Japan is an incredibly aged society where only senior citizens, say, over 60, have full citizenship. 40s and even 50s are still considered as mere sniveling urchins. Kids are almost as rare and precious as giant pandas. The last Japanese baby born was somewhat around the end of last century, so a reliable source reported.

It was said that the great Mencius had stayed in his mother's womb for more than 50 years. This kind of massive post-mature births are rather average or a bit shorter on the Japanese standard.

Recently, demographic pattern has completely shifted such that Japanese seniors live alone in most localities. Grandpas and grandmas don't live with their offsprings any more. And since ladies are far stronger than the weaker men, grandmas are more likely to have longer solitary life. Usually, too, they live far away from ther sons and daughters. In depopulated countryside or urban residential area.
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Most of the sea disasters occur in the coastal waters, and victims are mostly on smaller boats, motored or non-motored. Usually, rescues are literally only minutes away. Titanic-sized disaster is rather rare, as you can imagine.

Nobody can doubt that in this kind of marine accident situation, mobile phones have reduced the number of tragedies tremendously. Everywhere in the world, smaller boats are not required to equip themselves with radio communication gear. But these days, boaters know better. They carry mobile phones out to sea.

Two "toughness K-tai", Casio G'z One W42CAs are going through an ordeal. So far, they can hold their breath just half an hour under icy water. After that? Who knows!

I was mightily impressed several years back when I met a Sulawesian fisherman on a tiny outrigger chatting furiously on his mobile. It was the middle of nowhere in the Celebes sea, miles and miles away from the coast. Obviously, this fisherman was so penniless that he couldn't afford to cover himself with a decent shirt, let alone a secondhand outboard engine. But, somehow, he managed to get a mobile phone, the bare necessity.
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Japanese customers show rather a peculiar and ridiculous taste when they choose an electric/electronic gadget. Call it quasi-professionalism.

Professional gears? According to Japanese popular viewpoint, those gears have generally black metallic panel, preferably with rack-mounted capability (though actually never mounted on the rack. Japanese homes are too small to install voluminous racks anyway). Hundreds of knobs, impressively scaled dials and array of heavy-duty toggle switches do not harm this concept. Several large analog meters (voltage/ampere/decibell) greatly increase this quasi-pro effect.

The heyday of these mock gears was when hi-fi equipments dominated Akihabara shop shelves. Japanese audio maniacs used to buy up these gears and turn their small home into the caricature of radio broadcasting station, or TV studio. Some fans had gone even far enough to build a mock recording studio.

Matsushita DMC-L1, the cream of quasi-proism. Are you ready to peel off 250,000 yen (nearly US$2,200!)?

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Drinking and driving. DUI/DWI (American usage, Driving Under Influence, Driving While Intoxicated, respectively). Some think these two concepts are totally incompatible, while some others regard them as inseparable. Some countries positively encourage these two to compromise each other.

Look at that. A big plot of land somewhere in southern hemisphere, where all the locals live in headstand position. A roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. You can visit it only by private vehicle or, possibly, on horse/donkey back. Ah well, the latter mode of transport has gone out of fashion recently. So you have to drive there to drink. No other choice.

The proprietor refuses to serve alcoholic drinks to you because you've been driving your own junk car? What, are you joking? Simply, dichotomy does not exist there.

"No worries, mate, the only 'uns your car can hit are a bunch of kangaroos anyway!"

Poor marsupials. If only we domesticated them, and traveled on their backs, Australian bar hopping would become rather fun and safer.

Breathalyzer unit with FOMA video phone terminal. Truckers are loath to carry this spy contraption.

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2006 FIFA World Cup? Oh, c'mon, don't be a bore. Who cares about those silly boys busy ruining their knees, kicking and biting each other like a pack of mongrels in the dark streets. Only sub-human nincompoops could tolerate this kind of madness and stupidity in broad daylight. We humans have better things to do. I hate this empty silliness absolutely!

You know, your Mobile Ojisan is in a pretty nasty and antagonistic mood this week. By the way, he had failed to procure even a single ticket on the FIFA site. That explains why.....

Three generations of Robo Cup heroes. From left: VisiON (2004 Lisbon), VisiON NEXTA (2005 Osaka), and VisiON TRYZ (2006 Bremen, most likely).

Alright, we Robophiles have better matches to watch in Germany anyway. Yes, Robo Cup 2006 Bremen. By 2050, the android robot team will be able to compete with the human bests on even terms... that has been the creed of Robo Cup. Well, we've got 46 years left to achieve this target. The Cup officially started on June 14.
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