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For Japanese Linguist, A Long And Lonely Schlep: A Japanese linguist has finished his masterwork: the first-ever Japanese-Yiddish dictionary. Practical? Almost certainly not. At $700 (oy vey!) and catering to a Jewish population that comprises a whopping 0.004% of Japan’s total population, it’s the definition of a niche product. But it’s still one of the coolest linguistic exercises I’ve ever seen. [via National Public Radio][/threecol_two] [threecol_one_last]Hamburger With 1050 Pieces of Bacon: Little did Burger King Japan know that when it offered extra bacon on its Whopper that it was unleashing a bacon apocalypse. Somebody took Burger King up on its word and added an astounding 1,050 extra pieces of bacon to his burger. I can only imagine that mothers everywhere are asking “Would you like some burger with your bacon?” [via KiraiNet]
China decries Tokyo-hatched plan to buy disputed isles: Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara is no stranger to controversy (after charming statements like “the Rape of Nanking never happened,” and “homosexuality is an abomination”), but sometimes I feel like he’s just provoking people to get his jollies. Maybe in his old age (79), he’s starting to lose it, but that presumes that he ever had it to begin with. [via News On Japan][/threecol_one_last]
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[threecol_one]Police investigate death of man killed by python in Ibaraki: Guys, this really just reaffirms a motto I live by: “never keep a giant reptile as a pet.” It’s a motto that’s almost as handy as maxims like “don’t play with a loaded gun” and “don’t touch a downed power line.” [via Japan Today][/threecol_one] [threecol_one]VIDEO: There’s No Way My Circuit Board is This Cute: Man, why’s everything gotta be so damn cute in Japan? Just when I start to think that my hobby of tinkering with electronics is kinda manly, Japan goes and makes a circuit board all moe. Looks like I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and find a new hobby. [via CrunchyRoll][/threecol_one] [threecol_one_last]Japan police officer held for licking woman’s hair: Between this story and last week’s news of a police officer dressed as a school girl flashing an actual school girl, I’ve gotta wonder how they’re training police over in Japan. At least this officer had a good excuse: “I wanted to lick so I did.” Can’t argue with that! [via Japundit][/threecol_one_last]
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[threecol_one]New Social Network “Yankee I Love You” Caters to Japanese Juvenile Delinquents: Finally, after years of waiting, Japanese hoodlums have their own social media site. Now the delinquent youth of Japanese have an online space to meet one another and socialize. The site itself looks like a Geocities site thrown through Blingee; in other words, a typical Japanese website. [via RocketNews24]
On the centenary of its sinking, the Titanic’s lone Japanese passenger is cast in a new light: I had no idea that there was a single Japanese passenger on board the Titanic during its fateful maiden voyage, but the story of his survival and the aftermath is one of the most interesting stories I’ve heard in a while. Plus, I now know that his descendent led the electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. How cool is that? [via Reddit][/threecol_one] [threecol_two_last]
World’s First Snaggletooth Girl Group: There’s no better reminder that beauty is in the eye of the beholder than Japan’s love of snaggletoothed girls. While some would consider overlapping teeth a defect, a segment of Japanese culture has so wholeheartedly embraced the look that people are getting their teeth cosmetically altered to look worse. And to top it all off, a snaggletoothed girl group is looking to make it big. Maybe braces aren’t such a good idea after all? [via RocketNews24][/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!