Random Japan

Robot Lego Pokemon are the coolest things we’ve ever seen!


Michelle Lynn Dinh

Legos make everything better. And when those little plastic bricks are used to make some of our favorite Pokemon, the coolness goes well over 9,000. Let’s take a closer look at this awesome engineering, including a peek inside the boardable mecha-type lego Pokemon!


The mastermind behind these Poke-Legos goes by the handle “Stormbringer” on Flickr. He seems to be a Lego genius, creating numerous recognizable characters, including an entire scene from Attack on Titan completely made out of Legos. But it was his Venasaur, Charizard, and Blastoise that really caught our eye.

STATS
120 kilograms
Amount of cocaine that washed ashore last month in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, according to local officials

6.6 kilograms
Amount of cocaine seized by Japanese authorities in all of 2012, according to the National Police Agency

$120 million
Amount of fines to be paid by Osaka-based Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. in a price-fixing lawsuit brought by the US Justice Dept.

GULP!

A government survey has found that if a 7.3 magnitude quake were to strike Tokyo, 11,000 people would die, 850,000 buildings would be destroyed, and financial losses would top ¥110 trillion.

Japanese officials are mulling a plan to “jointly develop and produce weapons with other nations”—a move that would overturn a precedent that’s been in place since 1970.

Railways enthusiasts are concerned that, by 2015, only two sleeper trains will be left in operation in Japan.

Authorities in the town of Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, held a ceremony to commemorate the 458 workers who died in an explosion at a local coal mine—the worst mine accident in the postwar era.

It's A Cover Up

Of Police Crimes Yea!

¥18.5 million

It Was All For The Cats

Police Hope To

Crush The Party Spirit

From Tokyo banker to J.League mascot: the birth of Koyanon


SPORTS DEC. 14, 2013 - 06:15AM JST


By Junko Fujita

Kaoru Koyano’s unlikely career arc has taken him from dark-suited investment banker to plum-purple professional sports mascot. In between, he was called in to fix the balance sheet of the hottest team in Japanese soccer, Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

When Sanfrecce sealed their second straight J.League title earlier this month with a 2-0 win over Kashima Antlers, Koyano took the field to hold up the banner for fans alongside fist-pumping players, the culmination of an unlikely year of reinvention.

“When I was an investment banker, my focus was to make things happen. I focused on how to win a deal and tried to control as many things as possible,” the 50-year-old told Reuters.