Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Why? To prove that the water is ok to drink. The irony is that the water was never intended for human consumption and it was gathered from pools inside the Fukushima Plant. It’s a publicity stunt to help the public insure that the water is clean and safe, but would a politician do this to “save face”? In Japan, yes. (Telegraph UK – Yasuhiro Sonoda)
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It’s bad ass when your government can change the value of currency when it sees fit. The Yen was hitting record strength against the dollar. It hit about 75 and now it rests at 79. What happened? The government sold off Yen and bought dollars to strengthen it. Will it hold up? 79 is the best it’s been in a while and still a crappy number compared to the 110 and 120s that the US enjoyed for years. Ideally, we guess that 10000Yen should equal 100 dollars. Obviously the stronger the Yen, the harder it is to import anything into the US, which is at an all time difficulty.
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Donald Keene is moving to Japan and this piece by Slate Magazine is also a moving piece. After teaching for 50 years at Columbia University, he’s packed it up and at 89 is calling Japan his home. If you don’t know him, he’s been a savior, slave, and artist himself to Japanese culture. He’s penned, translated, lectured, and stood for many facets of Japan. Film, poetry, literature, and more. We’d have to guess that he started off as a fan. (Slate – Donald Keene)
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Her parents founded The Japanese Red Army and she lived on the run. Her mother was a Palestinian Freedom Fighter and is now imprisoned in Japan. Shigenobu came to Japan for the first time just five years ago currently lives is a citizen and reports on Middle Eastern News. She gets 15 minute visits with her mother every month. Her life has obvious movie potential. (BBC – May Shigenobu)
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It may not look like much, but this is part of a Mongol ship that was discovered from an attempted attack. 36 feet of ship was found near Nagasaki in the Southern part of Japan. As mentioned in a previous post the rough waters of the Sea of Japan protected the country from attacks like these. Most ships ended up underwater. Mongolia was once a super power that attempted to take all of Asia. The article by the BBC mentions that their nautical skills weren’t up to par and ship building was done by “subjugated” Chinese and Koreans. Yes they were bad ass at the time. (BBC – Mongol)
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