10 Interesting and Bizarre Arcade Games From Japan Part 2

See, I told you I wouldn’t let you down. And for your further review, Japanese arcade games part two.

Best Game for People Who’s Parents/Landlord Won’t Allow Pets: Dog Walker

dog-walking.jpg In this game the point is to walk dogs. All sorts of dogs. You actually have a pretty good selection in some of these games, where you have some nice doggies to walk and then you have the pit bull. The game is basically a tread mill that you walk on while holding onto a leash. The antics begin as the dog goes to chase cats, cars, stops to pee, gets into fights with other dogs. Um, actually I don’t know about that because I have only ever seen this game, never played it. But I think that would make it more fun.

My Personal Favorite: Samba De Amigo

samba.jpg Samba is fun. You get your Maracas (which are surprisingly heavy) and you dance. The point is to hit certain heights with the maracas in time to samba style dance music. It’s simple but gets pretty challenging and it’s fun. As long as you like dancing with maracas and samba music. I think I must have spent like ten dollars playing this game when I was in Japan. (more…)

Quick Links for Your Entertainment

pikachu_snowplow.jpgYuki Taro, the Japanese sidewalk snow plow.  Think Roomba for snow covered sidewalks.  The basic idea here is that a very cute robot runs itself with GPS and plows up snow.  This snow it then turns into bricks that you can do anything with.  As long as they don’t melt.  The article I linked to says it was invented by kids but it was not.  The Japanese are just suckers for anything that is super cute and useful.  The name basically means “snow boy”, in case you were wondering.yuki-taro-r4.JPG

~FBI gets their wire tap phone service disconnected.  I am not sure if there is anyone out there who hadn’t heard of this massive failure but I couldn’t let it get away with not being mentioned on this site.   Ha!  No free rides for you, FBI.  There are a few quotes that really sum this up.  “More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the report shows.” More than half?  So, about 445 bills or so were unpaid?  Very interesting.

And one other quote worth mentioning, “We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence”.  NO! I never would have guessed that not paying your bills and having your services shut off could affect your ability to spy on people without a warrant.  A final note on this topic is that they are trying to pin the blame on a woman who stole some money from them.  So, you are telling me that one woman was the sole person responsible to pay every phone bill for the FBI? Hmm, maybe the FBI needs to consider implementing a checks and balance system.

~Burning coal for electricity creates a byproduct that is more radioactive than nuclear waste.  At least it is according to a new article in Scientific America.  It actually says that the ash created from burning the coal that is released into the air is up to 100 times more radioactive then nuclear waste.  I mean, with coal there is never a chance of a nuclear meltdown but maybe it really is time to move away from our dependency on coal.  I mean, we could live with acid rain, greenhouse gas emissions and the occasional trapped miners or unstoppable underground coal fires.  But now, with all of these things, please let’s just realize when to call it a draw.  In the defense of coal, the uranium content can change due to where the coal was mined, making some less radioactive then others.  But in the overall scheme of things, does it really matter?

Hope you enjoyed.  Please comment below.

Random Acts of Kindness, Japanese News Story at 11

This morning as I was getting ready for work I saw this little tidbit: Money Found In Toilets Across Japan on my personal yahoo page.  Go and read it, it’s pretty short.  Or if not, here is the gist.  Someone put 10000 yen bills in the bathrooms that were all wrapped up very nicely and in a very Japanese style.  That is about $82 for those of you who don’t know the currency exchange.  They had a nice note attached to them that said something about using it towards self-enrichment and that there was only one per person.  It is speculated that there was about 2 million yen found (about $16,000.00 and some change) in fifteen different prefectures around Japan.

What would have happened if this anonymous fiscal do-gooder had done such a thing in the US?  I think it’s something to wonder, especially since the Japanese one said “take one per person” and they actually did. Would Americans follow the rules? Or would they suck and ruin it for everyone?  I think that goes to say a lot about a culture.

What would you do?  Would you just take one, or would you take a fist full?  When there are free samples/handouts do you just take one or do you take 5, 10, 15?  I think it’s time for you to consider this question and leave a response.