No need to look uncute as your home and the world as you know it is crashing down all around you with this fashionably pink Hello Kitty disaster kit, which includes:
Disaster hood (covering Body)
Flame retardant blanket
Pouch
Crime-prevention buzzer
Bandanas
Price: 9,800 yen
The Mainichi Daily News has decided to discontinue its WaiWai column because “some readers pointed out” that the content of some of articles has been “inappropriate.”
Thanks to Mr. Pink
Japan has once again made world news; this time with a large earthquake which rocked northern Japan. The 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck at 8:43 am on Saturday in Iwate Prefecture and killed at least 6 people and injured scores more. On the Japanese scale, the quake measured 6 out of 7. I felt the quake […]
A Tokyo trucker, Masahiro Fujiwara, 47, has been arrested on charges of counterfeiting after using a colour photocopier to produce about 10 ¥10,000 notes.
His plan was to replace the bills in his wife’s purse with the fake ones, and go out drinking.
His wife, of course, had no notion that the money in her purse was […]
I’m not the only one to note the strange synchronicity of Ed’s post on recent Japanese earthquakes, and the very large tremor which rocked China this week. It feels a bit strange to blog about a part of Asia, and to not, at the very least, acknowledge the human tragedy, particularly since China has made […]
It’s a situation that almost beggars belief, but a Nagoya man died on Sunday after having doused himself in kerosene and being given a lighter by police.
Police were called to a domestic disturbance on Saturday night in Atsuta.
Six officers were dispatched to the scene and the man walked out onto the road to greet them, […]
There’s a report in the Mainichi entitled Booming popularity doubles accident rate at Tokyo’s Mt. Takao, which tells that “there were 43 reported accidents on the mountain last year, almost double the average number from each year from 2004 to 2006.”
Those who go unprepared come in for a roasting from Kenichiro Maruyama, head of the […]
The Washington Post is running an article from Reuters about the consequences of a big earthquake in Tokyo. It contends that the foot traffic from 12,000,000 people would create incredible crowd densities of more than 6 people per square meter! The article also states that:
The Tokyo metropolitan government said in 2006 that a […]
planning on visiting japan?
thinking you can get by on your bank of america card and local atms?
think you’ll be fine because you told boa’s fraud department you’d be in japan during the dates of the trip and will be making regular withdraws?
think again
The next time someone tells you that, in case of an earthquake, turn off the gas, get under a table, stand in a doorway, and do all of that other good stuff, remember this video which was taken by a camera that was rolling when the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake hit in 1995.
Ten people in Japan have become seriously ill after eating gyoza (dumplings) imported from China that were later found to contain high levels of an agricultural insecticide.
Five family members in Ichikawa, Chiba, were taken to hospital suffering from vomiting and diarrhea after they ate the dumplings, while another two women from Chiba and three family […]
While surrogacy is not illegal in Japan, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology has banned its members from assisting in surrogate births.
Back in October last year, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare called on the Science Council of Japan to debate “the propriety of surrogacy”, and the council submitted a report last week.
The […]
I came across this transcript of 9/11 hearings by the Japanese Parliament. I was hesitant to post it because I’m not one for conspiracy theories but it’s interesting to read. Yukihisa Fujita leads the questioning in to the events of that day and questions Japan’s role in the War on Terror.
The opposition DPJ has finally told the government what everyone else has been thinking for some time, namely, “Stop wasting time and public money going on about bloody UFOs and do some bloody work”. I’m paraphrasing, of course.
Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba piped up last week saying he was “troubled over potential legal issues if one […]
Following up on Japundit’s post about the October 2007 introduction of the earthquake warning system, and a Tokyo cable TV company’s earthquake warning service, the cable provider has an instructional video on it’s site (scroll down to the second video).
Could you remember everything this woman does in 10 seconds, while this warning “siren” sounds?
A broadband and communications provider serving parts of the Tokyo area, will offer an earthquake advance warning sytem to subscribers beginning October 1, 2007. The “Urgent Earthquake News Flash”, issued from Japan’s Meteorological Agency, will be transmitted to specially installed terminals that use fixed-line phone lines.
The system forecasts the quake arrival time and the seismic […]
NHK just announced that officials are blaming the current heat wave in Japan for 56 deaths, with more than half of them occurring during the past two days.
According to an official, the bridge that collapsed recently in China in an accident that killed at least 41 people was made of rocks and concrete in order to achieve “harmony with the environment.”
“While the cause of the collapse is still unknown, a local official at the scene claimed that a ‘traditional and risky’ model […]
The Japanese government is claiming the problems that occurred at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture following a powerful earthquake there were less serious than has been reported, and blames “foreign media organizations” (those that don’t come under the thumb of the kisha clubs) for blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
The Foreign […]
Workers used paper towels to wipe up radioactive water that spilled from a spent nuclear fuel storage pool at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant during the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Niigata Prefecture.
