We all have heard of how foot binding was (and apparently still is in some areas) practiced in China, but these are the first photos I have ever seen of this gruesome practice.

More here.

according to an article in the new york times online,written by norimitsu onishi, the ashes in a japanese urn are an apt metaphor for the future of the system of funeral buddhism in the country.
where as in the past, the japanese reliably counted on buddhist priest’s and their rituals as a source of […]

A ceremony was held today to mark the beginning of construction work of the 610-meter Tokyo Sky Tree, which is scheduled for completion in 2012.
Tokyo Sky Tree will commence operation in the spring of 2012. NHK and the five major commercial broadcasters are currently using the 333-meter-tall Tokyo Tower to transmit both analogue and […]

Check out this video in which Oiwan Lam talks about how China pays people to go onto blogs and into chatrooms to tout the party line.

Via Danwei
More on this story here.
By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about […]

It’s official! Osaka prefecture has been declared the sexual assault capital of Japan according to statistics maintained by Japan’s National Police Agency.
According to the data, last year one in every 4,200 female residents of Osaka was raped or otherwise sexually assaulted. This compares to one in every 4,600 in Tokyo.
The Osaka rate is […]

In the mid-1960s when I was a Tokyo-based trade journalist I wrote that a growing number of Americans were being influenced by positive elements in Japan’s traditional culture and were approaching the cultural sophistication that the Japanese had reached by the 10th century.
In that instance I was referring to the arts, crafts, food, poetry, literature, […]

The New York Times has a report about Huang Qi, a Chinese human rights advocate who, ironically told National Public Radio recently that there have been great improvements in the human rights situation in China.
BEIJING — Three weeks after the earthquake in Sichuan Province, five bereaved fathers whose children died in collapsed schools sought help […]

“One day, I discovered three kernels of corn in a small pile of cow dung, picked them up and cleaned them with my sleeve before eating [them]. As miserable as it may seem, that was my lucky day.”
More here.

According to Danwei, the Beijing City Government Food Safety Office reportedly is sending out notices putting restrictions on the serving, transport and sale of dog meat during the Olympics.
The main thrust of the notice is that all meat transported into Beijing during the Olympics will be thoroughly checked, and that the 112 […]

The Associated Press has a story of a unique defense against an assailant… a cup of tea. No word on whether the tea was oolong or green. I wonder if sake would have worked as well.

A man who appeared to be a laborer in his 60s allegedly pulled a knife and demanded money from a […]

Just yesterday we heard about how proud the Japanese people are of their unique fine-tuned sense of the four seasons. Now the word out of Sapporo is that “indigenous peoples” are experiencing “unique fear” over the impacts of changes in the climate.
SAPPORO — Indigenous peoples will be the hardest hit by climate change because […]

What Japan Thinks has a report on an Internet survey about what Japanese people think are the greatest attributes of Japan and the Japanese people.
The top 10 responses. . .
1. A sense of the four seasons
2. Diligence
3. Kindness
4. Rich food culture
5. Ability to create cutting-edge technology
[…]

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 […]

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 […]

The following is from a Washington Post report on the cancellation of a trip to Seoul by U.S. President George Bush due to demonstrations against U.S. beef imports there. Emphasis is mine.
President Bush canceled plans Tuesday to visit Seoul next month amid protests over U.S. beef imports, and his administration made a key concession to […]

Straight from the Japanese Make the Best Tourists Department comes a report that students from Gifu City Women’s College are in hot water for defacing the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy during an overseas study tour by writing the date, their names, and the names of their friends with an oil-based marker […]

Japundit reader Colin Fletcher writes in to alert us to a report about a maid coffee shop that has newly opened in Culver City, California.

Sandra Westwood, who oversees the cafe, worked most recently at the restaurants Bread and Brown Cafe in Manhattan. Earlier in her career, as a fashion model in Japan and Paris, she […]

It can sometimes be near impossible to get a good night’s sleep during Japan’s hot, humid summers. Sleeping under an air conditioner is one option of course, but that often leads to summer colds.
Well, relief may finally be on the way in the form of the Kuchofuku Air-Conditioned Bed.

The Kuchofuku is equipped with […]

A recent survey by online travel company Expedia.com reveals that Japanese tourists are ranked best overall by hoteliers. The Japanese were followed by the Germans and Britons who were tied for second place, followed by the Canadians and Swiss.
The survey ranked American tourists as the most generous, followed by Canadians and Russians, while the French, […]