Society & Culture
Japanese band plays European polka music
Previously we’ve been listening to singing parrots, and now something equally fascinating. In Japan, there is a band called Edelweiss Kapelle (エーデルワイスカペレ) that plays oberkrainer/polka music from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, as well as famous songs by the Avsenik brothers in Slovenian language. Read More
Pandamania in Japan
Back in February, Tokyo’s Ueno Park has received two new giant pandas from China under the agreement between Tokyo Metropolitan Government and China Wildlife Conservation Association. The panda duo — which Tokyo is renting for about $950,000 a year — originates from the Chinese province of Sichuan, the home… Read More
Japan – The Strange Country
Recently we came across this excellent video titled Japan – The Strange Country. Kenichi Tanaka, a 23-year old graphic designer from Nagoya, created this motion piece as his final thesis project. The 11-minute tragicomic animation features some interesting facts and stats about Japan while pointing out certain social problems that… Read More
Genki Sudo and World Order pay tribute to victims of Japan’s disaster in latest music video
Genki Sudo (須藤元気), a famous Japanese martial arts fighter and kickboxer who has retired a few years ago to pursue a music career with his group World Order, has shortly after the March 11 disaster released a new music video for the track “Machine Civilization”. As was expected (that… Read More
Chiba monorail tickets featuring hit anime series selling like hotcakes
Japanese rail operator Chiba Urban Monorail has recently teamed up with the hit anime series Ore No Imouto (俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない) to offer special edition train tickets. As expected, hundreds of fans arrived in early morning hours to wait in long queues for the tickets which feature characters from the anime. There… Read More
Symbols of Japanese prefectures
In Japan, each prefecture has its symbol (and its own mascot, official flower, official bird, and everything else). Here are the symbols of all 47 prefectures: Read More
Japan’s Prime Minister will give up his salary
Japan’s embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Tuesday he will give up his salary until the nuclear crisis in the country is over. Captain Kan’s surprising announcement comes just days after he requested last week that all reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant be shut down. Read More
A hundred years of war between Montenegro and Japan
Who would have thought? Montenegro, this tiny country in the Balkans, was officially at war with Japan until just recently — until 2006 to be precise. This is certainly not a joke and to find out why, we must dig up some historical facts. Read More
Videos of Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011
On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 PM local time, a massive earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck northeastern Japan. Because it’s hard to describe in words what a quake like this feels like, we decided to publish some of the videos uploaded by YouTube users that were taken during the actual… Read More
Is the media more out of control than the nuclear power plant in Fukushima?
Today is one week and two days after the deadly earthquake and tsunami devastated northern Japan. The search for survivors has already turned into a search for bodies. What is happening are enormous personal tragedies. Everyone who survived has their own story to tell. According to the reports from the… Read More
