MetaFilter posts tagged with Japan and brokenlink

Hornets, gentle giants

tellurian — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:00:06 -0800

The Asian Giant Hornet is cool, unless it's baked. Japanese honeybees can detect the hornet's secretion and they attack en masse. With approximately 500 honeybees surrounding the hornet in a tight ball, the temperature within the cluster rises to 47 degrees Celsius which bakes the hornet alive.

Modern Japanese Art

sluglicker — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:59:47 -0800

My earliest memory was when I was three. I had a fever and my mother was wiping a cold wet rag on my body. There were fish swimming in my room, as though I was underwater, but I could breathe just fine. That's why I was surprised to find this. "The contemporary art in Japan (english) is naturally influenced by the world contemporary art. But the power of the Japanese traditions, the oppressive presence of a dense urban environment and the various traumatism undergone by Japan for 60 years (defeat of 1945, Hiroshima, earthquakes, economic crisis, etc.) involve a production very rich, original and little known."

Gaki No Tsukai

Armitage Shanks — Thu, 18 May 2006 14:54:26 -0800

"...this clip of a Japanese show called Gaki No Tsukai stands out not for what it includes, but for what it lacks - talking and screaming. It takes place in a studio made up like a library, with the participants (including Kickboxing champion Ernesto Hoost) stifling their laughter, screams of pain and retching noises, just like any student did in their own junior high school library." [youtube video, text shamelessly lifted from wfmu]

Seaman Ship

tellurian — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:48:42 -0800

We want you as a new recruit. The Japan Defense Agency has a short recruitment video on their site. [via]

A Hole Is To Dig

fandango_matt — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 12:46:33 -0800

Behold the Chikyu! Japan has built and launched a drilling ship with which they will drill what they hope will be the world's deepest hole into the Earth's crust and mantle.

Harajuku Street Style

riffraff — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:12:13 -0800

Harajuku Street Style. Oh those crazy cool Japanese kids! The streets of Harajuku are as much a fashion playground as they are an exhibit of Why You Should Never Pair White Boots with Gold Chains. This is, of course, in line with the existing weirdness of the brilliant Katamari Damacy, mayonnaise-and-squid pizza, and the "no caption required" homoerotic dating sim "le, Tatemasu!",

the snake comes out of the dirt

Peter H — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 09:16:56 -0800

AN AMAZING JAPANESE ANIMATION based on the psychologically complicated and beautifully playful work of comic book artist Jim Woodring. (Monday morning cartoons for you, complete with a nod to the Jetsons, courtesy the Japan Media Arts Festival. Other featured work here.)

Hanafuda and Go-Stop

hama7 — Sun, 02 May 2004 08:36:43 -0800

Hanafuda, also known as Go-Stop. [more]

Black ships and Samurai: Japan and the US, 1853

carter — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 07:30:54 -0800

Black ships and samurai In 1853 four ships under Commodore Perry anchored off the coast of Japan against the wishes of the Japanese. According to historian John Dower, "This initial encounter between the United States and Japan was eye-opening for all concerned, involving a dramatic confrontation between peoples of different racial, cultural, and historical backgrounds. We can literally see this encounter of "East" and "West" unfold through the splendid, yet little known, artwork produced by each side at the time." This beautiful exhibition includes many examples of this artwork, juxtaposing scenes of the encounter from Japanese and American artists' points of view. (Part of MIT's open courseware initiative.)

Ping Pong Pang Pong!

carter — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 11:01:53 -0800

Ping Pong Pang Pong ... (MIDI file). Archives of public transport departure chimes and announcements. From Japan, MIDI files [+] [+] (via Boingboing) and live recordings [+] [+] of various elaborate tunes (no I don't speak Japanese, just keep clicking the blue links until you hit an MP3!). European recordings [+]. The very excellent Shonen Knife used a sample of the Osaka subway chimes in their rockin' cover version of the Carpenter's 'Top of the World.' (WFMU archive here, click "Hear the show", song starts with Osaka chimes at approximately 15:23)

Where Time Stands Still

eilatan — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:46:12 -0800

Hihoken - Erotic Museums In Japan [NSFW, obviously]

Get out of the Crimson room

xmutex — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 21:51:37 -0800

Get out of the Crimson room. [flash]

Old Japanese coins and bank notes

hama7 — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 15:52:50 -0800

Gallery of old Japanese Bank Notes and coins.

Japanese Railway Train Panoramas

carter — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 08:13:43 -0800

Kazumi Namiki uses a slit camera to capture panoramic pictures onto a whole roll of film. He uses his slit camera to take photographs of Japanese railway trains; lots and lots of trains. [via boingboing]

Liquid Mouse Christ

srboisvert — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 19:21:06 -0800

Santa is trapped in a usb mouse.

Amodal Suspension

hama7 — Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:51:50 -0800

"Amodal Suspension" is a large-scale interactive installation developed for the opening of the new Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM) in Japan. [more]

A small brown open-mouthed monster

adrianhon — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 02:25:29 -0800

Domo-kun! Domokun is "a small brown open-mouthed monster hatched from an egg who lives with a wise old rabbit underground." In Japan, he's the mascot of the NHK BS2 channel and is the star of a series of stop-motion shorts (100MB .mov), the fun and warmth of which aren't lost in translation. In the western world, Domokun is better known as the monster chasing that cute little kitty.

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan

majcher — Thu, 25 Sep 2003 13:57:08 -0800

8.0 Earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan. Holy crap. The Kobe quake in 1994 was a 6.9 - am I right to think that an 8.0 is about ten times worse than that one? Any mefites in Japan who can give us more information?

Manscaping! Another word brought to you by Queer Eye.

Stan Chin — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 17:50:25 -0800

It's Dinner Time. You know what that means: Hairy chests. [geisha asobi poss. nsfw] Mmmmmm... I'm salivating like Pavlov's dog just looking at it! What's that? You're in the mood for hairy backs? [e.blort] Why, Bill Cosby from Ghost Dad would be proud! (Whoever else has seen that movie gets a free... flowbee.)

Happy Store, Visual Paradise TV

son_of_minya — Wed, 18 Jun 2003 12:29:02 -0800

Are you Happy?? I'm so Happy!! LOVE&PEACE Happy Together...! Tune in for 10 hours of high-res streaming Happy Store to get your fix with hosts Tomoe Shinohara and Eriko Sato. Just one program you can catch live on So-Net Visual Paradise TV.

Learn English.

xmutex — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 15:57:42 -0800

Learn English.

old japan maps

stbalbach — Sun, 13 Apr 2003 11:48:21 -0800

A bunch of very beautiful Old Japanese Maps has been put online. Java application Insight(tm) required to view and includes a nifty GIS application to overlay old maps on current maps with 3-D animated fly-throughs. State of the art in online map presentation "The digital images are even better than the originals because you can amplify them, rotate them to look at them from different angles," Mr. Zhou said. "In practical terms, this is a better way of using the material than actually coming here to see the pieces."

Happy Birthday Astroboy

Jimbob — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 22:08:54 -0800

Happy birthday Astroboy - Born on April 7, 2003. Oh how the future has dissapointed; why don't we have flying juvenile robots to protect us from evil? All we have is kitch T-shirts. The history and episode guide to Astroboy, and lots more information on this Japanese cartoon favourite.

Dance of Darkness

wobh — Fri, 04 Apr 2003 14:24:42 -0800

In retrospect I have seen a glimpse of it before, in Baraka (scroll down to images, in the middle of the second row). I had forgotten this. I had read about it before too and smugly thought I knew about it then. When I saw it live for the first time I realized I didn't know anything at all about it. And now that I've seen it, now that it feels like I know it, it still feels like I don't know anything about it.

Unfortunately there's only so much that can be said about anything. You have to experience it, and even then it has to touch you or resonate with you in some way before it really means anything to you. All I can say is that I saw something last weekend that touched me and resonated very strongly with me. And anything that I or anyone else could tell you about Butoh couldn't tell you what that was, much less give you what was given to me.

111 — Sun, 16 Mar 2003 02:45:15 -0800

"There is making of silver sex". Taking bodypainting/messy obsessions to the very edge, Manon Production from Japan sells a wide selection of fetish videos (sample mpeg 1.69MB). All feature illustrative pictures and detailed, eerie Engrish descriptions ("we feel admirable and poor at her black smile"; "Midori's body is changing colourfull"; "a little golden powder enters into her eyes"). Results can also evoke a sculpture, the theater or abstract art. Considering the evident misogyny of the whole effort, is it all the more unsettling because the images are sometimes beautiful (1, 2)? Is it an attempt to somehow bring Sorayama's creatures to life? Could the models be actually enjoying it? NOT SAFE FOR WORK.