Coffee & Cigarettes Together At Last : Speak Lark, Drink up
Any hard-boiled journalist or cop will tell you that coffee and cigarettes go well together. So I guess it was a stroke of marketing genius for Philip Morris to team…
Police Officer Punished For Raising A False Alarm With The Police
(November 23rd, Japan) The Shizuoka Police Department announced yesterday that they had punished a low-ranking police officer (巡査) for making a fake 110 call, in which he reported an imaginary…
Japan’s Media, Mega-Ad Agencies, & Nuclear Industry: A Lethal Combination?
It is generally considered that the media is the Fourth Estate. Their primary function is to monitor and observe the activities of the other great powers in society, however some…
The Ghosts of Sony
In contrast to the Nakayama store, which is almost a Sony graveyard, at the Sony Building, located in Ginza--once the most expensive and luxurious area in Tokyo-- the Sony Show…
The Town of Living Buddha Statues (仏像のまち) High School, Buddhist Iconography, Magic &Teen Love
It's the story of Sorato, a high school student who's deceased father was a sculptor of Buddhist images (仏師/busshi）and seems to have passed his unusual talent on to poor Sorato-kun.…
Everything I Ever Needed To Know In Life I Learned From the Yakuza or The Cops That Kick Their Ass in 7 Lessons
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You can tell more about a man by his enemies than you can by his friends. A man with no enemies is…