Called the “Calbee Potato Maru” (maru designates a ship), the Calbee company best known for making potato chips has a ship designed entirely for shipping potatoes. This picture above can be found at this ship lover’s home page here.
Here’s a video for the ages… The real Beyonce (with little sister Solange) met her Japanese doppleganger… sort of. Well, a girl that impersonates her… sort of. Anyway the American Beyonce finally met the Japanese Beyonce whose real name is Naomi Watanabe. Check out the video for yourself. The only thing that’s hard to decide…
Note the poll on your right asking when you think Aso is going to announce that he’s stepping down and having elections. You can read a good insider story right here, “Prime Minister Aso on the Brink in Japan” at the Big in Japan blog for some background information on some of Aso’s recent gaffs….
The show is held every once in a while, your favorite tv personalities, comedians, and even singers (wtf!) compete in a singing contest. It’s one of those classic Japanese tv show type shows with the famous people watching from the stands, singing along, acting amazed at how well the singers sing. Although I don’t really…
This is an awesome video. Basically it’s a rap video about the top news stories of 2008. You can consider it a little pop quiz of your Japanese news, pop culture, and current events knowledge. How many of the images or stories in this do you remember? Enjoy this trip in the time machine courtesy…
A list of members of the Waseda University who sought counseling for sexual harassment, “power harassment”, or stalking was released on the internet through file sharing software. On the list were 390 cases which listed the names and addresses of victims, the reason for seeking counseling, and the name of the accused. The list referred…
Tsugeno High School in Aichi Prefecture is currently in the public eye because of reports that the school, which is designed to give a second chance to dropouts, provided students with “smoking” rooms. The school claims the rooms are part of an anti-smoking program the school is doing. The rooms are equipt with ashtrays, however teachers…
Twenty-one students, many of them members of the baseball team at Sakae High School, a private high school in Hokkaido, shoplifted during a school trip to the United States this month. Eight students were caught by staff members at the store after stealing several expensive brand bags and wallets. The school apologized to the duty…
A man (packing knives) parked his car near a police station and, when approached by a security guard confessed to the killings. Details have not yet been released, although the alternative news media sources (sometimes unreliablle, but often more reliable than some major news sources) are reporting that the man claimed his pet cat was…
… but not for the erroneous murder accusation. Mainichi.jp recently falsely accused a man of murder. Pension Bureau official Kenji Yoshihara was stabbed to death on November 18. His wife, Yasuko, was also critically injured in the attack. The attack is believed to be related to the murders of another former Pension Bureau official, Takehiko…
Mainichi, one of Japan’s news media giants published a story yesterday accusing a Japanese man of the murder of a former Health Ministry official from the Pension Bureau (an expert on the pension problem in Japan). Kenji Yoshihara and his wife Yasuko were attacked at their home in Tokyo on Tuesday, November 18th. The attacker…
A recent internet poll by the Goo search engine (link in Japanese) has rated the top 10 things that Japanese men feel show their status. Car Job Educational Background Watch Qualifications and Licenses Suit Where they shop or eat Where they live Beautiful wife or girlfriend Shoes Number five is probably unique to Japanese because…