Japan Probe

Hugh Jackman is the new face of Asahi Super Dry beer: In addition to the above commercial, he is also appearing on billboards around Tokyo. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Asahi TV’s Japanese-speaking foreign reporters visit a narrow concrete house: Apparently 4 people live in the house. Their bedrooms are only big enough to fit the beds themselves, and in the case of the parents, the area under their bed serves as a storage cellar. It’s a bit cramped, but looks pretty nice inside. — Akihabara [...]

A restaurant in California has been caught serving meat that allegedly came from an endangered species of whale: Two undercover diners requested whale as part of a $600 “chef’s choice” meal. The women were working with producers of the Oscar-winning documentary, “The Cove,” to videotape the meal. Court records say they pocketed a sample, and testing confirmed [...]

Around 60% of Japanese consumers in their 30’s want to try the products before they actually decide to buy them. Sample Hyakkaten gathers 1000 monitoring women to the event site 6 times a year where the participants get a lot of free samples of over 50 different items that are worth more than 30,000yen. The [...]

Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota, appears on the “Late Show With David Letterman” to comment on the safety of the vehicles his company produces [skip to the 1 minute mark if you don't want to listen to Letterman's intro]: Also worth watching: Toyoda comments on Letterman’s treatment of Conan O’Brien. [via JapanSoc] — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from [...]

A few updates on topics covered by previous posts: — Prime Minister Hatoyama is still not sure if his party’s plan to help subsidize high school tuition should be applied to people who send their children to private Pro-Pyonyang High Schools that teach students loyalty to North Korea and hatred of Japan: “I suppose it will take a [...]

Sado Island’s program of raising Japanese crested ibises and releasing them into the wild has suffered a serious setback after a marten slipped into the breeding center and killed several birds. The intruder was caught on camera: Two male birds born in 2009 and seven female birds born between 2004 and 2008 were reportedly killed. [...]

“Mezamashi TV” takes a look at some of the new snacks hitting convenience stores and supermarkets: Snacks that appear in the video: Banana Milk/Cereal Crunky Strawberry Cake Toppo Kinako and Brown Sugar Kinoko no Yama Matcha Milk Takenoko no Sato Sakura Matcha Kit Kat Fuwamaki Milk Cake made to look like a cow Milk Tea Cakes — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – [...]

Japanese police raid an apartment being used to grow marijuana: Mr. Park, the man who was caught inside the apartment with 78 plants, was arrested. He insisted that the plants were not being grown for business purposes. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Prepare to see Ric O’Barry and other animal rights activists harass and annoy the residents of Taiji, Japan in their own TV series: A new television series about the controversial dolphin trade in Japan, tentatively titled “Dolphin Warriors,” has been greenlit by Animal Planet. The series picks up where the movie leaves off and, like the film, [...]

MTV interviews Japanese actress Chiaki Kuriyama [whose name is apparently now written as "CHiAKi KURiYAMA"]: The interview is about how she is trying to launch a successful music career. You can view her new music video here. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Video: Fujita as a guest on a conspiracy theorist radio program The Washington Post has run an editorial asking why the hell 9/11 truther Yukihisa Fujita is holding an influential position within Japan’s ruling party: As chief of the DPJ’s international department and head of the Research Committee on Foreign Affairs in the upper house of [...]

I don’t know what kind of creepy animal is sitting on Takuya Kimura’s lap, but it does seem that it enjoys using Gatsby hair spray: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

The Academy Award results are in, and it appears that award for best documentary went to The Cove, a film about American animal rights activists fighting against the Taiji dolphin hunt. Fuji TV went to the small town of Taiji to see how locals would react to the news: The few people interviewed feel that the documentary [...]

American snowboarder Shaun White, who won a gold medal for his halfpipe performance at the Vancouver Olympics is visiting Japan right now. He was interviewed by Fuji TV and TBS: Shaun has been to this country some 30 times and DVD’s of his snowboarding sell relatively well here. He likes Japanese toys, games, and [...]

As far as I know, Kirin is not selling its alcoholic “Cola Shock” drink outside of Japan. However, it’s newest commercial shows Meisa Kuroki working as a waitress at a restaurant in some English-speaking country where everyone wants to drink Cola Shock: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Has anyone seen this woman dancing around outside Shinjuku station in Tokyo? Her name is Aya Sato and she is 33-years-old. She says she once tried to work like a salaryman, but had to quit her job. Now she apparently spends most mornings dancing on the street cheering on salarymen as they walk to [...]

If you’re familiar with Thomas Friedman’s work, you may have come across his idea of pizza serving as an instrument for sharing cultures: I take some succor from the fact that the most popular food in the world today is not the Big Mac, but pizza. And what is pizza? It’s a flat piece of bread [...]

A romantic music video of Ken Shimura and chimpanzee performer Pan-kun from last night’s episode of “Shimura Zoo”: And a look back at some of Pan-kun’s silliest costume moments: — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Blaine Harden of the Washington Post reports on how the average weight of Japanese women has been declining: “I am quite fat, actually,” said Michie Takagi, a 70-year-old grandmother and retired clothing store executive. She has a body mass index (BMI) of 19.9, which is at the thin end of normal. While the average American woman [...]

A cafe in Kochi city that sells a Sakamoto Ryoma Latté: It costs 860 yen for the special drink. Read more about it in Japanese at this site. You can find a map to the cafe here. Also spotted recently in Japan: Sakamoto Ryoma ramen chips. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal [...]

This book about the Australian soldiers who participated in the occupation of Japan sounds quite interesting [emphasis added to lol-worthy part of the quote]: Even though soldiers diagnosed with venereal disease risked having their beer ration suspended for 15 days, we learn that many still took their chances with the local “moose,” the Aussie rendering of [...]

Ananova reports on a washing machine for dogs in Japan: More and more people are making use of machines such as one installed at a pet supermarket called Joyful Honda in the suburbs of Tokyo. It washes and blow dries dogs and cats* for the equivalent of just £3.50 – a massive saving on the costs of [...]

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage talks to a Japanese TV program about the U.S.-Japan alliance and the issues surrounding the relocation of the US Marine air station at Futenma: Armitage is introduced as an important member of the Reagan and Bush administrations, and as one of the people who pushed very hard for Japan’s [...]

The first part of HBO’s new miniseries about US Marines in the Pacific War will air on March 14th: You can read more about it and view other videos on its official homepage. They’ve got a 10 minute mini documentary called “The Atanomy of the Pacific War” which includes footage of interviews with historians [...]