Results tagged “japan” from The Daily Nugget

Barack Obama's charisma and influence extends beyond international boundaries. Obama wrote a letter to the residents of the Japanese town that shares his name. The residents of Obama were overjoyed and are rooting for Obama to win the democratic nomination later today.

These Japanese snow monkeys like the natural springs outside of Nagano so much that they'll put up with Japanese and foreign tourists snapping their pictures as they chill. This has to be one of the funniest photos I've seen in a while, if only because the monkey in the back doesn't look like he likes the picture-taking. What do you think the caption should read?

A family business that was founded in 578 closed its doors last year without much fanfare. Kongo Gumi, a Japanese Buddhist temple construction company, was in continuous operation by the founder's descendants for 1,428 years! A key to success the family claims was to not always hand the reins of the business to the oldest son, instead they chose "the son who best exhibited the health, responsibility, and talent for the job. Furthermore, it wasn't always a son." The 38th Kongo to lead the company was grandmother of the 40th, and last, leader.

Despite the company's history, it was a set of ordinary circumstances that led to its demise. The company borrowed heavily to invest in real estate in the 1980s prior to the Japanese real estate collapse of 1992-1993. Through the 1990s revenue dropped, and by 2006 revenue dropped to the point where it could no longer service the debt. "To avoid a similar demise, evolve as business conditions require, but don't get carried away with temporary enthusiasms and sacrifice financial stability for what looks like an opportunity."

I actually found a list of the world's oldest businesses after reading this story. Now that Kongo Gumi is gone, the oldest business is Hoshi Ryokan, a family inn and spa near an underground hot spring in Japan. It is run by the 46th generation of family members and was founded in 718.

“Fortunately, nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out and there were no injuries, the fire would have been just under your buttocks.” Not exactly what you want to hear from your toilet company, but that's exactly what Toto said in reference to the three incidents of fire for their electronic bidet toilets. The incidents, due to a wiring defect, prompted the manufacturer to do a mass recall of 180,000 bidets in Japan. I guess you could say the company had a fire lit under its ass to fix this.

I just ran across a Japanese design blog called Pingmag that is written in both Japanese and English (i.e. one that I can finally read). One particularly interesting feature is an interview photographer Bruce Osborn, which has been taking portraits of Japanese children and their parents to illustrate the generational changes. The black and white photographs featured in the article are amazing and speak volumes about the changes (or similarities) from on generation to the next. I would love to see a book of these images.

Miss Puerto Rico Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza was crowned Miss Universe tonight. Tonight's win is Puerto Rico's fifth crown in this prestigious event. Miss Japan Kurara Chibana, was first runner-up, followed by Miss Switzerland Lauriane Gillieron, Miss Paraguay Lourdes Arevalos, and Miss U.S.A. Tara Conner.

Amazingly, Miss Japan grew up in the city of Naha, on the island of Okinawa, very close to where Melissa's mom currently lives, and Miss Puerto Rico is from Salinas, which is only a couple of miles from where my mom was born in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. Of course, my mom sees the first and second place finish as some omen for us having a baby. But then again the wind blowing is an omen for us having a baby lately.

But I digress. Big ups to Miss Puerto Rico on her win and to Miss Japan for the runner-up. Also, if you can read Japanese you may want to check out Miss Japan's blog for some cool commentary on the Miss Universe Pageant experience. If you can't read Japanese, just check out the pictures. That's what I did.

As seen on Memepool, this site shows what appears to be a reality show in which Japanese girls agree to bitchslap the shit out of each other. The reason why they slap each other isn't really explained, except that possibly the host of the show is asking them to do it. However, one thing is certain, some of these girls are releasing pent up anger. I also find it really funny that they all fix their hair after each smackdown. It's like a train wreck--check it out.