JEdutainment.com

Saw this on another blog and just had to post it. Wow.

Sumo Baby | Neil Duckett

I'm not a super train geek or anything, but I do know the Yamanote line pretty well. It's the green-and-silver train that does a big loop around central Tokyo, that takes you from Meguro to Tokyo Station in 19 minutes and from Shinjuku to Shibuya in precisely 7. I used to take it everyday to school and now I ride it all the time to get places. Now, with this strange-but-kinda-cool digital watch that looksl ike the train station sign announcing the arrival of the next train, you can wear the Yamanote line on your wrist.

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Related stories:

Yamanote Line tape measure
Yamanote Line cell phone straps

via http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/09/yamanote-line-d.html

Anyone learning Japanese who also happens to spent a lot of time wasting away in front of a computer will definitely get a kick out of a bunch of new Nihongo courses on iKnow from Cerego Japan.

The Japanese Core 2000 module, for example, splits a large vocabulary list up into ten bite-size chunks complete with examples, pronunciation guides and more.

I won’t go into detail here, but the site is so Web 2.0 it almost hurts – that can be a bad thing when overused, but Cerego has done a great job of making the learning experience as clean and uncluttered as possible.

So far, the vocab stretches only to roughly a lower-intermediate level of Japanese, but plenty more is promised to arrive soon.

(Via iKnow)

via http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/japanese_language_20_with_iknow/#When:07:44:32Z

Great news for all you lovers of wacky Japanese products out there with the announcement that Thanko has added an English portal to their Rare Mono Shop.

Via Akiba Today

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via http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Japundit/~3/394790478/

via http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Japundit/~3/359022179/

A restaurant located at the Naokata City, Fukuoka prefecture government office building has added a new Oppai Lunch (Breast Lunch) to their menu to mark the release of the movie Oppai Volley (Breast Volleyball), which was shot in the city.

The Oppai Lunch consists of two cups of breast-shaped chicken rice with strategically placed green peas, and includes vegetables, a bowl of soup, and flag for 500 yen (milk separate).

Via The Road to the Deep East

via http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Japundit/~3/357995483/

Tokyo Genso’s photoshopped post-apocalyptic images of Tokyo overgrown with vegetation are haunting and beautiful. Shown here is Akihabara, but there’s also several views of Shibuya, Shinjuku and other neighborhoods.

Tokyo Fantasy: Images of the apocalypse

(via Geisha Asobi)

via http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/356090545/tokyo-overgrown-with.html

Some interesting statistics that reflect changes in Japan:

Around 19,000 of the babies had non-Japanese fathers, 26,000 had non- Japanese mothers, while both parents of 9,000 originated abroad, according to the survey.

North and South Korean nationals formed the largest group among non- Japanese fathers, followed by Chinese and Brazilians. Among the non- Japanese mothers, Chinese formed the largest group, followed by Filipinas, and North and South Koreans.

The trend reflects the increasing number of foreigners marrying Japanese nationals. Of the newly registered marriages in Japan in 6.6 percent, or 49,000 involved at least one foreign national.

Of the 49,000 marriages, about 36,000 involved a Japanese husband and a non-Japanese wife.

Of the babies with at least one non-Japanese parent, 5.7 percent were born in Tokyo, followed by 4.9 percent in Aichi Prefecture and 4.5 percent in Mie Prefecture.

via http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=5516

JR East has launched special Pokemon bullet trains:

At Ueno Station, Pokemon character Pikachu made an appearance and saw off smiling children boarding the bullet trains.

“I was surprised to see Pikachu, but I really like the character so I’m happy,” said one 7-year-old boy who was traveling to Iwate Prefecture with his family on the first day of operation. “It’s a cool bullet train,” he added.

JR East is operating four decorated trains on the Tohoku and Joetsu Shinkansen lines and one on each of the Yamagata, Akita and Nagano Shinkansen lines.

via http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=5212

Here is a prett interesting place to study for the JLPT. They have nice animated kanji strokes.
http://www.yosida.com/en/kanji.html