Saturday, September 10, 2005

Beware the Nattou

Yongfook.com has an amusing and enlightening review of a Japanese treat known as Nattou. This fermented soybean dish is apparently quite ghastly...

Unfortunately, much in the same way a poisonous frog or caterpillar will be brightly coloured to warn predators not to accidentally eat them and suffer a long agonising death, nature provides similar health warnings for food that isn't fit for human consumption, and in nattou case the subtle clue by which humankind should be able to decipher that we are never ever to put this in our mouths is that it smells - overwhelmingly - of S**T.

Even after this description I was still open to giving Nattou a try until I got to the part about the "decaying tentacles of bean plasma".

Check out the article here.



Friday, September 09, 2005

When there's smoke....



... There's the Hello Kitty fire extinguisher!

The good people at Sanrio Japan may be just a little out of touch with the demographics of their target market for this to have slipped out the door. They've unleashed a fully functional Hello Kitty fire extinguisher. Not just cute this baby will douse the stubbornness of flames in no time flat.

I guess the real question is how Batz-Maru feels about all of this.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Want it REALLY clean?


When you need your clothes more than clean turn to the new Samsung
Silver washing machine. Promising a 99.xx % reduction in bacteria and other nasty beasties you can count on the Silver to keep you both alergen free while keeping your obsessive compulsive cleaning tenedencies in check.

Pricing not yet announced.

Link

Mecha-Madness:The Land Walker


Yes, it's real.

When you need a 3.1M tall industrial robot to do some heavy lifting or um.. 'crowd control' turn to the Sakakibara-Kika corporation of Japan. Their new product "The Land Walker" brings the hopes and dreams of many a mecha fan to life for the low, low cost of $345,000 USD. While the 250 CC engine seems a little underpowered for serious action I'm sure the modding community will have a ball.

Follow the link for action packed (well, sort of ) movies of The Land Walker.

Link

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Wild Japan

The New York Times has an interesting story on vacations to 'wild Japan'. That's right - sparsely populated swamps, jungles and mountains awaiting your visit.

Link