Photographs from a small group of islands
Just like their counterparts in other countries, Japanese supermarkets offer a dizzying variety of vegetables of both domestic and more distant derivation. Yet although foreign foodstuff is often far cheaper, my personal preference is the stuff picked in Iwate Prefecture, as I like mine both gullible and green.
In a stunning breakthrough, a group of Japanese researchers from Tokai University have managed to train a beluga whale to ‘speak’; the cetacean in question managing to link its own sounds to specific objects — cleverly creating ‘words’.
An incredible achievement that has prompted Takashi Murayama, a professor involved in the programme, to proudly pronounce, “We’ve experienced a taste of reality in conversation with cetaceans. In the future, we may be able to exchange greetings with them.â€
However, rumours that things have already gone way beyond simple salutations, with the beluga allegedly asking, “When are you going to stop hunting my fellow whales as everybody knows your claims of ‘scientific research’ are utter claptrap?â€, have been strenuously denied.
With the Japanese capital not exactly suffering a dearth of dentists, competition is understandably quite intense, resulting in some rather dexterous dentist-related deftness. As, no sooner had the cannily named and naughtily nearby Delicate Dentist opened its doors, than it was craftily countered by the bold claims of this confident little clinic.
Many of Tokyo’s plentiful apartments are, it has to be said, decidedly on the dull side, with concrete and conformity most common. A rather sorry situation that means even the most modestly imaginative structure can be passed off as the pinnacle of perfection.
Even a structural summit of sorts.
