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Announcing Kansai's best ever Classifieds!

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to announce that from January we will publish our classifieds section every two weeks as a separate publication. From executive employment to playful personals, we aim to bring you Kansai's best ever classifieds. Kansai Scene Classifieds will be available from most of the same pick-up points as Kansai Scene, which will continue to bring you the best of what's going on each month.

Ads can be placed, changed, and manually deleted at kansaiscene.com by following the simple on-screen instructions. When you place an ad, it is immediately viewable online as well as being processed for the next printed issue. You can change or delete your ad at any time by logging in with the same username and password that you chose when you placed the ad. Otherwise, it will be deleted automatically after your chosen length of time (max. 4 weeks). Classifieds may appear in one section only. Personals must contain email addresses, not names nor telephone numbers.

Advertisers will also benefit from the possibility to update ads more frequently, from quicker response, and from lower rates than ever before. Call 06-6301-3054 now for more information.

Thanks for reading.

A.I. kaiwa lives!

This Christmas, why not give someone an English conversation lesson ... in the guise of a neat little robot? In South Korea, where My Robocom was developed, it can already be found in use as a learning aid in state-run schools, and now it looks set to catch on in robot-mad Japan. Certainly, it makes a refreshing change from schoolteachers who give nothing but grammar tests.

\98000 + \19000 for each additional chip/textbook set
http://www.myrobocom.jp/

For the chef who has everything

Does Sweetfish Fried with River Algae have you slavering? Does Bleached Pike Conger with Green Dressing tickle your tastebuds? And would Soymilk Yuba and Sea Urchin with Jellied ConsommŽ Sauce have your culinary knees quivering? If so, then this recipe book extraordinaire, Shunju - New Japanese Cuisine, which sizzles and sparkles with ideas and techniques from the chefs of the exquisite Shunju restaurant chain, will be just the stocking filler you're after.

Published by Tuttle. www.tuttlepublishing.com
\6000 ISBN: 962-593-618-1

Scrabble champ racks up 4th win

Word wizard Keiichiro Hirai clinched his fourth straight National Scrabble Championship title on November 17th, winning five of his six games and amassing a crushing point difference of +937. The tournament attracted many new players and a journalist from the New York Times. Click here for more on Keiichiro Hirai and Scrabble in Japan.

Studying English harder in 2003?

...or know someone who has decided to? Then here's a website to check out - Voice Of America radio station's free "special English" web broadcasts. A 30 minute news and features program is updated every day (click on "listen now"), and there are also special features that you can both read and listen to (click on one of the "topics" links). "Special English" means English limited to a basic 1500 words (click on "word book" for a list), at an easy-to-follow pace, and free from needlessly complicated sentences and idioms. Have something to talk about next time your conversation teachers asks "what's new?"

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish

News bites

Hokkaido's Yu-no-hana bathhouse was ordered to pay \3 million to a US-born Japanese citizen and two other men, in compensation for it banning "foreigners" 2 years ago.

The Osaka High Court ended 4 years of bickering between residents and a yakitori shop in Kobe, ruling that residents would have to put up with the smell.

Toyota announced plans to lease hydrogen powered fuel cell cars, which produce only water as waste, from this month.

Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea welcomed their 300 millionth guest.

Japanese scientists announced a project to predict earthquakes from animal behaviour. According to research, 20% of pets showed abnormal behaviour before te Great Hanshin Quake.

21% more foreign students came to Japan this year - almost 100,000.

3 Romanian gymnasts were lambasted in their home country for deciding to appear nude, in gymnastic poses, in Shukan Gendai magazine.

Osaka was awarded the 2007 Athletics World Championships, after other candidates all withdrew.

Near Tokyo, an 84 year old man rode for 55 km sitting on a cable that hung between two carriages of a train.

Yokohama's Earth Simulator Center supercomputer was named the world's fastest, cranking out over 35 trillion calculations per second.

Crime in Japan hit a new post-war high for the 6th year running. Over 3.5 million crimes were recorded.

UK film sensors ordered their stricktest cuts in almost a decade for Japanese anime Ichi The Killer. The film's depiction of the mutilation, beating and murder of naked women is so extreme that the Toronto Film Festival issued sick bags to viewers.

A study found that most Singaporeans make love just 6 times a month.

20,000 pilgrims have travelled to a church in Bangalore, India to witness a "miracle" image of Christ found burned into a chapati.