Japan - News/General Discussion

Tu_triky wrote:

i think a good punch and a kick would do....don't worry, you'd have ppl in a long ass line behind you waiting to get their licks in...they'd finish the job you started...haha.

That's where my bokken comes in :twisted:

Fuji TV jumps on Netcast bandwagon with VOD


The Yomiuri Shimbun

Following in the footsteps of broadcaster NTV, Fuji TV officially announced Tuesday that it would begin offering sports shows and other programming online from this month.

The companies have chosen to throw their hats into the ring to stay competitive with Netcasts by telecommunications companies and to make inroads into e-business by offering so-called rich content--television programs--from the broadcasters themselves.

While the complex issue of how to deal with copyright remains, the industry has been drawing public attention with its move toward a "fusion of broadcasting and telecommunications."

NTV and Fuji will both employ the Video On Demand (VOD) system, which allows subscribers to view what they want when they want, but prohibits them from copying programs. Fuji TV's new service, Fuji TV On Demand, will start by offering all 15 matches of the women's Volleyball World Grand Prix finals, which began Wednesday in Sendai. Users will be able to watch the games as early as Friday for 525 yen via the portal sites of participating Internet providers.

The service will begin Netcasting programs designed for communication satellite (CS) channels in August, and the television firms will also consider offering programming from terrestrial television. Livedoor is also expected to participate in the TV tie-up.

Meanwhile, Fuji TV will launch a membership-based site and begin looking at ways to use older television dramas and variety shows for which the broadcaster already has the copyright holder's consent.

The programming will be edited down into three- to 15-minute segments for better viewing on personal computers. Dramas that run longer than 15 minutes will be Netcast in installments. Fuji also said it planned to procure shows from overseas broadcasters

okay i just posted the article above and it didn't show up in the latest posts queue....weird!

From the Mainichi Daily News

Bold women bathers spring the trapdoor of love

Josei Seven July 10 editionWith its rock surrounds and a bamboo wall dividing it in half, there's little to distinguish Shosenkaku from the thousands of other hot spring baths across Japan.

But actually, Josei Seven (7/10) says, Shosenkaku is an omiai onsen, literally a matchmaking hot spring, that aims to provide a place for men and women to encounter a lifetime partner.

Yanking a rope dangling down from the bamboo wall on the women's bathing area side opens a small door in a shrine built into a grotto beside the bath and gives the puller a perfect view of everything going on in the men's bathing area on the other side of the divide.

Theoretically, the woman who pulls open the door can chat with a male bather and, if everything works out as planned, their love can blossom.

"When we first thought about building a hot spring resort, we were caught up with the dilemma of guys wanting mixed bathing areas and women hating mixed bathing baths. I came up with the idea of the trapdoor because I figured I could keep both sides happy if I opened up just enough space for people to see each others' faces only," Shosenkaku's owner Shinichi Takizawa tells Josei Seven.

Takizawa adds that even though men often boast about preferring mixed bathing, when most of them actually get the chance to go into a unisex bath, they tend to go all shy.

"Only women have the right to open the door," Takizawa says. "If they open up to be greeted by a man who doesn't meet their liking, they can rest easy knowing that they can cut him off at any time simply by letting the door shut."

Takizawa says that most women using the baths rarely hold back when it comes to creating matchmaking opportunities.

"There are some guys who'll yell out for the women to open up the door, but we've found that the women don't need to much encouragement to open it up," the owner tells Josei Seven.

Some women may worry that the omiai onsen gives guys on the other side of the door too close a view of their true faces, but Takizawa claims this should not pose a problem.

"The steam from the bath gives their faces a more lustrous look and, if anything, makes the skin appear healthier," he says. "Even if they're not made up, there's nothing to worry about. Besides, the women are in the bath and relaxing in an atmosphere that makes it easier for everybody to talk."

Shosenkaku can boast of already having paved the way for several couples to meet and eventually tie the knot. A campaign it conducted seven or eight years ago offering a free stay for 30 men and women attracted enormous attention and resulted in three marriages. Another couple paired off through the bath in a most unexpected manner.

"One guy stayed with us for a month while he underwent a mineral spring treatment for an injury he'd suffered. He ended up meeting a nurse who'd come to enjoy the bath on the other side of the wall," the owner says, adding the encounter was even luckier to come about as the nurse had only been a day visitor.

Takizawa adds that families enjoy the matchmaking bath as well as it prompts communication between mothers and daughters on one side and fathers and sons on the other.

Shosenkaku's reputation for matchmaking, its owner says, is a deserved one.

"Judging by the voices, I'd say the majority of calls we get about the bath's effects come from men in their 30s," Takizawa tells Josei Seven. "Them, and older women interested in finding some women they can marry their sons off to." (By Ryann Connell)

Check this weird ish out.....very trippy.
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Sharp unveils double-vision LCD screen
Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:48 AM ET
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By Nathan Layne
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp. has a solution for the family fight over who gets to watch what on the TV -- sit on opposite sides of the room.

Sharp said on Thursday it will begin producing a new type of liquid crystal display (LCD) panel this month that if used in a TV would allow viewers sitting to the right and left of a screen to watch different channels.

"Take a typical family where the mother likes to watch dramas and the father likes to watch baseball or soccer. Now they can watch them together on the same screen," Mikio Katayama, head of Sharp's LCD business, told a news conference.

Katayama acknowledged that sound would be an issue. He said directional speakers were one possibility in the future but earphones would be the most likely option at present.

The world's top maker of LCD televisions said it had achieved the breakthrough by superimposing a "parallax barrier" onto the LCD to make the source light separate into right and left directions, creating a so-called dual-view display.

It differs from picture-in-picture technology that is common in many TVs now on the market.

Sharp did not disclose what products would use the new panel, but said it could eventually find uses in mobile phones, personal computers, car navigation systems and in various commercial applications.

The panel could be used to display two different advertisements on one screen at the same time. Placed next to an escalator, for example, passersby would see one advertisement on the way up and another on the way down.

Katayama was also confident the technology would be applied to car navigation systems, allowing the person in the passenger seat to watch a movie or TV program while the driver checks a route map.

Sharp also announced it had developed a new LCD panel whose viewing angle can be switched from wide to narrow, allowing people to view private information on their PCs or cellphones without having to worry about others being able to see it.

FOR ALL BUTT MEN

From the Mainich Daily News
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Jean butt fetishist hurls acid on women


A Tokyo man suspected of hurling acid on the buttocks of several women wearing jeans because he was thrilled by their appearance has been arrested, police said.

Tsukasa Saito, 34, a company employee from Katsushika-ku, was arrested for willful destruction of property after allegedly throwing sulfuric acid on a woman last month.

Saito is also suspected of several identical cases of attacks on women in the ward in June and again in May and June last year.

He admits to the allegations.

"It really turned me on to see a butt in a pair of jeans," he told the police.

Police said the specific case for which Saito was arrested involved him riding his mountain bike up behind a 33-year-old dental nurse as she walked through Katsushika-ku on June 20 and hurling acid on her buttocks as he passed her by. The acid burned holes in her jeans.

Saito is believed to have picked up the acid from the metalworking company where he works. He was working at the same company in June last year, police said. (Mainichi)

Well, the only butts he's going to see for a while will be the butts of his fellow inmates and the huge Yakuza guy in his cell named Bubba...

Ok maybe not Bubba, but the Japanese equivalent of it...

Toranaga wrote:Well, the only butts he's going to see for a while will be the butts of his fellow inmates and the huge Yakuza guy in his cell named Bubba...

Ok maybe not Bubba, but the Japanese equivalent of it...

isn't that a weird f*ckin' story? i was like "wtf?" your point is well taken..

From: web-jpn.org

"Little Devils" Are Cute and Sexy Both Inside and Out (June 8, 2005)

Actress Ueto Aya embodies the look.

They're cute, they're sexy, and they toy with men's hearts. They're koakuma ("little devils") and they represent a female archetype that has been around for as long as there have been men's hearts to toy with. Although there are little devils in every nation, Japan has recently seen a marked increase in the number of women who actively embrace the "bad girl" ethos. Books and websites on how to live the little-devil lifestyle are flying off the shelves, as are clothes and other goods deemed essential to achieve the little-devil look.
(more in article)

36 Reported Injured in Japan Earthquake

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

TOKYO - A powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on Tuesday, triggering two small tsunamis and shaking skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo, 185 miles to the south. At least 36 people were reportedly injured.

Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050816/ap_on_re_as/japan_earthquake_12

dochira wrote:36 Reported Injured in Japan Earthquake

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

TOKYO - A powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on Tuesday, triggering two small tsunamis and shaking skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo, 185 miles to the south. At least 36 people were reportedly injured.

Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050816/ap_on_re_as/japan_earthquake_12

ooh ... thats bad man ... the Tsunami word is a hair raiser now especially

7.2 is big man !!! ):

dochira wrote:36 Reported Injured in Japan Earthquake

By HIROKO TABUCHI, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago

TOKYO - A powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on Tuesday, triggering two small tsunamis and shaking skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo, 185 miles to the south. At least 36 people were reportedly injured.

Link to article: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050816/ap_on_re_as/japan_earthquake_12

Thanks for the information, that was a big shaker... :shocked: :sweat:

Wow...that's a very scary thing to go through :shakehead:.

z123_us wrote:7.2 is big man !!! ):

Sure is.

But the Japanese seem to be totally prepared for such events. :thumbsup:

bmwracer wrote:
Sure is.

But the Japanese seem to be totally prepared for such events. :thumbsup:

yeah i remember seeing their disaster management rehersal on tv ... was impressive

z123_us wrote:yeah i remember seeing their disaster management rehersal on tv ... was impressive

Yup.

If we had one of that magnitude here, it would be total chaos. :sweat:

bmwracer wrote:
Yup.

If we had one of that magnitude here, it would be total chaos. :sweat:

in India it would be even worse .

but FRANCE is the best ..... people die out here ... cause they dont drink enough water in summers ... :shakehead: and ... they talk of developed country .. what a bummer

bmwracer wrote:
Yup.

If we had one of that magnitude here, it would be total chaos. :sweat:

A good percentage of my dad's family is scattered throughout California...but I never visit them. It'd be just my luck that an earthquake would occur as soon as I get there. Those things really freak me out :sweat:.

shoujo22 wrote:A good percentage of my dad's family is scattered throughout California...but I never visit them. It'd be just my luck that an earthquake would occur as soon as I get there. Those things really freak me out :sweat:.

Like anything, you get used to it.

You try to stay prepared, but not paranoid about it.

yeeah I saw it on Firefox news before it was posted here.