Random Japan

The giant straw sculptures of Japan

Many of you have probably heard about the massive snow sculptures of the Sapporo Snow Festival, adding a fun event to look forward to in the dead of the harsh winters of Japan’s northernmost prefecture. But what about the straw sculptures of the Wara Art Festival in Niigata Prefecture? To celebrate the end of the rice harvest and the abundance of straw that is produced as a result, the folks in Niigata put all that extra dried stuff to creative use, making huge straw sculptures that tower over the thousands of people who come to visit them.

The sculptures are actually made much like a thatched roof, but the straw is instead attached to frames to create enormous figures.

STATS

50.4 percent

Average TV rating in the Kansai area for the final episode of the TBS series Hanzawa Naoki, which aired on September 22

129

Local mascots from around Japan who gathered in Fukushima late last month to entertain children affected by the March 11 disaster

34.2

Percent of single women who say they want to be “a full-time housewife after getting married,” according to a poll commissioned by the labor ministry

NEWS FROM THE LAB

Scientists at the Riken research institute and the University of Tokyo have used the K supercomputer to “simulate global atmospheric conditions with the world’s greatest precision.”

Researchers at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry have discovered that people suffering from dyslexia “show abnormal patterns of activity in two areas of the brain.”

Authorities at the agriculture ministry announced a three-year, ¥800 million initiative “to gather evidence on the health benefits of Japanese cuisine.”

Tokyo government officials released the results of a study which suggests that Adachi, Arakawa and Sumida wards would be most vulnerable in a major quake.

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Defending champion Giants wrap up sweep against Carp, return to Japan Series

BY JASON COSKREY

STAFF WRITER

There may not have been a better story in Japanese baseball this season than the rise of the Hiroshima Carp.

There may not be a better team than the Yomiuri Giants.

Captain Shinnosuke Abe drove in a pair of runs and starter Toshiya Sugiuchi sliced through the Carp lineup as the Giants swept the Central League Climax Series Final Stage with a 3-1 win over the Carp on Friday night at Tokyo Dome.

The Kyojin began the series with an automatic one-game advantage as the league champions and won all three games played on the field to advance to the Japan Series for the second consecutive year.