hitomi #1 wrote:

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111814/beefing-up-mcdonalds

^ For one thing, she eating it the wrong way...

Japanese cartoon character inspires charity

there's been a spate of gift giving in Japan, all sparked by a 1960s cartoon hero, known for standing up for underprivileged kids.

It appears people all over the country have been taking up the cause of "Tiger Mask", with anonymous donations to schools and welfare facilities.

More: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3113531.htm

Toylet video games help Japanese men aim straight

Tokyo urinals fitted with games enabling users to test power and accuracy


Using the restroom is becoming an entertaining business for some Japanese men.

A Japanese entertainment company has combined men's obsession with video games with their perennial inability to aim straight to create a range of distractions in selected Tokyo urinals.

Sega has installed the Toylets in male lavatories at four bars and games arcades in the Japanese capital.

The games use pressure sensors attached to eye-level LCD screens that test users' accuracy as they answer the call of nature.

The four games include one in which the object is to spray the screen clean of graffiti. Another, Manneken Pis, named after the famous statue in Brussels, measures the volume of the urine stream.

Splashing Battle, meanwhile, pits one user against another – though thankfully not directly – by challenging him to produce a more powerful stream than the previous visitor.

In the fourth game, the North Wind and the Sun and Me, sensors control a digital wind blowing up a young woman's skirt. The greater the stream's intensity, the higher the skirt travels.

The games sit (or stand) well with Japan's open attitude to all matters micturition.

Children are raised on tales of ghosts who inhabit toilets, perhaps to encourage cleanliness, while girls are encouraged to keep on the good side of the female deity who supposedly resides in domestic WCs.

While many foreign visitors to Japan find themselves befuddled by hi-tech "washlets" in upmarket hotels and restaurants, locals are accustomed to heated sets, multidirectional jets of warm air and water, and even face-saving "perfume bursts".

For the easily embarrassed, the toilet maker Toto offers Otohime (Sound Princess) – a gadget tailored for women's public lavatories that emits the sound of running water.

Sega said the Toylet games would be available only until the end of the month, and it had no plans to market them commercially.

Household versions would be unlikely to succeed. According to a 2009 survey by Toto, more than 33% of Japanese men prefer to urinate while sitting down.

^ LOL.

Why not just make larger urinals?

Here's a little Japanese Toilet 101:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW_EI1DO3Mk

^ Yow, squatting? ...That could turn into an adventure.

Tu_triky wrote:

Toylet video games help Japanese men aim straight

So they're old enough to play video games and/or drink, but they never learned how to aim while taking a piss? Japan gets stranger every time a new article comes out.

Kijinnmaru wrote:

So they're old enough to play video games and/or drink, but they never learned how to aim while taking a piss? Japan gets stranger every time a new article comes out.

Strange is the norm, apparently.

hitomi #1 wrote:

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111814/beefing-up-mcdonalds

her meal is one bite, and that just for dinner. I highly doubt her entire family could polish that off.

and your right beem, it is definitely the wrong angle to eat that

This isn't Sawajiri's husbands reaction to their divorce, it's a volcano in Kagoshima that started going nuts today:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2575Z_jTUw

Japanese police say the number of pensioners shoplifting has reached a record high, with nearly 30,000 arrested last year.

Many were caught stealing food rather than luxury items.

Japanese police say more than a quarter of shoplifters arrested last year were pensioners, and the vast majority of over-65s caught shoplifting were stealing basic items such as food or clothes.

A police official told the Japanese media that pensioners were committing theft not just for financial reasons, but out of a sense of social isolation.

By the middle of the century 40 per cent of Japan's population will be older than 65, with many left alone because their children have moved away to seek work.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/28/3124557.htm

^ Wow, that's sad.

bmwracer wrote:

^ Wow, that's sad.

Yup. We had this one elderly lady that would call in at least once a month saying there was a problem with her phone. There never was, she was just lonely and wanted to talk to somebody.

A hospital in Japan is taking unwanted newborns from around the country, sparking debate on whether they are helping mothers or encouraging abandonment.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/02/18/3143168.htm

xploring wrote:

A hospital in Japan is taking unwanted newborns from around the country, sparking debate on whether they are helping mothers or encouraging abandonment. http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/02/18/3143168.htm

If a mother can abandon her child so readily, I don't think this would make a difference in the decision. Even with animals and 3rd world societies that view children as "can always have more", the mothers retain the drive to protect their children. Sounds like their trying to deflect responsibility.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/06/hayabusa-high-speed-train-japan_n_832044.html#249685

Hayabusa High-Speed Train Debuts In Japan

Seiji Maehara Resigns: Japan Foreign Minister Quits In Fresh Blow To Prime Minister

By Linda Sieg and Yoko Kubota

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara resigned on Sunday to take responsibility for accepting donations from a foreign national, adding to unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan's troubles as he battles to keep his own job.

Maehara, a security hawk who favors close ties with the United States and has criticized China's defense build-up, had been seen as a key contender to succeed Kan if the prime minister bows to pressure to step down himself.

Maehara's resignation deepens the impression of a government in disarray as Kan fights to keep his own Democratic Party (DPJ) from splintering and avoid calling a snap election while trying to enact budget bills in a deeply divided parliament.

The stalemate is blocking the passage of bills needed to implement a $1 trillion budget for the fiscal year from April, and Maehara said he had feared his scandal would only worsen the deadlock if he clung to his post.

"The budget deliberation in the upper house for fiscal 2011/12, an urgent issue, is at a crucial stage," Maehara told a news conference after meeting Kan. "I cannot let parliamentary deliberations get delayed through my political funding problem."

The political impasse is also keeping Kan from getting opposition help on fiscal reforms, including a rise in the 5 percent sales tax, that he argues are vital to fund the costs of a fast-aging society and curb public debt now twice the size of the $5 trillion economy.

Kan, whose voter ratings have slid to around 20 percent, himself faces calls from within his own fractious party to resign, while opposition parties are pushing him to call a snap election that the Democrats could well lose.

His health minister, Ritsuo Hosokawa, is also under fire for the government's messy handling of efforts to help housewives who mistakenly failed to pay their pension premiums.

Although Maehara's resignation is bad news for Kan, it may not necessarily hasten his exit. "It's impossible for him to call a snap election. Momentum will build for Kan to resign," said Nihon University political science professor Tomoaki Iwai.

Iwai added, however, that Kan was unlikely to quit without assurances from opposition parties that they would help enact the stalled budget bills, something they might well be unwilling to provide, especially ahead of nationwide local elections in April.

7.3 Earthquake hits northeast Japan


By MALCOLM FOSTER, Associated Press Malcolm Foster, Associated Press –

TOKYO – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit off Japan's northeastern coast Wednesday, shaking buildings hundreds of miles away in Tokyo and triggering a small tsunami. There were no immediate reports of significant damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 11:45 a.m. local time and was centered about 90 miles (150 kilometers) off the northeastern coast — about 270 miles (440 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo — at a depth of about 5 miles (8 kilometers), Japan's meteorological agency said.

A 24-inch (60-centimeter) tsunami reached the coastal town of Ofunato, in Iwate prefecture, with other towns reporting smaller waves reaching shore about 30 minutes after the quake.

"We have confirmed that small tsunami have come up on the shores, but we have no reports of damage at this point," said Shinobu Nagano, an emergency and disaster response official in Iwate. "We are still trying to determine the impact of the quake."

Some train lines in the area were temporarily stopped after the quake, but they were restarted shortly after noon. Tohoku Electric Power said there was no damage at its nuclear power facility in the region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.

There was a 6.3 magnitude aftershock shortly after the main quake, the meteorological agency said.

In Tokyo, office buildings swayed and creaked for about 30 seconds during the quake.

In 1933, about 3,000 people were killed around Ofunato by an earthquake and tsunami that had a maximum wave height of 94 feet (28.7 meters), according to the USGS. In 1896, a magnitude 8.5 earthquake generated a tsunami that killed 27,000 people in the area.

^ Wow, that's a big quake... Hope there's no injuries or casualties.

bmwracer wrote:

^ Wow, that's a big quake... Hope there's no injuries or casualties.

I just read that off Yahoo news, fortunately it was far enough from the coast, no damage, and it only produced a small tsunami and no injuries reported.