Meat is a killer and should be avoided, and you should get your protein by eating plenty of soy products like tofu, right?
Not necessarily so if research coming out of the U.K. is to be believed. According to a study led by Loughborough University and reported on in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive […]

Newsweek has an online article about whaling, focusing on Japan and the upcoming International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting. It is an interesting topic which pits national sovereignty against international consensus with no easy or obvious solution.

The Japanese delegation at the IWC parley is expected to lobby other countries to relax the moratorium on worldwide commercial whaling […]

The other day it was a maid cafe in Culver City, now we get word that naked sushi has made its way to Clearwater, Florida.
CLEARWATER — Chef David Keir looks out over the crowd in the dark, smoke-filled lounge, then slowly slides the model’s black kimono off her body.
She’s wearing the smallest of G-strings and […]

Coca-Cola Japan has announced a new vitamin-fortified Coke that reportedly provides you with 81 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin C without any calories.

Norimitsu Onishi is reporting in the New York Times about a new program in Japan to slim down. It’s hard to believe on many levels. First, Japan has to have one of the healthiest and slimmest populations in the world. Second, it’s hard to believe that the government will get away with imposing these measures […]

Just a quick note to let everyone know that our garlic patch is flowering, right on schedule. Garlic flowers (also known as “scapes” and “top sets”) can be cut off and eaten when young and tender, or they can be allowed to develop into bulbils.

We are now officially into the homestretch. In a few weeks […]

A brand new bakery opened in Tokyo on May 5th. The shop is called Shirohige no shou cream kobo (which means White-bearded’ cream puff workshop).
A perfect opening for Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day), the shop sells cream puff Totoros and sold out of them in the first ten minutes of opening!
The store […]

A black watermelon was auctioned for a record 650,000 yen recently, the highest price paid for watermelon ever in Japan.
The 8-kilogram premium “Densuke” watermelon, grown only on the northern island of Hokkaido, was purchased by a marine products dealer who said he wanted to support local agriculture, according to Kyodo News agency.
How can a watermelon […]

By popular demand (and a bit of prodding by B.W.), here are the latest snaps from the Japundit Central garlic patch.
As you can see, there is little to report, save that the plants continue to grow, and currently they are just below belt high.
My late plants are the same size as Mrs. JP’s […]

The lovely and gracious Xeni Jardin who serves as the tech culture journalist and curator of Internet esoterica, anomalies, and curiosities over at Boing Boing TV wrote in today to alert us to their just-released “Cooking Young Bamboo Shoots with Joi Ito,” with an original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Everything you need to know about […]

There was an interesting article by Leo Lewis in this weekend’s Times in which Lewis outlines how he reckons that a very simple agreement between the USA and Japan could be a massive step towards world food price stabilisation.
Lewis says that current World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules “[oblige] Tokyo to buy rice it does not […]

A longtime Japundit reader alerted me to an important beauty treatment now available at New York’s Shizuka salon, a place I went to once in search of a Japanese-style manicure.
a high-end Japanese spa in midtown, has just introduced a new “Geisha Facial,” which promises to cleanse, brighten, and exfoliate a patron’s face—thanks to a secret […]

After my natto-bagel post, I’m sure that some of you expats were wondering just where you could get your sticky fingers on some real natto, without having to travel all the way to Ibaraki-ken. Well, guess what? You can get it in Tokyo! Across the street from Tokyo station, in the Shin-Marunouchi building, in the […]

Officials Ohama Park in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture are asking visitors to refrain from feeding the monkeys there because, as can be seen below, overfeeding by tourists have made them grossly overweight.

More here. . .
Thanks to David Sanchez

Swiss lawyers are elaborating the doctrine of vegetable rights. “A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms.” No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on […]

In a follow up to the National Geographic video on fugu (puffer fish) that we posted the other day, JAPUNDIT reader RTN writes in to alert us to a report in The New York Times about poison-free fugu being farmed in Japan.
SHIMONOSEKI, Japan — Poison has been as integral to fugu, the funny-looking, potentially deadly […]

Here is a pretty interesting video about fugu (Japanese puffer fish) from National Geographic.

A few days ago I remarked that Japan’s dietary problems are more due to high-glycemic index foods rather than large amounts of animal protein. Now a report by Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry seems to bear this out.
The health ministry said Wednesday that about 18.7 million people in Japan were diabetic or close to […]