Largest giant salamander, 100, dies

The Japan Times reported that the largest giant salamander had died at the hot spring resort at Yubara in Maniwa. It died at the age of over 100 years old, said the local officials. This enormouse amphibian had been displayed to the public in 1971 at the giant salamander center in town. The local officials said that it probably died of old age. The estimate length of this salamander is approximately 1.6 meters and was said to weight about 60kg, however, some experts doubt that.

Osaka's Shinsaibashi to host Uniqlo's first flagship store in Japan

Regarding to The Japan Times, Fast Retailing Co., the company who runs the popular clothing Uniqlo, will open its first domestic flagship on October 1 at Osaka's Shinsaibashi district. Also, there are opening it at London, New York, Paris, and Shanghai. This Shinsaibashi outlet will provide the full range of clothing for women, men, and babies together with shoes and some other fashion items.

HMV Japan set to close flagship store in Tokyo

According to Breitbart, the news reported on August 22, Tokyo will close its flagship music store(HMV) on Sunday night at the well-known commercial district called Shibuya. The company suggested that it's shutting down for the reason that many customers are downloading music from the internet in the stage where it causes the store to fell on bad times. Regarding to the Recording Industry of Japan, the production volume of CDs reached its peak in 1998 which is 587.8 billion yen and it decrease since then.

Number of visitors to Tokyo Disneyland, DisneySea hits 500 million

In Chiba (Kyodo), the number of the visitors to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea hit 500 nillion Friday. Megumi Soma, a 38 year old housewife who went through the entrance gate of the Disneyland at 10:21 a.m. with her family, was the lucky 500 millionth visitor. She received gifts such as a five year passport calid for both parks and a hotal voucher for five night at the Disney Ambassador Hotel. At the main entrancem she receiving the gifts and a flower bouquet . She said, "I was very surprise but I'm ectramely happy. I want to visit the amusement parks as much asz posiible with my family."

Japan's long season in the pink

The cold weather is continued into the late April 2010, the Cherry Blossom front. The progress of peak cherry blossom season is up in the Japan, has been un predictable this year. The Japan Meterological Agency had forecast the warm spring weather in late MArch would promote the flowering of cherry trees. However, the low temperatures came back in early Apirl and delayed the blossoms' peak nationwide. This year the flowers that usually fall after week of warm spring weather, stayed on the treea for over twice taht long.

Beauty and the heat make for scorching Aizu Tajima Gion Festival

Accordding to The Mainichi Daily News, Minamiaizu, Fukushima -- On July 23, some 100 participants, including to the 30 women dressed in colorful wedding kimono, marhed about 300 meters along a street in Minamiaizu for half an hour under the heat for praying a good luck and good harvests. This fastval has been more than 800 years of tradition, is designeted by the Japanese government as a significnt intangible fol cultural asset.

Gov't moves to include North Korean schools in Japan in subsidy program

Accrodding to The Mainichi Daily News, The goverment is taking step to include North Korean schools in Japan in its subsidy program fot high school education, it has been learned. The Minisyru of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology plans to think about the 10 pro-Pyongyang high school in Japan to decide whether to include then in the nation's free-tuition and subsidy program for senior high school students. Currently, some 1,800 students are attending North Korean high schools in the country. Those are all expected to meet the goverment's requirements for the subsidy program to recive from 118,800 yen to 237,600 yen per student per year, depends on their parents' income.

Japanese cabinet shun controversial Yasukuni shrine

According to BBC News, this is the first time in 25 years that all the cabinet has stayed away from ceremonies at the Yasukuni shrine. The government ministers paying respects at the Tokyo shirne, which is honour for people who died in Japan's war and criminals' war. The new DPJ-led goverment had promised to be more considerate. Other politicians and opposition leaders attended ceremonies at the Yasukuni shrine. Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited a national cemetery in Tpkyo before attending a remembrance ceremony with Emperor Akihito. Mr Kan siad, " We feel deep regret,a nd we ofer our sincere feelings of condolence to those who suffered and their families." The Democroatic Party of Japan got kick out from the conservation Liveral Democratic Party in August last year. The LDP had help power in Japan for almost the entire post-ar era.

McDonald's in Japan to phase out smoking areas as smokers decrease at record rates

McDonald in Japan is the largest restaurant chain in the country, around 3,500 stores. The goverment has annuounced that will phase out the smoking areas. For local residents of Tokyo the annoyance of unclearly marked smoking zones in many cafes and resturants, or non-smorking areas seperated only by demarkations on the floor, it will come as a welcome relief. Non-smoking areas have become increasingly common in Tokyo in recent years, with bans on streets around many train stations and an increasing number of smoking only areas popping up around the city. A report yesterday by Medical News said that Japan has in fact set a world record of 15 consecutive years of a percentage of the population considering themselves to be smikers. Japan Tobaco reports that in 1966 when records began, 49.4 percent of the population were smokers, while today is 23.9 percent.

Japanese robots: Real-life 'care bears'

According to CNN Asia Beta, Japanese robots aren't just the protagonists od anime shows. They're also the proposed solution for Japan's biggest future crisis: an excess of helpless elderly and a lack of young labor to care for them.
RIBA, Rabot for Interactie Body Assistance, who is being developed to carry frail human figures from their wheelchairs to their favorite spot in bed right before Mito Komon comes on TV. Rather than adopting the horrifically creepy humanoid, RIBA's face is painted to look like a bear. These ultra-strong robobears won't sell in the market for years, so the current generation of aged will have to keep pretending to enjoy the company of their live in nurses.

J-pop =)

J-pop or Japanese pop is a musical mainstream of Japan in 1990s. The modren j-pop began in 1960s music such as The Beatles and replaced kayokyoku in the japanese music sence. It was created by Japanese media to show how differences between Japanese music and foreign music and now it's refer to the most popular Japanese music. According to International Federation of the Phonographic Indurstry, Japan has the second lagest market for recorded music in the world, behind the United States. Here is an example:

Hikaru Utada

Hikaru Utada is a Japanese-America singer, songwriter and producer. She became famous since her first album, First Love, which got the best selling album in Oricon history. Later, Utada's three albums got the top 10 best selling album ever in Japan and her six album later got into the chart of 275 best selling Japanese albums list. Utada had estimated 50 million album sold out to worldwide.

In an addition, Utada made two theme song for video game name Kingdom Hearts. In 2007, Flavor of life is her single got 2nd in the worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downlaods and 12 million download sale foe her over the same year. The come back to me is very famous since it came out untill now, and it was pack in Billboard Hot Dance Club Play in 2009, United states.

Five killed in Japan rescue copter crash

According to UPI and The Japan Times, Chichibu, Japan, July 25, Five people were killed when helicopter crashed the mountianside in Japan's Saitama prefecture.

Prior to the accident, two resuce workers, who had been on the copter, had been lower to the ground to help 55 yearsold women climber who had fallen into a waterfall.

The five other people who died were pilot, copilot, perfectural aviation safety workers, and two rescue worker from a local fire department.

According to Honda Airways, The pilot having worked for the company for mare than 20 years. Also, there was no rain or wind in the crash area. The helicopter was in a deep gully.

Mao Asada at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010

These days Japan is deep in figure skaters. At the Olypices in 2006 seceral medal hopefuls didn't even make a team. Mao Asda was too young.

In 2010, Mao Asada's age is 22 years old. She get older and won a silver medal in women's figure skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Asada skated well but finish the distance in second place after South Kore, Yu Na Kim. In the long program, Asada was the first woman that could make two triple axels without fall but botched the first jump of triple axel-double-double combination stumbles before a triple toe loop. Asada scored 131.72 in the long programe for total score of 205.50. Kim's long program score of 105.06 and total score of 228.65, both world's records.


On eve of the competition, Asada said that she want to win a gold medal and said she was good enough form to beat Kim.

Transportation in Japan

As we all know, Japan is an island in East Asia, located in the Pracific Ocean. Japan has only 377,944 km, which is vary small compared to Amarica. The transportation will be very easy for their population in Japan to traval around in their country. Also, Japan people has a very creative idea about tenology. They have been developed electric train all around the country, especially with metropolitan areas and between the large cities. Japanese public trasportation is characterized by its punctuality, its superb service, and the large crowds of people using it.

Sumo Vs. Thai Boxing

Sumo as we all know is a Japanese sport, but according to The Associated Press sumo is more than a sport. It seems like a religion for Japan. Eveytime people talk about sumo, Japan will pop up in you mind, just like boxing, we're all thinks about Thailand. Also, both of sumo and boxing kinds of a fighting sport, it could make the player get hurt, such as nose breaking and bleeding on some part of the body. In addition, sumo has their simple rules to play for. The wreatler who touches the ground first beside soles of his feet, or who leaves the ring before the time is over will loses. Sumo will take place on a ring, called a 'dohyo' , which is made from clay and covered with sand. On the other hand, Thai boxing or Muaythai is has quite of many rules. There are rule for dressing, weighting and scoring. I will talk about only scoring. There are three judges in each match, at the end of round those judges will decide the score, if the round resulted in a draw (scores 10:10), a win by significant margin (10:9, 10:8). At the end of the match judges' socre will add up with the score in each round. If there are three diffirent votes (win, defeat, draw) the result at the end ill be draw. To sum up, there are similarly between sumo and thai boxing, both of them are tradition sport to their own country.

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