After years of having my ears pounded by off-tone ojisan of this ilk warbling about "Lunaway," it's almost good to see runaways of a different sort are making news nowadays.
Many people have dearly loved stuffed toys, dolls and hina ningyo which they no longer have room for but are reluctant to throw into the trash. JA Prayer Hall in Saga decided to follow the example of a city in another prefecture. They offered local people a chance to give up their treasured toys and they then put them on display where their owners could come to say farewell in the manner of a memorial service. They eventually collected over 4,000 which required an altar 12 metres wide and 4 metres high. Presumably they are all heading for cremation.
Tavi, 13-Year-Old Fashion Blogger, To Travel To Tokyo
Thirteen-year-old fashion blogger Tavi already skipped school in September to attend New York Fashion Week, but WWD reports that the talented teen's next adventure will take place slightly farther away than the Big Apple. She's slated to be the guest of honor at Comme des Garcons' holiday party on November 27 at the 10 Corso Como store in Tokyo. Tavi has expressed her extreme adoration for Rei Kawakubo on her blog, saying she "scatters black petals on her doorsteps and serenades her in rap." We can't wait to read all about their meeting of the minds
The Asahi reports (Japanese) that there is some controversy over an international school in Rokkasho, Aomori prefecture. Rokkasho was in the running as a site for the ITER nuclear fusion reactor but lost to France. In compensation, they were selected as the site of a materials testing and research facility. Part of the bid proposal included plans for a school to educate the children of international team members in the area. This duly opened last year, registered as the Aomori campus of the Kyoto International School, in rooms rented from a nearby junior school while a new dedicated 2-storey building was under construction. This new school is set to cost around 400 million yen while annual contracts for providing an English-based curriculum are around a hundred million yen. The Asahi points out, however, that there are currently only seven international pupils at the school and they are all either French or Spanish. The annual cost of teaching them is therefore nearly 15 million yen a head compared with an Aomori prefecture average for local kids of around 1 million yen. The prefecture and local municipality split the costs but do receive subsidies of 2.2 billion and 1.7 billion yen respectively for all nuclear-related projects in the area. Nevertheless, some are arguing that the plan for the international school has been poorly managed and it risks becoming an expensive white elephant. Those in charge of the ITER project argue that the school is essential if the facility is to attract high quality researchers from overseas. They also point out that the cost-per-pupil will drop sharply if more children join the school and reject the notion that any simple comparison can be made with education costs at local schools.
I can understand the concerns about the use of taxpayers' money, because subsidies such as these are reflected in electricity bills, but the complaints seem a little myopic given that no-one is seriously suggesting that the children should go to local schools instead.
A fire broke out at an izakaya near Koenji station in early Sunday morning. The restaurant opens from 5:00pm to 10:00am and the blaze started just after 9:00am when a grilled used for yakitori set fire to wall and ceiling fixtures and fittings. 4 men, 2 employees and 2 customers, died from smoke inhalation while 12 are reported injured, some seriously. Police are looking at whether there is evidence of professional negligence, however, building regulations do not require such premises to have sprinklers installed. The fire brigade extinguished the fire by 10:30am.
Xinhua: Japanese gov't finds documents proving existence of secret nuke pact
The Japanese foreign ministry has found documents proving the existence of a secret Japan-U.S. pact that allows U.S. military vessels or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japanese territory, local media reported Sunday, citing ministry sources. A team of about 15 people, led by Mitsuru Kitano, a secretariat councilor in the ministry, found the documents during an investigation of ministry files, according to the sources. And the team informed Okada of its discovery on Friday. "The probe is now in the final stage, and we will announce the outcome in January," Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was quoted by Kyodo News as saying on Saturday...more...
E Cigarettes Are A Better Alternative To Tobacco Per Ash
The anti-smoking group (ASH UK) makes some surprising statements concerning the electronic cigarette
Published on November 18, 2009
by Jeff Smith
(OfficialWire)
ST LOUIS, MO
With ASH (US version) holding a hard contempt for the e cigarette on the market, it's original founders in the UK have gone in a total opposite direction from the U.S. based ASH that mimicked ASH U.K. in working to save over 400,000 smokers a year from sure and miserable death.
The United Kingdom version of ASH organization has now released a document that states that one of the few downsides of the electronic cigarette is that the levels of nicotine as "low", and may not give users the amount of nicotine needed to keep them using the e cigarette over the real thing. They further state their support for other alternatives to tobacco.
"ASH supports a harm reduction approach to tobacco, that is, we see that while efforts to help consumers stop smoking should remain a priority, many people either do not want to stop smoking or find it extremely difficult to do so. For this group, we believe that products should be made available that deliver nicotine in a safe way, without the harmful components found in tobacco. Most of the diseases associated with smoking are caused by inhaling smoke which contains thousands of toxic chemicals. By contrast, nicotine is relatively safe. Therefore, electronic cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the nasty toxins found in tobacco smoke, are likely to be a safer alternative to smoking. Also to add, e-cigarettes reduce secondhand smoke exposure since they do not produce smoke."
Recent studies conducted by doctors show that 45% of electronic cigarette users stopped smoking tobacco within 8 weeks of starting with the product, along with other studies by trusted companies around the world stating that e cigarettes are between 100 to 1000 times much safer and/or better for the user, combined with the destroyed credibility of ASH in the U.S. due to the discovery of millions of dollars in financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, Is it any wonder that the people in the US are expecting the electronic cigarette to be around for quite awhile?
Has anybody else tried these yet?
I've only had three real cigs in the past week since these came in the mail.
Sword-swinging 'shaman' arrested for slashing follower
SHIRAKAWA, Fukushima -- A self-proclaimed shaman has been arrested for allegedly attacking one of his female followers with a sword, police said.
Police say Katsumi Jinguji, 62, of no fixed address, slashed the woman's shoulder with a Japanese sword at an apartment in the Fukushima Prefecture village of Nishigo at around 6:20 a.m. on Jan. 10 this year, leaving her with serious injuries. Jinguji was arrested on suspicion of bodily harm.
Jinguji is believed to have lost his temper after the victim asked him to lend her money. The suspect has reportedly denied the allegations, claiming: "It was a prayer ritual."
After being told by Jinguji to do volunteer work in order to be saved, the believer spent tens of millions yen on establishing a non-profit book-reciting organization and on living expenses for other followers, according to investigators. Jinguji, who reportedly started to perform shamanic prayers 12 years ago, was living with some 10 followers in the apartment in Nishigo.
Meanwhile, two other followers -- Naomi Ono, 36, an unemployed woman of no fixed address, and an 18-year-old male high school student from Nishigo -- have also been arrested on suspicion of violating the Law Concerning Punishment of Physical Violence. The two suspects are accused of beating the first follower more than 30 times at an apartment in the Gunma Prefecture city of Numata at around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 22.
FEER: Japan's Gestapo "Japan's Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem and Torture in Wartime Asia" by Mark Felton. You have been warned. "This book is not for the fainthearted or easily disgusted," reads the first line. And it's no hyperbole; Mark Felton describes in gut-wrenching detail the physical, sexual and emotional tortures wrought on Allied soldiers and Asian civilians by the Japanese military police. What Mr. Felton labels "Japan's Gestapo" is properly called the Kempeitai, founded in 1881 in response to the daunting intrusions of the Western world. By the time World War II began, the Kempeitai was already a powerful and integral part of the Japanese security apparatus, with its members accustomed to using violent methods to accomplish their objectives. Entangled in several branches of the Japanese government, the Kempeitai's powers surpassed those of the German Gestapo. Its responsibilities included combat, intelligence and espionage, the management of civilian and prisoner-of-war camps, propaganda, biological and chemical warfare, and experimentation on prisoners...Mr. Felton at times seems to judge all Japanese culture on the basis of the behavior of the Kempeitai. He tells the tale of battered Allied soldiers stripped naked and exhibited behind bars at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. This instance, he postulates, "reveals a truly bizarre and sadistic streak rooted in the Japanese character -- similar in many ways to the present delight in ritual humiliation and torture to be found in many modern Japanese game shows on television"...more...
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Herman Van Rompuy, the European Union's new president, may not be very well known around the world but he's already winning fans in Japan -- as a poet rather than a politician.
Belgium's low-key prime minister is fond of writing haiku -- three-line Japanese poems of just 17 syllables -- and is building a reputation with Japanese poets less than 24 hours after he got the newly-created job.
"We feel very proud that the first EU president ever elected loves haiku," Kaoru Fujimoto, an official of the Haiku International Association, told Reuters in Tokyo. "It's great to know that haiku, which is part of the Japanese culture, is spreading that far."
Van Rompuy, 62, is a frequent writer of haiku, but is perhaps best known for one he wrote about his hair:
Van Rompuy, with his thinning grey hair and spectacles, comes across as a rather reserved intellectual. But Fujimoto said there was deep feeling in his love of haiku, which is said to be therapeutic.
"Haiku is a form of literature that captures each moment by expressing all that you feel in short sentences," he said, adding there were more than two million haiku writers around the world.
(Writing by Luke Baker, reporting by Marine Hass; editing by David Stamp)
Sake-Drenched Postcards
Hedorah, an acid-spitting, layered shapeless mass brought to earth by a meteor and nourished on industrial pollution, morphs into a flying-saucer shape and takes flight to escape Godzilla's wrath. Yoshimitsu Banno: Behind Hedorah
