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Japan: Heavy Snow Paralyzes Aomori as Record Accumulation Piles Up

A series of strong cold air masses brought heavy snowfall to northern Japan from January 21 through February 2. According to authorities, a total of 30 people have died across the region since January 20 due to snow-related incidents. In Aomori City, numerous vehicles were left stranded by the snow, causing traffic congestion in many areas. Snow accumulation reached 178 centimeters on February 2—about 2.6 times the seasonal average—prompting the closure of all public elementary and junior high schools in the city.

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What's a toilet like about 2,000 years ago in ancient China?

STORY: What's a toilet like about 2,000 years ago in ancient China? SHOOTING TIME: Nov. 14, 2023 DATELINE: Nov. 20, 2023 LENGTH: 00:00:36 LOCATION: HANZHONG, China CATEGORY: CULTURE SHOTLIST: 1. various of the ancient pottery model of a toilet 2. SOUNDBITE (Chinese): LU HUI, Curator of Hanzhong Museum, Shaanxi Province STORYLINE: Nov. 19 marks World Toilet Day. What's a toilet like about 2,000 years ago in ancient China? An exhibit at Hanzhong Museum, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, has the answer. The ancient pottery model of a toilet, with a height of 40 centimeters, a length of 22.5 centimeters, and a width of 15.5 centimeters, was unearthed from a tomb of Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220). SOUNDBITE (Chinese): LU HUI, Curator of Hanzhong Museum, Shaanxi Province "We can tell from the structure of the relic that the toilet has already been separated by gender back in the Han Dynasty. It has a window on each side for ventilation, which was designed very scientifically." Xinhua News Agency correspondents

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CHINA-GUANGXI-CHONGZUO-ROCK PAINTING (CN)

(230809) -- NINGMING, Aug. 9, 2023 (Xinhua) -- This photo taken on Aug. 8, 2023 shows a rock painting with a height of about 20 centimeters, the smallest one of Huashan rock paintings, in Ningming County, Chongzuo City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Zuojiang Huashan site is home to more than 1,900 well-preserved drawings on the face of the Huashan mountains along the Zuojiang River and its tributary Mingjiang River in Chongzuo. The brownish red paintings, created from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) to East Han Dynasty (25-220), depict the sacrifices of the Luoyue people, ancestors of today's Zhuang ethnic minority. It is said that the major images of the paintings are frog-shaped people -- a totem of the Zhuang ethnic group. Some of those paintings also show sports scenes. It remains a mystery how the Luoyue managed to paint on the rocks. The group of rock paintings was included into UNESCO's world heritage list in 2016. (Xinhua/Fei Maohua)

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Big harvest in N China winter fishing

STORY: Big harvest in N China winter fishing DATELINE: Jan. 8, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:02 LOCATION: CHENGDE, China CATEGORY: ECONOMY/SOCIETY SHOTLIST: 1. various of winter fishing STORYLINE: The 2023 ice fishing festival was held in Weichang Man and Mongolian Autonomous County of Chengde City, north China's Hebei Province on Saturday, attracting about 1,000 tourists. More than 20 tons of silver carp and bighead carp were caught by a huge fishing net. Diaoyutai Reservoir has a water area of 533,000 square meters. In winter, its ice layer is as thick as 80 centimeters. Its frozen period lasts for more than 70 days, providing excellent natural conditions for winter fishing. Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Chengde, China. (XHTV)

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Penguin cam

ASAHIKAWA, Japan - An Humboldt penguin wears a small camera at Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Japan's northernmost prefecture Hokkaido, on Nov. 20, 2014, as an IT-related company in Tokyo begins distributing live moving images from the camera to smartphones. The camera, which is 7 centimeters in diameter and about 160 grams in weight, is worn by the penguin on a belt for two or three hours a day.

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Huge New Year's bowl tea ceremony held in Nara

NARA, Japan - A woman is helped by another next to her to drink ''maccha'' green tea from a huge tea bowl in the year's first gathering of the traditional ''Ochamori'' tea ceremony, believed to date back to the 13th century, at Saidaiji Temple in Nara, Nara Prefecture, Jan. 15. Several bowls measuring 30 to 40 centimeters in diameter and weighing 5 to 7 kilograms were used in the ceremony about 20 people took part in.

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Sony unveils paperback-sized server, to put on sale March 29

TOKYO, Japan - A woman holds up Sony Corp.'s new computer server, the FSV-PGXI, which is about the size of a paperback novel at NET & COM 2003, a three-day exhibition of information and technology products in Chiba on Feb. 5. The unit incorporates a 20-gigabyte hard disk and is 8.3 centimeters wide, 15.5 cm long and 3.1 cm thick. It weighs 390 grams.

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Rugby ball-shaped squashes harvested in Higashiosaka

OSAKA, Japan - Kosuke Matsubara holds up rugby ball-shaped squashes at his field in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture. Matsubara started to cultivate the vegetables about 10 years ago as a way to help advertise his hometown, where the annual national high school rugby championship tournament is held. The squashes are around 20-30 centimeters high and weigh 2-3 kilograms.

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Nissan releases all-new Elgrand minivan

TOKYO, Japan - Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn rides in an all-new Elgrand minivan at a press conference in Tokyo on May 21 to announce the release of the car on the domestic market. The Elgrand, a high-end luxury minivan, was originally launched in 1997. The latest version is equipped with a twin-monitor TV-navigation system with 8-inch (about 20 centimeters) monitors for the front and rear seats.

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Giant 370-kg pumpkin judged heaviest in Japan

TAKAMATSU, Japan - Takao Hoshijima shows off the 369.5-kilogram pumpkin, grown by him, which was judged Japan's heaviest in a 15th national weight competition in Shodoshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture, on Sept. 30. The pumpkin, which is about 398 centimeters around and 81 cm high, will be entered in an international weight competition to be held in San Francisco on Oct. 20.

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Panda from China gives birth to baby

WAKAYAMA, Japan - Giant panda Mei Mei, on loan from China to a recreation facility in Wakayama Prefecture, licks her baby, Japan's fourth home-grown specimen produced by artificial insemination, on September 7. The baby, likely female, was born at 9:46 p.m. on Sept. 6, measuring about 20 centimeters in length and weighing 195 grams, said officials with Adventure World in the town of Shirahama.

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Big cement block falls in bullet-train tunnel

FUKUOKA, Japan - A big block of cement falls from the tunnel wall on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in Fukuoka Prefecture, western Japan, causing a halt between Hakata and Hiroshima in the morning of Oct. 9. The block measuring about 3 meters in length, 50 centimeters in width and 20 cm in thickness was found in Kita-Kyushu Tunnel.

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Sony unveils paperback-sized server, to put on sale March 29

TOKYO, Japan - A woman holds up Sony Corp.'s new computer server, the FSV-PGXI, which is about the size of a paperback novel at NET & COM 2003, a three-day exhibition of information and technology products in Chiba on Feb. 5. The unit incorporates a 20-gigabyte hard disk and is 8.3 centimeters wide, 15.5 cm long and 3.1 cm thick. It weighs 390 grams. (Kyodo)

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Japan's Mt. Rokko covered with snow

Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows a snow-covered Mt. Rokko and the urban zone of the western Japanese city of Kobe (rear) on March 14, 2016. Snowfall reached to about 20 centimeters at Rokko Snow Park, a ski area. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan's Mt. Rokko covered with snow

Photo taken from a Kyodo News helicopter shows a snow-covered Mt. Rokko and the urban zone of the western Japanese city of Kobe (rear) on March 14, 2016. Snowfall reached to about 20 centimeters at Rokko Snow Park, a ski area. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Hadaka Matsuri at Saidai temple in Okayama

About 9,000 men wearing only traditional Japanese "fundoshi" loincloths jostle over a pair of lucky sticks, 4 centimeters in diameter and 20 cm long, thrown into the crowd during Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival) at Saidai temple in Okayama, western Japan, on Feb. 20, 2016. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Hadaka Matsuri at Saidai temple in Okayama

About 9,000 men wearing only traditional Japanese "fundoshi" loincloths jostle over a pair of lucky sticks, 4 centimeters in diameter and 20 cm long, thrown into the crowd during Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival) at Saidai temple in Okayama, western Japan, on Feb. 20, 2016. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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100 people involved in transferring castle tower

Around 100 people pull on ropes to tow the 400-ton Hirosaki Castle tower on Sept. 20, 2015, in the northeastern Japan city of Hirosaki. The municipal government is transferring the tower for renovation of its stonewall foundations, and the participants moved it by about 15 centimeters in five minutes. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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NEC devises thin, pliable battery

TOKYO, Japan - NEC Corp. said Dec. 7 it has developed a thin, pliable battery (shown in handout photo) that can be charged in about 30 seconds. The new product, 4 centimeters square and 0.3 millimeter thick, can light a light-emitting diode for about 20 minutes after being fully charged. (Kyodo)

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Huge New Year's bowl tea ceremony held in Nara

NARA, Japan - A woman is helped by another next to her to drink ''maccha'' green tea from a huge tea bowl in the year's first gathering of the traditional ''Ochamori'' tea ceremony, believed to date back to the 13th century, at Saidaiji Temple in Nara, Nara Prefecture, Jan. 15. Several bowls measuring 30 to 40 centimeters in diameter and weighing 5 to 7 kilograms were used in the ceremony about 20 people took part in. (Kyodo)

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Penguin cam

ASAHIKAWA, Japan - An Humboldt penguin wears a small camera at Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, Japan's northernmost prefecture Hokkaido, on Nov. 20, 2014, as an IT-related company in Tokyo begins distributing live moving images from the camera to smartphones. The camera, which is 7 centimeters in diameter and about 160 grams in weight, is worn by the penguin on a belt for two or three hours a day. (Kyodo)

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Rugby ball-shaped squashes harvested in Higashiosaka

OSAKA, Japan - Kosuke Matsubara holds up rugby ball-shaped squashes at his field in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture. Matsubara started to cultivate the vegetables about 10 years ago as a way to help advertise his hometown, where the annual national high school rugby championship tournament is held. The squashes are around 20-30 centimeters high and weigh 2-3 kilograms. (Kyodo)

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Nissan releases all-new Elgrand minivan

TOKYO, Japan - Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn rides in an all-new Elgrand minivan at a press conference in Tokyo on May 21 to announce the release of the car on the domestic market. The Elgrand, a high-end luxury minivan, was originally launched in 1997. The latest version is equipped with a twin-monitor TV-navigation system with 8-inch (about 20 centimeters) monitors for the front and rear seats.

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Giant 370-kg pumpkin judged heaviest in Japan

TAKAMATSU, Japan - Takao Hoshijima shows off the 369.5-kilogram pumpkin, grown by him, which was judged Japan's heaviest in a 15th national weight competition in Shodoshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture, on Sept. 30. The pumpkin, which is about 398 centimeters around and 81 cm high, will be entered in an international weight competition to be held in San Francisco on Oct. 20.

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Panda from China gives birth to baby

WAKAYAMA, Japan - Giant panda Mei Mei, on loan from China to a recreation facility in Wakayama Prefecture, licks her baby, Japan's fourth home-grown specimen produced by artificial insemination, on September 7. The baby, likely female, was born at 9:46 p.m. on Sept. 6, measuring about 20 centimeters in length and weighing 195 grams, said officials with Adventure World in the town of Shirahama.

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Beanie Babies maker to offer new Japanese teddy bear

TOKYO, Japan - Photo shows the ''Nipponia the Bear,'' a new teddy bear U.S. toymaker Ty Inc. will launch exclusively for the Japanese market on Sept. 9. About 20 centimeters tall and bearing the Japanese flag on its chest, the blue-colored Nipponia will retail for 650 yen apiece, Ty officials said.

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Big cement block falls in bullet-train tunnel

FUKUOKA, Japan - A big block of cement falls from the tunnel wall on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line in Fukuoka Prefecture, western Japan, causing a halt between Hakata and Hiroshima in the morning of Oct. 9. The block measuring about 3 meters in length, 50 centimeters in width and 20 cm in thickness was found in Kita-Kyushu Tunnel.