In Japanese, an 84-stroke kokuji exists[49]—it is composed of three “cloud” (雲) characters on top of the abovementioned triple “dragon” character (龘). Also meaning “the appearance of a dragon in flight”, it has been pronounced おとど otodo, たいと taito, and だいと daito.

Read it here.

He uncovers the Japanese desire for new technology and ventures into Akihabara – Tokyo’s technology district – and even discovers designs for a robot suit.

View the video here.

A body found on a mountain in Japan was confirmed as popular cartoonist Yoshito Usui, whose manga and animation series “Crayon Shin-chan” has attracted a worldwide fan base, a report said.

Usui, 51, had been missing for more than a week when a body covered in bruises was found on Saturday by a climber in a mountain range straddling Gunma and Nagano prefectures, Kyodo News agency reported.

The report said his family Sunday confirmed it was the cartoonist and quoted police as saying he may have fallen from a climbing path.

It added there was no sign of a suicide note.

Usui had been missing since September 11 after telling his family at his home in Saitama prefecture, near Tokyo, that he would be hiking on the mountain and would be back by the evening.

When he failed to return his family contacted police.

Usui made his debut as a manga author in 1987 and gained popularity in the 1990s with “Crayon Shin-chan” featuring the daily life of Shinnosuke, a mischievous five-year-old boy. (Source: Hindustan)

Hanaikusa is just an hour long movie.

Inoue Mao plays the role of Mineko, a young maiko (apprentice geisha) in the Gion Kobu Geisha district of Kyoto.

The story is based on the autobiography of the famous retired Geiko (geisha) Mineko Iwasaki (who was one of the sources for Arthur Golden’s “Memoirs of a Geisha”). Iwasaki is also involved in the drama by personally coaching Inoue in the ways of the Geiko, and training the cast to speak the unique Gion dialect.

Hanaikusa 【花いくさ】

In December 2002, NBC played a spot featuring an interview with Mineko Iwasaki in relation to the Memoirs of a Geisha novel.

This is the funeral of Private Kevin Elliott who was killed during a battle with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The ceremony was held in Dundee, Scotland. His best friend Barry Delaney wore a green dress to honor a long time agreement that if one of them dies, the other has to wear a bright green dress to the funeral.

Barry said:

“Kev was like my brother – we would have done anything for each other.

We said that whoever died first, the other one had to wear a pink dress with green spots to the funeral – and we shook on it. It was mainly his idea and the more I think about it, I’m sure Kevin knew something was going to happen.

I looked for the exact dress but couldn’t find one anywhere.

I eventually picked up the green one in Primark and bought the pink pop socks to make it look even sillier. It’s what Kev would have wanted.

Kev told his whole family about the pact, so I couldn’t back out. I had a word with him at the graveside and asked if he liked the color – I’m sure I could hear laughter coming out of the ground.

Kev was a true hero and someone I’m proud to call my best mate.”

Source: The Chive

OMG! This is the most scariest thing ever! From now on whenever i play Left 4 dead i will just imagine killer teletubbies! xD

Oh so that’s how it works.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of July 2009 1,026 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 48.2% of the sample were male, 8.0% in their teens, 14.6% in their twenties, 28.8% in their thirties, 26.0% in their forties, 12.5% in their fifties, and 10.1% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. Note that today’s question is for the men only.

Q: What’s your secret favourite fetish? (Sample size=495, male)

See full fetish list here

Utada Hikaru’s album “This is the One” failed to break the US market when it was released 5 months ago.

This was her third attempt to woo American listeners, herself being a college dropout of Columbia University and native of New York City. Her first attempt to enter the American market was “Exodus”, which sold around only 55,000 copies, a low number compared to her success in Japan, where she has sold over 26 million.

Will she ever succeed in making it big in the US or will Americans continue to give her the cold shoulder?

Source: Utada Hikaru Fails To Break Into the US Market Three Times in a Row