Reuters ran an article according to which Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa called women “birth-giving machines”, in a speech intended to boost the record-low birth rate.
“The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head, although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines,”
Oh, you think so?
NTT Docomo has launched “Smelly Phones” with their new model, the SO703i. According to their webpage, the smell of the phone will change depending on which interchangeable cover you choose for your phone. What’s next, chocolate and strawberry flavored phones you can lick?
A while ago I posted about a website made by Keiko, a Japanese girl looking for Caucasian males to have sex. It turned out the page was fake (duh!), but it seems someone else is using her name to promote a (fake) band called KeikoBox. Thanks to Carlon for the link.
Reuters ran an article yesterday explaining how more and more Japanese fathers were trying to emulate “cool dads” like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and David Beckham, by spending more time with their children.
More and more Japanese men are aiming to join the ranks of the “Cool Dads”, in sharp contrast to their own fathers who were known for their “work-till-you-drop” and “leave the kids to the wife” lifestyles.
However, Japanese men may still have many social barriers to break before they can get there, as
A survey by education and lifestyle firm Benesse Corp conducted last year showed that compared to their counterparts in other Asian cities, fathers in Tokyo went home the latest, with the largest percentage returning to their families after 11.00pm.
I guess they’re overlooking the fact that being a multimillionaire superstar probably helps spending more time with the kids.
Posted by Sylvain Bouchard
Every year in December the Japanese choose a kanji to reflect upon the year which is coming to an end. This year’s kanji is “life” (inochi), and has been chosen to remind people how important life is. It was chosen in view of the recent wave of suicide among Japanese elementary and junior high school students who took their lives because they were bullied by their classmates, and sometimes even by their teachers.
Posted by Sylvain Bouchard
Tough luck, suckers!
One week ago I made a post about a Japanese girl named Keiko, looking for cute caucasian males under 35 for fun. As you know, it turned out the girl in the picture wasn’t a Japanese named Keiko, but A Chinese-American named Jenni Cheung. As I wanted to set things straight, I sent Jenni an email and she replied in the form of a comment on my blog. If you’re (still) interested, you can read her reply here.
Man, this 60-year-old Japanese guy can remember and recite 100 000 digits of Pi, but at 40 I’ll be damned if I can remember where I put my car keys… (sigh)! Just to give you an idea, these are ONLY the first 1000 digits…
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964482294895493038196
44288109756659334461286756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301124912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
51870728134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
50244594553469083026425223482533445850352619311881
71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
If you’re a good-looking caucasian male under 35, that is. Ok, this is probably a joke, but I couldn’t resist posting it!
Note: In the interest of providing original material, I always run a search on the internet to see if anyone else has posted what I’m about to. When I ran a search for “Grib my hand”, a confused search engine suggested this:
For the past couple of weeks the rainy season has wreaked havoc in southwestern Japan, provoking floods, mudslides, mercilessly killing dozens of people and forcing thousands of others to evacuate. As if all this wasn’t enough, it appears the seasonal front responsible for that, which usually sweeps Japan from south to north, has come to a full stop somewhere over the northern part of Kyushu. There’s no telling how many more victims there will be…
Posted by Sylvain Bouchard
Last weekend the 22nd Aoba festival was held right here in Sendai, and sure enough, I was there and took tons of pictures. According to the official Aoba festival homepage, the festival finds its roots during the Edo period, and was originally held in honour of Date Tadamune, one of the Date clan leaders. Originally known as the Sendai festival, the name changed after the construction of the Aoba shrine in 1875. Although it was eventually called off, the festival was revived in 1985, and is now one of the biggest festivals in Sendai. It usually goes on for two days, and one of its trademarks is the “suzume odori” (Sparrow Dance), which was derived from the dance improvised by the stonemasons at the feast for the construction of Sendai Castle (circa 1600), and reconstructed by the Sendai Sparrow Dance Company. Here are a few of the pictures I took, but you can see many more here.
The Independent (online edition) reported today that Tokyo’s education authorities urged public schools’ headmasters to diligently enforce a law passed in 1999 making it compulsory to stand during the singing of the Japanese national anthem in public schools.
I say if you want to stand and sing your national anthem because you take pride in your country and your culture, that’s fine. There’s certainly something wrong when you are made to, whether you want it or not…
Posted by Sylvain Bouchard
