This is strangely entertaining. Since they are bugs, I would imagine that they would not get any criticism from animal-rights activists. So, it’s somewhat guilt-free.

This really cracked me up. You cannot do stuff like this in the US; you would get sued left and right. At the end of this video, it said that these people gave them permission to air this. It’s quite unbelievable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNeLGOFIjcI

I’ve never owned a rice cooker before. I think this is rather strange for an Asian person. A few month ago, I bought my first electric rice cooker, and I have to say it’s quite amazing. I used to use a pressure-cooker to make rice, but it was very difficult to get it right. The biggest problem was how unevenly it cooked, especially when you cook a lot (like more than 4 cups). The bottom would be burnt no matter what I tried.

My theory is that each grain of rice acts as an insulator of heat, so when you cook it from the bottom, the heat doesn’t transfer to the top. Since you cannot stir rice as you cook, it’s hard to get around this problem. So, an electric rice cooker that can distribute the heat evenly can cook it really well. Now I’m wondering why I never bought one before.

Came across this site while searching the web for how Asperger’s Syndrome manifests in Japan. Well, the irony of this search is that people with Asperger’s Syndrome tend to be very literal in understanding words, and Google tends to have a similar problem. This “bikini artist”, Emily Vaughn, has Asperger’s Syndrome, and she lived in Japan for a while. But, I’m happy to find the Biniki Artist Project; it’s quite fascinating.

I actually didn’t even know that the guy who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was still alive. Well, now he is dead. Imagine being the man whose only significant achievement was dropping of the atomic bomb. He was just doing his job, and had nothing to do with it personally, but he is forever recorded in history for it.

At first I thought this New York Times article was a joke. I’m not sure if I agree with their characterization of Japan as a country supportive of unusual inventions. Inventiveness or creativity hasn’t been part of the Japanese tradition. Japan is all about the perfection of existing ideas.

I believe that the reason why quirky, useless inventions are welcomed in Japan is because they do not affect, transform, or disturb the status quo. They like the harmlessness of fake inventions. So, they prefer fake inventions over real ones. Real creativity or inventions can have vast and deep transformative power, and such a nail that sticks out is hammered back in, as they say in Japan. I see this phenomenon of quirky inventions as a sign of them being averse to real inventions.

I grew up watching other people sharpen their knives in Japan. So, I just do it without thinking about it. I never thought to learn it properly, but after watching the show on NOVA about samurai swords, I become curious what the proper way is. I found this page while searching on Google Japan. This was the second item on the search result, and it happens to be the site of the company that produced my knife, Global. Here, it says you should push the knife away from you. I always pulled towards myself, I guess that’s wrong.