http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2B_QHGIOZo Shigeyoshi Osaki makes violin strings out of spider silk and claims that – in the right hands – they produce a beautiful sound. His latest creation is making waves among musicians who praise the sonorous quality of the spider silk violin strings for their ‘soft and profound timbre’. His passion for the violin…
Debris dragged out to sea by the 3/2011 tsunami arrived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean bringing unfamiliar creatures as well as concerns that invasive species will threaten ecosystems on the West Coast of the United States. A 20-meter-long pier was swept away by the tsunami from the fishing port of Aomori, and…
Koji Mizutani had a simple message when he displayed 100 ‘smiling umbrellas’ in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2010. “I want to send a ray of hope to ease the friction of war and conflict where bombs were dropped,” he said. After traveling to the United States and seeing girls whose smiles were wonderfully hearty and…
The next-generation K supercomputer was ranked as the world’s fastest computer in June and November 2011. A University of Tokyo research team has developed a system that will use a next-generation supercomputer to simultaneously predict tremors, tsunami and movements in the Earth’s crust after a massive earthquake occurs. The team, led by Takuto Maeda, an…
Activities in preparation for the final stage of life are enjoying a quiet boom. These activities include taking photo portraits to leave behind, writing final thoughts and wishes in a special notebook and attending a workshop on how to write a will. Experts believe that the recent rise in these activities reflects an uncertainty over…
ANCIENT SEED GERMINATES (Copied by permission by Kenny Joseph) Grown from a 2,000-year-old seed, a unique magnolia tree blooms at Easter, the beginning of April. The seed was found among carbonized beans and rice in November, 1982 at an excavation near Hiroshima, Japan. It was turned over for analysis to Hiroshi Utsunomiya, a lecturer at…
This is a different posting in that we are posting a letter by contact down in the Tohoku area where the tsunami killed so many just two years ago this month. Sometimes we forget there are still people suffering and there are still precious ones that help meet others’ needs as they can. Will you…
(Honda, maker of the reborn Acura NSX, is one of the companies working with the Japanese government on robot cars.) Within 10 years, Japan may have self-driving cars on its expressways, according to car manufacturers in Tokyo, Japan. “I can’t wait for the era of self-driving cars,” a manager of a car factory said.…
Tsunami two years on: Japan finally gets warning system that would have saved hundreds of lives Two years after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands, the country has unveiled an improved warning system that could have saved hundreds of lives. Operators at the Japan Meteorological agency checking the data of the seismic activity…
Japanese poet, Yoshiko Tominokoji wrote the following poem: When one peels onions; One doesn’t hesitate to shed tears; Even in front of others. This poet is not the only person who has experienced tears, blaming them on an onion instead of any other possible reason. On January 16, 1995, Kuniyuki Yonezu, 7, and his sister…