So now I'm seeing poop related stuff everywhere - thanks Thomas! Some kids were having a great time eating some poop shaped candy today at our neighborhood matsuri and now I'm wondering why poop is so popular in Japan?

Haha! Crest White Strips, good call! http://www.whitestrips.com/en_US/home.jsp

Ah, but they already have butler cafes in Tokyo: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060424f1.html Somehow I don't think they'd be as popular among Otaku as those cross-dressing maids you mentioned, though.

I wasn't expecting to see any women or foreigners. My advice to the richest people in Japan... if you have over a billion dollars, do the world a favor and invest $40 in some Crest White Strips.

I liked this article.

LMAO!!!

Too bad the video doesn't state what the increase will be. It seemed like an incomplete story without that info...

hmmm, video game, pachinko and construction magnates are well represented on this list.

It's interesting to see a couple of video-game-related people on that list. I'm not surprised since you rarely see a kid without a DS in his hands these days.

God I hate video advertisements before news stories on sites like these. Ho hum. Anyway, the topic is a good one and when you combine these price hikes with the hassles of getting a Taspo card for cigarette vending machines, I think a lot of smokers might be putting out their last cigarette this year.

100 yen? Not a big deal.

Ha ha ha.

We were rockin' and rollin' in Chiba too! Not a lot of fun with one coming right after the other. We're still feeing the after shocks and I've been telling friends that I really don't want to experience the big one that they keep saying is coming.

I LOVE JAPAN! Bwahahahahahaha! Awesome.

Hahahahahahaha! Ahhhhhh.... hahahahahahaha...

There are excellent "BB Gun" shops in Japan and that would be a way of dealing with them!

It's seems that the worker has done something wrong. Otherwise it wouldn't have been demoted.

My theory is malware that's pinging and causing popups. I could totally envision one popup every 3.6 seconds on a vulnerable computer...

This story didn't link anywhere, so I've linked it to a story at the Boston Herald.

Wow that is a coincidence because I saw those "breast puddings" just the other day when a friend of mine bought some for her brother as "Omiyage" haa haa haa. They are quite funny and look delicious!

That's funny. The Japanese do love their boobs! Have you seen that woman on TV who's catch phrase is "Oppai nomitai na!"? See her go for the squeeze at 0:30 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFDRDqC4lU . She's very annoying.

I love Japan and its crazy cafe ideas. This might be my favorite so far. Soc'd

LOL, the older generation of today have no respect for themselves or anyone else! They've caused the breakdown of society and it's up to us, the well-mannered and intelligent youngsters, to educate them! ;)

The report said the police were continue to question the son. Seems the link at the Mainichi Daily News site has expired. But here's a new story you might enjoy: May 3, 2008 Woman, 74, unleashes hammer attack on female neighbor, 73 http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080414p2a00m0na005000c.html

"attacked son with hammer then accidentally stabbed himself and died" Was that the official cause of death in the coroner's report?