Users can view the images on the camera’s rear display screen or a larger separate monitor. Fujifilm said it would also offer a special 3D photo printing service. “Viewed with just the naked eye, 3D images come alive with breathtaking reality and natural beauty,” Fujifilm said in a statement.

The gadget will go on sale in Japan early next month with a price tag of 60,000 yen, followed by overseas markets in late August.

The Angry Whopper is arriving in Japan, a nation where the competition over hamburgers is as sizzling hot as the new spicy offering from U.S. fast-food chain Burger King.

To make sure people got the message, Burger King Corp hosted an “angry shouting challenge” contest in downtown Tokyo Wednesday, in which passers-by were invited to scream their frustrations away.

“I need to get a girlfriend,” a man yelled at the top of his lungs in an effort to win the prize, a year’s worth of Whoppers. “Professor, give me my credits,” exclaimed another.

The Angry Whopper, introduced in December in the U.S., has jalapeno chili peppers and hot sauce, as well as a burger patty, onions, cheese, bacon, tomatoes and lettuce on a sesame seed bun.

The 460 yen burger, whose sauce has been slightly adapted to Japanese tastes, joins a menu which already includes the Double Whopper, Croissan’wich and Onion Rings.

Burger King Japan President Hitoshi Arimoto said it was the perfect flavor for riding out the economic downturn.

“The Angry Whopper is landing in Japan,” he told a crowd in front of the 109 shopping complex in Shibuya, a district popular with trendy youngsters.

But Burger King, the world’s No. 2 hamburger chain with 11,600 restaurants around the world, is a tiny player in Japan, with just 16 stores, mostly in Tokyo and surrounding areas.

It faces intense competition from McDonald’s Corp, with 3,750 stores nationwide and 30,000 globally, as well as Japanese burger chains, like Lotteria Co, which are less known overseas.

Lotteria is gaining attention with a money-back campaign this month for its 360 yen Exquisite Burger if customers are unhappy with the taste.

Burger King withdrew from the Japanese market in 2001, partly after losing a price war with McDonald’s, but returned to Japan in 2007, for another crack at the world’s second-largest economy.

Food business consultant Jotaro Fujii says the competition in Japan’s burger business is heating up because the nation now has a whole generation of people who grew up on McDonald’s.

Fujii believes the big chance for success is in the restaurants that are springing up to serve gourmet burgers costing 1,000 yen each or more, targeting people in their 20s and 30s.

“McDonald’s controls about 65% of the Japanese market,” he said. “The new market is more expensive with paddies about twice the size of a McDonald’s burger.”

Burger King is on the high-end of the cheap burger market that is McDonald’s strength, he said.

Burger King, which does not break down regional earnings, saw a 15% rise in fiscal third-quarter profit.

But its sales growth at established locations has trailed McDonald’s, which has reported strong sales in recent quarters as people look for cheap meals in a global slowdown.

McDonald’s has been boosting sales each year in Japan after slashing prices on burgers and some dessert items to 100 yen since 2005. Sales were up 4% last year from the previous year, said McDonald’s spokesman Kenji Kaniya.

Cunning Takeyama, a comedian at the Burger King event, stomped his feet and broke into a sweat after taking a few bites of the Angry Whopper.

“It’s hot,” he shrieked.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/burger-king-adds-angry-burger-to-japan-menu

Optics manufacturer Kenko is selling its compact digital camera Ocean’s DSC100Z at a market price under 10,000 yen ($100). Equipped with approximately 10 million effective pixels and 3X optical zoom functions, the high-resolution/low-price digital camera targets first-time users as well as consumers shopping for a second camera.

The price is open but Kenko said it will sell for around 9,980 yen ($99.80). Brand name digital cameras with over 10 million pixels may be available at 13,000 yen prior to the release of new models. By lowering this price by 20%, Kenko aims to attract a wide range of consumers. 

The huge habu snake is shown in the city of Amami on July 18.

 

AMAMI, Kagoshima -- A venomous snake measuring 2.26 meters long has been found on Amami Oshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, outstripping the previous record for the longest snake to be captured on the island.

 

The snake, a habu weighing 3.15 kilograms, was captured in the mountains of Amami on the evening of July 16, and taken to Amami Kanko Habu Center, center officials said. Its body has a maximum circumference of about 20 centimeters, and it would be able to swallow a small animal weighing up to about 2 kilograms whole.

Center head Eiichi Nakamoto, 78, who has been keeping habu snakes for over 50 years, was surprised at the find.

"It's rare to find one in the range of 2 meters," he said.

The previous biggest habu snake captured on the island was 2.15 meters long and weighed 2.45 kilograms.

An estimated 80,000 habu snakes live on Amami Oshima and the nearby Tokunoshima Island. About 70 people are bitten by the snakes on the islands each year, and in 2004 one person died.

Nakamoto warns people planning to visit the islands for the total solar eclipse on Wednesday to be wary of the reptiles.

"Visitors should beat grassy areas they enter with a stick, and if they happen to be bitten, they should suck out the blood and call for an ambulance," he says.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20090721p2a00m0na002000c.html?inb=rs