4.16.2016

[Social Good] Crowd funding utilized as good donation platforms in Japan's Kyushu earthquake

the Kyushu area, the southern in Japan are attacked by many big earthquakes. In particular, the damage of Kumamoto Pref is serious. They were attacked by an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on April 14, furthermore attacked by an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on April 16. Because of these, the important cultural property of the temple and the castle were broken, a dam collapsed, the bridges fell, landslides occurred in the mountains, and 39 inhabitants died. The scale of earthquakes are equal to Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

See Also(The Japan Times):
More powerful magnitude-7.3 quake rocks Kumamoto, kills dozens more
2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

What is the most necessary for the stricken area of the disaster? ---It's money. Revival costs vast money. However, donations are accompanied with some worry. Will our money be spent properly? What kind of revival activity will our money be utilized for? Therefore, Japanese crowd funding platform Campfire carries out an interesting activity. They raise donations with the format of the "project".

https://camp-fire.jp/updates/view/11592

They raised donations only by 500yen(about 4.5USD) plan, and raised 3 million yen from 1200 supporters in two days(It's triple the aim). A good point of crowd funding platform is that reports of activity are shown. Supporters can know that their money is spent fairly. They choose groups to entrust with donations, and they conduct rescue operations at stricken areas at once.

In addition, other Japanese crowd funding platform performs the project like them, too. For example, Ready for? prepared for various amounts of money plans and collected 4,500,000 yen from 609 people.

Kyushu earthquake had examples of new "Social Good" in Japan. Crowd funding was not yet common at the time of one of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. However, Japanese people were used to crowd funding in five years. We can't conquer nature, but we can help each other by experience.

By the way, Japanese Red Cross raises donations until June 30 for revival from ‪Kyushu earthquake‬. Overseas friends, please support ‪Kyushu‬ area in ‪‎Japan(‬in particular Kumamoto Pref). And please scatter the information of this ‪disaster‬.

Submarine having eyes of the fish

This is a toy for kids, but if you are an adult loving goldfish or tropical fish, this becomes the useful gadget for you. CCP, the subsidiary of Bandai, released an underwater recording toy “Submariner Camera” which can take pictures and videos of fish in the aquarium.


It is designed like the miniature submarine, and users can control it by infrared remote control. It is also radio control toy, and users can take pictures and videos of the favorite fish near them. What should users do if fish escape? Don't worry, this has extendable arm to sprinkle bait. If users sprinkle bait using this, the fish forget the fear to a submarine and come near it. The camera can record five minutes video(VGA: 640×480 pixels, 30fps) and take about 800 photos (Quad-VGA: 1280×960 pixels) in its built in 256MB internal memory. When you want to share videos and pictures in various places, connect a submarine to a PC using accompanying USB cable. The price is 10,778 yen(tax included).




4.14.2016

Official site of The Angry Birds Movie Japanese version opened

The promotion in Japan of The Angry Birds Movie is late a little, because it is shown in Japan on October 1 and Japanese lines are recorded by Japanese voice actors.

See Also:
The Angry Birds Movie Japanese version got Japan's original voice actor

So, Japanese official site of this opened this month at last. In addition, the e- ticket is sold with this, too.

http://www.angrybird-movie.jp/

"I'm not angry!" "The great adventure of the fluffy trio begins!", written in the Japanese official site in this way. And new Japanese Teaser video were shown, too. However, they are shorter than originals.


4.10.2016

[Report] TV anime of Japanese mobile game superstar Nameko began on today

Today, the short anime series of Japanese mobile game superstar Nameko "Nemko -Sekai no Tomodachi-(なめこ~せかいのともだち~: Nameko -Friends of World-" began in national public broadcasting channel NHK.

See Also:
Japanese mobile game superstar Nameko become TV anime in public broadcasting channel NHK

Nnf!(Start!)

Nnf nnf!(I'm moving smoothly!)

Nnf nnf(There is the original character only for this anime. His name is Pero)

Nnf nnf!(Handsome Nameko, Nameko-Senpai!)

Nnf nnf!(Robo-Nameko, His head is full of data!)

Nameko-Senpai said, "Nameko forest is a good place. However, something is insufficient."

"Something?"

Then, cute Love-Nameko came over.

"Oh! You are necessary for Nameko forest!!" Girls were not in Nameko forest till then.

Love-Nameko said, "Nameko forest is a very good place. However, I feel that this place is unkindness. Because, though it is very large here, there is no guidance signboard."

Nnf nnf nnf nnf nnf nnf~~~~~~~~

Nnf!!(I've got it!!)

"We become guides, and let's tell charm of Nameko forest to friends of the world!"

"Same scarves are cool!"

They formed team NUR in this way...

This is broadcasted in NHK's education program for kids "Nyanchu World", and the theme of this program is "Let's get along well with people of the world!". So, the theme of stories of Nameko anime is the same as it. In a sense Nameko forest reflects present Japan. This is also an education content for kids. Various rare Nameko comes up from now on. Various rare Nameko comes over to Nameko forest from now on. Anyway, I look forward to it.

4.07.2016

Buddhahoods became handsome guys in Japanese mobile game at last

April 7 is a birthday of Gautama Buddha, the initiator of the Buddhism. This topic is just good for this day.

Japan personifies everything, and they usually become handsome men, cute boy and girl. Japanese personification movement targeted Buddhism at last. This is not April Fool. Because it was released in March 15.


This "Namuamidabutsu!(なみあみだ仏っ!)" - this title comes from one of the Nianfo. It's a term commonly seen in Pure Land Buddhism - is a browser game for smartphones offered in Japanese mobile game platform Ameba. Players meet 13 Buddhahoods, fight against worldly desires spread over the world with them, and aim at purifying the world. Anyway, a important point of this is that all Buddhahoods are handsome guys.

For example...

He is Acala, the dharmapala primarily revered in Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly in Tangmi in Japan, China and other Asia. In Japan, Acala is revered in the Shingon Buddhism, Tendai, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism and in Shugendō.

仏像 不動明王坐像 黄銅製/お不動さん◆怨敵調伏、勝負必勝、立身出世、商売繁盛 ご利益
Acala in Japanese general statues.

He is Guanyin, the East Asian spiritual figure of mercy, and a bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by Mahayana Buddhists.

JapaNice 観音菩薩像 木製 約14cm BA626
Western people think him to be a goddess. However the first place, Buddhahoods are asexual condition.

He is Bhaisajyaguru, the buddha of healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Commonly referred to as the "Medicine Buddha", he is described as a doctor who cures dukkha (suffering) using the medicine of his teachings.

極小仏像 薬師如来立像(大) 61320 897298

He is Kshitigarbha, the bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb".

エコステーション 備長炭で出来た仏像の置物 地蔵菩薩(台板付) 20cm
You can see his figure everywhere in Japan. He is in not only temples but also graves, sides of the way, towns, villages, mountains and forests.

He is Manjushri, the bodhisattva associated with prajñā (transcendent wisdom) in Mahayana Buddhism.

十二支 お守り本尊 卯年 文殊菩薩(もんじゅぼさつ) 【純銀・7㎝】【BZ-013-SV】

The temples dedicated to him are popular among students because he manage wisdom.

He is Vairocana, the celestial buddha who is often interpreted, in texts like the Flower Garland Sutra, as the Dharma Body of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Emptiness.

開運・魔除けの守り本尊。大日如来 像


All characters can check it here(All texts are only Japanese).



The rule of the game is a simple card battle game. Profiles of original Buddhahoods are placed in cards, and we can study Buddhism through a game.


How do we get cards of new characters? Of course it is Gacha!

Illustrations of the normal cards which are not rare are chibi(The design which was deformed small)-style. Cute!

The beginning of the story, Gautama Buddha came up suddenly. Of course he is also handsome.

The bird which there is next to him is Karura. Originally he was Garuda which was one of Indian mythical Gods, but he came to Japan, and became a member of the Buddhism world. n this game, he is a mascot character. He eats too much worldly desires and suffers.

Boss enemies in this game are various worldly desires. The new stories are shown by overcoming these.


You may think this to be J-style dating sim for women, but backgrounds of original Buddhahoods are reflected for characteres and lines of 13 Buddhahoods. The motif of this is Thirteen Buddhas faith born in Japan in the Edo era.

It has not yet passed one month from released, but the sale of various goods was decided(Of course they are not Buddhist altar fittings).


Key rings...

Button badges...

Tapestries...

and more!

If this becomes popular among women, worshipers to temples may increase.