One thing we've learned at Gadling this week is that oodles of people want those free Southwest Airlines tickets. So far, as of 3:44 pm, there are 1,162. Visiting people seems to be the biggest theme of many of the contenders' wishes.

Other numbers of note this week:

Abha hooked us into a Web site that pairs 100 photos with 100 words in a single moment;

Jeffrey noted that more than 600 people were rescued off a stranded ship in the Baltic Sea;

In her world's most dangerous beaches post, Iva cited that in 2006, Americans took 55 million trips to a beach;

Matthew clued us in on the 780,000 porno hits one man logged from his office in Japan; and

Anna discovered that the world's longest bridge, located in China, is 22.4 miles long. If you drive across it too slowly, you'll get a fine. Since May 1, when it first opened, 300 people have had to pay up.

Share your numbers of note with us if you have any. One to think about is, how far can you get on one gallon of gas?

To steal a line from a classic Simpsons episode:

'Poison. Poison. Poison. Tasty Fish.'

Blowfish or fugu (ふぐ)　packs a lethal punch in the form of tetrodotoxin, an extremely potent neurotoxin that paralyzes its victims while they are still conscious. To put things into perspective, this means that you are fully aware as your throat closes, your lungs deflate and you drift slowly into death's arms.

There is no known cure.

However, Japan is a country of safety and order, so thankfully the majority of deaths occur when untrained people catch and prepare the fish, accidentally poisoning themselves in the process. The most dangerous culprit is the liver, which has been illegal for centuries despite being the tastiest morsel of the blowfish - it is often compared to the highest-quality foie gras (fatty goose liver).

While illegal meals of liver can still be had on the black market, the danger cannot be understated. In 1975, the famous Kabuki actor and 'Living National Treasure' Bandou Mitsugorou VIII requested four servings of liver from a fugu chef in Kyoto. Unable to refuse the request of someone of such an elevated stature, the chef served him the livers. He died soon after.

Of course, all of this is set to change now that Japanese fish-farmers have found away to raise non-poisonous blowfish....

The Japanese are anything but prudish, especially when it comes to pornography or AV (adult video). Here in Japan, the AV industry pumps out literally hundreds of new videos each day, featuring pretty much everything that your sick little mind can imagine. I would expand more here on some of the more unusual varieties of Japanese adult entertainment, but for the sake of our sponsors at AOL - and out of respect for my dear mother! - I'll let you discover them in your own free time.

With that said, if you're going to scour the web for the latest and greatest in Japanese porno, it's probably best not do it while you're in an office cubicle. In fact, that is precisely what happened this week in the city of Kinokawa in southern Japan ,where a council employee was discovered looking at almost 10,000 pages containing explicit content per day! Over a nine month period, it is estimated that the 57-year old man logged more than 780,000 hits on porno websites.

And who says Japanese bureaucracy is efficient - in my opinion, it takes some serious dedication to log in that many hours of porn viewing in one day!

A beloved treasure of the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo died yesterday. Ling Ling, the panda who became an ambassador of goodwill of sorts, and a world traveler looking for a mate had heart failure. In human years, Ling Ling was 70. In panda years, 22.

Now the zoo is without a panda, and Ling Ling was without offspring. He was flown to Mexico three times to give him a chance to procreate. He also spent spent some time in the National Zoo in Washington, D.C according to this Smithsonian magazine article, I found. Most importantly, he was part of the peace agreement with China in 1972. People in Tokyo are broken up over the news and are leaving flowers and notes at Ling Ling's cage.

The Ueno Zoo is hoping to get pandas on loan at least. Unfortunatly, it's not like there are many pandas to go around--only 1,600 of them live outside of zoos. Their native environment is in China in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces. [see AP article]

Devra G. Kleiman, the author of the Smithsonian article, spent a long time studying pandas, both in the wild and in zoos, and provides a detailed account of their habits and habitat, including mating habits which may explain why Ling Ling never got lucky in love with pandas. In people love, he hit pay dirt.

When I went to Japan several years back, the U.S. dollar was the pits against the yen. Luckily I had a friend of a friend of my brother's to stay with in Tokyo. I had a Japanese rail pass for a week so we ventured out on day trips mostly, except for two nights in Kyoto. We went on a day trip to Nara from there. Other trips were to Kamakura and Nikko. This was an impressionistic sort of trip. Japan is such a vivid place that I can conjure up pictures of most of it.

Now that my friend has moved back to Japan, I'm thinking another trip to Japan is in order, particularly since we have another place to go. Okayama, where my friend now lives, looks like it's a perfect sized city for visiting with children, and one where its possible to taken in the nuances of Japanese culture. In an odd way, it seems to be to Japan what Columbus is to the United States--a reflection of the rest of the country without being overwhelming. There is enough to see and do to make it interesting, but because of the size, the people and sites are accessible.

I'm getting this from the Okayama page at Wikitravel that lists several attractions you can take in.

My Japanese friend, who recently moved back to Japan, called me this weekend. Her kids are doing fine. Her husband is in the throes of work, and she is wondering how she can keep up with her English. As a person who fit well in the United States, her life back in Japan is taking some adjusting. She's happy to reconnect with family and friends, but she's missing here.

I promised to find her some Americans in Okayama where she is living. Okayama, a city past Kyoto, even further from Tokyo, is not exactly an expat hot spot. She's been on a hunt for English speakers without much luck. I did a Web search after we hung up and, although I have yet to find any Americans for her, I think I found English speakers. There is a Toastmaster's Club.

Most of the Okayama Toastmaster Club's Web site is written in Japanese, but there is another site with information on Toastmaster Clubs in Japan with links to each of them. From what I can tell, the purpose of Toastmasters in Japan is to give people a venue for giving speeches in English and to help people improve their public speaking abilities in general.

Toastmasters International has clubs all over the world. If you're in the need for some public speaking help and a place to meet people, here's a suggestion.

We celebrated Earth Day here at Gadling with a contest, an ode, and a ticket out of hell. Not bad.

Also this week:

• Kelsey gave us a surfing lesson.
• Grant reviewed Burton's Sleeper Hoodie v2.0, and I'm seriously intrigued. Grant also had a nice chat with Virgin CEO David Cush -- check it out here.
  
• Matthew listed 5 mistakes that newcomers to Japan make.
• In his series Plane Answers, Kent responded to the question "When did first class become the crew lounge?"
• Jeremy brought us the news that the Inca Trail is booked up through September. If you're headed to Peru make sure you've got alternative plans for trekking to Machu Picchu.
  

That's all! Have a fabulous weekend.

One of the main questions that ex-pats in Japan are often asked is simply this: "Why Japan?"

And, truth be told, most of us just shrug our shoulders and give some sort of trite answer like: "The food here sure is delicious!" Or, depending on the temperament of the audience: "The women here sure are beautiful!"

You get the picture....

As for me, I've always argued that the real appeal of Japan is simply that it's an incredibly interesting country to explore. Even after living here for more than five years, and spending literally thousands of hours jumping over the linguistic hurdles of Japanese grammar, I still suffer from a fair bit of culture shock on a day-to-day basis.

You see, I guess that's really the gist of why Japan is so appealing to foreigners like myself. No matter how hard you try to assimilate, there will always be more challenges to overcome, especially if you want to penetrate the heart of one the world's most closed societies. Simply put, life in Japan is anything but boring.

Of course, there are dozens of cultural landmines that must be dodged on a daily basis here. And on that note, I present to you today five mistakes made by first-timers in Japan.

The Japanese diet has historically been one of the healthiest in the world, consisting mainly of rice, vegetables, and fish. But the increase in "Western"-style fast-food joints has forced many Japanese to loosen their belts several notches.

Statistics from Japan's government show that, on average, Japanese males are ten percent heavier than they were only ten years ago, and the women are packing it on almost as much.

This news has driven the Japanese government to require employers to reduce the number of overweight employees by ten percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015. Men whose waistlines exceed 34 inches will be considered overweight, while the limit for women is a downright husky 35 inches.

More here.

Location: Tokyo and Kobe Japan; Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Penang, Malaysia. (This episode was a repeat of a previous season. I missed this one the first time, so I was happy to catch it.)

Episode Rating: 4 Sheep Testicles (out of 4) using Aaron's system that certainly works well for this episode--if you trade sheep for pig.

Summary: After watching this episode, it might seem like there is nothing but bizarre food in Asia. I can attest that the eating is among the finest. I've been to all three countries and promise there's food to suit most people's palate. Being an adventurous eater helps. What Andrew Zimmern honed in on is foods that are thought to give power. Feeling a bit blah? There's nothing like some frog meat.