you can’t speak or read any Japanese, ordering could be difficult.

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