Zashiki Warashi is gone?

This is reaction to the article of BBC "Is Japan a dying nation". My friend Brian sent me some very interesting links about this post.
Lonely Japanese find solace in 'rent a friend' agencies.(guardian UK) and Japan rent a friend business.(the first post)
He said "I don't know how widespread the practice of "renting" friends or relatives is, but it suggests to me that establishing a relationship in Japan is very, very difficult."
I must admit it will be true that it is getting hard to have a relationship or like I said our communication skill is getting worse. But it is very hard to find such person around me, so I must feel still phenomenon ( need a rend friend or Hikikomori) might be a just a small part of Japan and media take it bigger than real...

This is interesting, "In pictures: People-powered maps". All look like insects or bacteria or something. I admit Japan has bad balance and I was impressed that Australia has good balance.

Zashiki-warashi a kind of monster creatures in Japanese folklore but like monster ink. Zashiki-warashi is not evil, and we say it is lucky and get fortune if we can see him. In Iwate pref. there is a famous ryokan(Japanese hotel) "Ryokufu-so" where is said that you can see Zashiki Warashi. Even it is smal old ryokan, the room that Zashiki-warashi appears at night was always full by reservation. People stay at the room to meet Zashiki-warashi with toys. However this week that old ryokan was burned down. We are all wonder he died or he survive cause he is basically monster...

Comments

[Sam R]

I was interested to hear about the Zashiki-Warashi. Actually, there are similar creatures in Western mythology called "imps" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imp).

[twitter.com/Greg_Harper]

Interesting post about the People-Powered maps. It really gives a different take on population distribution coverage across the country.

It makes a lot of sense really. In UAE most of the population is in/around the capital.

In Australia, the blank areas are either mostly desert or rain forest, with bulges around the state capital cities.

Apart from Hokkaido, it would appear Japan has a widespread population.