All those calendars for next year that show the Emperor's birthday as December 23rd are going to need to be revised: https://japantoday.com/category/politics/Emperor-Akihito-to-abdicate-on-April-30-2019

I guess the people that live in Ginza feel like they have an image to uphold: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42999569

Interesting article on life in Japan's train stations: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/the-amazing-psychology-of-japanese-train-stations/560822/

Speaking of trains, Hello Kitty Shinkansen arriving on June 30th:https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hello-kitty-shinkansen-train-japan/index.html

To paraphrase Scotty from Star Trek IV, "There be a whale in Tokyo Bay": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuPSqDF27HE

Yesterday, a typhoon, Kansai Airport flooded. Today, a 6.7 earthquake in Hokkaido. Did I really say I wouldn't mind living there???

Maybe I should put this under "Japanese Culture" since vending machines are so much are part of Japan. Anyway, in Hiroshima they now have pizza vending machine: https://soranews24.com/2018/08/11/the-first-ever-pizza-dispensing-vending-machine-in-japan-is-now-operating-in-hiroshima/

If you can't make it to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, maybe you can get to the Osaka World Expo in 2025: https://www.expo2025-osaka-japan.jp/en/

Got a baby that's fussy or cranky? Honda, yes, Honda, has just the thing for you: https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/news-honda-thinks-the-sound-of-revving-cars-will-soothe-your-baby/

Watch the video, it's really cute.

It's never to young to "GO": https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190105/p2a/00m/0na/019000c

Sayonara "Heisei", hajimemashite "Reiwa": https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/708648297/new-era-name-reiwa-defines-japan-as-emperor-akihito-prepares-to-abdicate

Well, it's officially the Reiwa era now. Although it looked to me like a lot of people were just using it as a excuse to go drinking.

Maybe they're just making up for not having an Emperor's Birthday holiday this year. (Naruhito's birthday was back in February.)

Wonder how long before this shows up in the plot of a drama: https://pressfrom.info/us/news/science-and-technology/-279720-anti-groping-smartphone-app-highly-popular-in-japan.html

First major tournament, first major win: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/sports/golf/hinako-shibuno-womens-british-open.html

Japan has their own version of Newman.

Postal worker fails to deliver 24,000 items of mail

KYODO

JAN 23, 2020

YOKOHAMA – A 61-year-old postman failed to deliver thousands of postal items that he kept at his home instead, police said Thursday.

About 24,000 undelivered items were found in the man’s home in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, said the police, who sent his case to prosecutors.

“It was too much of a bother to deliver them,” the man, whose identity has been withheld, was quoted by the police as telling investigators.

The papers sent to prosecutors specifically refer to 1,002 deliveries the man allegedly hid at his home and elsewhere between February 2017 and November last year.

A branch in Yokohama of Japan Post Co. said the man worked in charge of delivery and began hiding mail in 2003. He retired but had been re-employed at Seya Post Office in Yokohama when the incident came to light during an internal check on Nov. 20 last year.

The man admitted to the allegation, and Japan Post lodged a criminal complaint with the Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Jan. 14.

“We discovered them late as the cache was at his home, which is beyond the confines of an internal inspection,” a branch spokesman said.

“We’ll have talks with the police on the undelivered items and offer apologies to the senders and receivers as we deliver them,” he said.

The company will provide workers with thorough instructions and do its best to prevent a recurrence, according to the spokesman.

In case you ordered anything from Japan recently, it might take awhile before you get it: https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0423_03_en.html

Can't get much cheaper than this: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/japan-is-giving-away-abandoned-homes-for-free/

Good old Japanese mottainai:

Baseball team finds use for unsold beer

Professional Japanese baseball team Yokohama DeNA Baystars has found a novel use for a large quantity of beer that went unsold due to the coronavirus.

Baystars Ale is produced by a brewer in Yokohama City, near Tokyo. In March, the Central League team became saddled with about 3,000 liters when the pandemic delayed the start of the season.

But team officials saved the booze from going down the drain by taking advantage of a government decision to allow the reuse of alcoholic drinks as sanitizers.

The sanitizer they produced has an alcohol content of 70 percent. About 180 liters were placed at baggage checkpoints on Friday night, when the team welcomed spectators back to its home stadium.
It still has a whiff of the original ale. One fan said she always enjoyed the beer, and turning it into a sanitizer was a great idea.

A team official said he's pleased to see the product being used to protect the fans from the virus.

Who needs baseball cards? How about fisherman cards: https://www.asiaone.com/asia/fishermen-transform-models-japanese-city

^ Some of those fishermen look pretty hot.
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