Shimura Zoo’s Chimpanzee celebrity Pan-kun attempts to catch some nagashi soumen and grapes as they fly past him on a bamboo water slide:
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Source:Chimpanzee uses chopsticks to eat nagashi soumen

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The movie that introduced Japanese culture and martial arts to an entire generation of Americans will be remade with Will Smith’s son in the starring role:
Jaden Smith, who made his acting debut alongside his famous father in 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness, will play the lead role in the new film, Daily Variety reported.
The original [...]

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Japanese blog Itai News [found via Danny Choo] has posted a comparison of the all time most-edited entries on Wikipedia’s Japanese, English, and French language sites. The data is as follows:
English Wikipedia
1. George W Bush
2. Wikipedia
3. America
4. Christ
5. 2006 Israel Lebanon war
French Wikipedia
1. Events in 2005
2. Events in 2004
3. Algeria
4. France
5. Wikipedia
Japanese Wikipedia
1. [...]

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A new UN report details the effect of air pollution on Asia:
The byproduct of automobiles, slash-and-burn agriculture, cooking on dung or wood fires and coal-fired power plants, these plumes rise over southern Africa, the Amazon basin and North America. But they are most pronounced in Asia, where so-called atmospheric brown clouds are dramatically reducing sunlight [...]

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The 2008 Japanese Language Proficiency Test will be held in less than a month!
In addition to using some of the JLPT kanji & reading practice links from our earlier post, those preparing for the test might want to try out ReadTheKanji.com’s online flashcard system:
I’ve been playing around with it for the last week, and [...]
Source:JLPT [...]

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[Update] Thanks to readers for reminding me about this statement South Korean President Lee Myung Bak made when taking office ten months ago:
President-elect Lee Myung-bak on Thursday said there will be no more demands for apologies from Japan during his presidency. “For a new, mature Seoul-Tokyo relationship, I don’t want to ask them to [...]

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Leo Lewis of the Times has examined the impact of the financial crisis on Japanese women who hang out at a bar in Roppongi Hills hoping to meet rich foreign bankers:
In its prime, the 54 storeys of the Roppongi Hills office tower were a focal point for much that was positive about Japan: it was [...]

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Video of a tree in Chiba Prefecture that bears a striking resemblance to Godzilla:
The owner of the tree claims to have made no alterations to its natural appearance. The Godzilla shape is only visible from a certain angle, and it will disappear when the tree’s leaves fall out in autumn.
Not quite as cool [...]

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A 78-year-old man abandoned his car at a railroad crossing yesterday morning after he failed to notice railroad crossing warning lights and got “stuck” when the boom gates came down:
At around 8:45 a.m. on Friday, an express train on the Tobu Tojo Line, which was bound for Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo, rammed into a van [...]

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A 9-year-old boy in Gifu prefecture managed to get into his grandfather’s car and go for a drive alone on Monday:
Police received a call at around 7:30 a.m. Monday from a passer-by who reported that a car appeared to be unmanned and was running along a road in Yoro in the same prefecture.
Officers [...]
Source:3rd grader [...]

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