He is one of six ex-wrestlers putting on sumo demonstrations catering to overseas travellers, who are returning in droves after a two-year COVID-19 blockade as the weaker yen makes such trips cheaper than they have been in decades.”I want foreigners and Japanese people alike to have a greater understanding of sumo,” said Ohtori, 40, whose full ring name, Koto-ohtori, means “harp phoenix.””My older brothers were always pretty rough,” he said of his pro days, which he began at 15. “It’s more fun now, of course, because I can interact with everyone.”His performance venue, Yokozuna Tonkatsu Dosukoi Tanaka, opened in central…
Author: Mike Harrison
By Linh Le July 7, 2023 | 04:30pm GMT+7 An elderly Chinese woman threatened to vomit on a younger woman when the latter would not let her have the window seat on a Jiangxi Airlines flight, causing public anger online. In a video of the incident, which was shared on social media platforms and quickly caused outrage across the country, a woman, whose identity is unknown, arrived at her seat on the flight from Qingdao to Shenyang only to find that it was occupied by an older woman who told her: “Since you are young, you should favor my interest,” leading…
The market for Blackpink-related merchandise has been booming after K-pop sensations announced their July 29-30 tour dates in Vietnam.The shows will take place at My Dinh National Stadium in the capital.T-shirts and lightsticks have been the hottest sellers as Vietnamese fans prepare for the concerts.Blackpink’s management company YG released the lightstick shaped like a pink hammer for concert goers. An authentic Blackpink lightstick has an average price of 60,000 won ($46). It glows and changes colors to the melody of the song when connected to Bluetooth during performances. A standard Blackpink lightstick. Photo courtesy of YG Entertainment To prepare for…
In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, published by online news outlet Semafor on Thursday, Musk lawyer Alex Spiro accused the company of “unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”The letter accused Meta of hiring dozens of former Twitter employees who “had and continue to have access to Twitter’s trade secrets and other highly confidential information.”Threads is the biggest challenger yet to Musk-owned Twitter, which has seen a series of potential competitors emerge but not yet replace one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, despite its struggles.Zuckerberg’s latest move against Musk further heightened the rivalry…
By Reuters  July 7, 2023 | 02:29pm GMT+7 Fish and crabs are tangled in a net, in a boat at Tsurishihama fishing port in Shinchimachi, about 55 km away from the disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, March 1, 2023. Photo by Reuters China will ban the import of food from about one-fifth of Japanese prefectures for safety reasons, Chinese customs said on Friday, citing Japan’s move to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the sea. China, the biggest buyer of Japan’s seafood exports, said it would also strictly review the documents for food, especially aquatic products,…
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.The tech giant said in a regulatory filing that April-June operating profits were expected to drop 95.7% to 600 billion won ($458 million).It would be their lowest profit since the first quarter of 2009’s 590 billion won, a Samsung spokesman told AFP.Sales are expected to drop 22.3 percent to 60 trillion won, the company added.South Korean chipmakers, led by Samsung, have experienced record profits in recent years as prices have skyrocketed, but the global…
July 7, 2023 | 11:13 am GMT+7 Black turtle beans are a high-nutrient grain commonly used in daily life. Photo by Freepik My family usually drinks black turtle bean water every day to cool down. I’m wondering if it is okay to drink it regularly (Hong, 32 years old, Hanoi). Answer:Black turtle beans are a high-nutrient grain commonly used in daily life as well as in traditional medicine. The chemical composition of black turtle beans is quite diverse and they have many effects such as treating back pain, insomnia, and constipation, as well as aiding in postpartum recovery for women.Black…
By AFP  July 7, 2023 | 10:44 am GMT+7 Aerial view of a burnt area in Labrea, southern Amazonas State, Brazil, on September 17, 2022. Photo by AFP/Michael Dantas Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon fell by one-third in the first six months of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s administration compared to the same period of last year, the government said Thursday. The 33.6 percent drop is based on satellite images captured by the National Institute of Space Research, which said that from January through June a total of 2,649 square kilometers (1,020 square miles) of rainforest were felled.That’s compared…
On the eve of a US-led conference on the issue, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Todd Robinson said China needed to do more to disrupt illicit synthetic drug supply chains, but that it was still unclear if China would join the meeting. “We’ve invited China. We don’t have any indication at the moment that they’re going to participate,” Robinson told reporters on a call, adding that though Beijing “had not engaged” with US officials on the issue in recent months, Washington still actively sought its help. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday will…
According to John, 39, a resident of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, there are currently over 300,000 Amish people pursuing their old-time lifestyle in the US.They avoid using digital devices including TVs, computers and mobile phones, and they travel by horse-drawn carriages.They self-produce most of what they need in an attempt to ensure that external forces don’t create distance between themselves.Before committing to this way of life, young Amish have a “rumspringa” period, during which they can explore and experience the outside world. They can freely use modern technological devices and enjoy the convenience brought by such things, including cars, films and gadgets.After…