HOT POCKETS!
Japan Demands Probe Into Cause of Nano Flameouts
MacNewsWorld - ECT News Network 08/19/08 3:42 PM PT…Several incidents of iPod Nanos bursting into flames have created consumer jitters in gadget-happy Japan. Apple is downplaying the problem, pointing out that no major injuries or damage have been reported. The problem is due to defective batteries, the company said, and only a tiny percentage of the devices have caught on fire…more…
This story has been floating around Japan since last March: 03-12-2008 / AFP: Japan investigates after iPod nano overheats, sparks.
Normally Japan’s lackadaisical regulators take three to four years to look into such a problem, but in this case the evil foreign iPod nano has captured the majority of the market a new sales of MP3 players in Japan (causing Sony a great loss of face). My drinking buddy Greji recently quipped at this news that, “Japan must have a rival product to launch”, and another friend, Charles, chimed in that, “the irony is the defective batteries were made in Japan.”
Hobbit Housing ® is now available in Japan!
The PinkTentacle.com offered this photo of the Aso Farm Land resort village in Kyushu Japan, which uses about 480 styrofoam domes as lodging, recreational facilities and retail space. Although it may look like somebody had too many magic mushhrooms, and modular design is quite rational.
Read more at i-domehouse.com
And for “prior art,” check out the Google Street View of the Hello Kitty House, a novelty store that is just around the corner from my house here in Denenchofu Tokyo.
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Bikers decked out in traditional armor of samurai warriors raided the Matsumae Castle Festival in Hokkaido Japan a few days ago.
(machine translation) 47NEWS
2008/08/13 17:42
More than 40 bikers in total participated in a parade coming from as far as Osaka and Tokyo as well as the loval area. According to the Japanese article: “the Commander-in-Chief, Katsuya Okawa (36) said he was glad to participate while he showed a smile while being drenched with sweat in the black traditional armor.” He then quiped that the ride, “was cool but hot.”
Here’s proof why people who always are yack-yack-yacking on their keitai/mobile phone are idiots.
And people wonder why I don’t carry a cell phone even though I have worked for many years in their Japanese manufacture, ha, ha.
Right now it’s Japanese ‘Halloween’ …Obon when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the living and it’s a vacation time during the Dog Days of August.
Even though the weather is hellishly hot, some Japanese don’t like to go in the water during Obon/Halloween out a fear of having the confused deceased drag them under by their ankles. This equates to fewer people at the beach except for foolhardy foreigners like me (and none of my ancestors would be stupid enough to hanging out at tepid bath water beach in Tokyo laden with stinging jellyfish in this Hades).
Sadly Japanese folks don’t dress up for Obon, but here is a great photoset on Flickr of super-tacky Japanese costumes for cheap Cosplay by goemon.
And although it’s not Japonesque at all, I like this cleavage as a “costume” from Subgenius.com.
Note many of the other photos in this Subgenius slideshow are NSFW such as the next photo in this series: naked sushi.
More on naked sushi–nyotaimori [女体盛り] .
This week the major Japanese magazine, DIAMOND, ran a cover story entitled:
Sweet beer lovers increase while the young who cannot drink beer also increases (August 07, 2008 DIAMOND Online).
The cover story goes on to say that the number of younger people who dislike the bitter taste of beer is growing and various mixed drinks and cocktail are now favored company parties (much to dismay of their older Japanese supervisors).
For example, a craft beer company of Kanagawa just west of Tokyo have put on the market a “sweets beer” last year. Both a “sweet vanilla stout” with the sweet fragrance of vanilla bean, two kinds of “the muscovado suite stout”—a raw brown-sugar black beer made of Okinawa sugar cane, which is pictured above on the right.
Also check out the previous 3Yen reports about milk beer in Got Bilk? and the weird story about, Pea in my beer.
Some poor English teacher in the boondocks has the Japanese nationalist crazies on 2ch forum and Japanophiles foaming at the mouth about the young teacher’s so-called “Shocker” class photo, which was posted on the always-informative JapanProbe.com…
Basically, this immature stunt is a tempest in a tiny Japanese teapot since the Japanese kids in the photo are incorrectly doing so-called obscene “Shocker” hand gesture.
For the Shocker, the thumb needs to be curled inwards (and for a tenuous Yakuza sign, the little finger needs to be curled in to look cut off).
For reference, check out these examples including America’s First Family…
Actually, the Japanese are more accommodating to the Shocker (ショッカー) since it is part of their “traditional” culture.
Shocker (ショッカー) of Kamen Rider
Mo’ shocking is this bi-cultural Shocker…
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My pro-photographer friend here in Tokyo, the incomparable Mr. Masa of the now censored 
Kabaya’s Kabagarasu is a mutant cross between a hippo and a crow. (Hey, I don’t explain ‘em.) The Kabagarasu (literally “Hippo-Crow”) and other atomic mutants are featured in many of the Kabaya’s 
