James's Feed Releases for January 2010

Asahi TV’s “Nanikore” folks discover a street in Saitama prefecture where one can see the remains of a pair of glasses that were smashed into the pavement due to a road construction mishap: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannych...

Are you a cat and need to go on a business trip? If so, you might want to use Jalan to book your hotel: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

The addition of new monkeys to the Ueno Zoo had some unexpected results yesterday: A total of 23 nationally protected macaques from Aomori’s Shimokita Peninsula, which were transported from their native habitats to Tokyo last spring, were shown t...

On Friday night’s episode of “Prime Minister Ota,” the DPJ’s decision to move forward with its plan to grant voting rights to non-citizens was introduced as #2 in the top ten anger-inducing news stories of the week: A guest from the LDP voices oppos...

The latest series of ads for Norton Antivirus feature blogger/idol Shokotan switching to Norton because other antivirus software slows down her computer: Not as awesome as their 2007 Norton Fighter ad campaign, but probably better at directly addres...

As you may already know, smog clouds drifting over from China are a serious problem for Japan. Japan’s Environment Ministry recently announced a new plan that will hopefully improve teh situation: The ministry plans to offer technological and other...

A cool HD quality YouTube video from the Asahi Shimbun showing Wakakusayama mountain in Nara being set ablaze: Why do they do it? Here’s a little explanation from the Kansai Institute of Information Systems: On January each year, burning of the tur...

A dead humpback whale washed ashore in Chiba prefecture, so news cameras were there to have a look: An aerial view, from the Asahi Shimbun: Some people brought their kids, and one guy even carried his dog over to get a closer look at the whale, cre...

It’s been 15 years since the Great Hanshin Earthquake hit the Kansai region on January 17th, 1995. It is a day Japanese people will not forget. The TV commercial of KEPCO, or the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. makes us feel somewhat emotional. It...

Terry Gilliam was recently in Japan for the Tokyo premiere of his new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Japanese comedy duo Bakusho Mondai were sent to interview him about the movie, and wackiness ensued: The interview starts with Hikari O...

A few months have passed since a 1:1 scale statue of Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-go) was completed near Shin-Nagata station in Kobe. Here’s a short clip from “Mezamashi TV” that accesses the economic impact of the statue: The statue was built in an area...

A baby fur seal somehow lost its way and ended up in Iwate prefecture, where it has been given the name “Taro” and is getting a lot of attention from the media: Taro didn’t seem to be very healthy, so residents had to call in the experts from the Ma...

Forget about that lame stuffed animal. It can’t even surf! This commercial for Teijin shows us the real future of robot seals: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

A couple videos of the old center platform at Kasuganomichi Station, which was once the the narrowest train platform in Japan [a mere 2.6 meters wide]: A photo on Wikipedia shows that two side platforms have since been constructed, and the super na...

Japan Took the J.A.P. Out of Me, subtitled The True Story of a Domesticated Princess, is a tongue-in-cheek memoir of a J.A.P. (that is, Jewish American Princess–Don’t yell at me for the title, I’m not the publisher) that traded a sub-Paris-Hilton mat...

At the 2010 Golden Globe award ceremony held recently, Quentin Tarantino showed up decked out in an odd cross of a tuxedo and a kimono. You can see it in action in this video. No word on who designed the hybrid, or what we should call it. Tukimono?...

A short clip showing some of the performances by poodles and bears in the Nikulin Moscow State Circus, which has come over from Russia and is now putting on shows at the Tokyo Dome:

The movie Footloose is apparently set in Utah/Oklahoma, which I suppose is close enough to Texas to make its song appropriate for this McDonald’s “Big America” burger commercial: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Yo...

A Japanese TV show sees if certain animals can navigate their way to a bowl of food without knocking down some dominoes (first part of the clip is missing, but you still get to see which animal is victorious): — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan...

After seeing the searches Google suggested for “Why is Japan so”, I decided to check what popular searches Google would suggest for other Japan-related questions. Here are the results: — — — — — — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Sub...

Japanese celebrities attempt to cycle across a flimsy 300-meter floating bridge: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Four Tokyo Cops try to stop a suspicious driver, not realizing that he was drunk and intending to flee: Luckily, none of the officers were run over by the car and a fifth officer managed to use a patrol car to block the drunk driver’s vehicle. — Ak...

Kyoto University of Foreign Studies professor (and sometimes TV tarento) Jeff Berglund gives a group of celebrities a tour of his amazing house in Kyoto: The house is 160-years-old and looks out on the Kamo River. As one would expect from a house b...

About a year ago, it was projected that Iris, a new Korean TV drama partially set in Akita, would bring 200 million yen in economic benefits to the prefecture. The drama has finished airing in Korea, and it seems that the predictions may be correct....