At first glance, Vanimo, boasting an elevated peninsula that juts into the blue Pacific and straddling the edge of a dense rainforest, can appear to be a bucolic paradise. But it is just this pristine environment and its proximity to its neighbor that leaves this town, the administrative center of West Sepik Province and home to 10,000 people, perpetually on the brink of a crisis.

In addition to the seemingly magical properties within this liquid of lust, Nakamats, whose 3,000-plus inventions include work on the floppy disk and automatic pachinko machine, adds that the 4,000-yen item also comes with a triangle-shaped template with adhesive that assists a lady in trimming any pubic hair that might otherwise poke from the edges of her panties. "Women always want to have a beautiful body and skin," he says, his thick gray eyebrows not twitching a bit as he speaks. "This product makes them feel beautiful inside and out."

As the bed of each truck is slowly tipped upward the frenzy begins. The collectors (primarily men and women, but also many children) poke and smack at the descending bags before they even reach the ground. A bulldozer then sweeps in, narrowly missing a few members of the scavenging mob, all knee-deep in garbage, to push the pile to the side, where the whirlwind chaos continues.

With a few strokes of his drafting pencil, architect Hidetsugu Aneha has sent the Japanese government's bean counters into overdrive. In 2005, Aneha was found to have falsified the earthquake-resistance data in the designs of multiple hotels and condominiums in an effort to reduce construction costs. As a result, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism in June modified the approval process for the procurement of a building permit, a move which has stalled the world's second biggest economy.

Architects like Tokyo-based Jun Ishikawa, however, are now in the process of drafting a small revolution, both literally and figuratively. Small slivers of land that in days past may have been used for an industrial or commerical purpose are now the location of unique housing structures. Ishikawa specializes in mokuzo (wood) structures. Wood affords him the opportunity to implement his signature style: narrow buildings with arched roofs that resemble a one-room schoolhouse or church.

He slips inside and moves to the rear of the store, whose entry is just across from the new 22-floor Akihabara UDX building, and picks up his company's USB Necktie Cooler (2,980 yen) a tongue-in-cheek item aimed at the "Cool Biz" campaign, a government push for office workers to dress lightly in summer. Outfitted with a USB connection (a near Thanko standard) and cable, the plastic neckwear includes a rotating fan inside its knot. "Thanko is an unusual company," admits Yamamitsu, a bespectacled 42-year-old who is continually moving his hands to mimic the motions required to operate the product he is describing.

In days past, a film festival held within rough-and-tumble Kabukicho might be assumed to feature a sampling of the work from gangster-flick director Seijun Suzuki ("Tokyo Drifter," "Branded to Kill"), or perhaps "Yojimbo," the Akira Kurosawa classic where a samurai arrives in a village run by two groups of gambling mobsters. But with its smiley tag line, "Let's go to Kabukicho!" the Tokyo International CineCity Film Festival, which begins Nov. 23 at the Shinjuku Milano 1 theater, will be focusing on giving a more positive image of the district.

Recent police raids on host establishments for everything from maintaining hours past 1 a.m. to ladies being gouged with extraordinarily high bills, often in the hundreds of thousands of yen, have made the industry downright jumpy, says the always jovial Aida. Though he repeatedly insists that his establishments are clean, times are tough. "This is attacking my business," says the bespectacled Aida, wearing an impeccable blue-striped suit and multiple rings studded with shimmering gems. "As a shop owner, I find the enforcement of the 1 a.m. law hard to believe."

For decades it has been a rewarding cycle for both sides of the Pacific: Hollywood studios have sent their animation pre-production work (the storyboards, designs and character and background layouts) to lower-wage nations in Asia for final finishing. But countries such as South Korea are not relying on lower costs as an advantage anymore, says Nikki Vanzo, prexy of Rough Draft Korea, an animation studio with 400 employees in Seoul that was founded in 1992 and has worked on such toons as "The Simpsons" and "Futurama."

Toons like this year's sci-fi epic "Vexille," directed by Fumihiko Sori (producer of "Appleseed," the 2004 sci-fi based on a manga by Shirow Masamune), continue to gather press for their revolutionary 3-D CGI and dynamism. Meanwhile, "Appleseed" sequel "Appleseed: Ex Machina," which came from studio Micott & Basara for an Oct. 20 release in Japan, does not disappoint with its slick action sequences, amazingly detailed imagery and high-energy pacing.

Japanese pop culture exports -- from Gundam robots to "Godzilla" pics to Sony PlayStations -- have never been promoted as a single entity. Until now. Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Japan Intl. Contents Festival (CoFesta) has brought together a series of events from such industries as manga comics, animation, broadcast programming and videogames to promote the latest in Japanese coolness to the world.

To step onto the platform at JR Ome station is to begin a journey back through the history of cinema. A stoic John Wayne, cowboy hat set atop his head, stares at arriving and departing passengers from a billboard for the film "Stagecoach." Waiting inside the tunnel leading to the ticket gate is Audrey Hepburn, black sunglasses dangling from her lips in "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Outside, and throughout the city's streets, the fronts of many shops and the sides of buildings feature yet more ominous imagery of film legends past, each brimming with action and vibrant colors: Charlie Chaplin peers from the edge of a brick wall in "Modern Times" and Toshiro Mifune raises his sword in Akira Kurosawa's samurai flick "Yojimbo."

"I have tried to make this festival truly enjoyable for real cinema lovers," said Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, who is in his final year as TIFF chairman, at a press conference earlier this week. "I have wanted to position TIFF as a significant event by giving birth to new talent and nurturing new cinema people." But, he added, now is the time for TIFF to become truly international, something he feels this year's schedule exemplifies.

With content originating perhaps at bath-side, where a caster will undress as she runs through the day's events and simultaneously enter the tub, or along side of a weather map, where a forecaster's clothes will be pulled off seemingly by a raging snow storm, "Nude News Station" integrated the five-minute "Nude Sign Language News" program last year. It began with a fully clothed sign-language signer making motions in a corner of the screen to supplement the main anchor, in the buff, reading the news in the center.

Though the studio arm of Toho has made its name by bringing powerful beasts and sword-wielding samurais to the screen over its 75 years, it wasn't until recently that its exhibition division became a true industry dominator. Toho Cinemas, formerly Virgin Cinemas, merged with Toho's exhibition department to become Japan's largest exhib. But in shaping its future the company will be looking beyond simply girth.

Kamijo has taken a position directly opposite a Mizuho Bank branch not far from Kudanshita subway station - about half way between Nishi Kanda Park and Yasukuni. Given that he is about ready to engage in battle, he is surprisingly calm, even leisurely taking sips on a bottled tea. "We must stop them from advancing to the shrine," he implores. As he waits, convoys of trucks descend upon Kudanshita, their presence made obvious by the waving hinomaru flags, the painted chrysanthemum crests, and of course the unmistakable military jingles blaring from the sound systems.

On Wednesday, August 15, the anniversary of the conclusion of World War II, great debate will once again fall upon Yasukuni Shrine as embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decides whether to accommodate conservative pressures and follow the footsteps of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, who during his administration repeatedly raised tensions with Japan's Asian neighbors by visiting the historic rallying point for militarism.

If a robot is to save mankind, then it had better look the part. Optimus Prime, the lead robot battling evil in the film "Transformers," appeared too weak in its initial design, thought Keiji Yamaguchi, a creature developer at Industrial Light & Magic. "So I revised his face so that it looked stronger, more heroic," he says. Perhaps a minor point to the casual filmgoer, but such detail was routine in perfecting the transformation sequences in director Michael Bay's $150 million blockbuster.

In Tokyo the trucks are hard to miss. With their sides adorned with hinomaru flags and slogans proclaiming the divinity of the emperor, these darkened fortresses on wheels might be parked in front of Shibuya's Hachiko or seen ripping down Yamate-dori through Nakameguro as anti-foreigner speeches and wartime anthems, fully brash and crackling, emanate from their mounted speakers.

Samples of the available weapons, all well-oiled, can be seen hanging by wood pegs mounted onto a bamboo wall. A Luger pistol, an Uzi submachine gun, and an AK47 automatic rifle are but a few. Dangling strings of ammunition round out what is truly an intimidating scene. At the register young boys fill empty magazines with bullets from boxes.

As far as restaurant themes go, conventional marketing might find Marxism to be an odd genre given the success of such standards as rock n' roll or 1950s doo-wop. But make no mistake - reservations are absolutely necessary at Restaurant Pyongyang in Phnom Penh. Inside this 25-table eatery of hermit kingdom blandness, slim and fair-skinned North Korean waitresses sing, dance in teams, and play violin in between serving a mix of Asian fare to customers who are afforded a zoo-like peek inside the illicit dining room of Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il.

Inside the booth, where CDs are stacked in the corners and computer monitors are set next to the microphones, DJs play new tracks by the likes of pop-queen Gwen Stefani and oldies by dinosaurs Credence Clearwater Revival and Air Supply. Certainly such programming is standard in the industrialized world, but FM 107 hopes to bring vibrancy to Vanuatu, a small island nation in the Pacific.

Though a young boy at the time, Wallace Andre clearly recollects that moment six decades ago when a U.S. dive bomber began to encounter trouble while paying a visit to his coastal village on the eastern edge of Vanuatu's capital island of Efate. "Something happened," Wallace remembers. "Maybe the pilot looked back at us and became distracted. Nobody was ever sure."

People aligning themselves with a unique hairstyle is nothing new. But Tsutomu Morita is likely the first pitchman via pompadour. "Some people don't believe it is real," Morita says in a back room of his discount luxury-brands store, referring to the black bulbous bob that hangs over his eyes. "Others think I have something hidden inside."

The granddaughter of former wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was hanged as a war criminal following the Tokyo Tribunals, believes that modern Japan is a nation bereft of dignity, a condition she hopes to change by running in this month's House of Councillors election.

"What I really desire, not only for myself but for the entire Japanese film industry," Kawase told a press luncheon last week, "is to have some kind of system in place where it is fairly easy to ensure that Japanese films are distributed abroad in a very systematic way." Though "The Mourning Forest" was aided as to production and subtitling costs by the government-run Agency for Cultural Affairs, whose annual film budget is 2.2 billion yen, Kawase would like to see more than simply money. Two weeks ago Kawase paid a visit to Akira Amari, the Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to explain that an open dialogue between film-makers and bureaucrats should be established.

Then, just as quickly as it came to life, the party freezes to allow for a cork from a Dom Perignon bottle (white) to be popped in silence. As the performers huddle around the four guests, a boisterous shout of "Kampai!" breaks the quiet. With the ladies, glasses in hand, absolutely beaming, an escalating vocal roar from the troupe signals the resumption of the pulsing music. "This is an original space," says host Ageha, 21, who is dressed in a velvet coat, curly black bow, and lip ring. "Providing a dreamlike environment, as with the champagne toast, is something special. That is the most important thing. You can't do this at an izakaya."

"The girls in Shibuya are the ones making the scene in Japan," Rai says of the ultra-fashionable district of Tokyo in which her theater is located. "But they have a very peculiar sensibility. Rather than thinking in words, they react to music and art." Instead of using the standard promotional shot of a glum Bill Murray seated at the edge of his hotel bed, the theater splashed an alluring image of Scarlett Johansson's backside, clad in pink panties, across fliers and billboards. The approach worked. Though the film only earned $4.2 million in Japan, Cinema Rise accounted for a full one-fifth of that haul, making it the eighth-most-popular film in the theater's 21-year history.

Japan's construction industry is renowned for its proclivity for paving over anything that does not stand still. But in terms of magnitude, today's concrete pourers were certainly rivaled by the work of their predecessors, who cut and filled what is now Ginza into a network of canals and bridges before transforming the area into the asphalt slab it is today.

Wednesday's battle, six years later, pitted Ichiro against rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was making his second start of the season for the Boston Red Sox. The game once again left Japan's capital speechless, but for a different reason: Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez completely dominated, stealing the show with a one-hit shutout.

Unless in search of a cheap, dusty souvenir for a relative, Tokyo's historic Asakusa district isn't on the radar of too many folks under the age of 70. But Asakusa Jinta, a seven-piece band that mixes elements of ska, swing, punk and chindonya (traditional street performance), is hoping to bring the area's time-honored sensibilities to the international stage.

As any good street tout will tell you, high foot-traffic is the key to success. Sure, he might toss out his chest, flash his best smile and smoothly sell you an explanation for the apparent contradiction between the shapely, high-class ladies he promises and the remarkably low entry price to his establishment, but even a true charmer will not be effective talking to a sidewalk of empty concrete.So it is conceivable that with the opening of Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo's newest mixed-use, high-rise complex, lucrative business opportunities will be abundant for the throng of hustlers roaming the pavement of Gaien-Higashi- dori just west of the intersection with Roppongi-dori. Or will they?

Following its opening day on March 30th, Midtown will be poised to push aside its slightly older urban development brother, the nearby Roppongi Hills, to become Tokyo's latest monument to well-heeled excess in an area known more for being a haven of hedonism.

The loss of key players during the off-season will be large stumbling blocks for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters as they attempt to repeat as champions of Nippon Pro Baseball. Number-three hitter Michihiro Ogasawara left for the Yomiuri Giants via free agency, popular and ostentatious centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo retired, and left-handed reliever Hideki Okajima took his miniscule 2.14 ERA to the Boston Red Sox. "We can't replace him so we won't try," Hillman said in his native Texas drawl of infielder Ogasawara, who last year led the Pacific League with 32 homers and 100 RBIs.

The Academy Awards finally gave Martin Scorsese his due for a job well done. Likewise, AV actress Honoka took the top prize (Best Actress) at last week's 2007 Adult Broadcasting Awards for jobs well given. Held in a theater within the love hotel area of Tokyo's Shibuya district, the annual event - titled "Eroide Onna Matsuri" (Erotic Ladies Festival) - was a mix of ceremonies and competitions for the hottest female talent from the roster of adult channels on satellite broadcasters SkyperfecTV and jSAT.

Boris is devastating on stage. The group pummels its audience with wave after wave of extreme loudness. "We try to create what we think to be an appropriate atmosphere for our sound with the audience," Atsuo says. "Cranking up the volume is a part of that. We feel that it is as important as such things as melody." To demonstrate his impression of their sound, Atsuo holds both of his hands in front of himself and flaps them in an undulating motion. The message: Come surf the wave of Boris.

At the center of the commotion is the band's shaggy-haired and hunched-over conductor, Daisuke Fuwa. Go-go dancers in sparkling cocktail dresses and fishnets enter from the sides to join the band's MC, Shinichi Watabe, as he attempts to provide a semblance of order to the carnival atmosphere by parading around in his colorful happi coat and hachimaki (headband). Off to the stage's edges, butoh performers then up the insanity to the nth degree, slinking their powder-white bodies atop isolated platforms from where they twist their almost naked frames and crinkle their faces. Certainly there is no other group like Shibusashirazu.

Tuvalu's remoteness creates the stereotypical tropical paradise: glassy wave after glassy wave splashes upon its beaches and seasoned tuna steaks are cooked to order in the restaurant inside Tuvalu's only hotel. It is this existence, however, that might prove to be its undoing - scientists claim that global warming will eventually send the Pacific pouring over this tiny Polynesian nation's narrow strips of terra firma comprised of few topographic features. But as a short time on Fongafale - the largest of the 24 islets that comprise the capital atoll of Funafuti - will attest, present complications that come with an island existence are more pressing.

This week Boston Red Sox right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan's latest export to M.L.B., will be attracting more than the usual amount of cameras when he makes his first throws from a mound at Red Sox camp in Fort Myers. Not because of the twenty-six-year-old's knee-buckling curve, his devastating change-up, nor even for the Red Sox hefty investment of $103.1 million dollars (which includes the $51.1 million dollar posting fee paid to his former club, the Seibu Lions), but due to his rumored "gyroball" - a pitch that is delivered toward the plate in a spiral similar to a football.

The pot has been raised in Japan's telecommunications poker game. Very recently, Japan's largest mobile phone company, NTT DoCoMo, took a 3% stake in Nippon Television, a play that further strengthens a relationship that began early last year with the seven-year, $83 million limited liability venture D.N. Dream Partners (DNDP). The move, which follows DoCoMo's purchase of 2.6% of Fuji Television Network shares in January 2006, is the latest gamble linking a broadcaster and a telecom giant in a bid to boost services to customers, and represents another step toward a union within the two media sectors.

Warner Bros. Entertainment last month continued with the digital cinema experiment "4K Pure Cinema" by transmitting a digital version of Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" from Los Angeles to Japan via fiber-optic lines. D-cinema's sharp images and multichannel digital sound combine to give theatergoers a new experience.

For Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific nation of nine narrow coral atolls perched precariously at the edge of perhaps rising waters, its approach in recent years for staying afloat has been more about solvency than sea levels. Once an example of dot-com excess, .tv is getting a second chance as interest in broadcasting video over the Internet has reached frenzied proportions - an opportunity that Tuvalu hopes will provide support to its isolated lands of 11,800 people facing an uncertain future.

As the interview proceeds, Hinoki, his greasy mop of dark hair slicked back and his eyes peering through round glasses, randomly slaps his face and pops breath mints to sooth sudden bursts of nervousness. A handkerchief is always at the ready for when he starts sneezing uncontrollably. "Yes, yes, it happens sometimes," Hinoki assures his client, "but I'm fine. So then...?" Thus begins "Sekken" (Jail Talk), a 70-minute monologue performed by Takayasu Komiya.

Orient is in the business of serving society by supplying sexy stand-ins for those in need of filling a female void. And with technological advancements improving steadily, Nakamura says, his company can accommodate any want for a lifelike lady. To step into the Tokyo showroom, which is filled with Victorian furniture and the soothing sounds of chanteuse Enya, is to literally enter the silicone valley. Ami lies on a bed rimmed in lace, her body adorned in matching panties and bra. Rie (black evening dress) and Tomoko (red yukata) recline in chairs, both displaying sizable cleavage.

The band quickly explodes into "Jack the Violence," the title track of their debut on label Time Bomb, and the assembled pork pie hats and leather jackets surge into a roiling swarm. The pace is that of locomotive; the trio seemingly never surfacing for air. MAD3 has polished its instrumental sound since that release eleven years ago to the point of being true technicians of the genre. While their new album "Lost Tokyo" showcases more of their trademark '50s-inspired fuzz and feedback, it is also an attempt to rip apart the superficiality that envelops the metropolis and blow it back to the Meiji Period (1868-1912).

Daisuke Matsuzaka is 26 and sports a crown of spiky hair. He stands at 182 centimeters, weighs 85 kilograms, and throws a gyroball. American newspapers, whose stories typically compare the pitch's elusiveness to that of a ghost or the Loch Ness Monster, have approximated the degree of the pitch's break, graphically showing it making a sweeping turn as it crosses the plate - a movement so large that it exceeds even that of a curveball. Is this beast for real? Conversations with the pitch's pioneers, two very different people working in two very different worlds, make reaching some kind of concurrence on the gyroball's characteristics and Matsuzaka's connection about as easy as trying to hit a Matsuzaka pitch - any one of them.

In trademark fashion, Deep Impact, who was disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance following his third-place finish in Paris last month, lagged the field early on only to explode over the final furlong for a dazzling two-length victory over Dream Passport.

American and Japanese forces tore through Betio, then included in the Gilbert Islands, turning the coral and sand landscape into a charred crisp that resembled something like a lunar surface. Today this half-square-mile rock is a part of the Republic of Kiribati, a collection of 33 atolls spread over 1,300 square miles of the Pacific. Though few people living today recall the mayhem of those dark days, many war relics still linger, crumbling on its white sands.

Bomana is the final resting place for many of those Australian soldiers who prevented the Japanese from marching over the treacherous ascents and through the mud and thick forests of the trail to Port Moresby. Quiet and tranquil, Bomana offers a pleasant respite from the dusty and noise-filled streets of nearby Port Moresby. But for returning veterans, the grounds can bring back bitter memories of brutality.

As John Kaniku tells it, the appropriate beginning to canoe construction is simple enough: you have to choose a tree of quality timber. But procedure generally gets a little complicated after that initial selection. "Then you have to remove the fairies, the good ones and the bad ones," says the chairman of this month's 3rd annual Alotau Canoe Festival. "You will do this by singing to them, asking them to go from your tree to another."

Taken from a short story by author Shuhei Fujisawa, the picture, which is the final installment in a series that has included the Oscar-nominated "The Twilight Samurai" and "The Hidden Blade," is the story of a blind samurai who must uphold the virtues of the warrior code and simultaneously win the love of his wife.

Though many have focused on the clash for the future high-def home video format between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD, digital viewing on-the-go, as in One-Seg, is not to be ignored. One-Seg transmits video and audio data through one segment of the transmitting signal of standard terrestrial digital television broadcasts to deliver content to portable devices.

"After 'Lost in Translation,'" says Maezawa of the 2003 film that featured two foreigners drifting through the complexities of Tokyo's concrete sprawl, "I had great hopes for increasing the number of shoots in Japan by American movie companies. However, filming such things as car-chase scenes is difficult. For 'Tokyo Drift,' the Tokyo police turned a cold shoulder to shooting in the streets."

Negishi and Tokyo Kosoku have been balancing the effects of the moving traffic above with the tenants below - neither of whom is likely aware of the other - for forty years. During this time he has developed a few pointers for going private, a move the government has partially implemented for its national highway system.

When adult satellite channel Paradise TV decides to broadcast a live charity event, they ensure there will be no imitations. Here stand a group of male subscribers, each ready to dine on a dish - an omelet or perhaps a bowl of pork kimchi - doused in a golden shower dispensed by one of a half-dozen topless AV (adult video) actresses.

The animal is hoisted up and then along a steel rail. As one of the workers draws a thin, foot-long blade from his belt to slice the animal's throat, the next head arrives inside the walled enclosure. An echoing moo then begins rolling through the slaughterhouse.

For Port Moresby cab-driver Paul Egan, the smashed and spiderwebbed upper-right section of his windshield is not a big deal. Probably, he surmises, caused by a stoning after an argument. Nor is the bullet hole just beneath the handle of the driver's side door. A car-jack attempt? He doesn't know. Sporting a collared plaid shirt and gray trousers, Egan, 46, from Papua New Guinea's mountainous Simbu Province, pulls his deep blue Mazda 323 cab from the International Terminal parking lot at Jackson Airport.

But in recent years there has been a disappearance of one particular crab from the market's tables. Looking like a blue alien creature bound tightly in twine, the coconut crab was once as common as the grilled fish being fanned by ladies in flower dresses. The culprit: a dish of curry sauce, a couple spoonfuls of coconut milk, and a few slices of toast.

The job of the actress is to bring ecstasy to the screen, to indeed sell it as authentic so as to eliminate any doubt. To do so, she plays with her mind - perhaps by even drifting off to another location (or even onto another guy) - to ensure that her audience is getting a performance they can deem satisfying.

The morning shoot, which will be followed by an afternoon of romping, sucking, and even a smattering of dialogue, is just a single element within a string of directorial duties necessary for providing provocative enough action to get guys off. Success requires keeping up with the latest fetishes and managing frazzled actors and actresses - tasks Tanaka has mastered during his more than two decades in the industry.

BoA and six backup dancers kicked off her two-song set with "Nanairo no Ashita" (Tomorrow's Seven Colors), a poppy double-A side single released in April that reached as high as number three on the Oricon Weekly Sales chart. "BoA is a star," said Araki Takashi, CEO of Avex, of the winner of the winner of the Most Influential Artist in Asia award at 2004 MTV Asia Awards. "She has developed beyond her cute image into a mature and beautiful artist."

Flipping through the Kanto monthly, which sells for 300 yen and could rival the New York Times Sunday edition for heft with its 600-page bulk, reveals ads showing working girls, from such legendary areas as Tokyo's Yoshiwara brothel quarter, in nearly every come-hither pose imaginable. No fetish is spared: grinning cosplay girls in nurse and maid costumes, obese ladies with clearly reported breast sizes, and blindfolded school girls in bondage represent but a few. Web pages and phone numbers make contact a snap.

"The Japanese public does not have a high interest in eating whale meat," she said, citing data to indicate that stockpiles of whale meat in Japan has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years, reaching 5,000 tons in 2005.

The stand is one of many offering phallic fare at the Kanamara Matsuri, or metal penis festival, an annual event held in April - often colloquially referred to as the fertility festival - that is a relatively serious free-for-all to honor men's manhood.

With his Rolleiflex 75mm, Swope walked through rubble and burned-out structures and befriended Japanese both young and old alike during his three-week tour at the end of August 1945. The resulting collection of portraits and a letter written to his wife, both now on display at the UCLA Hammer Museum, not only express the physical and emotional difficulties experienced by the soldiers while in prison but also send the message that war has tremendous impacts on individuals on both sides of the fighting.

After a half-century in the cartoon business, in which it produced such television classics as "Sailor Moon" and "Dragonball Z," Toei Animation is returning to its roots. "Our television animations are currently going all around the world," says Hiroyuki Kinoshita, director of the cartoon studio's corporate strategy. "Now we are thinking back to the origin of our company, which was focused on feature films."

"We love to collect signs from vintage hotels," she says of the museum's intentions. "When we see construction going up around a property or hear something, we'll ask if they will donate the sign." By displaying such signs in its 3-acre "boneyard" and restoring others for public display, the museum is actively preserving a piece of the ever-changing Las Vegas cityscape: the glowing glass tubes and blinking bulbs that have been pulling in gamblers and tourists for over 60 years.

The scene unfolds during the film's final battle sequence. Hedorah, an acid-spitting, layered shapeless mass brought to earth by a meteor and nourished on industrial pollution, morphs into a flying-saucer shape and takes flight to escape Godzilla's wrath. Godzilla then tilts his head slightly downward and emits his atomic breath, initially levitating the 330-foot beast and eventually propelling him in the direction of his retreating enemy.

As a player, manager, and coach, Yamauchi has emphasized bat control and a steady eye, in addition to a keen focus, as the keys to hitting. This old-school approach might seem simple but it has earned him the reputation as one of Japan's premier hitting technicians. Every player has his own hitting theory, explains Yamauchi. But the general hitting philosophies of Japan and the big leagues are quite different.

Under the watch of their hawkish supervisor, it is now the team's job to restock such amenities as toothbrushes and condoms, scrub the toilet, change the sheets, and mop the floor at a pit-crew pace so that the room can be made available as soon as possible. Bumping into strangely matched couples, disposing of bodily fluids of wide variety, and retrieving discarded playthings are a challenging part of the job description.

"You are being killed. You need to scream!" booms instructor Ryuji Kikuchi of the Tate-Do school of sword-fight choreography. You hunch over clutching your stomach and once again let out another roar. Your opponent quickly returns his weapon to the sheath attached to his belt. As is the custom, you then fall to the floor once it is securely in place. You are now dead.

As the founder of sordid satellite network Paradise TV seven years ago, Michiyuki Matsunaga has since moved on to Tokyo Digital News, a slightly less provocative broadcasting station that transmits stories via the Internet and mobile phones in which the announcers are young girls clad in bikinis.

"I haven't been offered a contract to manage anywhere for next year," said Valentine at a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Tuesday. "So any talk of where I might manage would be premature." But for the skipper who brought the Lotte franchise its first Japan Series championship in 31 years wherever he goes his demands are simple. "I want to be challenged," he said. "I want to be appreciated, and I want to be comfortable in my surroundings."

Since the industrial revolution spawned only the internal combustion engine and not a provision for a $70-a-barrel rate for oil, alternative fuel vehicles are the talk of this year's show. For Takahashi, a member of Nissan's research and development team, this is his baby. "It is difficult to design and lay out the parts so that everything fits into the car," he says of his eco-SUV, shaking his head. Take the hydrogen tank. Finding an appropriate location for a container the size of a large beach ball can be cumbersome.

Japan's film companies are today racking up larger production costs - well in excess of the typical $2 million to $3 million - in an effort to keep up with imports. As a result, raising cash is getting more creative and deviating from the standard multi-partner funding model that usually includes only film-related companies.

Deep beneath a boulevard in western Tokyo lies the construction site of the 11-kilometer Central Circular Shinjuku Route - the second link in the Central Circular Route transportation circle. Planners within the Metropolitan Expressway Company (the project's owner) believe that an efficient road transport system in Tokyo requires a network of expressways in which radial and circular routes work in equilibrium.

"The tragedies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be prevented from recurring in any part of the world for years to come," said Associate Director of the Peace Archives initiative, Manabu Ihara, of the archive's goal. NHK is delivering this message of peace by making this extensive compilation of programs available for public viewing throughout Japan and the world.

Wham! The sound of slamming doors is becoming increasingly common across Japan. Nihon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), Japan's only non-commercial public radio and television broadcasting network, has recently been forced to re-evaluate its policies after a series of scandals have caused large numbers of viewers to boycott paying the subscription fee collected door-to-door.

"The tragedies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be prevented from recurring in any part of the world for years to come," said Associate Director of the Peace Archives initiative, Manabu Ihara, of the archive's goal. NHK is delivering this message of peace by making this extensive compilation of programs available for public viewing throughout Japan and the world.

Though fraud and stalker cases are common, the majority seeks help with one thing: love, as in exposing or dissolving a love affair. But unlike the gritty noir exploits of Raymond Chandler's post-World War II fictional sleuth Philip Marlow that have stereotyped the profession over the years, the cases at Answer require a much more gentle untangling, a process in which a bit of alcohol provides a comforting beginning.

"I want to change the status quo of the image that politicians have," the brash 32-year old said. "I want young people to think that politicians can be cool and brilliant." Up until now the 32-year-old Horie has primarily been involved in running his Internet portal Livedoor. But he signed on for the Hiroshima District No. 6 election as an independent to challenge renegade Shizuka Kamei, formerly of Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, amid the ongoing clash over postal privatization.

A few yards further down the alley, he steps into the front door of the parlor named Popeye. After shuffling down one aisle and making a turn to the left, he pauses and then breaks into a wide grin. He sees a hanemono, or "wing-type," machine. Nishi, 30, is a pachinko expert. His strategy for success revolves around money management and riding the wings of the hanemono. It has served him well during his years of attempting to wrestle what he can from this huge industry.

The fish is actually made of plastic - vinyl chloride, to be exact - and the location is not an eatery of any kind but rather a tiny shop in Otsuka, Tokyo. Nagao's company, Nagao Shoken, creates the plastic food models often seen lined up on shelves in dusty glass cabinets at entrances to restaurants in Japan. Even with his work resembling food, his shop is quite different from a kitchen.

They're of all ages and from many backgrounds. Braving the merciless summer sun, come they do - numbering in the thousands - on August 15th, the anniversary of the conclusion of World War II. Former soldiers, decked out in full military dress and attracting the cameras of journalists and tourists, find a shady spot to sit and swap war stories. On the surrounding streets, members of right-wing groups pour out of their large and colorful soundtrucks. Welcome to Yasukuni Shrine.

To the uproarious approval of a gathering of five hundred mostly young male otaku, or extreme fanatic, female employees of Akihabara's now trendy maid cafes (a generic expression given to a variety of shops staffed by pretty young girls outfitted in alluring costumes) assisted in the performance of uchimizu - the summer ritual of tossing water on to hot pavement in an effort to create a cooling sensation.

Japanese film giants Toei and Toho probably cast nervous looks over their backs in September, when film-distribution and kabuki-theater conglomerate Shochiku established an animation division to increase its share of Japan's $18 billion annual animation market.

Moriyama sees Shinjuku as a place on the edge. Ikebukuro to the north and Shibuya to the south lack realism, he says. It is Shinjuku's "depth" that he finds appealing. "When I walk through Shinjuku taking photos," Moriyama explains, "I have a feeling of excitement and fear."

With his black zippered jacket as sharp as his Ray-Ban glasses, the 58-year-old then faces forward and begins counting off the things that people will pay substantial sums to watch on television. "Movies," he says, folding his pinky inward in typical Japanese fashion, "gambling, sports..." He then pauses, his face forming a grin. And sex.

At the point of final discharge (in the city of Kasukabe) massive pumps send the flood water into the Edogawa River, which in turn empties into the Pacific Ocean. Between the pump system and the channel's terminus is a massive room of smooth concrete. As long as two football fields with 59 piers reaching to a 25-meter high ceiling, the scene takes on the look of something suitable for a sci-fi movie set or an ode to ancient Greek architecture.

The breeze increases, so much so that her black skirt and white long sleeves suddenly disappear in the rush, leaving the determined newswoman clad in only lace panties and an extremely loose-fitting black bra in which to announce the rain in Sendai. Welcome to Paradise TV.

It is the most intriguing item to emerge from Iceland since Bjork's last album, and Bobby Fischer's got it, or it at least his legal team does. It is his passport, and this time it is valid.

His daily routine always begins with a bang - or more accurately, with the striking of a small cylindrical gong - to signify the start of a prayer session. The gong sits next to a large kneeling pillow slightly offset from a butsudan, or small Buddhist memorial.

The pastime can be summarized as a lurid mix of lust, lenses, and stealth that is enhanced by Japan's commonly cramped environs and culture. Make no mistake, this hobby, fuelled in recent years by developments in digital photography, is generally illegal, but that factor pales in comparison to the rush.

But this intersection in Toranomon is special in one way: No column, scaffold, concrete mixer, or other standard evidence of work ever shows itself from behind the construction site's enclosure. The reason can be found below - way below - ground level.

Leading his two-piece band Fushitsusha, one of his many musical incarnations, Haino and his bass player generate an escalating, monstrous roar for an audience of 20 people in this matchbox-sized basement club in a western Tokyo suburb.

"Because this was going to be the last Godzilla film I thought we could break all the rules," said Ryuhei Kitamura, the 35-year old director. "And I think we did so; I think we have created a type of Godzilla film that has never existed before."

"Planter" is one element in "Edelweiss Series," Maywa Denki's collection of machines that together tell the story of a mythic society so dominated by materialism that its females are willing to accept sterility in lieu of sacrificing the pursuit of cosmetic beauty.

It is an evening on the riverbank promenade of the Bund - Shanghai's strip of historic art deco buildings aligned along the curve of the murky brown Huangpu River. Drink and film kiosks battle for customers busily snapping photos of the recently constructed towers and high-rises on the opposite bank. In between peddlers cruise the area in search of targets.

Current ownership represents a near hall-of-fame roster of companies within industries - mainly in the transportation, retail, and newspaper sectors - that have lagged considerably since the bursting of Japan's economic bubble over a decade ago. Mikitani and his Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles club are set to change the baseball business in Japan and score a few runs in the process.

Mario works as a sleuth in search of basic information on his subject. But such work is not simple. It requires patience, smarts, and instincts - all things he carries with him, in addition to his trusty camera, as he lives the life of the only Peruvian journalist covering the activities of Fujimori in Japan.

Jon Bowhay is a Japanese sword polisher, or togishi. "Restorer," though, is likely more appropriate wording since his work might require that he remove rust accumulated over hundreds of years, reshape edges to eliminate nicks, or strip off steel to remove pits..

Do whales eat significant quantities of fish (in addition to plankton and krill)? The Institute's research claims that the whales living in a selected research area of the Pacific annually consume 2 million tons of anchovy, a number ten times the catch of Japanese fisherman.

Nearly three decades - and three books - later he's still swinging for the fences. The Meaning of Ichiro documents Japan's recent baseball pioneers who have defected to the major leagues. The meaning of which, Whiting argues, has been the tremendous sense of local pride instilled in the Japanese people and the narrowing of the gap of understanding between Japan and America...

If one spots a particular look or set of measurements that meets his company's needs, he quickly moves up beside and inquires as to whether she wants a part-time job. Should she stop, utter a peep, or acknowledge him in the slightest (all very rare occurrences), he gets down to brass tacks: "Do you like sex?".

Though Bickard is developing amusing phrases like "Flamola!" and "Bang a gong, we are on!" - some of the show's trademarks - this is indeed work. With a VCR, red pen, and script of dialogue, he matches the pictures of the culinary action on the screen with these irreverent, over-the-top sportscaster-like phrases, a recipe that has been a major reason for the show's cult status amongst both finicky gourmets and amateur bbq cooks.

The customer can watch the making and baking. That is very attractive," says Koji Tsuda, general manager in the international division of Muginoho Co., Ltd. , the Osaka-based restaurant company that created the Beard Papa brand. A feeling that the puffs are being made "just for you," the customer, as opposed to any faceless person is the intention, he emphasizes.

The exchange is simple. In a manner similar to a used bookstore or car lot, the girls enter with their pinks or whites in hand. Mr. A then checks to ensure that the merchandise will meet customer satisfaction by confirming that they have been extensively used. It takes a trained eye - and sometimes, nose - he assures.

Welcome to a world that would be truly Maxwell Smart's dream. From pinhole cameras to microphones capable of picking up sound through concrete, Y.K. Musen supplies the latest and greatest in snoop technology.

A summary of Muneo Suzuki's last two years reads like a manual on political graft. In 2002, he was charged in two separate cases of taking bribes from lumber and construction companies in exchange for his influence in lucrative local contracts. As well, that same year top aides of his were arrested for participating in bid-rigging incidents for housing and power plant construction projects.

After the opening track, the album meanders back and forth between a number of varying genres. Some pieces contain straight-ahead guitar rock power chords ("Piper") and elements of an Irish jig ("Dominoes"), while others feature time scales and intervals typically reserved for such traditional Japanese string instruments as the shamisen and koto.

Getting any kind of reaction, musically or otherwise, in an outwardly conformist society like Japan (and its exceptionally bland music industry ), isn't easy, and generally not encouraged from the start. But for Overhang Party, making an impact upon the listener with their sound, even if some might think of it as "noise," is exactly the point.

In truth, the entryway to Terada's teahouse is not quite as grand as initially implied. The garden is plastic and the stones are rubber mats. The gate is merely an enhanced door jam. But the beauty of the tea experience is not in the fineness of the trappings; it lies in capturing a special feeling at a particular time.

It is around noon. The caller says he is a policeman. "First, relax, and listen carefully," he cautions. "Your husband has been in an accident which is now under investigation. He fell asleep at the wheel of his car."

Her affection is gently spread to each member through her gaze. After he nods or lowers his camera in acknowledgement, she moves to the next. Maybe this time it will be a raise of the left flap of her jacket. Or perhaps a slight shift of her practically bare hips. Whatever she offers, shutters click, flashes pop, and digital cameras whir. Oh, and yes, hearts pound.

"You might be trying to make a departure from your dark past," explains Sasa, one of a handful of young fortunetellers who work alternating sessions within two tiny shops directly beneath the Inokashira Line tracks in Kichijoji, west of Tokyo. "It seems as if strong energy is coming out from inside you, pushing you more and more into the future."

As a result, a singed work coat and hands darkened with carbon are standard in this family business, started by Joji's grandfather's grandfather nearly 100 years ago. But such byproducts of the work are no secret; there is a family saying that has been passed down through the ages which insists that one must first wash their face with fire in order to become a hanabishi.

First, the random spider webs are parted from between the branches and an offering of rice is carefully placed inside the shrine's wood gate. "Then we gather with the workers to pray for good sake for the year," says Shinichi Yoshino, the soon-to-be heir to the family-run brewery Koshigoi Yoshino Shuzo, located an hour and a half by train from Tokyo in Chiba Prefecture.

Mano remembers one young passenger, a new-hire in his early twenties, who was being encouraged repeatedly by his boss to take the plunge as the boat circled in front of the man-made peninsula of Odaiba . "I warned him not to do it, but while I was back in the galley tending to the propane stove...We rescued him, but I was so mad. We have to keep watch all the time."

Preparations are being made, supplies readied, and safety measures taken in anticipation of the explosion of mayhem, the uncontrollable mobs that will take to the city's streets as a result of something that hasn't happened since 1985: the clinching of the Central League pennant by the beloved Hanshin Tigers.

To be sure, she did see her share of gifts (western clothes and even a car), and she fondly recalls buying a piano and television with some of her wages during her early days. Marriage proposals, too, were common offerings.

The sleek silver "SmoCar" sits in the center of the Otemachi financial district in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. It is a converted camping trailer - which sells tobacco paraphernalia and offers a small lounge area - concocted by Japan's tobacco behemoth, JT ( Japan Tobacco Inc.), as a refuge for smokers threatened by the ward's recent ban on outdoor smoking.

I first met the man I came to know as Strangelove at Charleston's in Roppongi. It was early evening on January 20, 1986, a memorable day because it was the same day I enrolled in Japanese school. But more remarkable in that from that point on I could never stop wondering if the man I'd just met was sometime going to set the world on fire.

"My tattoos and missing pinkies are my handicap," he says from his office in between services on a recent Sunday. "I always tried to hide that fact. However, I stopped hiding it after I became Christian. [Before] I led a life of lies. But after I met Jesus and came to know the Lord, I wanted to live with my true self." Now he uses his past as the ultimate icebreaker, bringing people of all walks of life to fill the roughly 100 foldable seats in his church. Here, they find a smiling man of confidence, a sharply dressed example of a life that has made a turn for the better.

Fully naked early one morning, she swam freely - and unseen - in the pool of her Los Angeles apartment complex. This young woman from Sapporo had never felt such freedom in her life, let alone in her new career as a Japanese pop singer.

"You can't go wrong with a suit," explains Rogelio Kahlon of the rather formal wear he selected on his first day of spring training in Florida as interpreter for Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees.

Since it can almost never be a position of great recognition, an animator enters the anime field because of a love of drawing - a dream of adding dashes of hundreds of colors and lines for storylines that unfold in surreal settings of fantasy. For Oshima, that was his reason for entering the animation fray 28 years ago.

Cascading down the steep hillsides that comprise the village of Yasakamura in Nagano Prefecture are numerous other rectangle-shaped black reflecting pools of mud cut horizontally into the land. Satchels are slung over shoulders as farmers wade shin-deep in the muck, planting seedlings that will eventually turn to 80-centimeter high rice stalks.

His stall at the Tsukiji Fish Market on the banks of the Sumida River is surrounded with steel trays swimming with small shrimp of a half-dozen varieties. Crustaceans are his business, he says. And Katsumi's business has been going rather well; his customers are primarily posh Tokyo restaurants. But Katsumi and his crustaceans are becoming a rarity in Tsukiji.

Prior religious training for the role of wedding pastor is usually nil. Prospective pastors with reasonable Japanese skills can be trying on their robe inside of two weeks after studying a ceremony script and observing a few real weddings. Though the language of the ceremonies is usually Japanese, the scripts are in romaji (roman letters) to allow for easier pronunciation.

Even though injuries in karate are typically broken front teeth and noses, this incident wasn't significant for its severity - there isn't even a scar today - but rather the lesson: maintaining composure and eliminating fear at all times is vital in the martial arts.

You might be trying to make a departure from your dark past," explains Sasa, one of a handful of young fortunetellers who work alternating sessions within two tiny shops directly beneath the Inokashira Line tracks in Kichijoji, west of Tokyo. "It seems as if strong energy is coming out from inside you, pushing you more and more into the future."

Promotional videos show Wakamaru gliding freely on "barrier-free" carpets and wood floors, and not tatami. Nakajima admits that Wakamaru's wheels do tend to tear the centuries-old woven Japanese home interior hallmark but points out that Western-style flooring is slowly becoming the preferred option in new Japanese apartments. "Wakamaru really is then for those thinking in terms of the future," he laughs.

Resting on a wall rack are two different kinds of medieval-era swords; one is of plastic, the other of darkened wood. Just across the aisle hang olive officer uniforms with red trim. Beyond them in the next row are pink nurse outfits carefully wrapped in plastic and complete with matching headpieces.

YThe ball is one of dozens of examples of originals and fakes - handbags, wallets, key rings, and watches - spread out over a table. From this selection, determining the real thing from a copy is tough, even for experts trained in the field. Zippers, stitch patterns, buckles, tags, labels, and logos match their counterparts nearly exactly. "Even I can't tell the difference," Matsuyama admits.

After all, the destruction of an atm with an excavator is not exactly a sound of silence. And in these times of economic despair, the demolition of one and subsequent pillaging of its contents is getting to be the easiest way to get one's hands on some cash - and fast.

Her manga career is a relatively recent venture, beginning six years ago after a friend suggested she put her skills gained from studying toward drawing manga. She is now working on a feature for the magazine Dejiru that will profile the complications a mother faces in dealing with a soon-to-be-married daughter.

What came next though surprised even this 4-year veteran of Tokyo's streets: A pair of rather muscular arms appeared from around the back of either side of his seat, massaging his chest. With one nervous eye on the road and the other peering into the rearview mirror, Yoshida then realized that she was instead a he.

On any given day in Kanagawa Prefecture's city of Fujisawa, multiple lines of customer-seeking taxis - some exceeding 50 cars - snake away from both sides of the main train station and on down side streets. In between inching forward small increments as each passenger is picked up at the front, drivers can be seen slugging down canned coffee, reading newspapers, or jotting down notes in logbooks.

Like most artists, Oshima has a trademark, or signature, for which he can be easily identified by his devotees: women with extremely large, round breasts. To be a little more specific, Oshima's rendering of the female mammary carriage usually takes the form of a pair of gravity-defying Christmas tree bulbs on steroids.

"I think the old nature of the building made it more effective to the visitor," explains Taro Nasu, head of Taro Nasu Gallery, one of four galleries exhibiting at its closing. "The building had a special atmosphere, which would take the visitor beyond the time when they shared the space with art there."

During the course of the year, Mayu Orihara might find herself at a shrine praying that the companies employing her hostess club's customers will not go out of business. This will hopefully ensure continued patronage to her club, and, as a result, an increased chance that it will stay in business.