More than schoolgirls, salarymen or neon lights, when video games want to evoke Japan, they pick one thing above the rest: cherry blossoms, or "sakura", as they are called in Japanese.

During spring, Japan is awash in pink and white. Cherry blossoms are in bloom for a short period (around two weeks or so), and thus, carry all sorts of connotations in Japan. For many, they are a metaphor for youth or the fleeting nature of life. But the delicate flowers have an underlining masculine appeal. There are also associations with both the samurai and the yakuza. During the war, the blooms were used as war propaganda. Cherry blossoms were planted in conquered territories, making the land as Japan's own.

For modern Japanese, much of the macho and nationalistic connotations are lost and cherry blossoms are appreciated for their "wafu" (Japanese-style) beauty. Yet, much of the society is organized around them and spring. In April, businesses start their financial year and schools start their academic year as the cherry blossoms bloom. The hundred yen coin has a cherry blossom on it, and what the bald eagle is to America, the cherry blossom is for Japan.

Besides games that use sakura as a motif or a title (think Sakura Wars), the blossoms are used to evoke Japan. When Gran Turismo 5 showed Kyoto in its photo mode, cherry blossoms fall gently like snow. Likewise, in fighting games like Dead or Alive, cherry blossoms add vibrance to the Kyoto stage. Even though their life span is ever so short, Sakura appear in game after game, whether it be Shogun 2 or Okami.

In the spring, weather reports note when and where the cherry blossoms start blooming, charting their move across the country. There are a variety of cherry blossoms that bloom, and it's not uncommon to see co-workers, friends and families gathered under cherry blossoms, eating, drinking and making merry before the last petal falls.

This year, conservative Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara is asking citizens to refrain from "hanami" or "cherry blossom viewing" parties. "It's not the kind of situation for people to drink a lot of and have a pleasant time just because the cherry blossoms bloomed," Ishihara said. Thus, hanami events in Tokyo are being canceled in order to show solidarity with the victims of the quake. It's certainly not against the law to have a cherry blossom party, and there are those who will have hanami parties no matter what Ishihara says. With the recent events in Japan, there's no better reminder of how fragile and short life is than sakura.

Culture Smash is a daily dose of things topical, interesting and sometimes even awesome - game related and beyond.

Militant hacker group Anonymous has launched a campaign against Sony, citing the Japanese company's "unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom" after it took legal action against a pair of hackers.

As you'd expect from the group, its statements are neither polite nor subtle. It says Sony has "abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work", "victimized [its] own customers merely for possessing and sharing information" and of violating "the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information".

There are warnings of wrath, and of penises being stuck in hornets nests. More realistically, you'd expect the group to at least try and bring down a Sony website or two, and maybe even take a swing at the PlayStation Network itself.

While there will be those supportive of this campaign, is there not a more effective, presentable and mature way of doing this? Or at least of wording the campaign's "press release"? This kind of approach makes Anonymous look worse than the hackers or Sony, which means...nobody is looking good. Way to go, everybody.

[AnonNews] [picture credit]

Nintendo and Sega. Hardware rivals for decades, and even today they remain the archetype Japanese video game companies. Only, Sega isn't entirely Japanese. It was founded by some American guys.

While Nintendo, with its history in trading cards and love hotels, is as Japanese as they come, Sega's history can actually be traced back to two companies and four men, who saw an opportunity to make a buck from American forces serving in occupied Japan.

What follows is not a complete history of Sega itself; just that of its origins as a pair of American companies pioneering amusement machine entertainment in Japan.

In 1940, just prior to America's involvement in the Second World War, three businessmen - Martin Bromley(who was actually at Pearl Harbour when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941), Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert - formed a company called Standard Games, which was located in Hawaii. The idea was that, with war on the horizon, there would be a lot of men on military bases, and those men would need something to kill their spare time with. So Standard Games sold coin-operated amusement machines (mostly slot machines) to these bases.

After the war, and especially given the fact Japan was now under Allied occupation, Standard Games' (which was now known as Service Games thanks to its military focus) saw a massive opportunity with the number of relatively idle American personnel stationed in Japan. Its US-based business was also under attack from state governments seeking to outlaw coin-operated gambling machines. So in 1951 the company upped sticks and moved to Tokyo. A year later, the company changed its name again, to Service Games of Japan.

The move to Japan saw the company's focus change; while initially only selling machines to US military bases, Service Games of Japan quickly found a market with private Japanese consumers and businesses as well.

Meanwhile in 1954, another Japan-based amusement company run by an American (David Rosen) was founded. Rosen Enterprises' speciality was importing photo booth machines from America, which led the company to expand its business to later include coin-op machines as well.

In 1965, seeing the advantages to be had in pooling their resources in a booming market, these two businesses would merge. The resulting company would thus be known as Sega (a shortening of Service Games) Enterprises.

In 1966, Sega released its first arcade game: Periscope. Appearing before electronic arcade games were invented, Periscope was a submarine battle game which was operated mechanically. Your targets were small plastic ships, and the player's torpedo attacks were illuminated on the game "screen" by flashing light bulbs.

Periscope was a hit, so much so that machines were sold and shipped to America, and it set Sega on a path of electronic arcade gaming it's still on to this day. Yet it was also a catalyst for the end of the unique and sole American ownership of the company.

In 1969, giant corporation Gulf+Western purchased Sega. While they presided over a continued enlargement of Sega's business (including Sega's first home console, the SG-1000), by the time of the video game market crash of 1983, the now gaming-focused company was in dire straits, and was split in two by its owners. Its American components were sold off to pinball company Bally, while the Japanese side of the business was snapped up by a group led by Japanese arcade magnate Hayao Nakayama and one of the original four founders, David Rosen (pictured left).

A year later, this "new" Sega was purchased by Japanese IT giants CSK Holdings Corporation, whose boss - Isao Okawa - was actually a friend of Rosen. The last American to be involved so closely with the upper echelons of Sega, Rosen would continue on with the company, first as head of Sega of America and then as a Chairman of Sega, until his retirement in 1996.

[Slot machine pics: Sega Retro]

World Champions | All of India is rejoicing, including these expatriates in New York, at the nation's World Cup triumph. Yesterday's victory over Sri Lanka gives Sachin Tendulkar, considered one of the greatest batsmen in the sport's history, a legacy-cementing world championship in his final try. It's the second title for the cricket-mad nation. (Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images)

This Left 4 Dead Screen Looks Awesome on the 3DS

The Nintendo 3DS' support of 3D imaging isn't limited just to games. It also has a nifty 3D camera, and of course can display 3D-rendered images with the same effect. One Kotaku reader, who had been fooling around with 3D stereoscopic images of screen shots in the past wondered if they'd also display on the device. They do. More »

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Hackers Snare Website of Xbox Live's Top Cop

Stephen Toulouse, known to many as Stepto, is Microsoft's director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live. That means he's the guy with the biggest, baddest banhammer on that service, making him a prime target for grudge-nursing hackers. Apparently one just seized control of his personal website, stepto.com. More »

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Stick Jockey: Sponsored by Games, but Racing for Gamers

As the driver of the No. 20 GameStop Toyota on NASCAR's Nationwide Series, Joey Logano is the Gamers' Racer. GameStop's logo really is only part of the picture, as current games usually dominate the paint job. When people who can appreciate games see BioShock 2 or Red Dead Redemption go zipping around a tri-oval, it sends a message that's as much an affirmation to them as it is an advertisement to others. More »

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You May Now Play Long Lost Bio Force Ape

There must be some law that only in April can we get news about Bio Force Ape, a never-released NES game whose wild-ass title and premise spawned an awesome hoax in 2005. This, however, is legitimate: the ROM of the game is now available for you to download and play on an emulator. More »

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Indie Dev Meme Speaks Truth to the Powerless

Meme Generator now has "Optimistic Indie Dev" on its menu of choices, and it's become quite active. Some suck, but a lot provide biting commentary on independent games development, in a can't-live-with-em-can't-live-without-em way. More »

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Nielsen Survey Finds Black Gamers Spend the Most Time Playing Consoles

Nielsen, the folks who measure every single thing that is or could possibly be done with a television set, have released an analysis of gaming habits by ethnicity, finding that African-Americans game the most per day, on average, Asian-Americans the least. More »

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When his five-year-old daughter built a treehouse by herself in Minecraft, Joel Levin, a computer teacher at Manhattan's Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, got the idea to try incorporating the PC game into his lesson plan at school. He worried about numerous possibilities that the game would simply be incompatible with students that young, but he was relieved and gratified to discover he was wrong.

"From day one, the kids are all playing together in a single world," Levin told Ars Technica. "They must share resources, take turns, work together, and, frankly, be nice to each other. This is usually the first time these kids have had to think about these concepts in a game, but it goes hand in hand with the big picture stuff they are learning in their homerooms."

The lesson is strongly supported within the school and is very popular. It'll continue with four new groups of students this term, and an after-school class will be added. Levin is also maintaining a blog - The Minecraft Teacher - documenting the game's use in his classroom.

Educational building blocks: how Minecraft is used in classrooms [Ars Technica]

Very little in the way of big releases this week. Among games we're likely to play around here, Hoard arrives on the PC and Mac, five months after its console release. Spiral Knights, a free-to-play game from Sega, launches tomorrow. The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, an Xbox Live Arcade game, is probably the biggest game with any kind of hype behind it, arriving Wednesday.

Monday

• Hoard (PC, Mac)
• Spiral Knights (PC)

Tuesday

• Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops (PC)

Also: Karaoke Revolution Glee: Volume 2 (Wii); Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do! (Kinect); Remington Super Slam Hunting: Alaska (Wii).

Wednesday

• The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile (XBLA) - Sequel to the winner of Microsoft's first Dream-Build-Play, The Dishwasher returns with his sister in this side-scrolling action game.

Thursday

• Adam's Venture II: Solomon's Secret (PC)
• Anomaly: Warzone Earth (PC, Mac)
• Dino D-Day (PC)

Looking Ahead

April 12: MotorStorm: Apocalypse. April 19: Conduit 2; Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, SOCOM 4. April 26: Driver: San Francisco. May 3: Thor: God of Thunder. May 10: LEGO Pirates of the Carribean; MX vs. ATV Alive; Virtua Tennis 4. May 17: Brink; L.A. Noire.

What are you getting? What do you want? What are you looking forward to? Sound it off below, and at #twig.

Source: Video Game Release Calendar; GameSpot

Unannounced by Electronic Arts, Australia's Classification Board has nonetheless listed Burnout Crash. LinkedIn bios for Criterion developers hint that the game will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3. The game received a PG (basically, T for Teen) down under. [Siliconera]

Cold War-themed Bob-ombs by Orlando-based artist Scott Scheidly, a creator of "pop surrealism and lowbrow art." Available on t-shirts here.

Each week throws off several new video game lists ranging from the humorous to the trivial. What's better? A list of those. Here's a roundup of the rundowns out there.

•10 Unique Game Boy Accessories You Never Knew Existed [The Kartel] Ah, good old Pedi-Sedate (pictured). How in the Christ did that thing ever get made? Please tell me a DEA registration number and a medical license are required to buy that thing. God, that gives me the creeps.

•The 10 Cruelest Video Game Pranks of All Time [Ranker] Finishing off April Fool's weekend is this excellent roundup of game-related pranks from the past, including the outstanding "Life Is Hard" flash game, the maze/scream shock, and practically everything Think Geek has done. The infamous "nude code" for Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 is No. 1

•The Awesomest DLC on the Market [UGO] Another 25-item compendium from UGO, this one looking at the best downloadable extensions available over the console services. I admit, while Star Wars: STFU II was a disappointment, the opportunity to behead Ewoks is quite the enticement to buy both it and the game.

•12 Ways Consoles Are Hurting Gaming [MaximumPC] Red meat for those who love or hate PC gaming, either way.

•Top 5 Best Features of the 3DS that Isn't the 3D [KokuGamer] I exchanged friend codes with Totilo after getting mine last Sunday. His profile says his favorite game is "Health & Safety Information." Curiously, that did not make this roundup.

The Nintendo 3DS' support of 3D imaging isn't limited just to games. It also has a nifty 3D camera, and of course can display 3D-rendered images with the same effect. One Kotaku reader, who had been fooling around with 3D stereoscopic images of screen shots in the past wondered if they'd also display on the device. They do.

Reader Pat offers these 130 images, originally rendered for display on a 2D screen with the "cross-eye effect" supplying the 3D. He says they are not originally his, though he did crop them to fit the 3DS' screen dimensions "plus a a little tweaking to really make them pop." I've gone through the gallery and he's right - some of the Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and Left 4 Dead images really do look fantastic. Others, especially Fallout 3's with the large weapon graphic close in the foreground, get a little blown out.

Overall, it's a neat tech demonstration and shows the adaptability of the 3DS to other 3D media, particularly user created. You will need a memory card USB adapter to get the pictures on board, but the process is simple and works as described in the file's readme.

Cool 3D 3DS Pictures [MediaFire]