"The Kobe municipal government is considering banning people with tattoos from a beach in Suma Ward following the recent arrests of college students for alleged marijuana possession"
Greenpeace and a Netherlands-based video game developer have created Ship Simulator Extremes, a PC game that allows players to take control of famous Greenpeace ships and re-enact real-life campaigns on the high seas.
One campaign is based on a confrontation in 2008 in which an inflatable Greenpeace boat attempted to stop a Japanese whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, from refuelling.
Last week during a trip to Tokyo I went into an isolation tank for an hour. Isolation tanks were invented by John Lilly, an American scientist who experimented heavily in the 1960s with altered states of mind. What he came up with in his quest to isolate the mind from the body, is a light-proof, sound-proof tank with about eight inches of water made super-buoyant by magnesium salt.
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The most colorful festival of Kobe. Enjoy the photos!
An 'Intelligence Toilet' that provides instant health check up has been developed in Japan.
Every time a user answer a call of nature, this high-tech loo analyses their urine, blood pressure, temperature and weight, reports the Sun.
Over a couple of seconds it produces a well-being report, which is displayed on a wall-mounted screen.
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Yummy gyarus this week as well!
Police suspect an Okasa woman of claiming her deceased father's pension after discovering the remains of an elderly man in a plastic bag in a cabinet at the family's home.
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Today, I want to introduce some Japanese pop summer songs! I picked four songs from different types of singers and bands.
The first song is a five-girl pop band, Whiteberry’s “Natsu Matsuri.”
In Japan, “obake-yashiki (haunted house)” is considered as a summer thing. In recent years, summer-limited-open haunted houses have been increasing.
Here is the list of the haunted houses open during this summer in Tokyo.
Today’s story teller is a former governor of Chiba Prefecture in Japan, Domoto Akiko.
The story was about a black and white stone she always carries on her.
She got the hand sized stone in Mount Kailash in Tibet, where she visited 25 years ago for a TV work.
The annual dolphin slaughter has begun in Japan (The Cove) and humane organizations are calling on Japan's new Prime Minister, a former environmental activist, to stop the slaughter and repair Japan's image.
Dear Masanori and Kiyoko,
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2009 was Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary, and Hello Kitty’s producer company, “Sanrio” launched a project “Traditional Art x Hello Kitty” where the super popular kitty collaborated with 43 traditional art studios in Japan.
Awa Odori is a traditional dance from the Shikoku region. Its popularity has spread throughout Japan. Koenji is the second largest Awa Odori Festival outside of Shikoku. They've been doing it for several decades.
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The Kanazawa District Court acquitted a man charged with theft after determining that he was a different person from the culprit caught on a security camera.
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aiwanese broadcasting company Gala TV have announced that Hayate no Gotoku will be getting a live-action adaptation in Taiwan.
Chicken sexers in Japan once enjoyed well-paid careers with overseas travel and job security but industry changes mean their expertise is not needed so widely and less people are seeking to join the profession.
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Foreigners who visit restaurants and bars in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district are increasingly becoming the targets of credit card fraud in which they are charged for payments they did not make.
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Eikichi Sokokurai has become the first Chinese wrestler to reach sumo's top "makuuchi" division, seven years after his debut.
Sokokurai, whose real name is Enhetubuxin, will make his debut as a makuuchi wrestler during September's Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
The Chinese now consume more than twice as much organic food as health-conscious Japan, a market that is being fueled by a series of scares including toxic beans, contaminated milk and pork, pesticide-laced dumplings, chemically-tainted chicken, and the growing presence of what is known as “sewage oil”.
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