Random Japan

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POLICE BLOTTER

Cops in Toshima-ku arrested four operators of a brothel called the Otsuka Cosplay Academy for employing a 14-year-old girl as a sex worker.

Authorities in Hachioji believe that a serial arsonist is setting fire to local vending machines in an effort to “steal change.”

A 35-year-old lieutenant commander in the Maritime Self-Defense Force was arrested for “touching a 20-year-old female college student’s lower body” on the Keikyu line.

An Osaka woman was busted for getting her 6-year-old daughter addicted to sleeping pills. The woman told officials that she wanted the girl to go to bed at the same time she did.

stats

221,000

Tons of debris from the March 11 tsunami that’s expected to wash up on the west coast of the US and Canada by October, according to the environment ministry

2

Rank of Panasonic in terms of international patent applications in 2012, trailing only China’s tech firm ZTE Corp

14

Number of prefectures that sent delegates to a recent education fair in Beijing to promote school trips to Japan

Alcohol Made with Fermented Wasps Gives New Meaning to the Phrase “Get Your Buzz On”

by Rachel Tackett

By all accounts Japan’s giant wasps are dangerous creatures. And yet, our team recently learned of one huntsman from Kumamoto Prefecture who has a hobby of fermenting these monstrous bugs in batches of shouchuu (Japanese liquor similar to vodka). It merits saying that even in Kumamoto, selling this kind of alcohol is not a common practice. If you do happen to come across some wasp-infused booze in a souvenir shop, it’s safe to say that you’ve strayed quite far from the mainstream marketplace.

Hearing about this peculiar home brew, we at RocketNews24 couldn’t help wondering what kind of a man would make shouchuu containing wasps. Our very own field journalist took a trip to Kumamoto to meet the man in his home and find out more.

 

Futenma Will Be Returned

Oh Never Mind

 Up In Smoke

 Always Up In Smoke

Where’s Your Brother?

 In The Trash

Scientists say they can ‘read’ dreams



 NATIONAL APR. 06, 2013 – 06:55AM JST

TOKYO

Scientists in Japan said Friday they had found a way to “read” people’s dreams, using MRI scanners to unlock some of the secrets of the unconscious mind.

Researchers have managed what they said was “the world’s first decoding” of night-time visions, the subject of centuries of speculation that have captivated humanity since ancient times.

In the study, published in the journal Science, researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, in Kyoto, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to locate exactly which part of the brain was active during the first moments of sleep.

The scientists then woke up the dreamers and asked them what images they had seen, a process that was repeated 200 times.