Giant Robots, Space Travel, and International Conspiracies [Sunday News]

by 12 Comments

This week’s Sunday News runs the gamut of odd topics and news, everything from theme parks to a citizenship scandal to some pretty sad news.

Let’s dive right in:

Gundam park to open in Odaiba: Japan is finally getting its own Gundam theme park, fulfilling otaku dreams everywhere. While that’s great and all, I’m still disappointed that Japan’s Self-Defence Forces don’t have an elite Gundam unit. We have the technology! [via News on Japan]

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Popular YouTube Chef Seriously Injured: In some bad news, the latest episode of the always-amazing YouTube show Cooking With Dog revealed that the (human) host of the show has had a pretty serious spill off of her bicycle and has been hospitalized. Cooking With Dog has been a Tofugu favorite for some time, and we wish her all the best in her recovery! [via Reddit]

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Japan’s next asteroid probe approved for development: To some people, it’s a surprise that Japan has a space agency (I guess in this day and age, it’s a surprise that anybody does), but the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is very much alive and kicking. JAXA’s newest space exploration plan involves probing a passing asteroid. [via News on Japan]

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World’s youngest sommelier is 10 years old: When you think of a sommelier, you usually think of somebody like in the picture above: some Jean-Reno-looking European dude in a suit who drink wine that’s more expensive than your car. But a 10-year-old girl in Japan has been certified as a sake sommelier. Sure as hell beats what I was doing when I was 10. [via Majirox News]

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Israeli Nukes Triggered Fukushima Quake, Crackpot Claims: Anytime there’s a big world event, the conspiracy theorists are bound to come crawling out of the woodwork. The 3/11 quake is, apparently, no different. For some people, it’s an international nuclear conspiracy is more believable than tectonic plates. Go figure. [via Reddit]

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Hello Kitty’s Citizenship Controversy: Is She British or Japanese?: In a citizenship scandal rivaling Obama’s, Hello Kitty’s national origins are being questioned. Is she a British citizen, like she claims, or is she Japanese? Where’s the birth certificate?! [via Time]

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That’s all the news for this week. Did I miss an important story? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Can’t wait for the Gundam theme park? Follow Tofugu on Twitter.
P.P.S. Think that Hello Kitty is secretly Kenyan? Check out Tofugu on Facebook or Google+.

[Header image source]

  • ヽ(´ー｀)ノ

    I went to the conspiracy news post and read all the comments that weren’t conspiracy theories themselves. Today, I’ve read 0 comments.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1800174516 Spook MrsSpooky

    Amazing people think Israel is behind the quake.  Usually it’s the USA that gets blamed for all this stuff (the conspiracy theory I heard was that it WAS the USA’s HAARP array that caused it).

  • giraffe

    Get well soon messages for Cooking with Dog’s host on youtube.

    http://youtu.be/lVcy1irLfpI

  • Lawnmower16

    Internet fist-bump for not mentioning the superbowl!

  • Anonymous

    Too late! :o

  • Anonymous

    I was really surprised about the Cooking with Dog host accident; this isn’t the first I’ve heard of it, tho.  I wonder how bad it was for her to end up in ICU?  Glad she’s in stable condition from that last we’ve heard, but I hope she’s doing better *heads to YouTube*

    And sheesh, Hello Kitty’s nationality?  Because they’re fictional characters, you’ve sometimes just gotta accept inconsistencies in backstories.  It’s sloppy to leave them there, yes, but they’re characters created by human beings who make mistakes.  We could just say that Kitty is a Japanophile and has a Masters in Japanese Culture (she’s certainly old enough for one, right?).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cody-Buchanon/1830834538 Cody Buchanon

    screw flying cars, i want to pilot a freakin 50 meter humanoid robot to work

  • OMNOMNOM

    shes small, cute , and has chinky eyes…. definitely asian 

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

     Conspiracy theorists usually like to lump together Israel and the USA in one big New World Order basket, I think.

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

     I hadn’t seen that before, that’s really sweet

  • http://www.tofugu.com/ Hashi

     Oh yeah, that thing.

  • Jon E.

    You might think about rephrasing your pretty racist comment.