Hailing from Osaka, Rice Powered Teens are a five piece poppy band headed by two characteristically cute female vocalists, Aiko (lead vocals) and Chika (vocals).

“Our influence from 80’s Japanese pop music but we make it and blend it with now popular recent music. This has created a new sound which suits Rice Powered Teens and is very unique individual to us.” And a quick listen to one of their songs or a live gig will prove it! On one hand it’s the usual fun pop fluffy stuff, not that far away from your average Japanese band. While on the other hand, it has that modern Japanese vocal sound that’s oh so catchy. It’s almost like Britney but on speed and with hair.”

“We have a Japanese fun style” the lead vocalist Aiko tells us. By looking at their line-up, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart from the usual other bands. They have one lead vocal, one other vocalist, one drummer, one guitarist and one bassist. But look a little closer and you’ll find they’re a bit more unusual and much more attractive! It’s like a good looking people convention.

(more…)

I had seen the old movie Rashomon directed by the famousJapanese director , Kurosawa Akira a few years ago.At that time,I was concerned about the art or technology of film photograpy. And thetheory was illustrated by this movie. From this,we can see the importantposition it held.

Simultaneously, We should know that the film was adaptedfrom the fiction of the same title written by Akira Kurosawa .The novel and his writer became more famous because of thegreat success of the film.For me,I got familiar with the writer throughthe movie too.

(more…)

By Hannah Beech / Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
When Kensuke Onishi decided to use his foreign university degree and fluent English to help internally displaced refugees in Kurdish Iraq, his Japanese mother’s friends told her they understood if she wanted to weep. After all, shouldn’t a dutiful Japanese son return home and work for a big company, like the droves of salarymen before him? But in 1996, Onishi founded one of Japan’s largest international NGOs, Peace Winds Japan, which operates everywhere from Sudan to East Timor. Today, the 41-year-old Osaka native has noticed that his countrymen no longer consider helping less fortunate foreigners a shameful occupation. Two former Peace Winds alumni now serve in the Diet, while Onishi recently has been fielding job queries from disillusioned investment bankers. “People in Japan live in such comfortable, peaceful conditions,” says Onishi. “I think more Japanese are realizing that it’s our duty to help out overseas and bring some of our values to the world.”
Is the world turning Japanese? Even as Japan’s domestic economy slips into recession and its politicians dither endlessly, the country’s overseas influence is reaching new heights. Limited by a postwar constitution from developing military power, Japan’s international clout relies on soft power, the term coined by Harvard professor Joseph S. Nye in 1990 to describe how countries “get what they want through attraction rather than coercion.” Today, a generation of idealistic Japanese is attempting to sway the world through cultural, social and economic means. Japan doesn’t tend to trumpet its efforts — understandable given the nation’s imperial past and historic disregard for national boundaries. When a Japanese real estate firm snapped up Rockefeller Center in the 1980s, the deal unleashed unease among some Americans, who feared that Japan was literally taking over America. But this time around, its campaign for global hearts and minds has been far more successful. According to a BBC poll this year, Japan ranks second in the world when it comes to a positive global image. (Germany barely edged out Japan for the No. 1 spot, while the U.S. was seventh.) “Soft power is a very strong force,” says Heizo Takenaka, Japan’s former Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy. “If we have the right political leadership, it can be even more powerful.”

Japan’s charm offensive is taking shape on several fronts. Cash-flush Japanese banks, which have only just emerged from their own decade-long debt crisis, are infusing money into distressed companies such as Morgan Stanley. Japan Inc. is going on another of its famous investment sprees abroad, opening factories and representative offices across Africa and Asia. In October, the country’s central bank even offered part of its nearly $1 trillion in reserves to financially strapped nations like Iceland. In November, Japan also expressed willingness to lend up to $100 billion to the International Monetary Fund. But it isn’t just money that’s being spread around. “Because Japan’s financial system is the least tainted at the moment,” says Japanese parliamentarian Kotaro Tamura, “we have the opportunity to help save the world and spread a message of social responsibility.” (more…)

Well, I bought some Oxy Oil Control Gel (as below but Chinese one not Japanese - I grabbed this photo from the Internet)

I bought it in one of the many Watson’s in Beijing.( like the shop below)

Well, I’m cautiously optimistic that this stuff is doing my skin good. My skin overproduces oil which causes my nasty sebaceous spots particularly on the back of my neck and the front of my torso). This stuff is good though. It gets to work fast. It’s like an acid. It really burns into those spots. It quickly soaks into the skin, burning away the moist, maddening red spots and leaving, in short order, a scab where the moist live spot was. Great stuff. Western medicine, I think. Often I like western medicine. It gets to work fast, gets the job done fast. Chinese medicine is good in theory. For example, the idea that Chinese medicine can remedy spots on the skin by killing bacteria in the intestines.. Ingenious!! I’m sure it works but it takes more time and patience. I’m just not a very patient guy sometimes. Anyway, I’m not saying that this stuff has resolutely solved this problem forever but I think I’ve made a good selection. It really burns into the skin and attacks the problem. I like this. I’m not looking for some slow-coach medicine, that’ll take an eternity.
So, I give this cream a cautious but encouraging 6/10..

Many of us believe that other life forms do exist on other planets in this universe. And one day, these aliens would drop by our planet, the Earth to give us the their best greets. But you’ll be wondering, which country that the aliens would visit first and which country is the most ready to let the aliens to land?

The answer is Japan. There are five reasons given by MangoBot, why aliens would love to visit Japan first. As the Japanese have prepared themselves for a couple of years, and they have some sort of equipments ready to communicate well with the aliens. The five reasons are as follows:

1. The Japanese people and the government are all ready to greet the aliens.. Part of the of Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s national security strategy includes how to respond and defend once there is an alien attack. Their ministers have firm belief that aliens do exist. And their government have also prepared themselves with national guidelines on how to handle aliens if one day they land on Japan.

2. The Japanese had emailed the aliens. Back in 1983, Japanese astronomers ever sent a radio message to Altair—a solar system 16 light years away—with 13 binary-encoded images 71 by 71 pixels each showing some basic facts about the people and the Earth, and even as detailed as exposing our human body’s DNS structure to the aliens. If the aliens on the Altair had received the message, the reply is expected only in 2015, as those live in Altair system are many thousands of light years away from us. It takes time for the radio message reply to travel back to the Earth!

3. Japan has got the only observatory that continuously fetches signals from outerspace - Most observatories on Earth are searching only for the radio frequencies, but except the only one in Japan, in Nishiharima, which is different from others that it scans the skies for nanosecond-level pulses in the air waves, which helps detect and communicate with external life forms.

4. Japan claim they’ll soon have AI (Artificial Intelligence) that match the alien intelligence - Aliens seem to have been assumed that they’re far more advanced than us. But the Japanese claim that they’ve already figured out how to navigate the virtual worlds with brain power and have many robots to assist them in their daily life. These technologies are claimed to be on par with what the aliens have!

5. Japan’s nearest neighbor North Korea knows better than we do about aliens. - The North Korea is rumored to have invented a nuclear reactor that has dual capabilities of communicating wirelessly with alien species up to 1,000 light years away in real time. And Japan is claimed to be much more advanced than the North Korea. Since Japan’s nearest neighbor also could achieve how to communicate with the aliens and it’s definitely much easier for the Japan, and they would have probably communicated with over many thousands of species of aliens to date.

Whether you like it or not, the above are the five reasons that clearly tell that aliens would have much higher chance to land on Japan than to any other countries. And of course, if the aliens were to attack the Earth, Japan would also be the first one to get attacked!