Top Stories - Cool!

According to a report in Discovery News, the world's first pterosaur tracks from Japan, documented in a new study, suggest these Dinosaur-Age flying reptiles not only coexisted with birds, but that the two groups also hung out together when they weren't soaring the Cretaceous skies.

TOKYO, Feb. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The number of people charged in cannabis cases, such as for possession and smuggling, hit a record 2,931 in 2009 in Japan, and 61.4 percent of them were young people aged below 30, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

"The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is set to urge all local governments to introduce a total ban on smoking in public places in principle to help prevent health hazards caused by secondhand smoke, sources said."

Please please please...

Chinese New Year greetings for the Year of the Tiger...with instructions on how to fold a palmtop tiger.

February 2nd, while Americans watch groundhogs and their shdows, Japanese, or at least those in Kyoto, watch Geisha perform the Japanese version of Groundhog Day known as Setsubun. Setsubun is a spring ritual in which Japanese throw beans to ward off invisible evils and hasten the end of winter. At many temples and shrines they do a bean throwing ceremony known as mami-maki.

Are you ready for another season of snow sports? We’re really enthusiastic about the season as the Winter Olympics are coming up. We’re going big and global with a snow tour to Hokkaido, Japan with NEW YORK – TOKYO SPORTS: HOKKAIDO (NYTSH)! There will be plenty of sessions in the snow with a relaxing time at the resort. How relaxing? Hot springs relaxing.

It seems like Microsoft is giving Nanami Madobe some friends. As part of a campaign by Microsoft's Bing in Japan, Microsoft Japan have launched not 1 but 10 Windows 7 themes that revolves around 5 moe looking characters.

Tokyo Decadance celebrates Christmas Pirate-style. I went as Pirate Santa. Some of the participants do their part to keep the ole yule log warm. Here you can learn how to get cool vampire fangs.

More here.

MJG and friends explore the haikyo Hume cement factory, with lots of HDR, black and white, and natural light photos of the ruin.

Softbank's latest commercial shows Quentin Tarantino as a violent samurai visionary whose only weakness is his wife!

This universal puzzle created by Tenyo comes with instructions on making the complete puzzle look like works of art or any photo by using a guide and symbols printed on each of the pieces. Tenyo also give the user an option to send in a photo from their mobile and the company will let them know how to recreate the photo using the 300 piece puzzle set. Company site http://www.tenyo.co.jp/jigazo/

Roaming the ski resort, a nearby mine, and slack hanging ski lift, with sumptuous photos of ruin.

A collection of cards detailing the major faiths of our globe

MJG explores a haikyo bridge at the heart of Tokyo Bay, discovering there's very little to explore on a bridge, but a very real chance of falling to his death below.

If you saw this so-called automobile out on the street, you'd probably think a UFO had landed, but sure enough, it's a car - a solar powered race car.

Japan's Tokai Challenger solar vehicle won the 2009 Global Green Challenge, with speeds of up to 93MPH, running at only 1.8KW (half the power of standard tea kettle).