Random Japan

We wish you an age-appropriate Christmas and a happy Pokémon tree!


Rona Moon

This amazing tree was recently spotted on Japanese site Pokésoku, with the question: “I thought I’d buy my nephew a Pokemon for Christmas, but can a six-year-old child handle it?”


What do you think? Is six too young for your first Pokémon? I know my nephew was mad keen on Pokémon at eight years of age, and he didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects. I think that even a six-year-old would be into catching ‘em all. Although in some rare cases children may blame their gambling problem on early experiences with game cards and decide to sue, to the best of my knowledge claims like these have been unsuccessful.

STATS
42
Percent of Japanese men in their 60s who would remarry their wife, according to an internet survey

16
Percent of Japanese 60-something women who would remarry their husbands, according to the same survey

35
Number of appearances on NHK’s year-end music show made by singer Chiyoko Shimakura, who died of liver cancer last month in Tokyo at age 78

THAT TIME OF YEAR

The government presented its autumn decorations to 4,193 Japanese people and 49 foreigners for their contributions to society.

This being Japan, only 347 of the recipients—or 8.3 percent of the total—were women.

Among those honored were a lantern maker, a researcher of organic electroluminescence and “the developer of Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku.”

The youngest recipient was 26-year-old Yan Jun, a Chinese citizen living in Osaka who saved a young Japanese boy from drowning during a typhoon in September.

Family Fun

Robbery

She Called And Called

15,000 Times

Lose Weight

While In REM Sleep

8,000-year-old pottery oldest found in Okinawa


December 06, 2013


By SHUNSUKE NAKAMURA/ Senior Staff Writer

NANJO, Okinawa Prefecture--Pottery unearthed at a cave site in southern Japan dates back 8,000 years, making it the oldest in Okinawa Prefecture. The find also helps to shed light on a mysterious 10,000-year gap following the discovery of Minatogawa Man.

The results of the study by the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, announced Nov. 21, are firm evidence of humans in the Okinawa region before the Jomon Pottery Culture (c. 8,000 B.C.-300 B.C.) got started.

The artifacts, which were discovered at the Sakitari Cave site in Nanjo earlier this year, are the first evidence of such early human settlement on the Nansei Islands in southwestern Japan. The finds raise questions in continuing debate on the origin of the Japanese people.