First, is a little fun. This Japanese car company, Mitsuoka, I'm in love with their "Orochi" car which is an expensive (only 1,000 a year are made and there's a waiting list) car. The design is based on this ancient mythical serpent. It's quite cool. I'm sure googling could find it for you.
I saw today that they have these mini-cars that are sold as kits. Mini-cars, scooters, half-bike/half-scooters, all kinds of small vehicles are all over Japan. They drive fast enough, they have springs and gyrators and stuff to keep things from tipping or breaking, they get great mileage. The mini-car kits start at about $3,000 and are available as gas or electric. They arrive in about 500 parts I think, and it takes about 3 days to put one together. Here's the link:
http://www.mitsuoka-motor.com/english/lineup/microcar/index.html
Next up, something I've always found interesting. Here's a chart of the amount of people in prison in various countries for 1995. I suppose it's not that different today, though I didn't find a picture chart. This is by population, so the numbers aren't skewed in that way. Before looking at this, please remember that Japan has a conviction rate of near 99%, i.e., if you get arrested, you've got a 99% chance you're being convicted, therefore a good chance you're going to prison.
http://www.hr95.org/pix/world.GIF
And on a fun and interesting note, here's a great site of Japanese vending machines. This is a very incomplete collection, but has a few standouts that you'd probably only find here (girls' used panties, dry ice, rice, etc.)
http://www.photomann.com/japan/machines/
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3 comments:
Those mini-cars are awesome. they look like toys. How big are they?
I was amazed at all the vending machines. Seems like you can get just about anything there.
The video showed the dense buildings in Mita, but I got a little dizzy from the angle.
Thanks for sharing!
I look forward to more postings!
I was impressed by the lack of people in prison in Japan, as opposed to the U.S. Just one question: What is the difference in the population of the U.S. to Japan, are they similar?
The orange car is about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and weighs about 400-500 pounds if i remember correctly.
As for prison, the chart is by population so they're matched up accordingly. The US is about 300million people and Japan is about 130million people.
For the US that means that:
6% (1 in 180 people) of the US population (1.2 million people) are in jail. I saw a news article that it's now over 2 million people (1 in 150 people).
For Japan, it means:
0.055% (1 in 1,800 people) of the Japanese population (71,500 people) are in jail. I think the number is around 80,000 now.
Rather huge difference.
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