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.

Check out this Reuters report on a Japanese guy who has totally given up on women and maintains a harem of 100 sex dolls.

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.

Via Tokyo Times

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.

More videos after the jump…!

Caught a story recently in THE ASAHI about a Japanese kite that needs very little wind to fly.

The BioKite, which is controlled using a rod and reel, is even able to fly indoors and uses the same aerodynamic principles as aircraft to fly.

BioKite website (Japanese) is here.

To ensure that your office christmas party goes with a bang and lives up to its quota of weak double entendres, here’s the game for you.

via Neatorama

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. . .

Via Asian Pop with YeinJee

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.

The Japan Times this morning has a really informative article about pachinko.

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.