Here are the entries for this December Blog Matsuri. This was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. I definitely think you should check each of them out.

Joshua Zimmerman
Entry: Robot School Girl Horror
Description: This one creeped me out and got me excited, not that way, at the same time. I love robots and always get excited to see them. I was creeped out that they were turning them into school girls. There is a youtube video to watch too.

Just Another Day in Japan
Entry: Toilet Technology
Description: This is the exact reason I wanted technology as athe topic. I was after anything especially not so seen parts of Japanese technology. Funnily enough there was a conversation in my Japanese club once about toilets in Japan.

Lonelee Planet
Entry: Top 5 Japanese Gadgets from Thanko
Description: Thanko is a Gadget company and apparently they come out with some very interesting gadgets. Lets just say for one part nekomimi is going to sound awesome again.

Gakuranman
Entry: Omoshiro Zakka – R2D2 Soy Sauce Bottle
Description: This isn’t exactly technology, but I am a huge sucker for Star Wars especially droids so since droids are technology it is ok this time. Though looking at the picture it seems like it could get a little messy.

NihongoUp Blog
Entry: The digital camera that started it all
Description: I really liked this one post. I am a huge fan of photography so when I get to read/see history on the digital camera I am all over it. What is funny is the megapixel rating that it has. Never imagined it would be that number.

Maz
Entry: Karakuri (Part 1)
Description: This was an amazing entry. This is a side of the Japanese culture I had never even had a hint of knowing existed. Definitely give this a read, and watch the youtube videos. Imagine wooden robots.

Jamaipanese
Entry: 5 Japanese Robots
Description: Oh we have some more robot goodness here. These are as creepy and really show how far we have come with technology as humans. I will say I am an ASIMO fan, but after seeing the ApripPoko I don’t know anymore. However, the security guard looks a bit too happy to be one.

Muza-chan
Entry: 7 Reasons Why Japanese Trains Are Different
Description: While I am not a huge fan of trains, because of not so fun experience with them, I will say after reading this when I go to Japan I will probably not feel as bad about it. Seeing the different types and views of them I can see why people can be enamored by them. The first picture would make me nervous as a worker though.

Through Eyes From Afar
Entry: A Pinch of Salt
Description: I have got to give mad props on creativity of this one. When I think technology I think mechanical. Here is a good post on chemical technology/science. I will say second picture makes me wonder about whether I really like salt or not.

kirai
Entry: Manicure Machine
Description: This takes vending machines to a whole new level. I’ll just put it that way. The internals actually look kind of neat.

Japan Sugoi
Entry: Japanese Suima Automated Baby Crib
Description: I am living in the wrong country to be lazy in. Japan seems to make some cool stuff for those that want to be lazy, at times. I might have to import one someday if I have kids. Though can you tell me is it made out of wood or wood like plastic?

EDIT: Sorry I missed one I feel horrible about it, but here it is.

chottomatte.net
Entry: RIKEN Next-Generation Supercomputer, Kobe, Port Island
Description: I loved reading this especially since I am a programmer. I love computers. I especially want one this big.

Be sure to stay tuned for next months matsuri at loneleeplanet.

Rangaku is the term used for “Dutch Learning” and started the Japaneses curiosity about the west from finding an anatomy book. From there it moved to all sorts of subjects some examples are: Political Science, Astronomy, Medicine, Physical Science and Cooking, and many more.

The Dutch were the first westerners to find Japan and they had limited access from 1640 on. Seeing as how the Japanese had never met anyone like the Dutch they were very curios, and so were the Dutch of the Japanese. In general most of what the Japanese learned about the west was from the Dutch traders and priests.

What really kicked off Rangaku, or “Dutch learning”, was when some Japanese doctors obtained an anatomy book that had highly detailed drawings of the internals of human bodies. This was very interesting to the Japanese as apparently they had never done an autopsy to learn what the insides of a person looked like. So they decided to do an autopsy on a dead criminal, and learned these books were exact. This spawned helped spawn a great curiosity of the west.

From there it lead into almost every subject imaginable. It was also quite easy for the Japanese people to learn since 70 to 80% of Japanese were literate so as soon as books were translated from dutch they were sent off into Japan for people to learn from, that is a little over reaching but close’ish.

Much like everything else things evolve and so has/did Rangaku. Naturally with the curiosity of the Japanese about the west the same is true of the west about the Japanese. Eventually it lead down the road to Commodore Perry’s visit and forcing open Japan to trade.

One of the best positives of Japan starting to learn about the west was their intensity of it. The leaders setup groups of people to study and learn all about the west. By the time Commodore Perry forced open Japan they already knew about the politics and ways of the rest of the world so they were able to make effective decisions about opening Japan, trade agreements, and general good decisions for the future.

I found this topic quite interesting. While it is not earth shattering information it is just one of those little tidbits of history which makes things fun. So many things I take for granted with US history that I have learned, even the littlest of things, it is fun to start learning the little things of Japanese history. I hope to do more posts like this in the future.

The question now is have you read of this before or know much about it?

Japan has a lot of family names and it kind of makes it hard to remember names because I haven’t grown up with them. However, it is important to start learning names to better remember names and get along using the language. The Japan Times released an article with the top 100 most common family names in japan.

Here are the top 10 please visit the the article for all the rest.

1. Sato
2. Suzuki
3. Takahashi
4. Tanaka
5. Watanabe
6. Ito
7. Yamamoto
8. Nakamura
9. Kobayashi
10. Kato

The Ainu are considered the natives to Japan, similar to Native Americans being the original peoples to the United States. They are actually very similar to the Native Americans because their culture/economy was based around farming, hunting, fishing and gathering; along with having their own language, culture, and religious distinctions.

The Ainu were originally concentrated throughout the Honshu and Hokkaido islands. They called Hokkaido Ainu Moshir, which was annexed by the Japanese in 1868 to prevent the intrusion of Russians. This fact alone is interesting because according to a historical census in Russia there were over 1000 people that claimed Ainu as their main language. This means the Ainu not only were in Japan, but also parts of Russia as well, even though now most Ainu do live in Japan. Now, most Ainu live in Hokkaido on the southern and eastern coasts.

There are probably less than 100 people whom speak Ainu left, so basically the language is about to go extinct. The Ainu language has next to no correlation to Japanese and is part of the reason the language is going extinct because most people try to record the language using a Japanese writing system, since there isn’t one, and words are getting changed because of it.

There are a few distinctions in the culture too. For one the Ainu tend to be more hairy, I am guessing this is because they live in a colder climate longer the hair helps keep them warmer, total speculation on my part. This is mentioned because after a certain age the men stop shaving, and grow out there beards and mustaches. The women on the other hand keep their hair trimmed around their shoulders. As for food, ironically enough, all their food is cooked. They don’t eat raw foods like sushi, which in my ignorance would have thought is where Japan started eating sushi. I do have to say their system of accountability is quite intriguing and should maybe be incorporated again, in some places. Basically, a group of people, like jurors, sit in judgment of an action and the only punishment is basically how severely you get beaten. However, if you murder someone your nose and ears were cut off and the tendons in your feet where severed.

The religion is animist, which one can construe as Shintoism that most Japanese favor today. Basically everything has a spirit or god, similar to Greek mythology. The most important of spirits is fire, or earth. Most Ainu believe they will ascend to kamui mosir (land of the gods)

With all this said the Ainu haven’t exactly had the easiest of lives. To roughly sum up they were forced into assimilating into Japanese culture with a law made in 1899. Under the law they were denied the right to continue traditional practices and forced to learn the Japanese language. Biggest hit of all was they were only allowed to have 0.15% of they land they originally had. Basically, look a bit at American history with Native Americans transplant that onto the Japanese and Ainu. It wasn’t until 1997 that the Ainu started getting some rights back, and are still discriminated against. Finally, in 2008 the Japanese Diet officially recognized the Ainu as the indigenous people of Japan and rescinded the laws of 1899.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I have a strong passion that understanding history of a region helps you better understand the modern culture. I plan to do more history posts in the future. Please let me know what you think and how I can improve as history is not my strong point.

Yesterday, there was announcement that TV Asahi and TBS are going to YouTube to stream their video content to users. They are wanting to use the popularity and the backbone of YouTube to offer quality service to viewers. However, I am not sure if something is getting lost in translation or not because what I am reading is “Streaming” and what I am seeing on their pages is news segments. Granted they are technically streaming its not a true live stream, anyway.

This is a great opportunity to get some real world content almost live since they seem be posting it the same day the news segments happen.

TBS

TBS is joining with just its news content, but as read while reading up it is free for now there are reports that they want to monetize on it later. Here is a link to their Channel on youtube and a video too.

TBS Youtube Channel

TV Asahi

TV Asahi too is adding their news stuff too, but it seems they are going to be going a step further and offering non-news content eventually too. I am definitely going to keep an eye on the non-news channel for sure.

ANN News – TV Asahi News Channel
TV Asahi – Non-News Channel

This is exciting, at least for me, because it is an opportunity to watch news broadcasts in decent quality and kind of stay up with everything, and actually know how to control what I am watching. I have tried to visit Japanese news sites before and get lost trying to watch stuff. I recommend watching stuff on these channels to take advantage of learning more about Japan and working on Japanese comprehension.

News Sources:
YouTube Streams TV Asahi, TBS – The Japan Times Online
Japan YouTube Blog

When I think of transportation in Japan I think Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift and bicycles. I think bicycles because I see pictures all the time when I see pictures of Japan. So to me it is amazing that they don’t have an infrastructure for cyclists when my area spends millions of dollars on it and we have no where near the amount of people on bikes. Especially for economical reasons. Most people around here do it as a leisure activity or to stay in shape.

Here are some things said about wanting the infrastructure.

I think it’s necessary to make bike lanes. Even just having a line on the side of the road to demarcate where bikes can ride would be a help.

If you really want people to use bikes on the scale we use them in Denmark, where I am from, you have to implement infrastructure. I think bike lanes are the way to go. The only reason the chaos of Tokyo’s roads works is because the drivers are so patient and careful.

The important thing is that bike riders and car drivers have to learn to share the road. I often get car drivers tooting at me as though I am in their way. I think in terms of budgets it may be too much to expect them to make new bike-only roads or bike lanes, so we have to work on people’s awareness.

So after reading that I was all well come on lets get going why isn’t there any infrastructure lets get going. Unfortunately I fell into the trap of only listening to one side and not ALL sides of the issue. Which led me to some of the opposition to them, at least in terms of implementation of the infrastructure.

While you can’t really solve pain in the butt drivers there is one fairly un-seen victim to this. The small businesses. In another article I read on this issue there are 93 different places they are adding riding lanes, but there implementations are less than stellar. Here is the main issue quoted from the article.

That was until traders complained they would no longer be able to pull their cars up to the curb and unload their wares.

Some people may see this as a non-issue, but if you can’t get stuff into your store then it makes it rough to sell stuff. And really a bit pain if you have a BIG inventory to restock. There are solutions to the problem, but this just shows that things need to be a little more well thought out before they go large scale which it looks like the government in Japan is looking to do. Hopefully in the next years to come they will find the best solution for all and get some safe bike lanes for cyclists.

Original News Articles:
Cyclists unite in calling for new road-sharing infrastructure
Traders squeal at bike lane

Not much of a unicyclist, but this is really cool. Would be very interesting to see this mass produced, though I don’t actually think it would be to very viable as even in the video demonstration it is a bit odd to use and not very predictable without a good amount of practice.

What seems to be the coolest thing to me though is it goes sideways. I would love to get hold of this and play with it.

From a technology stand point this is amazing to see much like the segway, but better. Again I doubt it will make it commercially, but is a good stepping stone towards more interesting things down the road. So the question is what do you think it would be like if this was sold commercially and got popular?

Original news source – Japan Times

And you thought all old people sat in wheelchairs all day. This is interesting and proves something I have thought and consider true. No matter the age if you take care of yourself you can do anything you want.

Japanese weightlifter Tsutomu Tosuka won first place in the seniours above 70 category in the 21st anneversary Japan Masters Bodybuilding Competition. What makes this interesting is he didn’t start bodybuilding until 40 which is when quite a few people end. So keep up the good work Tsutomu-さん.

This story is particularly interesting to me because I am interested in bodybuilding on a small scale. I don’t intend to go pro at it, but I have a feeling if I truly wanted to I could. Every so often i get the Bodybuilding bug and I’ll loose a bunch of weight and start to bulk up for a while. There are some interesting things to know about Body Building.

Here are some interesting facts:

• Pro-bodybuilders will eat 10,000 calories a day of food
• For a competition they will get down to about 3.5% to 4% bodyfat
  • You die at below 4% body fat for more than a day
  • 8% bodyfat you see 8 separate ab muscles
  • 10% bodyfat you see 6 abs (six pack)
  • 20% bodyfat is love handles
  • 32% bodyfat is clinically obese
• They have HUGE belly guts they just hide it well
• In order to make vains pop during competition some competers eat vodka injected oranges
• 60 to 70% of bodybuilding is nutrition

Hopefully I can be as fit as him when I am old.

original news source – dailymail ]]> http://dumbotaku.com/2009/09/23/74-year-old-japanese-man-wins-bodybuilding-competition/feed/ 2 http://dumbotaku.com/2009/08/26/tochigi/ http://dumbotaku.com/2009/08/26/tochigi/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:54:52 +0000 DumbOtaku http://www.dumbotaku.com/?p=171

Note/Disclaimer: This is a post that is meant to give a quick overview of some of Tochigi and not full detail of everything. Tochigi is much like a state in the US with a rich past, present, and future to come. I can’t possibly cover everything and getting the tip of everything would be a book. As I learn Japanese better I will fill this in more.

Name: Tochigi
Island: Honshū
Population: 2,011,313
Capital: Utsunomiya
Major Cities: Ashikaga, Kanuma, Mōka, Nasukarasuyama, Nasushiobara, Nikkō, Ōtawara, Oyama, Sakura, Sano, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Yaita

History

The late 7th century, Tochigi formed Shimotsuke Province. During which time Shimotsuke-Yakushi temple was built, making it the Buddhist capital of the Kanto Region.

In the early 15th century, Ashikaga University was re-established, holding over 3000 students by the 16th century. It is the oldest “university/college” in Japan. Saint Francis Xavier introduced Ashikaga to the world as the best university in Japan.

In the late 19th century the Tokugawa Shogunate fell and the new government established the prefectures. The prefectural capital was established in the city of Tochigi after the unification of Utsunomiya Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture in 1873. However the capital was transferred to Utsunomiya.

Culture

Tochigi has many traditional festivals and events such as Nikkō Tōshō-gū’s 1000 Samurai Procession and Horseback Archery Festival, and the city of Tochigi’s Autumn Festival where doll floats are pulled around the city once every five years.

Climate

The climate of Tochigi may be classified as a humid temperate zone with broad variations in temperature. Winters are arid with dry winds, while summers are humid with frequent thunderstorms.

So I was leisurely flying around Tokyo area and decided to snap some picture that were kind of interesting.  One thing that I ended up getting images of are schools.  There are A LOT of schools so I snapped a few of them to show.  I think they are kind of interesting.  Also, when I say there are A LOT I mean there are A LOT. Take a look for yourself.

I know the images are a little wide for my theme, but I didn’t want to spoil the full size so I went with the larger size anyway.

Now if you know me I am from middle of United States and haven’t left my house so I thought I should explain how I was able to fly around Japan.   It is truely amazing how many people don’t know about Maps.Bing.com (also known as live maps or Virtual Earth). Virtual Earth released pretty much about the same time as Google Maps, but like a couple of weeks after.  What is more interesting is a lot of the features Google Maps now has Virtual Earth started with.  At first Microsoft created http://preview.local.live.com. That is basically Street View which Google has, but was created long before Google did theirs.  However, Microsoft scrapped it due to privacy issues.  At the same time they were experimenting with Birds Eye View which is less invasive and allows Areal shots at an angle for you to figure out streets and buildings etc.  Microsoft hired pilots to criss-cross the skys snapping pictures at 45 degree angles all over the world, and they are constantly adding more cities to the database.

That is a brief summary of how I was able to fly around Tokyo from home, and a bit of technology history of which probably no one cares, but I find very interesting.  So now for the pictures.

Here is a picture of Toys R Us in Japan. This was amazing tome because i never thought there would be one in Japan. I never know it was an international store. Also even more amazing when I first hit birds eye view this is what popped up.

Here is an image of an industrial place that if i didn’t know I was looking at Japan I would never have known. Just goes to show we aren’t all that different.