Over on the always-charming Mari's blog, she found, "a new type of fundoshi/loincloth for girls called 'pandor'* shorts became a popular topic on TV and the Japanese Internet." Traditionally the Japanese fundoshi/loincloth was only worn by men, but these pandor* shorts are for women. *Pandor is from the French word "Pendre" meaning hang. Watch [...]...

Japan's North Hit by Magnitude-6.8 Quake; 106 Injured July 24 (Bloomberg) …The quake hit Honshu island at 12:26 a.m. local time at a depth of 108 kilometers (67 miles), the agency said. The quake struck about 120 kilometers east of the city of Akita…more… YIKES! I have two emails from the States wanting to know if [...]...

Security robot on patrol Electricpig.co.jp / 04 July 2008 —Reborg-Q has been patrolling the shopping centres of Japan for a couple of months now…[Sogho Security Services] had deployed one in an office complex to keep a track on employees overtime working hours, gathering information on staff working too much and reporting them to the HR [...]...

New robot poses like a fashion model - Kyodo - ABC News - 22 July ….The Robot Research Institute at the New Industry Research Organisation hopes the robot will be used for fashion and other promotional events… ….slim to give it a feminine touch while its body frame is made of aluminum to make it lighter and [...]...

The 3Yen is on vacation—Monday is Marine Day Umi no hi, which makes a 3-day holiday weekend here in Japan. Marine Day is claimed to be, "a day of gratitude for the blessings of the oceans and to hope for the economic prosperity of maritime Japan." It is just made up holiday for fun [...]...