(Well, I’m a little late but I still wanted to write about Earth Day, so deal)

There are a lot of interesting reads on the ‘net regarding this special occasion, and here are some worth checking out:

50 Ways to Save This Planet is simple, to the point, and beautifully designed.  It features 50 green ideas in elegant boxes with icons, along with a simple description to make you think twice about your lifestyle.

Cnet’s Green Tech blog has a vast array of green-themed articles, the most interesting of which is this article on how pig urine can supposedly be turned into plastic in a way that is more environmentally friendly.

Feministing tears haters a new one with this rebuttal to a claim that feminism and divorces are the cause of the world’s deterioration (also, Sesame Street.)

No Impact Man celebrates being recognized as one of Time.com’s top 15 environmental websites (the other 14 are listed as well.)

Lifehacker lists several ways you can go green with your computer by making simple adjustments.

Queercents asks readers what they do with all their plastic containers.

There are a TON more articles on ways you can help the environment, but for the most part I think everything is common sense.  If you know of any especially interesting articles, please tell me.  Also, feel free to also browse through my own articles regarding the environment.

- The Candle Night Campaign
- Linkups: Blog Reads
- Linkups: Japanese News
- Environment: Meat-Eating Chinese and Other Causes of the World's Food Crisis
- Kangaroos vs. Whales: Which Is More Appropriate to Slaughter?

Because of the nature of this site, it gets hard to blog about every little article that I want to share without it seeming irrelevant to stuff that I’ve been focusing on lately (namely, Japanese news and culture.) So I’m going to occasionally make a post featuring interesting reads from other blogs that I follow.  If you’ve found any other interesting reads, feel free to send me a link or leave me a note in the comments!

Coffee with a Sign of Douche - Vanilla Garlic

“Sir…” I was literally lost about this conversation, I stumbled for words. This wasn’t a regular case of The Stupids, this is just… well, no, it is, but just a very unusual case of it. “We weren’t talking about you,” my face looking slightly confused.

Self-portraiture and emerging artistic consciousness in Dafen - Regional

Dafen is a village surrounded by the thriving metropolis of Shenzhen, and the origin of most of the world’s reproduction oil paintings. In the popular imagination Dafen’s artists produce anonymous works for unknown customers, operating no differently than a faceless factory churning out counterfeits, replicas and nothing close to what would be considered art.

6 Tips for Landing Your Dream Job - Get Rich Slowly

I recently interviewed more than 100 people who currently hold their dream jobs as research for my new book. These individuals — who are travel journalists, event planners, fashion designers, forensic scientists, interior decorators, internet business owners and more — have one thing in common: persistence.

Morals, Ethics & Integrity — Where Do You Draw The Line? - Gala Darling

After your health, it’s said that the most important thing you have is your integrity, because once it’s gone — it’s gone. Along with the awful feeling of not wanting to look at yourself in the mirror, word spreads, & you might find yourself very unpopular all of a sudden.

- Happy Earth Day 2008
- Linkups: Japanese News
- Linkups: Japanese News
- Linkups: Japanese News
- Linkups: Japanese News

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.”

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

High school girl acquitted of murdering baby born in restroom - Mainichi Daily News

The judge also expressed sympathy with the girl as she gave birth alone. “She experienced tougher hardship than ordinary women who give birth, as she delivered the baby in the breech position in the restroom without anybody’s help.”

Japanese mother abandons kids for 10 days, one dies - Reuters

Shimamura, a divorcee, called her parents and asked them to check on the children on Friday, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said in a separate report.

When they did, they found the body of her two-year-old son, Kenta, lying on a quilt. Kenta’s twin sister, weakened from hunger, was taken to hospital. Their 6-year-old brother was unharmed.

Motorists find roads are going to the dogs - Asahi

Shinji Hayama, 38, a company employee from Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, was traveling with his two miniature dachshunds and stopped at the Ichihara Service Area. He bought a bento for each of his dogs.

“We stop at service areas to keep the dogs from getting carsick,” he said. “It would be even more fun if there was a doggie bento that was tailored to the characteristics of each rest area–like ekiben (railway station bento).”

Train station starts lending out ’strawberry bicycles’ - Mainichi Daily News

“We want to make trips around here even more enjoyable,” a member of the local organization that came up with the idea of strawberry cycles said.

Strawberries are a local specialty and the red and white bicycles with a strawberry picture on the front basket are also aimed at promoting the local area.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

Okinawa cuisine: tofu, Spam and root beer - Yahoo! News

Decades of an Americanised diet, Okinawa health officials say, is partly responsible for making islanders fatter, more prone to heart disease and likely to die sooner than either their elders or compatriots in many parts of the mainland.

Woman takes on yakuza in the courts over extortion claims, wins 10 million yen - Mainichi Daily News

A woman reached a court-mediated settlement with a local gang boss last month after one of his underlings extorted 11.6 million yen from her over a traffic accident, it has emerged.

Japan’s Bulging Waistlines Trigger Flab Tests in Land of Sumo - Bloomberg

“My life used to consist of instant noodles for lunch every day, and I thought a roll with chocolate pudding in the middle was the same as bread,” says Masanori Murakami, a 43-year-old hotel manager also known as the Red Ranger.

Survey finds Japanese hospitals rejected 14,000 emergency patients in 2007 - Mainichi Daily News

In December, an 89-year-old woman died after an ambulance crew spent two hours trying 30 hospitals before finding one that would accept her for treatment.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

School offers costume-play way to ‘cool’ English - Japan Times

Learning a foreign language is never easy, and for many it can even be a painful process.

How would the suffering be eased, though, if teachers and students could wear their favorite anime, manga or video-game characters’ costumes in class and then all tackle the learning curve together?

Japan’s concrete ceiling - The Independent

Ms Nonaka is a former television presenter who is one of the most prominent women in Japan and now heads the Gaia Initiative, a non-profit organisation promoting renewable energy projects. She didn’t get to the top by being a traditional Japanese wife. “They called me the smiling killer,” she says, smiling, perched on an armchair in a 49th-floor meeting room of a private members’ club with dizzying views over the city.

You mean, she’s my son? - Japan Times

“It felt like I was getting kicked in the groin about every minute on the minute. It wouldn’t have hurt as much if I hadn’t rushed things and taken more shots to lower my testosterone level before the operation.”

Okinawa mixes pragmatism, anger over U.S. military - Yahoo! News

“If it is absolutely necessary for the sake of national interests, the rest of Japan should share the burden,” said former Okinawa Governor Masahide Ota, an octogenarian veteran of the Battle of Okinawa. “Instead, they put the bases far away in Okinawa where they seem invisible. It’s unfair and undemocratic.”

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

Ten-year-old Japanese warned she’d kill girl - Yahoo! News

Believed to be the youngest person accused in a spate of similar Internet threat cases in Japan, the girl posted a message last month saying, “I’m going to kill an elementary school girl on February 29 at 1:00 pm” in the Tokyo suburb of Saitama, police said.

Rightist exits taxi, shoots himself dead in front of Diet - The Japan Times

Hitoshi Sato, 55, who happened to be at the scene, said: “I saw a shell near the head of the man lying on the ground. I didn’t see the gun itself or notice the sound of gunfire.”

HIV-positive Japan MP says getting married - AFP

“I never thought that I would live long,” Kawada said next to his wife at a press conference. “But for the first time in my life, I’ve wanted to live long, even a day longer than Mika.”

Post office returns money to mystery man who deposited cash in mail boxes - Mainichi Daily News

“I used to put the money in donation boxes at shrines and temples, but I couldn’t find any more shrines so I started putting it into the post boxes,” the man said without explaining why he made the donations in the first place.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

Big breasts win verdict for Japanese pin-up - Yahoo! News

“I used to hate my body so much,” Kozakura, who has appeared in product commercials on television, told the private Asahi network in an interview aired Tuesday.

“But it was my breasts” that won in court, she said.

US presidential candidate Obama thanks Japanese town of Obama for support - Mainichi Daily News

The fishing town of Obama in central Japan recently won worldwide fame for its fervent support for U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama. The town’s citizens have made headbands, T-shirts and sweet bean cakes decorated with his portrait. The town’s mayor even sent gifts.

Blink and you’ll miss it: Japan’s new eye iPod - Reuters

Wink strongly for one second with one eye to rewind, use the other to skip to the next song, or close both eyes to pause and play, Taniguchi told Reuters in an e-mail interview.

From Mount Fuji to manga: Pop culture ignites a tourist boom - The Seattle Times

His head wrapped in cloth and wearing black head-to-toe, Michael Studte throws darts, turns somersaults and twirls lassos in a ninja class for foreign tourists in Japan.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

US serviceman arrested in Okinawa despite curfew - Yahoo! News

“He has admitted to have climbed over the fence at the base… He smashed the glass door with a steel pipe,” the official said, adding that the airman had been under the influence of alcohol.

Boy cafes, sexy comics feed Japan’s girl geek boom - Reuters

In keeping with the schoolboy theme, waiters with manicured hands and soft voices pretend to be teenage students, chatting and flirting with well-dressed Japanese women playing the roles of benefactresses visiting the school.

N. K. girls flourish in pink trade - The Japan Times

Within months of settling here, she set up her own business, a Korean-style massage parlor, which she runs out of her Tokyo condominium. She says she employs several other Korean women, who perform massage of a decidedly sexual nature.

“The job is tough, but it’s a lot of fun,” Yoon laughs.

No monkeys like snow monkeys: Soak up Japan’s hot-tubbing wildlife - San Fransisco Chronicle

They are mid-sized by monkey standards, with gray-white winter fur that forms thick tufts around beet-red faces. Pity it’s so risky to look them in the eye, because they have unexpectedly expressive eyes: dark-lidded, with dark eyebrows - almost as though the macaques had applied mascara and eyeliner and are ready for their close-ups. Their eyes are surprisingly soulful, even thoughtful - at least I imagine so as I take darting, side-long looks.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again

Japan, US vow crackdown on crimes by US military - Yahoo! News

“It is an undeniable fact that there was violence,” said Suzuyo Takazato, head of a local citizens group supporting female victims of crimes involving the US military.

“Shutting our mouths right now means we give in to violence,” she said, adding that her group and other citizens’ organisations will go ahead with a planned rally in Okinawa on March 23.

Arms wide open for Chinese brides - The Japan Times

He illustrates a pattern. As of 2005, Shukan Bunshun says, one Japanese marriage in 17 united a Japanese with a foreigner — most typically (80 percent of the time) a Japanese man with a Chinese woman.

50-something surrogate mother gives birth to uterus-less daughter’s child - Mainichi Daily News

“I can’t overlook the fact that people with what you could call reproductive disabilities are being discriminated against and shunned by society,” he said.

Japan’s poor rise up to demand share of plenty - The Peninsula Online

Recent cases of people dying of starvation, the poor being unable to afford shelters and the young working poor being stuck in a cycle of perpetuating poverty has brought the issue to the forefront.

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)
- Japan Bans American Beef...Again