Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

Fun & Games

• A 34-year-old salaryman from Osaka and his 24-year-old OL bride became the 10,000th couple to get hitched at Tokyo Disneyland. Mickey and Minnie Mouse were on hand to witness the nuptials.
• A 41-year-old Sendai man won the annual cherry pit-spitting contest in Higashine, Yamagata Prefecture, with a 15.95-meter effort.
• Hanshin Tigers outfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto was recognized by Guinness World Records for playing 1,492 consecutive games without missing an inning.
• It was reported that a 41-year-old pet owner in Utsunomiya is applying to have his 25-year-old mixed-breed male dog certified as the world’s oldest living canine.
• Festival-goers in Gifu set a new world record when they sent nagashi-somen (“flowing noodles”) down a 2,500m-long bamboo chute.
• A Gallup poll revealed that China has replaced Japan as “the most important partner for the United States” for the first time in 25 years.

Oops

• Officials at a prison in Fukushima were in hot water after a visitor took photos of an inmate and a guard with his cellphone camera and posted them on his blog.
• Police in Yamaguchi busted a 63-year-old local man and his wife for illegally shipping cosmetics to North Korea. It was the third time since 2006 that someone was arrested for violating sanctions on sending “luxury goods” to Pyongyang.
• Tomonori Takahashi, a 36-year-old former volleyball player for Japan’s national team, was nabbed in Osaka along with 15 other people for possession of stimulants.
• JR Tokai found that 85 of its workers have bilked the company out of ¥250,000 in train fares by abusing company-issued IC smart cards.

Quick thinking

• A 10-year-old Yamaguchi boy who saved his infant sister from a burning car said his body “moved by itself” during the rescue.
• Thieves in Kobe stole ¥118 million from the pickup truck of a 68-year-old art dealer after the man pulled off the road to use a restroom.
• Thanks to the runaway popularity of its Zerostyle Mint smokeless cigarette, Japan Tobacco said it will double production to 1 million packs a month.
• The renowned Shochiku Grand Kabuki troupe traveled to Rome and performed a play called Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, which involved “about 100 people, including 26 actors and 22 musicians.”
• Headline of the Week: “Mystery of Falling Tadpole Returns” (via The Japan Times)

The 3D bandwagon

• Nintendo showed off the world’s first 3D handheld games console—one that can be viewed without special glasses.
• Fujitsu has released a desktop computer that can record “3D videos using two built-in webcams… and convert commercially available 2D movies into 3D images.”
• Panasonic has begun taking orders for its mammoth 152-inch plasma display panel, which it is describing as the world’s largest 3D TV.
• Leading porn stars Mika Kayama and Yuma Asami are teaming up to make Japan’s first AV film for 3D format TVs.

That sinking feeling

• It was reported that membership in the LDP may have dipped below 1 million last year after peaking at about 5.6 million in 1991.
• Shipments of beer, happoshu and “third-category beerlike alcoholic drinks” reached a record low of 86.13 million cases from January to March.
• At the same time, office vacancies in Tokyo hit a record high of 8.94 percent at the end of May.
• Staff at an aquarium in Otaru, Hokkaido were heartbroken when they found a four-day-old sea lion drowned at the bottom of its pool.
• A 14-year-old junior high student in Kawasaki gassed himself to death because he wasn’t able to help a classmate who was being bullied.

Shane Busato

Breakthroughs

• Researchers at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute found that monkeys enjoy watching TV.
• Meanwhile, other researchers at Kyoto University have discovered that flowers store six weeks’ worth of temperature data in their cells, and that this information helps the plants choose the ideal time to bloom. It is hoped that this finding “will aid in predicting the blooming of cherry blossoms and in developing crops resistant to abnormal changes in temperatures.”
• A Kyoto-based manufacturer with the unlikely name of A’SYCK Co. has developed an LED that imitates the flickering of a candle. The CEO says he hopes “to trigger a tourism boom here with ‘eco’ as a keyword.”
• Researchers at Wakayama Medical University have discovered that umeboshi contain a “substance that can suppress the growth of the H1N1 swine flu virus.”
• In a move seen as “upping the stakes in the growing market for digital signs,” Sharp released a nine-screen display whose monitors are separated by a frame just 6.5mm wide.

Eat the rich

• The Financial Services Agency said it would require company execs making more than ¥100 million to disclose the exact amount of their salaries.
• It was reported that disgruntled members of the press have taken to calling new prime minister Naoto Kan “Irritable Kan” due to his combative nature at press conferences.
• An annual survey by Shinsei Financial Co. has found that Japanese workers have ¥40,600 of spending money each month. That’s ¥5,000 less than last year.
• The same survey found that the average price that workers spend on drinking excursions is ¥4,190, a drop of almost ¥1,000 from 2009.
• Also, the typical salaryman spends just ¥500 per day on lunch, which is “the lowest in the past decade.”
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Prankster Writes ‘I Am a Turtle’ on Shell of Turtle in Public Park” (via The Mainichi Daily News)

Compiled from reports by Bloomberg, BBC, Japan Today, The Japan Times, International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Daily News, The Tokyo Reporter, The Daily Yomiuri, AP and Kyodo