Random Japan

Clever darlings

        The woman accused of harboring Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Makoto Hirata for 17 years says she made up her pseudonym-Kyoko Yamaguchi-by combining the names of popular actress-singers Kyoko Koizumi and Momoe Yamaguchi.

   A survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government found that 9 percent of expectant mothers failed to undergo pre-delivery health checks “because they didn’t realize they were pregnant.”

   As part of efforts to prepare Tokyo for a major earthquake, JR East has stockpiled water bottles and blankets for 30,000 commuters, while Tokyo Metro is storing relief supplies for 100,000 others.

   Two rare crested ibises injured on Sado Island recently are believed to have been attacked by falcons. The incidents are puzzling, as falcons normally only attack animals smaller than themselves.

stats

      113 Number of moves it took a computer program called “Bonkras” to defeat Japan Shogi Association chairman Kunio Yonenaga in a recent match in Tokyo

   200 Estimated number of companies believed to have received shipments of “radioactive gravel” that had been stored near the Fukushima nuclear plant, according to government investigators

   29.1 Percentage of college students who have failed to receive job offers ahead of graduation in March, the second highest figure on record, according to the labor ministry

   23 Rank of Japan, out of 32 nations, in terms of “nuclear materials security conditions,” according to a US-based NGO

Oops!

     Japan Post was ordered to stop using the name “Yu-Mail” as the result of a lawsuit by a Sapporo-based direct-mail company, which had trademarked the name in 2004. JP has some retooling to do-last year, it shipped 2.62 billion parcels under the Yu-Mail moniker.

   Google Japan was forced to issue an apology after admitting that customers who purchased apps via the Google Checkout service had their personal data leaked to app developers.

   A Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter took off in Mie without the crew realizing that a pair of “distress signal devices” had been set down on the aircraft’s exterior. The equipment fell off and crashed into a nearby dockyard, though no one was injured.

   Sentence of the Week: “Japan’s science ministry provided data on the dispersal of radioactive materials to US forces a few days after the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, far earlier than the disclosure of the information to the Japanese public, a ministry official said Monday.” (via Kyodo)

 My Mobile Phone Is Secure

This Is The Police

The Chief

Searched The Wrong “Area”    

Nobody Will  Know

It Was You

Fukushima students use teacher’s picture book to learn about radiation

February 04, 2012

 By NAOKO KAWAMURA / Staff Writer

New Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish has been compared to baseball legends and rock stars. But now he is being compared to cesium.

“Cesium is Darvish, and potassium-40 is like when (our classmate) Shogo throws the ball,” an elementary school pupil said. “Cesium hurts more.”

A classmate said, “They’re both radioactive substances, but cesium is worse for your body.”