Japanese get jabbed while Chinese go shopping - Japan Times

“Chinese like gaudy things,” says the female guide escorting one early-morning group. “For that reason alone, cherry blossoms are popular. And Japan is the only place where they bloom in such profusion. Around this season, it’s a popular tour package.”

Stranger in a Strange Land: Japanese toilets require much skill - The Post

Known to the Japanese people as a washiki, or Japanese style, a toilet in Japan closely resembles, more than anything else, a urinal that someone has laid on the floor. The basis of its appeal to the Japanese is that one does not need to touch it in any way in order to use it. Never mind the suspicious puddles on the floor from time to time. For those ladies out there who always wanted to try peeing while standing up, this is the perfect opportunity. One simply cannot sit down to use the washiki.

Japan’s ‘geisha guys’ the latest accessory - CNN

It’s a dizzying reversal of traditional gender roles in a country long known for geishas pampering male clients with conversation, singing and dancing. Now a new breed of entertainer has cropped up — think of them as male geishas.

Sharp rise in suicide gas deaths - Daily Yomiuri Online

On Monday, a 32-year-old man killed himself in Sapporo by inhaling the hydrogen sulfide gas in his bathroom. A note placed on the bathroom door read: “Do not enter this room. Please call an ambulance. You might die if you enter this room.”

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Foxes | japan, links | Monday, April 14th, 2008 | Trackback