Japan’s national provisional safety limit for levels of radioactive cesium in food is 500 becquerels per kilogram. Let’s Japan reviewed food-test data issued by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare covering the period from March 1, 2011 – Dec. 21, 2011.

Highest becquerels per kilogram levels

photos: radiation measurement; cabbage protesters; checkpoint Minamisoma Fukushima; Fukushima relief effort fundraiser; tsunami destruction; produce-stand

Shoppers in Tokyo, March 25, 2011

We’ve been having some troubles here in Japan.  Maybe you’ve heard. I’ve written some articles about the earthquake and the coverage of the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear reactors. You can read my reports here:

March 25, 2011
Op-Ed: Tokyo OK, foreign media’s sensational coverage shameful

March 16, 2011
US govt recommends 80 Km Fukushima evac zone; currently 30km

March 15, 2011
US agrees with reactor response ambassador in Tokyo says

March 15, 2011
Higher than normal radiation detected along Japan Pacific coast

March 14, 2011
Shielding possibly damaged by explosion at Fukushima No.2 Tuesday

March 14, 2011
Op-Ed: The earthquake aftermath in Tokyo

March 13, 2011
Rolling Blackouts Begin Monday in Tokyo

March 12, 2011
How I survived the Japanese earthquake

Freddie Mercury, who was the lead vocalist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen, and who died in 1991, stars in a TV commercial in Japan for Nissin’s Cup Noodle instant ramen noodles. The commercial features Mercury’s performance of Queen’s "I Was Born to Love You" and a dubbed Japanese voice sings the lyrics. The lyrics have been changed and some of the words in the song have been replaced by "Cup Noodle" in English.

The dead-Freddie-Mercury-commercial follows Nissin’s recent airing of a TV commercial of Jon Bon Jovi in concert, singing "You Give Love a Bad Name", also dubbed and sung with altered lyrics in Japanese.

Appliance and electronics retail chain Yamada Denki has begun selling an electric car at some of its retail stores. Yamada has partnered with Mitsubishi Motors to sell the Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle. Yamada is the first household appliances store in Japan to sell an electric car.

The i-MiEV electric vehicle is on sale at 17 Yamada Denki stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The car is on display inside each of the 17 stores and there is a full-time car salesman on hand at each outlet. These Yamada stores also sell and install the vehicle-charging equipment and offer complete “Smart House” solar photovoltaic solutions.

The i-MiEV has been on the market since July 2009, and about 3,000 of the vehicles have been sold in Japan.

Yamada Denki Online shopping

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photos:  Charge point (R); Charge point (L)

The Two Sides of Domino’s Pizza

Domino’s Pizza has opened an English-language website that includes special pizza offers not available on the Japanese version of the site.

For example, by ordering through the Domino’s English website, you can get two large pizzas with one topping each for JPY 2999. That special offer is one of several offers exclusive to the English side.

Compare the English two-large-pizzas offer to the one large pizza for JPY 2520 offer on the Domino’s Japanese website. (A current Domino’s USA special is 3 large pizzas with 1 topping each for USD 23.31)

In addition, with the Japan Domino’s build-your-own pizza tool, you’ll be able to choose between four types of crust and 22 toppings. (Sorry, you won’t find squid listed on the English menu!)

Animation characters are also conspicuously missing from the English menu, which makes us wonder what they’re really up to. According to Scott K. Oelkers, President and CEO of Domino’s Pizza Japan, Inc., the English website was added in an effort to provide better services to their foreign community. Indeed.

As of 2005, 1,555,505 foreign residents permanently reside in Japan, and that doesn’t include the approximately 40,000 US military personnel stationed there. That adds up to a lot of foreign community to better service.

Domino’s has locations in 60 markets worldwide and 99 outlets in Japan. But in the areas where they offer online menus in both the native language and English, the offers and options tend to vary. Besides the fact that you won’t find squid on the English version of Domino’s Japan, you also won’t find the Mexicana – a pie topped with ground meat and jalapenos – on the English version of the Domino’s Mexico website.

But regardless of whether Domino’s’ motive for offering English-speaking residents a menu of their own was for the benefit of the consumer or simply a means to add more yen to their pockets, the site was needed, and most certainly welcomed.

(You need to log-in at the Domino’s Japan English website to see the special offers.) 
photos: Dominos delivery scooters

Eco Drive Meister – Become expert in environmentally friendly fuel-efficient driving. Best for businesses with more than 50 vehicles. How to Kyoto.

Eco Meister – Courses and certifications offered by individual prefectural and city governments. Learn about the environment, garbage-related problems, recycling, global warming. Akita ecomeister.

Japanese Food Meister – How to treat only the ingredient of harmony, how to cut only the dish of harmony, how to boil the fire, and how to apply it and how to dish up the taste. Also known as Washoku.

Japanese Seasoning Meister – Become well-versed in seasonal seasonings and talk about charm of seasoning happily and plainly.

Okinawa Liquor Meister – Official Okinawa Prefecture Awamori distilled rice liquor expert certification.

Okonomiyaki Meister – The qualification levels: Instructor, Coordinator and Meister. What is Okonomiyaki?

Onsen Meister – Learn hot spring hygiene management, the benefits of hot springs, effective bathing methods, and thermal physiology. Japanese spa is called onsen.
(more…)

A monkey that has been romping around parts of Tokyo since Aug. 6 could be the monkey that ran through Tokyo’s Shibuya station on Aug. 20, 2008.

On the morning of August 20, 2008, a macaque monkey scampered into Shibuya train station in Tokyo. Police armed with several meters of green netting and carrying hooped nets surrounded the macaque while it rested on an overhead timetable display. The monkey eluded capture and darted among commuters before escaping into the city. News video of the 2008 Shibuya monkey-chase was broadcast on TV worldwide and posted on TV and newspaper websites.

The first summer of 2010 monkey sightings occurred about 5:50 PM Aug. 4. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department says the monkey was discovered on the roof of a home next to a rice paddy in Nerima Ward. The same day, the monkey was seen in the same area jumping along electric power lines, scaling the walls of homes, eating some grapes in the garden of a house, and loitering in front of an elementary school.

The ape brushed a taxi that was driving down a road in Ikebukuro the morning of the Aug. 5. There were no injuries.

Also on Aug. 5, the macaque was seen in the vicinity of Ikebukuro station in the morning, and it was watched scampering on a road in Shinmachi, Itabashi Ward in the afternoon.

There is speculation this Japanese macaque is a wild macaque that lived in Chichibu and might have followed a river into the urban area.

On July 23, the Shibuya monkey posted a message on twitter: "so sweety! atsui! matted fur drippng pocari sweat 8:] see yu my go out awgust! annibersery! this !!! keyboard ! stikney!!!"

It is not known why the monkey appeared earlier than Aug. 20.

A popular beach near Yokohama implemented a smoking policy at the start of this year’s swimming season in June. Zushi beach in Kanagawa Prefecture has banned smoking except at designated areas on its 600-meters of sand. Five smoking huts have been installed on the beach. Four standing ashtrays have also been placed in the span of sand. There is no penalty for violating the smoking rules.


Shirahama city in Wakayama Prefecture implemented smoking rules on its beach in 2008. Banners and a standing signboard notify visitors of the locations of smoking areas. There are several standing ashtrays in the sand. 

A smoking policy went into effect on the July 2 season opening of the 300-meter-long Ougigahama beach in Tanabe City, Wakayama. No-smoking signs are posted in three places, and there is a smoking area near the official beach facilities office.

Atami City in Shizuoka prefecture commenced smoking regulations at its beach in 2005. Kanagawa is the only prefecture of Japan’s 47 prefectures to have a smoking policy in effect for a beach.

All Nippon Airways says it is the first airline in the world to offer in-flight draft beer from a keg.

A traditional beer keg uses a high-pressure carbon dioxide bottle which is prohibited by law on flights.

ANA sponsored development of a special beer keg dispenser that does not use a high-pressure gas cylinder.

The new device uses the pressure from carbon dioxide gas captured from dry ice. The dry ice also keeps the beer cool so a power-supply unit and refrigerator are not needed.

All Nippon Airways started offering this real draft beer on domestic flights for the first time on July 20.

The brand of the beer varies according to the route.

The price is JPY 1000 per 400 milliliter glass, including a dry snack.

Depending on the aircraft, 20-40 glasses of beer will be offered per flight.

Seventy-seven gropers (chikan) were arrested on Tokyo commuter trains during a crackdown by the Japan National Police Agency. During the April 15 - 21 effort, 120 officers from the NPA and the Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectural police rode train routes known to attract molesters.

Six people were caught on the Keio Line and JR Chuo Line, the highest number of all the train lines. The JR Saikyo Line, notable for frequent reports of groping, installed security cameras on some trains last year. Five people were caught on the Saikyo Line during the April crackdown. All of the perpetrators were caught in cars without security cameras.

Twenty-six of the 77 victims were high school students and fourteen people were university students. Forty of the victims were between 15 and 19 years of age. Forty-two of the arrests occurred between 7 a.m and 9 a.m.

Fifty-eight of those arrested were charged under the "public nuisances" law. Four of the perps were charged with using a hidden camera to take secret photos in the train. Three were arrested on charges of forced obscene acts in the train car, and one man was charged with indecent exposure in the car.

Eleven people were charged with taking indecent photos of passers-by on escalators and on the stairs on station premises.

Twenty-nine of the 77 had previously been caught molesting train passengers. In one incident, while an officer obtained a description of a suspect from one victim, the officer saw the suspect in the first crime grope another victim in the same car. The suspect was arrested.

The NPA will post police officers on trains to crack down on gropers who target particular victims or stalk women after they get off the train. "If you get groped on a train, please tell the nearest police officer," an NPA spokesman said.

In one groping arrest in February, a 16-year-old girl who was fondled on the JR Takasaki Line grabbed the suspect’s hand, hauled him off the train at the next station, and handed him over to police. The girl is a member of her high school judo team. The 21-year-old perpetrator was charged with public nuisance.

Chikan Densha Otoko 2 Molester Trainman game (Windows PC)