Mickey Mouse celebrates his 80th birthday on Tuesday (Nov 18)…
Hatsuyo Sugawara, a 44 year-old Japanese woman, won the 23rd Wanko-soba National Tournament that was held in Morioka City on Sunday (Nov 10) after eating 383 ‘bowls’ of soba noodles in 10 minutes.
Wanko-soba is a famous delicacy in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture; contrary to most soba dishes, wanko-soba is served in small portion… roughly 10-15 bowls of wanko-soba make up a standard bowl of soba.
The contestants had 15 mins to eat as much as they could… Hatsuya’s time was reduced to 10 mins as handicap for being the reigning champ; but she still managed to defend her title rather easily… [via Japantoday and Japanprobe]
Youth Trekkers Wanted - Taiwan Giving You a Free Hug
The National Youth Commission of Taiwan is organising a contest to promote youth tourism in the island, in which the winners will get a travel allowance of USD1,000 and free air tickets to Taiwan.
The contest is opened to young people (aged 18-30) with the nationality of Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore or Malaysia.
Participants are required to draft a thematic travel plan lasting for over 10 days to interact with the society, culture and environment of Taiwan.
12 winners (two from each country/place) will be awarded the travel allowance of USD1,000 and free return air tickets. There are however a few clauses that the winners have to oblige with… kindly check the contest website for more details.
The contest expiry date is November 30, 2008.
A Japanese man has recently started an online petition to urge the government to legalise marriage with a two-dimensional (i.e. anime and comics) character… more than 2400 netizens have signed the petition so far.
The fella states that he is no longer interested with real three dimensional world, but wants to become an inhabitant of a two-dimensional world. He reckons though, that it’s impossible to achieve his dream with present day technology… thus thinking of the possibility to legalise marriage with a two-dimensional character instead.
He also said that he would like to marry Asahina Mikuru (pic) from popular Japanese anime/manga “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” [via Gaijinheart]
Obama, a small seaside city in Japan, is celebrating Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 US presidential election…
Obama (小浜) means ‘little beach/shore’ in Japanese.
The small city in Fukui Prefecture, with an estimated population of 32k, has been garnering plenty of media attention around the world for namesake reason since Barack Obama announced his intention to run for presidency in early 2007.
Obama city is hopeful that Obama’s victory would boost their tourism and economy; the number of visitors has increased by 20% since the Obama-Obama link was heavily publicised in the media last year.
Legendary Japanese music producer Tetsuya Komuro was arrested on Tuesday morning (Nov 4) on suspicion of fraud and could face up to 10 years of jail term.
The 49-year-old is alleged to have scammed an investor of 500 million yen (~USD5 million) in August 2006 by selling copyrights of 806 tunes which he written but did not actually own the rights.
Tetsuya lost a civil suit in July 2008 in which he is required to pay 600 million to the investor as compensation, but he didn’t manage to do so by the deadline (Sept 30), thus prompted the investor to file a police report.
Tetsuya is widely regarded as the most successful J-pop music producer in 1990s. He was the producer for top Japanese stars like Namie Amuro, TRF, Ami Suzuki, Ryoko Shinohara and Hitomi etc… it’s estimated that more than 170 million copies of his production were sold over the years.
Tetsuya was then one of the richest entertainers in Japan with over USD100 million of wealth. His music career has however been declining since 2000, and his investment failure in 2001-2004 has sunk him into financial trouble which he obviously couldn’t manage to recover.
Singapore’s Iggy’s is Asia’s best restaurant according to the Miele Guide which made its grand debut last week. The guide is claimed to be Asia’s first truly independent regional restaurant guide.
The Miele Guide 2008/2009 edition evaluates restaurants in 16 Asian countries… Brunei, Cambodia, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
The top 20 restaurants according to the Miele Guide 2008/2009…
The world’s first blue roses have been unveiled in Japan following nearly two decades of scientific research.
Developed by Suntory Flowers, the roses are genetically modified and implanted with a gene that simulates the synthesis of blue pigment in pansies.
The first blue rose was created in 2004, but further research was required to make them safe to grow in nature.
The Suntory rose made its public debut at the 5th International Flower Expo Tokyo (IFEX) over the weekend; and are expected to go on sale commercially next autumn.
Blue roses have been available in florists in recent years but are created by various dying techniques to stain the petals of naturally white roses. The Suntory roses are believed to be the first genetically-modified blue rose creations [more on Telegraph]