James's Feed Releases for May 2010

The Australian government has decided to take legal action against Japan over its whaling in an area around Antarctica: The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has come under pressure to honour a 2007 election pledge to ban whaling in an area the...

A Japanese magician does some tricks with a new iPad: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

The Asahi Shimbun (Japanese) reports that many of Japan’s major TV channels are so concerned about the incredibly high crime rate in South Africa that they not planning to send female reporters or employees are part of their World Cup coverage teams....

NTV’s “Zoom In” morning show introduces some popular anime: I’m not an anime fan, but I think Japanese anime can be more interesting than Japanese TV dramas. Most of good animes have great stories and graphic depiction in details, but these days sim...

The biggest news story in Japan this week is the discovery that prominent members of one of Japan’s most infamous yakuza gangs had been allowed to sit in ringside VIP seats that are typically restricted to major sponsors of the Japan Sumo Association...

NHK reports that Nagatoro in Saitama prefecture is reaching out to international tourists by printing multi-lingual information booklets that will help local businesses communicate with foreigners: While this will probably be quite helpful, the glan...

A company is selling copies of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s infamous multicolored shirt for $500 each: ShirtsMyWay.com, a Shanghai-based company, spied a marketing opportunity and put its own version of the Hatoyama shirt on sale on its website t...

“Unchiku-kun Shirisugi” goes around Osaka looking for elementary school girls who are “too beautiful”: The show follows a “introduce me to your beautiful friend” format, in which they seek to find increasingly beautiful girls. As the target girls m...

Meet Ran, a chubby little dog in Fukushima prefecture who has learned to help clean up litter: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Saturday’s episode of “Shimura Zoo” had performing chimpanzee Pan-kun learning how to use the breaks on a bicycle, but not quite mastering them enough to stop his tiny bike from going out of control when he rides down a hill: — Akihabara News – Gad...

A wild boar runs wild through the streets of Ginowan, Okinawa: It turns out that the boar was a pet that escaped from somebody’s house. The boar ran through the streets and was nearly hit by some cars, but was luckily captured without any injuries....

An Asahi video about a woman in Hiroshima prefecture who has been raising baby owls for almost 20 years: It all started in 1991, when a baby owl from a nest in her attic accidentally fell into the lower part of her house. The owl’s parents would no...

This video of the Triumph Inpsiration Award 2010 Contest is one of the most popular videos on YouTube Japan today (from Sankei Shimbun): Several weird underwear designs are shown. The winner was a shell and bird combo “forest bra.” At the end of t...

The most recent episode of NTV’s “Unchiku-kun Shirisugi” featured a woman who has filed her small apartment with 100 animals of 40 different species: She her job only brings in about 150,000 yen a month and almost all of it goes towards her pets. S...

“Nanikore” seems to be running out of some its more traditional wacky material, so in recent weeks it has started to feature hyper obese cats (first a 15kg cat, then a 9.5 kg cat): — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com –...

Asahi TV’s foreign reporters (including Sahel Rosa) visit a tire shop in the Nishi-Kasai area of Tokyo, where a worker shows off some neat tire tricks he’s learned over the years: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Y...

A YouTuber tries out Lotteria’s massive Tower Cheeseburger: Lotteria chain has brought “Tower Cheese Burger” to the proving ground. It’s an ordinary single 160 Yen cheese burger but you can stack up to 10 patties for 100 Yen each. You can see more p...

The newest Cola Shock commercial follows-up on the last one, placing Meisa Kuroki in a fictional U.S.A. where people drink an alcoholic beverage sold only in Japan: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to J...

NTV News had a segment the other day about how the huge increase in Chinese tourists visiting Japan. It included this clip about “cultural differences” about toilet use: Apparently many Chinese tourists are not properly using the sinks in bathrooms...

“Nanikore” shows us how the Kagoshima Aquarium that lets its dolphins swim out of their tanks and into a waterway outside of the aquarium building: The aquarium does this about 5 or 6 times a month. They do it because they think the dolphins might...

“Mezamashi TV” did this short feature on a guy who makes fancy rubber band guns out of metal: His day job involves metal working, so he has the knowledge needed to make some pretty badass rubber band guns. His most advanced weapon is a rubber band...

Japanese TV news shows cover some pretty stupid stories, but when it comes to politics, they don’t try to judge the entire worth of a government based upon the kind of shirt a prime minister wears. However, after CNN’s Kyung Lah decided to file just...

France24 reports about Rina Bovrisse, an employee of Prada Japan who was fired after complaining to the head office after being asked to change her physical appearance to fit the company’s approved image: « On September 29 I was called into a meetin...

Whoever translated this message for Japan Airlines seems to have not noticed that a literal translation of the Japanese results in a message that might leave English-speakers wondering if the flight they are about to take really is safe and comfortab...