Nation bans karaoke bars, Internet cafes? Reuters, Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:48AM EDT
SEOUL —North Korea’s security agency has ordered the shutdown of karaoke bars and Internet cafes, saying they are a threat to society…
The North’s Ministry of People’s Security said in a directive…”It is so promulgated under the mandate of the Republic in order to crush enemy scheming and to squarely confront those who threaten the maintenance of the socialist system”…more…
Lil’ Kim KOs Karaoke?!
Gee, although there’s also a ban on Internet Cafes, crazy Kim Jong Il got something half right for once. But why ban Karaoke? Sadly, it just another case of anti-Japaneseism and a way to annoy merchants involved in cross-border business (the main customers that can afford such a luxury North Korea).
Shibuya River Metroblogging Tokyo: by Martin at 4:30 PM on June 14, 2007—I walked past Shibuya River last night, it was glittering under the stars, yet it is but a miserable drain embanked in concrete…Some NGOs are making an effort to revitalize this river, hoping to making it “green” again by 2012. One group is Toziba… to support clean-up campaigns and maybe get Tokyo City [govn’t] to start considering a major project…
Shibuya’s ‘Doku’ River–What a joke.
Ok, ok, the colloquial Japanese term for a flithy river is a “dubu-gawa” (muddy/dark ditch/river) and not “Doku-gawa” (poison river), but Shibuya’s poisonous ‘Doku’ River is more fitting way to express the universal hatred of nature of modern Japan.
Earlier this year in my report on cherry blossom viewing in Tokyo, I described hanami (花見 literally, hana = blossom, mi = to view) and drinking under cherry blossoms along the Shibuya River. All the Japanese said they really enjoyed to view—-which to my alien eyes was konkurito-mi おコンクリート見 concrete viewing not hanami blossom viewing.
Japan’s military watched citizens Yahoo! News (Reuters) -Wed Jun 6, 4:40 AM ET, TOKYO – Japan’s military illegally gathered information on the activities of ordinary citizens in 2003 and 2004, including those who opposed the dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq, Japan’s Communist Party said on Wednesday. The charges could prove a new headache for Japan’s military, which has come under fire for leaked classified information on a missile defense system…
.. Kazuo Shii told a news conference he had obtained copies of internal documents from a division of the Ground Self-defense Force — Japan’s army in all but name — recording surveillance activities carried out on ordinary citizens as well as journalists, photographers and artists…more…
The Kenpei rides again!
Back in the good old days of WWII, the Japanese Kenpei military police version of the gestapo used to spy on Japanese citizens all the time—tens of thousands were questioned, that is tortured, and then vanished.
The Kenpei were so hated that after WWII, Japanese laws banned all military police interactions with Japanese citizens. Despite the source, the Japan’s Communist Party (which isn’t even communist anymore), the charges seem creditable. It will be fun to see how this plays out since the Japanese military has been have huge leaks of information almost every month because Japanese military networks full of zombie computers from illegal downloading from Japan’s favorite P-2-P software called “Winny” (which is severely compromised).
10 local politicians set up anti-election noise campaign MSN-Mainichi Daily News - April 16, 2007 — Ten local politicians, mostly those running in the second round of the unified local elections next Sunday, have set up a network opposing the blaring of candidates’ names from loudspeakers on election campaign cars…
….are refraining from using campaign cars and instead delivered street speeches using hand-held microphones....more…
Say what?! I cannot hear you. There’s a crappy campaign sound truck outside screaming Japanese gibberish over and over.
I can commend the “idea” of this anti-election noise campaign. However, walking up to people at the railroad station with a megaphone and SCREAMING over and over, “VOTE FOR TARO” is not any improvement. Such in-your-face candidates can go to hell…no wait, they live in a hell of their own creation. I
like the comment in the above news report of, a DJP candidate, who is running in Tokyo’s Chofu Municipal Assembly election who said: “Blaring candidates’ names from loudspeakers is a nuisance and its effect is doubtful. We shouldn’t waste taxpayers’ money.” Damn, I never realized my tax money supports noise pollution.
…dancers rehearsing at a stadium in Pyongyang..for the Arirang Festival to celebrate late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung’s birthday 15 April. The North Korean capital is pulling out the stops … the mass choreographed spectacle bringing together 100,000 gymnasts, musicians and other entertainers in a tribute to Korea’s “national unity”….
Well, Great Leader did it again. The BBC News and all the major news services are reporting that North Korea missed the deadline to shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
Kim Jong-Il shot a missile that missed me while I was on vacation in Tohoku in north of Japan back in August 1998. North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons to strike Japan so every missile “test” is a threat to Japan… even the ones targeted at China since their aim is so bad.
Ahhh, the noise criminals have finally stopped their assault.
Thank Buddha that Sunday’s election in Japan is over so the political parties’ sound trucks won’t be blasting their inane greetings anytime soon. It’s bad enough that the black sound trucks of Japan’s uyoku rightwing extortion gangs criminally blast their diatribes loudspeaker on the streets. However, during the election campaigns the political criminals blast at totally illegal sound volumes of more than 85 decibels measured 10 meters from a loudspeaker.
This crappy campaign noise taken from the PEOPLE IN THE TOWN blog’s video on YouTube.com (Fast forward to when the real screaming starts at 4:15 point of the video because it gets tedious waiting for the approach of the loudspeakers.)
Seoul Calls On Japan To Compensate For Wartime Past All Headline News - March 3, 2007
Seoul, South Korea — South Korean Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday said Seoul wants to be good friends with its neighbor Japan, but wants Tokyo to compensate for its wartime past and to stop glorifying its wrong doings….a protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The protesters stabbed knives into the jaws of five dog heads. The heads symbolize five key Korean traitors during the harsh Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945….more...
Korean dog heads protest against the Japanese who left Korea more than 50 years ago. Sheesh, talk about beating dead dog. And, this particular protest is against long-dead-and-gone Korean traitors.
Ok, ok, so this particular protest marked the anniversary of a peaceful mass uprising against Japan in 1919. Koreans feel that the Japanese occupation is their Holocaust, and they, “shall never forget.”
On the other hand, at times Koreans seem to support hate propaganda and dramatize their now long-past history to keep some kind of weird-ass self-esteem.
Kim Jong-il orders Japanese cars confiscated SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) “….after he paid tribute to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace on Jan. 1, he saw a Japanese car that wasn’t working blocking the road and gave a National Defense Committee edict to seize Japanese cars,” a source familiar with the North Korean situation said, asking to remain anonymous. North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il-sung’s embalmed body lies in the memorial in Pyongyang.
It is obvious that these evil Japanese cars to be confiscated and impounded to protect North Korea’s thriving auto industry. As our crack 3Yen reporter, Kurohigi Ichi, quipped: Rumour has it that the Japanese cars will be interned in special camps, and the car owners will be allowed only limited visiting rights through the barbed wire every two to three months. And no conjugal visits. They’ll probably separate them too - a Toyota camp here, a Nissan camp there, and a Mitsubishi camp next to the steelworks. “Work brings Freedom” will be written in Korean over the front gates.
HE’s BACK….and this time HE’s MAD! Ishihara 2…. No more Mr. Nice Guy….this time he’s out to kick some butt on Hay Fever…*
Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara appears on a subway station poster stating his determination to take steps to fight hay fever.
—JapanToday.com, Feb 15, 2007
*No it’s not a tacky movie poster. Ishihara 2 is the way the news3Yen.com’s guerrilla reporter, Mr. D_4, describes this wacky poster of Tokyo’s Governor, ‘Blinky’ Ishihara, and his continued campaign against the evils of hay fever.
Like the rantings of Weird Al Yankovic’s film “UHF,” with the commercial clip for the movie Ghandi 2, raving-racist Gov. Ishihara—better known to the world for his screed ‘The Japan That Can Say No’—is once again pushing to cut down all the cedar trees in the forests in the mountains upwind from Tokyo. Also refer to my previous 3Yen report, Tokyo Gov. Ishihara’s true calling, Lumberjack!
- 
