TOKYOMANGO

Simpson Motorcycle Helmet Mouse

This miniature Simpson motorcycle helmet is actually a mouse. It comes in some super cute colors like red, yellow, pearly silver, and black.

Product page (Japanese)

Miyashita Park and the Homeless in Tokyo

A new BoingBoing TV video brought back memories of a playground I used to frequent in Tokyo called Miyashita Park. It was a mile-long strip of gravel along the Yamanote Line between Shibuya and Harajuku which featured some scant playground equipment and a dried up pond. As a teenager, I got high for the first time on the Miyashita swings; that was also where we ended up with liquor store-bought cocktails on warm summer nights.

The park had a weird mix of couples making out, homeless people living peacefully under blue construction tarps, cops doing their early morning training drills, and kids like us just screwing around. I was always curious about the homeless people—they seemed to have a nice little life set up there, with makeshift kitchens on tree stumps and blankets set up like beds and water from the public toilet to wash their clothes in. The homeless in Japan never beg for money or food—they just make do with what they have, and then scrounge through trash when people aren't looking.

In a college creative writing class, I wrote a story featuring a bum from Miyashita and the sage advice he gave my friend Ben in exchange for a cheeseburger at the nearby McDonalds. So it was nice to see this video—it brought back memories. The video was shot in 2006, and they have since cleaned up Miyashita Park—repaved the streets, kicked out the bums, removed the blue tarps. I wonder where those guys went. Anyone know?

Update: A reader just wrote in saying he walked by there yesterday, and there were still a lot of homeless people living there peacefully.

Glimpses of Elderly Porn Master, Courtesy of CNN

Last week, I blogged about Shigeo Tokuda, currently the most popular porn star in Japan. Here you can see glimpses of his magic. Um, yeah. He's 74. So what?

Oh, and this video also provides the quote of the day: "Ruby specializes in elderly porn!"
If you've followed this blog long enough, you know that my dog is named Ruby, and that she likes elderly porn. Really.

 

Hello Kitty Biker Outfit and Contact Lenses

 

OMG, yuck. Why?  

Origami Infiltrates High-End Fashion

I had no idea that the traditional Japanese paper-folding craft of origami had become such a huge global fashion trend. The Origami Blog showcases all different kinds of ways in which origami is infiltrating our aesthetic, from the leather Chloe clutch shown above to bookshelves to type fonts to haute couture fashion.

Hello Kitty Scale Tracks Diet Results

Worried about your weight and obsessed with Hello Kitty at the same time? In September, Toshiba will release this Hello Kitty-themed scale. It's bright red, and it comes with a cute little handheld panel that stores data over time and tells you how fat you are. You can connect to the computer via USB and it'll display all your results in a nice little chart with Hello Kitty as your guide.

Beef Tongue and Viper-Flavored Ice Cream

The Mainichi has a cool photo gallery of weird flavored ice creams in Japan. Pictured here is caviar ice cream, but that's not the most provocative—how about beef tongue ice cream or viper ice cream? Other flavors include beer, natto, and octopus. Yummmy.

 

These ice creams are available for viewing and tasting at an ice cream expo in Yokohama.

Link

Urawaza: Me on Daytime TV Doing Tricks

I was on TV today, on a local ABC show called View from the Bay to promote my book, Urawaza. Lisa Quinn's the host—she's like a bad-ass Martha Stewart. I thought I'd feel like a monkey doing tricks in front of the camera, but it actually wasn't that bad.

You can watch the clip by clicking on the image above or by following this link.

Fight Summer Heat Waves with Eel Juice

Cold beer on a hot day is so last century. Japanese people are drinking Eel Juice to survive the drenching summer heat of Tokyo. Unagi Nobori is a fizzy yellow drink distributed by Japan Tobacco, but it's actually healthy for you—it has vitamins A, B, D, and E, plus eel head and bone extract.

I know it sounds a little weird, but it is totally normal to put fish products in other foods in Japan. Shrimp crackers! Eel biscuits!

Also, if you've never had a real authentic eel bowl at an eel bowl restaurant in Japan, you are seriously missing out.

Link

Bug Spray for Robots

I have no idea why this company decided to use Scary Android Woman for their commercial. It makes me want to run away from the TV screen, but not to go buy bug spray that keeps a robot's skin soft and smooth.

via Boing Boing

Rhinestone Heart-Shaped Pendant turns into a USB Stick

This beautiful pink rhinestone heart-on-a-chain is not gadgetry that doubles as jewelry. It comes with a pretty silver link chain, but if you break it in two and unlock it with the key, it turns into a 2GB USB memory stick. USB accessory company Solid Alliance teamed up with Swarovski to make it. Also comes in white rhinestone for about $80 each.

Press release (Japanese)

Mommy Bicycle Protests Win Back Reverse Trike

Earlier this year, the National Police Agency issued a ban on tandem bicycles with two kiddy-carriers on them—one in front, one in back. To their surprise, the policy was met by massive protests by mothers who relied on this modded trike to get their kids to school every morning.

Today, they announced their defeat, saying they would lift the ban next February after putting some new safety features into place. Mommy's rule!

The new safety features include: adouble-sided kickstand, a speed gear, an electric pedaling system, and a locking device to prevent the handlebars from turning when parked.

Link

Related stories:
Giant subterranean bicycle parking lot
Bicycle rule crackdown!

Kamikaze Girls: A Colorful Film about Girls who Don't Fit In

Last night I watched Kamikaze Girls, a movie based on a light novel about two girl friends, Ichigo and Momoko—one who belongs to a motorcycle gang, and one whose mind is in the Versailles-era Rococo-style gutter. It's a couple years old and has been around the film festival circuit quite a bit, but this was actually my first viewing, and here are my first impressions:

- Model Anna Tsuchiya makes a pretty good yanki.
- I have never worn lace before, but Kyoko Fukada looks good in it, and by the end of the movie I understood her taste in frills and florals.
- Director Tetsuya Nakashima has really fun, quirky storytelling skills. I enjoyed the sequence of events and the scenes-within-scenes.

Ramen for Geeks Changes Flavors while you Eat

Otaku (Japanese geeks) are usually too busy figurine-shopping to worry about what they eat for dinner. Most of them subsist on a strict diet of instant noodles—so much so that there's even an instant noodle specialty store in Akihabara called the Akiba Noodle. The shop sells over 400 kinds of instant ramen, and even has a little section where you can sit down and try them.
 

The Akiba Henshin Ramen series is an anime-themed instant ramen packet that changes flavors as you eat it. The soy sauce-flavored ramen gradually turns into pork broth ramen, and vice versa. This has been a highly popular sell in Akihabara since its release in November, partly because of the "transforming flavor" but mostly because it takes geeks one step closer to perfecting their fantasy of a house fully stocked with anime goods, and anime goods only.

Grocery Bag Transforms into a Shiny Doe-Eyed Cat

I don't post that much cute girlie fashion-y stuff here, but this one was way too neat to pass up. It's a grocery bag that folds up into a cute little cat. The cat comes with a strap so you can hang it on your purse as an accessory when you're not using it; when you need it, it expands into a big black plastic grocery bag. I think the doe-eyed shiny-or-polka-dotted kitties are super cute, and I want one.

Ken Shimura's Thriller Parody (and Tips on Upping your Japanese Joke Cred)

If you want to know the first thing about Japanese humor, then you have to get to know Ken Shimura. He started off as part of a five-man show called the Drifters; later, two branched off to become Kato-chan and Ken-chan, an iconic comedy duo from the 80s, more famous and influential than Beat Takeshi to most mainstream Japanese. Ken Shimura was always the pack leader. Deceptively good looking but outrageously silly and politically incorrect, he mass marketed below-the-belt jokes, inappropriate slapping, and the unique blend of traditional Japanese and contemporary Japanese and Western influences. He also spearheaded some of the most famous Japanese TV memes ever, like "Daijobu da" and "Henna ojisan."

Here's a video of one of his more famous skits, a hilarious Thriller parody that ends with Henna ojisan. More videos after the jump.

A Cheese-Style Grater for your Foot Calluses

Can't stop picking at calluses on your feet? Here's a great tool for you—a foot callus grater. Much like the one you use in your kitchen for cheese, it has little sharp grates across it's surface. Just sit in front of the TV and rub your foot against it and it does its job. When you're done, take the cap off the bottom and empty the reservoir. The patented micro 3D edges ensure that there's no pain, just clean shaven foot skin.

Oh my god, gross. But kinda neat. Get yours here. 

Lose Weight with the Skewered Chicken Dance

You have to try this silly dance at home. It's called the yakitori jisan (old skewered chicken man) exercise, and it features some of the funniest, most liberating moves ever. If you do it enough, you can lose some weight, build some core strength, and gain a reputation from your neighbors for being a really  living room dancer.

(Thanks, Paul!)

New Service Offers Akiba Tours in English & Chinese

Akiba is great for Japanese otakus, but what about the thousands of geeks that flock electric town from places like the US and China? The Tokyo Anime Center in Akihabara just opened a new tourism office that offers information on Tokyo's geek heaven in English and Chinese. The guides are dressed in cosplay, of course, and they'll tell you all you need to know to navigate the figurine stores, aisles of manga, and multiple floors of electronics here. Pictured left are Jane Fong, the Singaporean CEO of Akiba tourism company GI Jane, and her Shanghainese maid friend Cherry Drop.

Link

Related stories:
Maid taxi offers otaku paradise on wheels
Video: Cosplayer off-kai ends in police raid

Movie-Themed and Alien-Infested Lunch Boxes

There's a LiveJournal site dedicated to bento contests. Bentos, or Japanese box lunches, are known for being delicious, pretty, and healthy. And sometimes very creative. Here's one from the movie contest themed after Monsters, Inc. (My favorite Disney movie!) A few more pics after the jump.

Love My Life: Film Shows What It's Like to be a Lesbian in Tokyo

I just watched a movie called Love My Life. Like many great contemporary Japanese movies, it's based on a manga. This one explores the issues surrounding gays and lesbians in Japan. The main character is a young woman named Ichiko. She has a female lover, and decides one day that she'll come out to her widower dad. He's pleasantly surprised—you truly are a child of me and mom, he says happily. I'm gay, and so was your mom! Ichiko's best friend at school is gay; so is the mysterious girl with the mohawk who frequents her record store.

It's a lot harder to come out in Tokyo than it is in San Francisco. While the characters toy with the idea of coming out, in most instances  it's never really a real option. But the film, directed by Koji Kawano, is full of interesting observations of life in general, about how often the most meaningful things in life come out of the worst experiences, how family influences the person you become as an adult, and why love sometimes has to wait. All themes that are more interesting when explored via an intimate relationship between two pretty girls. And yes, they get naked at the end.

Mangobot: Cool Futurist Female Artists from Japan

This week on Mangobot, I profiled two of my favorite female futurist artists, Yayoi Kusama and Mariko Mori. Although they're from two different generations, both are well-known in global contemporary art circles, especially in Tokyo and New York City. There are lots of awesome images and interesting details about each in the article.

Read Mangobot: Futurist Japanese Artists Show us Life in the Next Century

USB Miniature Missile Launcher

Do your coworkers suck? Now you can launch missiles at them from the comfort of your desk. It's powered by USB so you don't need batteries, and it comes with a little missile-launch pad that you can hide behind your keyboard. 2500 yen. Get yours here.

Restaurant Manager Dies from Overwork

Death from overwork. You hear about it, but I have actually never heard of a real case of this until now. A 32-year old manager at a branch of Denny's competitor Skylark in Saitama has been proclaimed officially dead from overwork by the local labor office. It's the first time a non-permanent employee has ever died of this cause. The victim, Takayuki Maezawa, worked more than 100 hours of overtime a month and was given way more responsibility than he was paid or recognized for. He had been working for Skylark since he was 15, first as a part-time worker.

Maezawa died in October of a brain hemorrhage induced while on the job.

The image shows a placard that reads: Death from overwork. Be careful not to work too much.

Link
Related story in The Economist

Akino Kondoh Artsy Video Features Creepy-Cool B&W Girl

This is a strangely mesmerizing animated music video created by Chiba-born artist Akino Kondoh. It features a folk-ish song about body-less children and a little Daria-esque morphing girl in black-and-white. Kondoh's work has been featured in museums across the world, including cities like Stockholm, Shanghai, and Boston.

USB Desktop Mini Fridge

Don't you hate it when you buy a drink from the vending machine at work but forget to drink it? Here's a super cute mini-fridge made just to fit a 350ml canned drink inside—it's powered by USB, so you can keep it right next to your computer and it'll keep your beverage cold and refreshing throughout the work day. I love it.

Scared Man Beats Chihuahua to Death on Sidewalk

Awful doggie news from Nagoya—a 44-year old Chihuahua-hater kicked another man's 4-month old, 2-kg puppy to death on a sidewalk on Sunday. The dog was being walked by its owner in the late afternoon. When questioned, the man said: "I was scared of the dog." WTF?? If anybody even tries to assault Ruby on the street, I will beat him to a pulp.

Link

Help Save the Totoro Forest

Did you know that Sayama Forest, the woods that inspired Hayao Miyazaki in My Neighbor Totoro, is in jeopardy of becoming victim to urban sprawl? In a creative effort to prevent this, Pixar Animations Studio is teaming up with a bunch of cool contemporary artists in a mega-auction fundraiser on September 6th. After that, starting September 20, the art will be displayed at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum.

Totoro Forest Project main page

Craziest Blogger Nail Art Ever

Holy wow. Patrick Macias took this picture of celebrity blogger Shokotan's nails at Anime Expo last weekend. How does she type with those things??

Link

Tokyo iPhone Launch Video Featuring Danny Choo

Here's a super silly video created by Danny Choo. It gives you a sense of how crowded and hot it was at the iPhone launch in Omotesando. And what an attention magnet Danny is. (And it's not just Apple geeks--he gets down with hot Akiba girls too.) I'm pretty sure that's my friend Ichiroo Kiyota from Gizmodo who makes a cameo appearance with an iPhone on his head.

Pics from my Book Signing at Double Punch

I had a book signing yesterday at Double Punch. It's this super cute toy store in North Beach with an art gallery upstairs (featuring Piximix, an art collective specializing in awesome characters like a deviled Pikachu saying "I hate you.") A few friends came, some fans, and one guy who came to yell at me about how some of the tricks advocated morally bad things. (I explained that it's not a moral book, but a fun book. He eventually left.) Pics after the jump.

USB Toy Does the Robot While You Work

Need more company on your desktop? This USB-powered dancing robot will sit on your desk and do robot dance moves every time there's action on your computer, i.e. streaming music, error messages, IM pings. If he gets annoyed or too hard core, you can just unplug him. 3000 yen on Rakuten.

Lunch at Gr/eats and Lots of Other Cool Stuff in Sawtelle, Los Angeles

I just got back from a 48-hour trip to LA. Yuka and I were going to drive, but we decided time is money and flew instead. We caught up with some old school friends from Tokyo, ate yakiniku and PinkBerry, and attended a baby shower. In between, we had a few hours so we met up with Martin Wong, co-editor of Giant Robot, in Sawtelle.

Sawtelle is this cool little 'hood in LA that has all these Japanese restaurants, a supermarket, a hip girly clothing store (ANAP—used to be my friend Mai's favorite brand), a Beard Papa, HIS Travel...basically, a solid lineup of Japanese businesses that would made us really excited. Martin took us to lunch at gr/eats, Giant Robot's only restaurant, and to the two GR stores on Sawtelle and their nearby office.

Restaurant has an extensive fish menu and amazing art on wooden panels by Ai Yamaguchi.

Benihana Founder Rocky Aoki Dies

Rocky Aoki, famous Japanese restauranteur, died yesterday in New York City. He was 69. He's known for many things--he started the world-famous restaurant chain Benihana in 1964; he was a notorious playboy in his heyday (he supposedly had three of his seven kids in one year, all by different women); he is the father of supermodel actress Devon Aoki; he was arrested for insider trading in 1999; and way before any of that happened, he was an Olympic wrestler. Cause of death is uncertain, although he is known to have had health problems, like Hep C and diabetes. Benihana shares fell 25 cents today.

Rest in peace, Rocky Aoki. Link

Abacus iPhone App Offers Alternative to the Calculator

In Japan, it's not uncommon for someone to still do math on their abacus. I even had to take an abacus class during summer school as a kid—and I didn't even go to a Japanese school. In a way, it makes a lot more sense than a digital calculator. Anyway, some clever developer created this abacus app for the iPhone. You use the touchscreen to move the balls up and down to do your calculations, and i has a motion sensor so that you can shake the phone to clear it. You can see a video of it in action here.

Link

Robot Pours Asahi Beer, Speaks British English

Who needs human bartenders when you can have a robot pour your pint? Asahi has partnered with UK department store Selfridges to showcase this guy, who claims to be the world's first bartending bot. It weighs a quarter of a ton, speaks with a British accent, and can snap open a bottle and pour you a pint with perfect precision. He doesn't even expect you to tip.

Link

Photo Gallery: People Lined up for iPhone

The Mainichi has a fun photo gallery of people waiting in line for the iPhone in Omotesando, two days early. Notice that all the hard core fans are young-ish, hipster geek guys.

I want an iPhone, but not that badly.

Come to my Book Signing at Double Punch!

Sticker Tells You How Stressed Out Your Dog Is

I picked up this little mood-telling sticker in Tokyo, and I tested it out on my minpin Ruby. The three different colors on the sticker indicate relaxation, stress, and extreme stress. Ruby, it turns out, is very relaxed. Whew.

First iPhone Sale in Japan: 7AM, Omotesando

If you want to be the first person in Japan to own a 3G iPhone, get prepared to line up in Omotesando—the flagship Softbank store in Omotesando will be selling the handset first, at 7am on the 11th. Every other Softbank mobile shop will opens its doors at noon.

Related stories:
Some basic info on the Japanese input system for the 3G iPhone
In Japan, the iPhone will sell out on Day 1

Link (Japanese)

Japan Japan: A Movie about a Gay Israeli Japanophile

Despite its seemingly patriotic title, Japan Japan is not really about Japan at all—it's the first feature length film by Israeli film director Lior Shamriz, and it's about a soul-searching 19 year old boy in Tel Aviv. ("More than a Middle-Eastern movie about Japan, this movie (is) a film from the middle east that would have preferred to have been Japanese," he writes.)

Imri, the protagonist, longs to go to Japan. His mom thinks he's crazy and his friends keep asking him when he's going as he daydreams about shrines and masturbates to Japanese mass orgies. It's a fun film with snapshot scenes of urban youth life in Israel and nostalgic Japanese music that'll make you wish you were watching kohaku in the 70s.

This film was screened at San Francisco's Frameline LGBT Film Festival last month. I drove by the Castro Theater right before showtime, and the line went all the way down the block. 

 

Waterproof Vibrating Love Pillow

I found this bright red, slippery shiny Love Pillow while walking around a Roppongi superstore one night with Kayoko and Lara. From the picture, it looks like you can use it as a pillow or as a more standard stick-shaped vibrator. It's waterproof, too, so you can use it in the shower or hot tub.

Japan's Hottest Celebrity Bloggers on Wired.com

When I was in Japan in February, I went to an event casually named the Blogger Dinner. There, I met 30-40 Japanese bloggers. We had Indian food, talked about what we write about, and did a quick slideshow presentation introducing our blogs to everybody (I talked briefly about TokyoMango).

Anyway, what I found out was that the word "blogger" has different connotations in Japan. There, if you're a blogger you're probably a hot celebrity who keeps an online diary, or blog, to enhance popularity. I researched some of the top "bloggers" and put them together in a gallery, published on Wired.com today. Check it out!

Japan's Hottest Celebrity Bloggers [Wired.com]

Video: Me in a Real Japanese Game Show

Last week, I blogged about the new ABC reality series I Survived a Japanese Game Show, and how unrealistic and kinda racist it is. I just dug up this old clip from Muscle Park, a game show-based amusement park in Odaiba, Tokyo. Sadly, this amateur YouTube vid that my brother took of me doing the Sasuke challenge  is a much more accurate depiction of what a Japanese game show is really like than ABC's multi-million dollar version. They actually had a live commentator at each game, which made it super funny.

Related stories:
Lara's Coordination Skillz Video from Muscle Park
Don't Drop the Basketball!

Mangobot: Four Anime Robots That Made Me More Human

On Mangobot, my biweekly futurism column, I write about four anime robots that influenced my childhood—Astro Boy, Arale-chan, Doraemon, and Gundam.

My childhood hero was a purple-haired robot who spends all her free time poking poop with a stick. Like all good Japanese children, my formative years were influenced by manga robot heroes—two-dimensional, two-legged machines that first existed in simple black-and-white on newsprint.

Keep reading...

Sake Bottle USB Drive

Can't  go to work without your sake? Maybe you can fend off your cravings with this 256MB USB drive with a miniature sake bottle attached to it. It'll be a constant reminder of what you could be doing if you didn't have to frigging work all the time.

Product page (Japanese)

A Lighter that Looks like a Match

This is a cute little lighter. It looks like a match, and you just click on this little button on the side to turn it on.

Link

Vending Machines Tell You How Old You Look

One of the wonderful things about Japan is that anybody can buy cigarettes from a vending machine. Even a 10 year old. But recently, some vending machine companies have started to implement face recognition technology that would guess the buyer's age based o the size of their facial features and bone structure and then decide if they were underage or not. The government just announced its approval of this method for nationwide use.

The crackdown on cigarette purchases by minors began with the Taspo Card, a card you have to have in order to buy smokes from a machine. Hasn't been universalized yet, but that's the plan. It serves the same purpose as a driver's license when you show ID at a smoke shop in the US.

I wonder how accurate the face recognition tech is though. It would suck if you're just young-looking or have really small bones. And I have definitely seen some 12 year olds with bigger heads than their parents.

Link

 

Donburiya, Yummy Restaurant in Midtown NYC

I'm at JFK airport, returning from a 5-day trip to NYC, my ex-home city. One of the things I missed the most here is the awesome midtown Japanese lunch restaurants. On Wed, I went to Donburiya on 47th with an old high school friend. Had the most amazing oyakodon ever. I actually wanted everything on the menu—tonkatsu with oroshi daikon, Japanese hamburger steak, katsu curry, dessert!...but I only had an hour and one meal's worth of an appetite. Oh, gotta board

Digg Bot Man Arrested

On June 28, a man in Nagasaki was caught with a DIY Digg bot in his house. The robotic arm dugg more than 3,000 stories in 2 days through sophisticated story detection mechanisms. You can see it at work in this video. I don't know why the commentator talks like a robot, too. It's a little strange. Also a little strange that it's illegal to make Digg bots. People rig Digg manually all the time. Besides, why do Japanese police care if he's violating Digg's user policy? I don't understand, but maybe I'm missing something.

via Pink Tentacle

Cell Phone Use Officially Supercedes Land Lines

The land line era is officially over, people. A report released last week showed that, in the last fiscal year, more calls were placed from cell phones than from home, office, or public pay phone. It's right on the cusp still—50.3% of calls were made on cell phones—but it's a number that's quickly rising and will no doubt keep at it. The study also found that people talk much longer on cell phones. Must be all that hanging around at hachiko-time.

Link

Candle "Eats" Smoke, Gets Rid of Cigarette Stench

The idea behind this ashtray candle is that, by having a scented candle right next to the ashtray, the flame from the candle will absorb the cigarette smoke and mask the stench with its aroma. There are three smells to choose from—ocean mist, green apple, and coffee. The manufacturers claim that it's a special odor-eating candle, but I don't have any specific details on how it does that. It is named the Smoke Eater.

Oil-Blotting Paper looks like a 10,000 Yen Bill

Who doesn't want to wipe their sweat with a 10,000 yen bill? Now, thanks to a new beauty product by toymaker Bandai, you can. Their new oil-blotting papers are named Fukuzawa Yukichi after the famous founder of Keio University whom you'll find on the 10,000 yen bill—the biggest bill in Japan, roughly equivalent to $100. Except the characters are a little different: the oil-blotter uses the character for "wipe" to spell out Fuku and the character for "oil" to spell Yu.

It comes in a wallet-shaped case and is sold in convenience stores nationwide—20 big ones for 315 yen. I love how Yukichi is depicting wiping sweat off his forehead.

Train-Shaped, Yamanote Line-Themed Tape Measure

 

The Yamanote Line is the awesomest train line in the web of super-efficient high-speed rails that run through Tokyo. It green and silver cars are recognizable almost anywhere—it's famous for running in a giant circle in the middle of the city and, like most Japanese trains, for almost never being late. It's owned by Japan Railways, the same company that runs bullet trains across the country. When I'm in Tokyo, I live on the Yamanote Line, and I'm no train geek but I know exactly how long it takes from station to station for the entire southern half of it.

So you can understand why I think this Yamanote Line-themed tape measure is the coolest thing ever. The tape pulls out of an actual replica, and as you continue to pull it out, you see each station name come out in sequence along the top of the centimeter readings. They're written in authentic train station style format, too.

Link (Amazon Japan)

Man in Dog Mask Robs Convenience Stores to Feed Pets

A 28-year old man was caught on tape while robbing convenience stores in Osaka in a dog mask. His motive? To feed his two dogs, five cats, five turtles, two snakes, and his fish tank full of tropical fish. The guy, Takaharu Kuwata, managed to get over $5,500 in total from three hold-ups before he was arrested in March. Kuwata was on welfare and he claims that the monthly checks he was getting weren't enough to pay for his pet expenses.

Now the guy is in police custody, and his pets were handed over to a local pet shop.

Woof.

Link