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100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience: I really envy Japanese arcades. The American arcade seems to have peaked in the 80s and been on a slow and steady decline ever since. The only arcades still around are mainly for kids, and largely work on a ticket-based economy. That’s why I’m pretty excited for this new documentary on Japanese arcades: 100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience. [via Spoon & Tamago][/threecol_two] [threecol_one_last]Benefits of Bilinguilism: An article in the New York Times posted last week talked about the psychological and health benefits of being bilingual – including heightened awareness of one’s surroundings and a decreased likelihood of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Sounds like a pretty good deal, if you ask me. [via Mutantfrog Travelogue]
Japanese City on the Verge of Bankruptcy Puts Name Up For Sale: I can’t tell whether to laugh or cry at this story. On one hand, the city of Izumisano in Osaka prefecture could be named “Pepsi Presents: Izumisano,” which would be hilarious. On the other hand, it could be named “Pepsi Presents: Izumisano,” which would be soul-crushing and sad. [via RocketNews24][/threecol_one_last]
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[twocol_one]Police dogs busy with PR not crime: I’m not sure why people are surprised that two two-year-old toy poodles who became police are doing more PR work than detective work, but it’s apparently newsworthy. How would a toy poodle fight crime, anyway? Disarm a criminal with its size and cuteness? We can only speculate. [via News On Japan]
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Fibre optics to connect Japan to the UK – via the Arctic: Good news, nerds – your ping is about to get a little bit lower; that is, if you’re somewhere between Japan and England. A new fiber optic line is being created between the countries, shaving a whole 60 milliseconds off of the trip. While that may sound small, factor that savings into the thousands of connections that are made online, and it adds up. [via News On Japan][/twocol_one_last]
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[threecol_one]“Another” Anime Blu-ray To Be Released With Body Pillow: Sometimes, I feel like Japanese news enters the realm of self-parody without anybody stopping to acknowledge how ridiculous it is. By the way, somebody should let James Franco know about this. [via Crunchyroll]
JAXA unveils first ‘Hisho’ prototype jet to media: I talked about JAXA, the Japanese space agency a few weeks ago, so it’s nice to see them in the news. This time around, they’ve announced Japan’s first-every passenger jet plane. Not quite a spaceship, but close enough! [via News On Japan][/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]
1,000 train enthusiasts bid farewell to 300 series shinkansen: Ah, the train nerd; from Japan to England, these locomotive fanatics are the prototypical nerd. Before today’s kids were geeking out about computers or anime or what-have-you, train nerds were tracking their favorite models, stalking around train yards, and constructing elaborate models in their basements. Oh, what – you think just because you bought Railworks and a few expansion packs you know about trains? Let me tell you, you don’t know jack about trains! You hear me?! [via News On Japan][/threecol_two_last]
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Every Sunday we gather the week’s weird Japanese news and present it to you in our Sunday News column. It might not be the hardest hitting news out there, but we hope that it still informs and entertains you. Enjoy!