PHOTO of the DAY (JAPAN) Dial up warning

[AsahinaKimi]

Miryam Roper of Germany, white jersey, fights with Kaori Matsumoto of Japan during their men's under 57 kg category third place match at the World Judo Championships in Paris Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011. Matsumoto won bronze.(AP Photo/Michel Euler)


Bonus Photos

An 86-year-old farmer in Chiba, puts up bamboo frames to hang and dry rice on. Most rice is planted and harvested by tractor or combine these days, but some farmers still do it the old way.


Rescue workers row a life boat carrying people who were trapped in a tunnel near Tokyo International Airport at Haneda in Ota Ward after the area was hit by record rain fall on Aug. 26. In Tokyo alone, 29 structures were flooded. (Mainichi)


One of the few fishing boats that survived the March 11 tsunami in the port of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, dumps a haul from a fixed shore net into the vessel's storage bay on Aug. 25, 2011. Fishing out of the port resumed a little under a month ago, and the remaining boats have been on the water every day since. (Mainichi)


The first beef auction in Sendai since the ban on beef shipments from Miyagi Prefecture was lifted is held in Sendai's Miyagino Ward on Aug. 26, 2011. The ban had been in place for about a month after radioactive cesium was detected in Miyagi beef cattle. Although all of the beef in the Aug. 26 auction was from cattle that passed testing, the bid prices still did not reach pre-nuclear disaster levels. (Mainichi)





Voters in front of a heap of destroyed cars listen to a prefectural governor candidate's speech in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 25, 2011. Of the three prefectures hit hardest by the March 11 disasters, Iwate will be the first to hold prefecture-wide elections. Both the governor and prefectural assembly members will be voted for on Sept. 11. (Mainichi)



The "New Shimizu" barber shop, operating out of a temporary structure brightly decorated with painted birds and flowers, is seen in tsunami-devastated Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 24, 2011. The lively colors and patterns were painted by artist Kensuke Miyazaki, 32, who did similar work at a refugee shelter in Miyagi Prefecture, and on other buildings. Ofunato locals, meanwhile, are full of praise for the barber shop's new look, saying, "It's like flowers have bloomed in the ruins." (Mainichi)


Elementary school students on an educational visit ride a tramcar through an underground tunnel in Chuo Ward, Fukuoka, on Aug. 24, 2011. The tunnel, which will stretch 3.9 kilometers and reach Hakata Bay when it is finished, is being constructed to drain water from the city, which has suffered from flooding in the past. (Mainichi)


Mainichi ohatu ~Something new everyday