The next time someone tells you that, in case of an earthquake, turn off the gas, get under a table, stand in a doorway, and do all of that other good stuff, remember this video which was taken by a camera that was rolling when the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake hit in 1995.
Hibaritei is a self-described “psychological browser crash” that, in the great Japanese tradition of fetish mashups, combines maid-themed cosplay with cross-dressing.
Though they have yet to open an establishment of their own, the members of Hibaritei have been holding special events at different maid cafes throughout Akihabara since August of last year, in which the men of the group dress up in maid costumes to serve patrons.
Via Akibanana
The Japanese government is charging ahead with legislation that could end up putting the Internet here under direct government control. A government panel is proposing that “influential, widely read news-related sites” be governed under the same rules that are applied to newspapers and broadcasting. Rules are to be enforced by making Internet service providers liable for the content that passes through there computers onto the Net.
The conservative government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, is seeking to have the new laws passed by Parliament in 2010.
“Japan’s Internet is increasing its clout, so naturally the government wants to control it,” said Kazuo Hizumi, a former journalist who is the Tokyo city lawyer.
The Japanese government denies they are trying to implement a system censorship on the Internet.
“The criticism that the report amounts to a call for censoring the Japanese Web” is completely unfounded, the Communications Ministry said in a statement. “Furthermore, the report takes the position that Japan should abstain from adopting regulations aimed at promoting government censorship or restriction of Internet content, such as blogs, and calls for examining the creation of a framework for promoting voluntary action by ISP and others as a means of dealing with illegal and harmful material.”
I am sure that everyone has, at one time or another, has felt that “something should be done” to stop some of the more egregious abuses being promulgated on the net. But as Alex Kerr likes to point out, the thing that the Japanese ship of state seems to be lacking are brakes, and once it starts heading in a particular direction there is little hope of ever stopping it.
Will bloggers in Japan rise up and beat back the government’s curtailment on their freedom of speech? Don’t bet on it. . .
“I’m afraid ordinary citizens don’t care about these lack of rights, consequently the Internet in Japan is heading for the Dark Ages,” Hizumi said.
This is a video asnwering the question that is often asked of people who live in Japan which is basically ”Why do you like Japan?”
Mainly my three reasons are:
Plus I also like the food, hot sake, and cold Sapporo beer.
When I first came to Japan, I didn’t have the economic security to spend much time getting around or getting into the culture. I slowly came to acquire a love of Japan rather than coming over here head-over-heels with Japan to begin with.
On my trials and tribulations during my first year, check out my Ronin Teacher Saga.
Background music by Super Girl Juice. I meet them in Tokyo and bought their CD last year.
North Korea reportedly has invited legendary rock guitarist Eric Clapton to play a concert in Pyongyang. This would make Clapton the first Western rock start to be invited to play in North Korea.
“Eric Clapton is a well-known musician and guitarist, famous throughout the world,” said [an] official, who declined to give his name. “It will be a good opportunity for Western music to be understood better by Koreans.”
A spokeswoman for Clapton, however, says that no agreement has been reached, yet.
“Eric Clapton receives numerous offers to play in countries around the world,” she said. “There is no agreement whatsoever for him to play in North Korea, nor any planned shows there.”
Though North Korea has long shunned rock music and pop culture, it is rumored that Kim Jong Chol, the son of national leader Kim Jong Il, is a big Clapton fan.
It’s interesting, looking at Japan through some of the “firsts” in its history.
Like John Kendrick, the ship’s captain who participated in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the Revolutionary War then went on to be an explorer, eventually becoming the first American to visit Japan.
Or Horace Wilson, a teacher at the predecessor of Tokyo University, who thought it’d be fun to teach his students to play baseball back in 1873, which was the beginning of the long history of the sport here.
The first English teacher in Japan, if you’re curious, was a half-Chinook, half-Scottish man with the unlikely name of Ranald MacDonald. After hearing of the plight of three fishermen who washed ashore in Washington State but were unable to return to Japan because of their country’s sakoku (closed country) policy, he started to feel a strange kinship with the Japanese people, which is interesting since we now know that American Indian and Japanese are indeed connected by blood.
He decided to go to Japan, despite the fact that it was death for foreigners to enter the country, and booked passage on a whaling vessel that would take him close. Pretending to be a survivor from a shipwreck, he was rescued by the aboriginal Ainu and handed over to the local Samurai lord, who shipped him off to Nagasaki.
The Japanese had a long relationship with Dutch traders, but none of them could speak English, despite the recent rise in power of England and the United States, so the officials got the idea of having MacDonald teach English to a class of fourteen students. The studies paid off, and when Admiral Perry showed up in 1853, students trained by MacDonald were able to communicate.
Today there’s a commemorative statue in Nagasaki thanking Mr. MacDonald for his contribution, and if I know Japan, I’m pretty sure they sell little cakes or rice crackers with his face on them, too.
