From the Yomiuri comes the story of a Good Samaritan who responded to a plea for help in a gaming chatroom.
A man from Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, who suffered from an unnamed central nervous system disorder, fell ill while alone at home and became almost entirely unable to move. The only option within reach was his computer, to which he turned and typed just a brief message and his phone number before losing consciousness.
A gamer in the chatroom, a 19-year-old high school student from Shiga, took charge and relayed the message to police, who were able to trace the man’s address from his phone number.
“Although the Internet has been misused in many crimes and bad incidents, I’m grateful I was saved by a stranger. I want to say there are also thoughtful people using the Internet,” the Nishinomiya man said after his recovery.
One refrain we often hear from the guys here on JAPUNDIT and elsewhere that Japanese girls are just too thin. If the lithe bony bodies of young Japanese women turn you off, the Peach Girls pub may be just the thing for you!
From the relatively petite 85-kilogram Sara. . .
To the full-package 115-kilogram Kanna. . .
The buxom beauties at Peach Girls are carefully sized up and specially selected to ensure that customers always get more for their money.
Put me in a game centre and I’ll have a go at pretty much anything. But the one thing I’ve never tried my hand (or feet) at is Dance Dance Revolution - it looks like it requires the sort of coordination (let alone stamina) that I’ve never been blessed with.
Those who populate the DDR world seem to take it pretty seriously - there are national and international championships where rather obsessive types contort themselves for major prizes.
But I’ve never seen anything quite like Ryota, a 6(ish)-year-old who’s developed quite a following on YouTube - the first video below has been viewed over a million times. He’s got all the moves, and is living proof that you should start ‘em early.
Japan toymaker Tomy is planning to market the world’s smallest radio-controlled toy helecopter starting next month. The Heli-Q is designed to fly for five minutes on a 20-minute charge.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have a squadron of these things and mount attacks on co-workers in neighboring cubicles? I wonder if they play Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. . .
A baseball batting centre in Kitakyushu has unveiled a pitching machine it calls the Super Monster.
At the Mihagino Batting Center, until November 4, you can try to lay bat on a pitch coming at you at a staggering 200km/h (or 125mph).
[A spokesman for the centre] says the Super Monster Machine is the fastest artificial pitching device in the world, with balls taking just 0.3 seconds to reach the plate after being hurled.
Nearly 80 percent of those who have tried their hand in a 15-pitch session with the machine have failed to get bat to ball.
The report adds that the machine pitches nearly 40km/h faster than record fastest pitch in Japanese pro baseball - Yokohama BayStars’ Mark Klune’s 161 km/h.
Behind corporate giants Toyota and Mitsubishi, number 3 in Japan is now Nintendo, which experts currently value at ¥10 trillion.
As the TG Daily notes, that’s the equivalent of US$85 billion (Disney is valued at US$80 billion, for the sake of comparison).
TG also reports that the company has tripled in value since the launch of the Wii console, and “Nintendo’s growth represents a five-fold increase for the company in the past two years”.
Not bad, considering that many “originally thought [the Wii] would lead to the demise of the company’s game hardware business”. But with the Wii, along with the handheld DS, flying off Japanese shelves, all is looking well for Nintendo.
Filled with noise, bright lights and cigarette smoke, the attraction of the pachinko parlor is hard for many to fathom.
Seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, the players — mostly males — sit transfixed as the metal balls cascade down the front of the machines, hoping to hit the “jackpot.”
Yet this national pastime is rife with reports of shady dealings, links to North Korea, gambling addiction and crime.
Here are answers to some questions about pachinko.
A must-read if you want to know more about pachinko, its current state, and its ties to North Korea.
Mushiking is an awesome arcade game where you command your virtual beetle using rock-paper-scissors buttons to slam your opponent’s beetle in to submission. It’s like wrestling. For 100 Yen (about USD$1) you get to play a few rounds, and the machine spits out a card that you can use to perform special moves by swiping it during the match. You can collect the cards and trade them with your friends.
Beetles are common summertime pets for children in Japan. The common breeds can be found in the forest or purchased at a department store for a few dollars. There are more exotic breeds that are found at dealers and on Internet auction sites for hundreds of dollars.
Apparently the game has become so popular that it’s driving actually live beetle sales to the point where some species are in danger. According to the Kyodo news service, the heavy demand for a certain breed is now causing a shortage in Turkey where they are captured and exported to Japan.
Got bugs? If not, no problem, since Bandai’s newest high-tech toy is a robotic cockroach. “This little thing has six legs, a touch sensor that tells it to change directions when it hits a wall, a micro monitor that makes it vibrate like a cell phone, and a mic sensor that lets it scuttle away when you make loud noises” according to Tokyomango.
The Hex Bug will be infesting a store near you soon for only 1,995 yen each. Apparently the creators experimented with several types of bugs but finally decided that “the cockroach’s movements and speed were the most compatible with battery efficiency and design.” So even though alternate models that look like ladybugs are also available–they still move around like cockroaches.
South African documentary maker Tobie Openshaw has spent seven years talking to, taping, and photographing betel nut girls across Taiwan. According to Openshaw, modern betel-nut girls are neither under-aged nor abused as is often claimed. Rather they are mature adults who have made a rational decision to cash in on the relatively high returns they can earn by selling betel nuts.
[One] thesis is betel-nut beauties are low class because they expose their bodies. As a result the occasional legislator will charge betel-nut girls with destroying the moral fabric of the nation. This is why the beauties are banned from Taipei City and told to cover up elsewhere. The truth, according to Openshaw, is singers and actresses like Jolin Tsai also show off their bodies but they are looked up to for it.
“The reasons quoted for fighting this phenomenon are always wrong, always about the morals of Taiwan rather than the health of its people. I don’t understand what the fuss over scantily clad women is about. The real problem is the bad effects of betel nuts, which should carry health warnings,” Openshaw said, adding he had never tried one because they are cancerous, habit forming and look disgusting.
According to Openshaw, the sexy costumes worn by the girls are simply eye candy to attract customers, and claims that talk of girls engaging in prostitution is just that. “This is about selling nuts,” he says.
Some more information reported here that the sales of the Nintendo Wii have shown signs of slacking. The reason might be related to the dearth of software that truly utilizes the Wii’s capabilities in a compelling way.
A baseball batting centre in Kitakyushu 
Behind corporate giants Toyota and Mitsubishi, number 3 in Japan is now Nintendo, which experts currently value at ¥10 trillion.
South African documentary maker Tobie Openshaw has spent seven years talking to, taping, and photographing 