A Taiwanese toy company name Wind Hobby reportedly has come out with a radio-controlled toy Apache helicopter that can shoot BBs while in flight. Flight time is eight minutes between charges.
One? Heck. . . I’d like to get a squadron of these. . . I wonder if they play Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries during attacks . . .
Via The Raw Feed
The New York Times recently reported on a new trend in Japanese tourism, both those visiting Japan and Japanese going abroad. While fewer Japanese are traveling outside the country, more foreigners are visiting; most of whom are coming from Asian countries.
Once prohibitively expensive, Japan is suddenly drawing soaring numbers of Asian tourists who splurge at the nation’s department stores, lounge in its hot spring resorts or explore remote corners, like this stretch of pristine mountains and forests on Japan’s northernmost tip.
Japan itself was once known for its free-spending tourists, who flocked to boutiques from Hong Kong to Fifth Avenue. But as Japan’s economy stalled for the last dozen or so years, rapid development in countries like China and South Korea raised living standards there.
At the same time, there has been a decline in the number of people going abroad from Japan. The number of Japanese traveling abroad has fallen 3 percent from the peak in 2000 of 17.8 million, the government-run Japan National Tourist Organization said.
By contrast, the number of visitors to Japan from South Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong almost doubled last year from five years earlier, to 5.36 million, according to the tourist group. Those four regions alone accounted for nearly two-thirds of all foreign visitors to Japan last year, the organization said.
Many Asian tourists interviewed said they liked to shop here because Japan has the latest fashions first, and at prices way below those in many other Asian countries, where tariffs are steep. They also said they liked visiting Japan because it was close, safe and cleaner than much of the rest of Asia.
During the 1980s, Americans were the largest group of overseas visitors to Japan, but have now fallen to fourth behind South Korea, Taiwan and China. Surveys also showed Asian tourists came to Japan for different reasons than Westerners. While Americans said they came to see cultural attractions like temples, Asians cited shopping, followed by hot springs and nature. Visits to factories are also popular, he said.
Here’s a little avant-garde weirdness from Tokyo Design Festa.
She’s from Taiwan and was one of the performers at the Design Festa - vid coming up soon on that!
Music by SevenCycleTheory
Check out this Chinese dude doing some pretty cool MC Hammer moves.
I don’t know what is cooler, him or the woman behind him who seems to be totally unphased by what is going on around her.
Hong Kong’s first branch of the Toilet Restaurant of Taiwan was opened recently, complete with its toilet-shaped seats, commode-shaped dishes, and urinal-shaped cups.
The photo below shows the restaurant’s most popular item: pork ribs in black pepper sauce.
This is S.H.E., a music group from Taiwan that consists of three young women named Hebe Tian, Ella Chen, and Selina Ren.
Ever since their debut CD in 2000, the members of S.H.E. have produced hits in pop, rock, R&B, and other genres, and they have received an impressive number of music awards. In addition to their music, the S.H.E. girls also have appeared in dramas, variety shows, concerts and other TV programs, making them one of the most popular groups among young people in Asia.
Already very well-known throughout Asia, S.H.E. is a group that bears watching as its popularity spreads to other shores.
Here is S.H.E. performing their song Ring, Ring, Ring.
The China Daily is reporting that a woman in Taiwan who had undergone breast enhancement surgery three years ago had one of her bosoms deflate after being stung by a bee.
The report claims that she was shocked when her right breast wenrt flat two days after being stung.
As just about everyone probably knows by now, a China Airlines jetliner exploded into flames earlier this week shortly after arriving at Naha airport in Okinawa, Japan from Taiwan. Luckily all 157 passengers and eight crewmembers escaped unharmed.
Shortly after that, I saw video reports on TV news programs in Japan in which the president to China Airlines, Chao Kuo-shui, apologized to the passengers that were on the plane as he handed each one a red envelope containing a 100-dollar bill as “compensation money.” Though a number of passengers, who lost all of the baggage they had with them in the fire, expressed disdain at such a paltry sum, a China Airlines spokesman said, “We believe the passengers accepted our sincere apologies.”
Now we get word that China Airlines, which has been deluged with cancellations since the accident, has shifted into full damage control mode and has painted over their company name and logo on what is left of the burned out wreckage still sitting on the tarmac in Naha.
After the accident, photographs and video footage of the jet continued to appear in news reports, and the company apparently painted over the name and logo to limit further damage to its image.
Before
After
According to a spokesperson from China Airlines, “We followed international procedures. We do not have detailed information.”
Thanks to Mr. Pink
A dance studio in Taiwan is teaching housewives and other women the art of stripping to music. The purpose of the classes is to: “help women appreciate their bodies, discover their ’sexy charms’ and boost their self-confidence.”
“All women want to feel sexy, charming and attractive. I tell my students that they are dancing for themselves because they like themselves and they are confident in themselves,” [says Nina Chen, who runs the school].
“In the process of stripping they can re-examine their bodies and explore the sexy sides in them. I think a woman regardless of her figure can be sexy if she wants to be,” she said.
According to Chen, some of the women attend the classes just for fun, while others hope to spice up relationships or marriages.
According to one student:
“I used to worry too much about how people think of me and I was not satisfied with the way I looked. At this class I learn to appreciate the curves of my body from different angles and I am more at ease.”
A ceremony was held in Taiwan recently to mark the changing of that name of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. People for and against the name change gathered at the hall, scuffling with police and with each other, and doing what they could to demonstrate their feelings about the name change.
One old man decided to express his distaste over the even by dropping his pants and shouting ”[Taiwan President] Chen Shui-bian has no balls!”
As funny as this seems, it looks as if dropping your trousers for a good cause it becoming quite the fad around the globe. The photo below shows a scene from Mexico City where demonstrators were demanding the return of land they way was confiscated from them illegally.
Tainan County, Taiwan ended their New Year celebrations with a bang recently by setting off an 8.1-mile-long string of firecrackers in an attempt to make it into the Guinness World Records.
Taiwanese university students establish a Nazi group to promote national unity, strength and reduced immigration.
After instant ramen noodle king Ando Momofuku passed away in January, some blokes in Taiwan came up with this idea for a roadside shrine to the Noodle King.
Rest in Peace, Ando Momofuku! (aka Wu Bai-fu)
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.
Ella Lu, who often writes about what’s happening in Taiwan in the Japan Times, has an interesting article about how some young Taiwanese are coming to Japan to be married in traditional Shinto ceremonies.
Apparently, Taiwanese wedding ceremonies are loud, festival-like and very expensive. The Shinto ritual, on the other hand, is more solemn and subdued. No doubt the mystery and excitement of being married overseas also adds to the appeal.
The Kibune Shrine in Kyoto is only too happy to perform marriage ceremonies for couples from other countries.
“It is a wonderful wedding that impresses us very much,” said Akiyoshi Yamada, wedding coordinator at Kibune Shrine. “We are very pleased to know the couple and also thank them for choosing us.
“We welcome people from other countries very much to experience traditional Japanese culture,” he added. “Though wearing the wedding dress is good, I say the kimono is even better.”
A recently married couple believes that their Shinto wedding give them something that they can cherish throughout their entire marriage.
“It is an unforgettable experience, which we think will remind us that we should strive to keep our commitments to each other.”
After sitting around until 3:00 a.m. waiting for the site to come back on line after it decided to drop off the radar screen for a while, I am simply too tired to post anything.
In the meantime, here is a photo of some models in Taiwan with radishes painted on their legs to promote the 2006 Touwu (Taiwant) Radish Festival.
It seems that the Taiwanese refer to fat legs as “radish legs,” just as they do in Japan (where the word is daikon ashi).
Good night!
National Taiwan University in Taipei is gearing up for the Miss Bikini World beauty pageant that will be held there on December 21.
No time to post a proper article just now, so here is a photo taken earlier this month at the Taipei International Travel Fair
These two women are part of the delegation sent by the Department of Roads, Transport, Information, Communications and Tourism of Mongolia’s Ministry of Infrastructure.
Apologies for the light posting yesterday, but I was out all day for work-related, meetings and Sunday I spent the evening with Mrs. JP, Mr. Pink, and Mrs. Pink at Tokyo Dome where we watched the final game of the Asia Series between Taiwan’s LA New Bears and Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters.
All of us fully expected to see Japan walk all over the Taiwan champs, but the game unfolded as a real pitching duel with the pitchers and defense on both sides keeping base runners from scoring.
Ham’s Yu Darvish struck out 10 and gave up only one hit over seven innings.
Nippon ham finally won on a run-scoring single.
The lack of hitting spark on the field, however, was more than made up for by the Taiwan side’s cheering section. A quartet of sexy young woman danced up a storm, as the vocal cheering section kept the decibel at a high level.
The following shows a typical round of cheers from the Taiwanese.
All of this, combined with the beer girls constantly making the rounds made it hard at times to keep your mind on what was happening down on the field!
JAPUNDIT is looking for interesting contributions from people with something to say about Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, or the other countries in East Asia.
As a JAPUNDIT contributor, your contributions will be viewed by thousands of people the world over each day.
If you would like to become a regular contributor, with either original items (articles, images, etc.) or items cross-posted from your blog, please click here and drop us a line telling us something about yourself and what you are interested in contgributing.
Become a regular contributor (posting at least four times a month), and we will add your name to our list of contributors on the sidebar.
