Category: Japan

JR West 500 Series Nozomi

The 500 Series Shinkansen are the fastest, most powerful and most expensive trainsets yet to run on Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed rail network. They are designed to be capable of 320 km/h (200 mph) although they currently operate at a maximum of 300 km/h (186 mph) in service. The first set was delivered for testing in 1995, entering passenger service in March 1997. The entire fleet of nine sets was delivered by 1998. They are normally used only on the premium Nozomi services, but are also used on Hikari Rail Star services during the busy holiday periods.

West Japan Railway Company (西日本旅客鉄道株式会社, Nishi-Nihon Ryokaku Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha) , also referred to as JR West (JR西日本, Jeiāru Nishi-Nihon), is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshū.

Kentucky Christmas Pack

A life size statue of the Colonel stands in front of most [KFC] stores in Japan. Fried chicken is an especially popular dish at Christmas time and on Christmas Eve many families (who have made reservations weeks in advance), have their traditional Christmas dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken at home. KFC is so prevalent in Japan that many Japanese unknowingly consider it to be a Japanese company.

Mariya Takeuchi (竹内 まりや, Takeuchi Mariya, born March 20, 1955 in Taisha, Hikawa, Shimane, Japan) is a Japanese singer-songwriter.

Downtown Janken

Janken (じゃんけん, Janken), sometimes Janken-Pon (じゃんけんぽん, Janken-Pon), is “Rock, Paper, Scissors” in the English-speaking world, and it is the most popular of a subset of games played using only one’s hands, known as “Ken games” (ken asobi/拳遊び, “Ken games”). It was invented in the late 19th century and acquired popularity world-wide throughout the 20th century.

Downtown (ダウンタウン, Downtown) is a Japanese comedy duo (kombi) consisting of Hitoshi Matsumoto (松本人志, Hitoshi Matsumoto) and Masatoshi Hamada (浜田雅功, Masatoshi Hamada). Downtown is probably the most influential kombi to come from Yoshimoto Kōgyō, and is arguably the most popular kombi in Japan today.

As with many owarai kombi, there exists a boke and a tsukkomi. Matsumoto is the boke of the two and often puts up with light physical abuse (it is common for the tsukkomi to slap the boke on top of his head whenever he says something rude or ridiculous) from Hamada, the tsukkomi. Hamada is also known to attack other tarento and celebrities (such as Ayumi Hamasaki) when they give boke-like responses to Downtown’s questions. Hamada’s aggressive ways have earned him the nickname of Do ESU no Hamada (ドＳの浜田, Do ESU no Hamada), or “Hamada the Super Sadist.”