Japundit
Japan - A whole lot more than raw fish!



JAPUNDIT Open Thread - 018 (May 9)
Here is the Open Thread for this week. Readers are invited to discuss things that have been on their minds, regardless of whether they are on topic. If you are dying to say something that normally would be deleted under comment rules, here is your chance. Rules are very loose for open thread posts, and usual [...]


Going my way (May 9)
One of my favorite words of Japanese is actually wasei eigo or “made-in-Japan English.” It’s the phrase “going my way,” and it refers to people who live life in their one way without being overly concerned with society all around them, free to ignore social rules as they choose. As with the (Japanese) word “my [...]


Dumb and dumber (May 8)
Hydrogen sulfide - is there anything it can’t do? You don’t just have to top yourself with it - you can threaten others with it too. Being the current suicide aide du jour taking Japan by storm, it seems it’s now being touted as an offensive weapon. An Osaka robber dropped in on a loan company [...]


Chinese Leader Hu Jintao Visits Japan (May 8)
The NY Times has a straight-up report of the visit of Hu Jintao to Japan. Interesting points from the article: It is the first visit by a Chinese leader in a decade. They discussed some thorny issues including control of an underwater natural gas field in the East China Sea and an unsolved case of poison found in frozen Chinese-made [...]


Last night (May 8)
Had a hard time sleeping last night as a swarm of earthquakes kept rocking me out of my slumber over about an hour. When I was first shaken awake by a strong jolt, I turned on the light and noted the time was 1:10 a.m. After settling back in and drifting off a bit, the [...]


Massive monkeys of Osaka (May 7)
Officials Ohama Park in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture are asking visitors to refrain from feeding the monkeys there because, as can be seen below, overfeeding by tourists have made them grossly overweight. More here. . . Thanks to David Sanchez Share This


Taiko drum festival (May 7)
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Vegetable rights on the way? (May 6)
Swiss lawyers are elaborating the doctrine of vegetable rights. “A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms.” No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on [...]


Winning at UFO catching (May 6)
Who knows when knowledge like this may come in handy? Share This


Fugu without the thrill (May 5)
In a follow up to the National Geographic video on fugu (puffer fish) that we posted the other day, JAPUNDIT reader RTN writes in to alert us to a report in The New York Times about poison-free fugu being farmed in Japan. SHIMONOSEKI, Japan ? Poison has been as integral to fugu, the funny-looking, potentially deadly [...]