Random Japan

THE ANNALS OF SCIENCE

   Pass the Bloody Marys: Researchers at two of Japan’s top beverage companies say drinking tomato juice while getting drunk will allow you to sober up faster.

   In possibly related news, a research team that included scientists from the Kazusa DNA Research Institute in Chiba has, for the first time, fully decoded the genome of a tomato.

   The Meteorological Agency unveiled a supercomputer that can perform 847 trillion calculations per second—30 times faster than its previous machine. Even so, officials suspect it will be obsolete in about five years.

   A professor at Kansai Medical University has developed a treatment for bedsores that involves using the patient’s own blood platelets.

stats

   1 Number of smoking areas at the health ministry’s headquarters in Kasumigaseki

   101 Number of smoking areas at the defense ministry’s headquarters in Ichigaya

   10 Tsunami alerts issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency between March 2011 and March 2012

   5 Number of these alerts that were accurate

GOING FOR THE GOLD

   The mayor of (deep breath) Aizuwakamatsu, a radiation-stricken town near the Fukushima nuclear plant, advised residents to stay away for five years… not due to health concerns, but “to secure equal compensation payments.”

   Geisha girls and female staff of hot springs in Ishikawa have taken to calling themselves “Lady Kaga” in a bid to boost tourism to local onsen. Kaga is the name of a city in the prefecture.

   As part of efforts “to generate internationally successful young people,” the education ministry will let “particularly excellent high school students” graduate in just two years.

   A nine-year-old boy was one of six people whose designs were chosen for a series of commemorative coins related to the March 11 disaster.

 Osprey  

It Falls From The Sky

North Korean Embassy  

Taken By The Repo Man

Groper Escapes

Out The Backdoor  

 Tens of thousands protest Japan nuclear restart

 

Jun. 30, 2012 – 06:42AM JST

Tens of thousands of people rallied outside the Japanese prime minister’s residence in Tokyo Friday in one of the largest demonstrations held against the restart of nuclear reactors.

The protesters, carrying placards which read “Rise up against the restart” and “The nuclear era is over,” lined the streets around Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s residence in central Tokyo as police watched on, according to an AFP photographer.

The main entrance to the residence was seen guarded by armoured vehicles and barricades of uniformed police.