TOKYOMANGO

Get your hand-printed limited edition TokyoMango t-shirt now (2 weeks only)

My friend Ben and I made a test run of TokyoMango t-shirts on Saturday. They're really nice, do you want one? If so, you can buy one here. Below are the details:

- All shirts are 100% cotton.
- Each t-shirt will be hand-silk screened by me and Ben on his Yudu machine. The shirt logo was custom-designed by Ben. Mango design courtesy of my web designer James.
- The Women's tees come in a t-shirt style (pistacio and white) and a spaghetti strap ribbed tank (yellow).
- The Men's tees come in orange and white. In the pic above, Ben is actually accidentally wearing a girl's tee, but you get the idea... the sleeves will be more manly on the one you get.
- You can choose a custom colored tee for $25. Just shoot me an email with your preference after you place the order.
- The sizes tend to run a little big (except for the tanktops). They might shrink in the wash.
- Some of you will receive a free surprise Japanese toy or gadget with your t-shirt! I'm just gonna randomly stick them into bags, so keep an eye out.
- We're taking orders over the next two weeks only, at least for this first printing. They'll ship at the end of those two weeks, when Ben & I will silkscreen them by hand.
- Last day to order is Monday, October 5th.

UPDATE: T-shirts are no longer for sale. Maybe we'll do another round sometime!

Four year old killed by two dogs owned by a lawyer

A four-year old boy died today while visiting his grandma. He was mauled by two dogs belonging to a local lawyer, who owned a little yard that the dogs and the kid were playing in at the time of the incident. The lawyer's name is Takamitsu Shikichi. No word yet as to whether charges will be held against him.

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Video of Friday's bus terminal bear attack

People taking a break at a bus terminal not too far from Tokyo were stunned on Friday by a sudden bear attack that left 4 people seriously injured. The black bear was preparing for hibernation and out looking for food. He was shot dead after he ran into the terminal building. Here's a low-res video of him taken by a tourist of the bear mauling one of his victims.

Taiji dolphins freed due to pressure from The Cove

I just got this information from the Oceanic Preservation Society, the organization behind the documentary The Cove about the dolphin killings in Taiji:

Fishermen in Taiji, Japan will be releasing captured dolphins this week in response to international outcry following the award-winning film “The Cove.” Some of the dolphins captured during the annual round up will be sold to aquariums, and while the rest are typically slaughtered in secret, the fishermen will be releasing them because of recent criticism.

...An anonymous Taiji fisheries official said that it’s not clear whether the town will stop killing dolphins permanently. Taiji residents see the dolphin hunt as a tradition that is no different than killing other animals for food. However, the dolphins that are killed and sold as food, often as mislabeled whale meat, contain toxic levels of mercury and are potentially poisoning Japanese consumers.

...The fishermen in Taiji captured about 100 bottlenose dolphins and 50 pilot whales on Wednesday, with plans to sell some of their catch to aquariums for up to $150,000 per animal.

The Taiji government hasn't confirmed yet whether the killings will be halted permanently, but the fact that they're on hold means that they're listening.

Related stories:
The Cove, an upcoming documentary about dolphins in Taiji
Dolphin slaughter: horrible injustice, or just another meal?

Nori-P arrested for drug possession

For those of you who have been following celebrity news in Japan, the biggest fiasco this week was the disappearance of actress Noriko Sakai, aka Nori-P, whose surfer dude husband had been arrested last Sunday for possession of drugs. Not sure exactly what kind. Sakai, aka Nori-P, is now 38 has been popular in Japan and all over Asia for two decades. After this drug accusation Toyota pulled ads featuring the actress off of their web site. The actress turned herself in yesterday after leaving her 10-year old son with a friend.

It's always a huge media frenzy when a Japanese celebrity is caught with recreational drugs. I don't think it should be &mdash there are bigger things the country can and should be worried about.

Bill Clinton meets Kim Jong Il, frees American journalists

Have you heard the great news? Former president Bill Clinton went to North Korea in his private jet and had a non-official meeting with Kim Jong Il. They talked for awhile, took this wonderful photo against the bird-and-stormy wave backdrop in North Korea, and at the end of the day KJI decided to forgive and send back the two American journalists that he had imprisoned. BNO claims that the two women, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, have already left the DPRK with Clinton on his jet, though the NY Times hasn't confirmed that yet. Either way, go Bill Clinton!

(Photo: KCNA via Reuters)

Man intimidated into admitting murder is set free after 17 years in prison

Disturbing good news of the day: 62-year old Toshikazu Sugaya of Tochigi Prefecture was released from prison after serving 17+ years of a life sentence, when new DNA tests proved that he wasn't the perpetrator after all. Sugaya was convicted of killing a 4-year old girl in December 1991. He claims he was threatened, beaten, and intimidated by the detectives on the case, who told him he would be better off just making a confession. Likewise, during the trial, Sugaya feared that the detectives would be in the courtroom waiting to pounce on him if he said he was innocent. So he pled guilty, even though he didn't do it.

Sugaya was released from prison last night, greeted by flowers and a herd of reporters. He plans on heading back to his hometown to see his family. He won't be able to see all of them, though &mdash his father expired from shock over his son's conviction, and his mother died a natural death two years ago. The person who actually committed the crime is now free forever under the 15-year statute of limitations. Understandably, Sugaya feels like he was robbed of a huge chunk of his life. He said this to reporters on the scene:

I can never forgive the detectives and prosecutors at that time. I want them to apologize to me, and bring my life back to me.

Japan reinstated the jury system this year, which is great, but we need to make sure there are enough protections in place for the accused so they feel safe standing by their word. No legal system is perfect, I know. But 17 years is a long time to atone for something you didn't do.

The first thing Sugaya wants to do with his long-deserved freedom is eat sushi and sing karaoke.

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Two recent fears: swine flu and North Korea

The news in Japan these days has been veering in the direction of scared. For one thing, swine flu has Japanese people canceling trips to Mexico and even California after some people who deplaned a San Francisco-Tokyo flight were diagnosed with swine flu. Pharmacies are selling out of face masks, and everyone is talking about it. My mom called yesterday and asked if the US is struck with the same fear as they are in Tokyo. I told her I don't know.

Second, North Korea's back at it again with its nuclear testing and Japan-hating on its news site, brandishing headlines like "KCNA Report on One More Successful Underground Nuclear Test" next to headlines like "Japan Can Never Evade Responsibility for Its Past Crimes against Humanity."

I wonder which is more likely to happen, a major swine flu outbreak or a North Korean nuclear attack. I'm gonna vote for neither.

"What's wrong with getting naked?" t-shirts for sale

Inspired by the recent debacle over SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's drunken naked rants last week, someone is selling these t-shirts online with his now-famous quote: What's wrong with getting naked? on them. I kind of want one, although the fact that it's on a t-shirt is kinda ironic, because if you're wearing it you're not really naked. Maybe go bottomless to get the point across?

Product page (Thanks, Jenn!)

Swimmy's party for job-hunting investment bankers in Tokyo

My enterprising college sempai Swimmy Minami was on Bloomberg today, in a story about his new high-end online head-hunting firm, BizReach. He had a big party at Heartland in Roppongi where he invited people searching for jobs that pay $100K or more—Heartland was the investment banker hangout back in the heyday before Lehman died. He called it the Pink Slip Party—cute! Swimmy is a great guy—smart (he graduated summa cum laude from Tufts even though every time I saw him he was just screwing around with his friends), motivated, and kind (I ran into him once at Ala Moana Shopping Center in Hawaii, where he was frantically trying to fulfill a two-page illustrated shopping list from his girlfriend). I wish him the best! (Thanks, Yushi!)

Girl with cancer goes to healing hot spring

8-year old Nanako Murakami has brain cancer. 99% of her bone marrow is cancerous, and she has neuroblastoma even after a stem cell transplant. So her 48-year old mother decided to do for her what many older patients do to heal—she took her to a Fukushima spa called Yawaragi no Yu that has natural radioactive hot rocks that supposedly cure the deadly disease. Apparently, she's the youngest visitor there ever--other kids are usually denied entry because of the risk of side effects.

I hope this works for Nanako-chan.

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Abductee's son prepares to meet North Korean spy

When Koichiro Iizuka was 21, his uncle told him the truth about his mother—that she was abducted by North Korean spies when he was one year old. Now 32, Iizuka is going to have the interesting opportunity to meet anex-North Korean spy, Kim Hyun-Hee, in South Korea tomorrow. The mother, Yaeko Taguchi, was abducted in Tokyo when she was 22, then taken to North Korea where she was forced to teach spies Japanese. Kim was one of her students. She was later arrested for bombing Korean Air Flight 858m from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok and killing over 100 people who were on board.

Iizuka and his uncle, Taguchi's brother, are hoping to find out a little bit about what she was like. "(I want) to hear about her manners, her habits, and catch a glimpse of my mother," he told the Mainichi.

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Marijuana plants found in abandoned, burned down house

A house in Gunma burned down a couple of weeks ago. Nobody lived there. Neighbors were told that it was being used to run a recycling plant by the people who occasionally went in and out. Anyway, after the fire, investigators went in and found hundreds of pots full of marijuana plants. This could lead to a giant drug bust. Stay tuned.

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Stabbings, shootings, and chopped up sex slaves

Maybe it's the giant moon making us all crazy, but there's a plethora of violent crime in the Japanese newspapers today. A professor at Chuo University was found stabbed to death this morning in a campus bathroom. A disgruntled Tochigi truck driver shot his ex-girlfriend and her dad on Monday as they were getting out of their car, injuring both. He was arrested for illegal possession of a handgun and attempted murder. On the stranger front, a 34-year old man who blamed his low self esteem on visible burn marks on his legs admitted to slicing up a 23-year old abductee and boiling her bones before flushing them down the toilet. He claims he wanted to make her a sex slave; he was pretty sure nobody would ever sleep with him because of his outward appearance, so he kidnapped her and tried to rape her, but failed—so he killed her instead. The police think the murder part was not premeditated. Like I said, he just wanted a sex slave.

Reduced department store hours are a sign of a flagging Japanese economy

You know the economy's shot when Japan's department giants Isetan and Mitsukoshi are closing it's doors to the public once a week. Department stores generally run seven days a week in Japan, but with sales down ten percent in the earlier half of December 2008 as compared to the same period in 2007, the Isetan Mitsukoshi Holding Ltd.decided to run their stores only six days out of the week. They are also going to shorten hours of operation, and kick some of their staff to the curb. They calculated that this drastic move will save them two billion yen a year.This is scary because Japan's a consumer nation. They even have this credit-pay system in department stores where customers can buy pricey items and make payments every month until everything is paid off. This system also applies to luxury brands such as Chanel and the like. According to some estimates, Japanese consumers buy up 40% of the luxury goods sold throughout the world. Who knew the day would come where branded labels worry about gyarus, OLs, and other Japanese fashionistas forgoing their products. Hell seriously has frozen over. (by Emily Co)

Update (via Jean Snow): It isn’t once a week, but rather once a month, and is restricted to regional stores.

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Tokyo = the final frontier of smoking in restaurants

Japan's one of the few countries that still allow smoking in restaurants. NYC city banned smoking in bars and restaurants a few years ago; even Paris no longer allows it! But in Tokyo, folks are still puffing away while you cook your okonomiyaki or slurp on ramen. A new survey, conducted by Pfizer, showed that 70% of Japanese are bothered by smoke in restaurants. Will this lead to a nationwide ban on smoking indoors? I don't know. I kinda doubt it. Especially not based on research conducted by a US big pharma company.

Interestingly, certain wards in Tokyo do ban smoking on the streets. My friend James got fined in Akihabara for it. And they're trying to tighten restrictions against underage smoking, too, with things like the ID and face scanner on cigarette vending machines.

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Happy holiday trivia from TokyoMango

Happy Holly-days! Where are you? I am in Lake Tahoe skiing it up through Christmas. It's been snowing a lot. The Internet is slightly uncooperative. The dogs are nestled under a blanket. A bit of winter trivia:

- In Japan, Christmas is for couples and New Years is for families.
- You will no longer be able to buy cold medicine on the Internet come June.
- Emperor Akihito turned 75 yesterday. He's been sick a lot, but managed to make an appearance in front of the people. After that they went to an Imperial party. I wonder what that was like!

I'm hitting the slopes in about a half hour, and then, weather permitting, headed up to Reno to visit some high school friends who happen to be in town.

Man dies after being thrown in the air at his retirement party

There was a really sad story on Yahoo! yesterday about a Japanese man who died because of a freak accident at his retirement party. He worked hard until age 60, but when his colleagues threw him in the air as celebration, nobody caught him on his way down. As a result, the man damaged his neck and back bone and lived the last 10 months of his life completely paralyzed. The wife is filing a gross negligence claim against the 40 coworkers who were there at the incident.

Call me a boring old person, but I don't really understand why people like to celebrate milestones in such big, messy ways. My friend James took me to a male strip club in New York City last week, and there was an elder woman who seemed to be celebrating her retirement there. Her friends paid $50 to get her on stage, where a bulky hunky male stripper threw her on the floor and started humping her face. We were seriously afraid she would suffer from either whiplash or a heart attack. For me, 21 was the last year where I felt like I should go wild with celebration. For my most recent birthday, I ate a lot of cake and went on a hike.

via Boing Boing

Tokyo's popular fish market bans tourists

Tsukiji fish market is one of Tokyo's favorite tourist destinations. People get a kick out of seeing the giant freshly caught tuna being auctioned off and cheap super-fresh toro to eat. Some mornings rack up up to 500 tourists in a single morning. But local fishermen and other staff are now complaining about insensitive tourists causing more trouble than the publicity is worth. The auctions are supposed to be off limits to tourists, but since the auctioneers only speak Japanese, they can't tell foreign tourists not to watch. New Years is one of the busiest seasons for the commercial market—so to avoid unnecessary traffic then, the government decided to ban all unbuying spectators from Dec 15 to Jan 17. That'll suck for tourists who planned their trips already and were banking on seeing this, but I think it's ok to protect local industry from tourists sometimes.

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Was Kazuyoshi Miura murdered?

Was Kazuyoshi Miura's apparent suicide in a LA jail cell a conspiracy? An American lawyer investigating the case of his death shortly after arrival in the US earlier this month came on TV yesterday and announced that they're investigating the possibility of murder. Miura, accused of killing his wife in an LA parking lot in the early 80s, was found hanging in his cell shortly after being extradited from Japan. He was being held in Saipan for about six months prior to coming to LA.

Anyhow, they took his body down and found that he had been hit in the back and found strangle marks on his neck. They're looking into it. There are some strangeties about the whole case—weird that it was so suddenly resurrected, brought out of Japan, and that he promptly died as soon as he was no longer in a safe zone. Hmmm. I'll keep you posted on what they conclude. 

Japanese OJ Simpson commits suicide in California

Kazuyoshi Miura was called the Japanese O.J. Simpson because the suspicion that he killed his wife caused a huge media frenzy. The 1981 death of his then-28-year old wife appeared to be the result of a gun robbery in a LA parking lot. Then, a former mistress came out and said that Miura had asked her to kill his wife multiple times. The US Air Force had returned Miura to Japan, where he was convicted of attempted murder in 1987 but set free in 1998. He was arrested again in Saipan earlier this year and extradited to California on Friday to face trial there again for the same murder.

Later that day, he hanged himself in his cell. Maybe he got scared. He was having a hard time calling his lawyers in Japan and he also complained that he didn't have a reading light. I just can't stop wondering what his baseball cap in this photo says.

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Mom kills son with a cell phone strap

This morning, a 35-year old Fukuoka mother admitted to having strangled her 6-year old son with his cell phone strap. The boy was found dead—wedged in between a column and wall of a park bathroom—four days ago. The mother claimed that the boy had disappeared while she was peeing—a search immediately followed, and neighbors found the unconscious body nearby and his cell phone tossed into a nearby bush. A reporter on the scene was on TV today, explaining why the mom was under suspicion throughout the short-lived investigation—for example, she was crying his name out desperately while neighbors looked for clues, but when they finally found the body, she refused to look at it. Also, the GPS-enabled cell phone, which she had urged investigators to track in order to find the boy, had no fingerprints on it. She must have wiped it clean before tossing it aside.

It's common for elementary school kids to carry around GPS-enabled cell phones so parents can keep track of there whereabouts. In Japan, kids start commuting to school on their own from as early as kingergarten.

Fake dead body was some guy's virtual girlfriend

Just under a month ago, a couple walking their dog in the woods found a dead body, bound and wrapped in plastic. They called the cops, who unwrapped not a human corpse but a sex doll. It was all over the news. Investigators finally figured out who was responsible for this scare. They also found that that this wasn't a prank, but the real "murder" of a man-on-plastic romantic relationship gone awry. 

Pink Tentacle writes:  

According to investigators, the man had lived with the sophisticated doll for several years after his wife passed away, but decided to part with her after making plans to move in with one of his children. “It seems he grew attached to the doll over the years,” said the chief investigator. “He was confused about how to get rid of her. He thought it would be cruel to cut her up into pieces and throw her out with the trash, so he proceeded to dump her illegally.”

The guilty owner was a 60-year old unemployed man who may be fined for violating the Waste Management Law.

Is Kim Jong-Il dead, paralyzed, or alive and well?

Nobody knows for 100% certain what exactly is wrong with Kim Jong-Il. Many news outlets are now reporting that he most definitely had a stroke recently. South Korea's National Intelligence Service, a collective of spies that supposedly has the most information on North Korea anywhere, announced on Wednesday night that he was recovering from the rumored stroke, but that the left side of his body may be paralyzed. Of course, nobody knows for sure, because nobody ever knows for sure what is going on north of the Korean border. I just checked the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's official news portal to the rest of the world, but as always it's chock full of propaganda—flower baskets and honorary hymns by foreign countries who love to celebrate their Dear Leader. Some say that Kim didn't make his usual highly anticipated appearance at the country's 60th anniversary celebration. Kind of a big deal. But again, I wasn't there, so I don't know if it's true.

One Waseda University professor, Toshimitsu Shigemura, believes that Kim Jong-Il has been dead for years, and that he's being represented publicly by a body double. Who knows? This could be true too. Or maybe it's all just rumors created to make us start talking about North Korea again, or to distract us from the apocalyptic nuclear attack they've been planning for years.

Occupation era letters found in Nebraska bookstore

A used bookstore owner in York, Nebraska found more than 1000 pages of correspondence written by Elizabeth Ryan, a woman who lived in occupied Japan after World War 2. In letters to her family, Ryan wrote in detail about the daily lives of US service members in Kobe and Tokyo. She had been working as a court reporter for the inspector general of SCAP in Kobe at the age of 31. There were also 250 black-and-white photos.

Ryan wrote about how common venereal disease and juvenile delinquency were in occupied Japan. She also talked about how over 120 mixed-race babies were left at an orphanage in Yokohama, the result of affairs between US servicemen and Japanese women. An excerpt:

The social problem of VD — one that is hush-hush at home and in polite civilized circles, is common talk here. A unit is given a commendation when it goes for several weeks without any new cases of VD. Can you imagine the Army requiring dance hall hostesses be examined at the dispensary twice a week — to be sure they are not infecting the boys?

Fascinating!

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Japan Airlines Doubles Flights to Hangzhou

Japan Airlines just announced that it's doubling the number of flights to Hangzhou, a city of 4 million right by the Yangtze River delta. Apparently the reason is business, not tourism—but it's interesting to see such a dramatic increase in air travel at a time when most airlines are canceling flights left and right to make up for high fuel costs.

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Why It's Hard to be Prime Minister

It's really, really tough being the prime minister of Japan. Not that many dudes have been able to pull it off for more than a year or two at a time. Koizumi was in office for about five years, which was a miracle, given that the last guy who hung in there that long was Yasuhiro Nakasone, 1982-1987.

It's been just under a year since Shinzo Abe resigned, citing health issues. Now his successor, Yasuo Fukuda, is calling it quits too. He was pretty unpopular. Most of them are.

With just a couple of exceptions, Japan has been ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (which, contrary to what it's name suggests, is a conservative party). Most Japanese have accepted its dominance as a fact of life, and as it goes, this has yielded widespread complacency about politics among the people. Even if somebody wanted to create change, though, it would be nearly impossible to do so because of the faction system even within each party, the importance of seniority, and, well, all kinds of other internal politics.

The guy who explained this all to me while I was a grad student at Columbia was Gerry Curtis, who is probably the #1 Japan expert in the world. If you're even remotely interested in this stuff, I strongly suggest you read his book, The Logic of Japanese Politics. Total eye-opener.

People in Japan Love Obama

Since Senator Obama didn't give the Japanese press any face time during the Democratic National Convention, one TV station got an Obama impersonator to give a speech about what kind of relations he would want to have with Japan, and why he didn't choose Hillary as his running mate.

People in Japan love Obama. So if you find this video offensive for any reason, just know that it was made with the best of intentions, and he doesn't say anything racist. He does make a silly joke: "If I become president and Fukuda remains prime minister, I would like us to call each other Fuku-chan and Oba-chan." 

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Americans Suspected of Attacking Japanese Whaler with R/C Planes

There's a lot of buzz about the warrant for arrest issued by the government for three Sea Shepherds—two Americans and a Brit—who are suspected of planning an attack on a Japanese whaler using remote controlled planes. Sea Shepherd is a radical Washington-based non-profit that protects whales, dolphins, and sharks and offers rewards of up to $10,000 to people who offer hints on where to find Japanese whaler boats and Scottish seal killers. As this Operation Musashi logo implies, they're serious and ready to fight!

In addition to trying to bomb the boat with radio-controlled planes last February, the Sea Shepherds are accused of damaging the propellers with rope and launching smoke candles onto the deck.

This reminds me of the dolphin slaughter video from last year. Can't we just all get along?

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Airlines Displays Memorabilia from 1985 Plane Crash

The biggest airborne tragedy to ever hit Japan took place in 1985, when a Japan Airlines flight en route to Osaka from Tokyo crashed into a mountain ridge shortly after takeoff, killing all but four of its 524 passengers. It happened exactly 23 years ago, during the Obon holiday, and is the deadliest single airplane crash in history. Kyu Sakamoto, the guy who first sang the now-famous "Sukiyaki" song, died on the plane, as did the grandfather of one of my best friends from middle school.

Today, there are still about 2,700 items found at the crash site in Gunma that have not been claimed by relatives of the deceased. These include watches, glasses, keys, camera lenses, and a calculator—small things. Starting next Monday, Japan Airlines will be displaying some of these items at Tokyo's Haneda Airport as part of a campaign on air safety.

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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.

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

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

Another Knife-Toting Geek Makes Headlines

Less than two weeks after the Akiba killing spree, one of the top stories on Mainichi today is about another knife-wielding man who was roaming the streets of Akiba. The article doesn't make it clear why they were questioning the guy in the first place. Was he waving it around? Probably not—it just says "they found a knife in his rucksack." Is it illegal to be carrying a knife around in your backpack? Dunno. Anyway, the cops confiscated the weapon, suffering a few surface wounds in the process. I just thought it was interesting that this was the most popular news story of the day when there really doesn't seem to be much of a story there. Is it insinuating that otakus with knives are dangerous? Again, I just don't know.

Video of the Akiba Killer's Crime Spree

Here's a pretty detailed news report about the Akihabara killings on Sunday.

On Sundays, most major shopping districts close streets off to traffic so pedestrians can walk around worry-free on the main roads. Around 12:30PM, a crazy man in a giant truck bulldozed through such a crossing in the middle of Akiba, killing 7 and injuring 10. He had rented the truck in Shizuoka, a couple hours from Tokyo, telling the car rental place that he was moving house. The guy rolled in, ran over 3 people with his truck, then got off the truck and ran around stabbing people until he was arrested. Even if you don't understand Japanese, this video shows the route he took and some photos and clips from the crime scene.

Apparently, the guy premeditated his crime on 2channel. Someone found a bulletin board posting by a person who said he was going to rent a truck and kill people. And maybe even stab some people if the truck wasn't enough. He is also a known Akiba enthusiast who had a collection of anime and manga in the company dorm where he lived. He also had no family.

The 25-year old perpetrator, Tomohiro Kato, says he was just tired of life.

Correction: I made that part up about him not having family. He had parents, they showed up on TV crying. Sorry about that.

Restaurant Owner Arrested for Serving Alcohol to Drunk Driver

In Japan, a lot of people are responsible for drunk driving.
The driver, of course. The new law states zero tolerance. It's strictly enforced with cops patrolling the late-night weekend roads, and there are taxi services that will drive your car home for you if you get too drunk.

Passengers who get into a car with a drunk driver are also considered to be at fault.I forget what the exact fine amount is, but you can get penalized for getting in a car with someone who's been drinking.

Restaurants that serve alcohol to people who cause drunk driving accidents are guilty, too. Yesterday, an unlucky restaurant owner in Saitama was convicted to two years in prison when one of his customers left and got into a head-on collision that caused two deaths. I think the same laws apply in the US—I remember learning about that in bartending school a long time ago.

 

What's it like in your country?

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Japanese Seniors Find Raison d'Etre on Match.com

In Japan, a lot of the older generation has been reluctant to adopt Internet use. Not anymore. Recently, more people in their fifties and sixties are going on Match.com to find love. The guy in the picture is a 65-year old cab driver named Yoichi Kawamura. He has been divorced for twenty-some years, but now, he's dating three different women. "My horizons are wider and my life is richer," he told Reuters.

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Caught on Tape: Angry Salaryman Lashes Out at Tulips

When hundreds of tulips in flower beds along the street were found headless in Gunma prefecture earlier this month, police looked back at surveillance tapes from the crime scenes. Today, they released these images of a middle-aged salaryman hacking at the flowers with his umbrella in front of a government building.

We don't know who he is yet, but I can make two immediate predictions about his motive: he was angry, or he hates tulips. Or both. At least he wasn't beheading dogs or little children.

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Crocs Blamed for Escalator Accidents

Crocs + escalators = bad news.

Reports of over sixty instances of feet getting stuck on escalator grids since last summer led to an investigation into the safety of Crocs on escalators. Crocs are made of resin; they're soft, stretchy, and not very slippery on non-lubricated surfaces, like many escalators. And they're still relatively popular in Japan. One five year old girl broke her toe trying to get off of one when her foot got stuck in the side of it. Ouch.

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American Girl Goes to Japan to Commit Suicide

Skye Lynn Budnick is an American college student from Connecticut with dark brown hair and a pretty bad case of depression. When she disappeared on April 1st, family member checked her email inbox and found evidence that she had bought a one-way ticket to Hokkaido. They also found a suicide note addressed to one of her friends, saved as a draft. They're pretty sure she went to Japan to die, because she had told her sister in the past that that was what she wanted to do.

Her parents and sister flew to Hokkaido, got the US embassy involved, held a press conference, and are launching a full-scale search.

I wonder why Skye chose Japan as her final destination. Maybe she's heard stories of all the various ways that people commit suicide there, and was intrigued. Or maybe she just wanted to see the cherry blossoms, which bloom later this month in Hokkaido. Maybe she just likes manga and anime and Japanese men. Who knows? I hope they find her.

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Elementary School Breaks Guinness Record with a 118-Person Walk

An elementary school in Shinjuku ward hosted a Guinness World Record-breaking 118-legged walk today. Here's a picture of 117 people tied together by the ankles, about to start the "race." They comprised of students, teachers, and parents celebrating the centennial of Ushigome-Nakano Elementary School. The previous record was set by a bunch of consultants in the UK last September, and that was with 77 people.

Pretty awesome teamwork, I'd say.

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113-Year Old Grandma Dies

Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113 years old, died yesterday from old age. Born in August 1894, she was the oldest living person in Japan. The last 12 years of her live were spent in a nursing home in Kochi Prefecture.

Wow, 113 is really old. The lady had five children, and I don't know if they are still alive, but if they are, they're probably in their 80s and 90s. I would feel extremely lucky to live until I'm 90, and even luckier if my mom was still alive then.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Toyonaga!

 

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Subterranean Vault Under Bank District Teaches Kids How to Farm

Inside an unused bank vault under one of Tokyo's busiest bank districts is a square kilometer of subterranean farm growing rice and providing part-time jobs to dozens of jobless youth who'd rather be farming part-time than working for a big company that will own them forever.

Pasona O2, as this facility is called, was built as a training facility for kids who might want to consider agriculture as a career alternative. Hey, why not? Could be better than working at a combini.

Pruned via Japundit

Obama Wins Japanese Primaries

The verdict's in: Americans living in Japan love Obama. For the first time ever this year, the primaries are being held globally. Obama won 83% of votes in Tokyo, 80% in Kyoto, and 70% in Nagoya. More votes are expected to come in via online and fax, but those won't be counted til Thursday.

The image on left is from Daily Portal Z, a creative online magazine owned by Nifty known for its creative, humorous, and not necessarily politically correct reporting. Here, a reporter goes to a town called Obama in his best Obama disguise.

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Cell Phones aren't Bad for your Brain

The verdict's out: You can't get brain cancer from using cell phones. Scientists at Tokyo Women's Medical University did a study with brain cancer patients and healthy people, and ound out that regular cell phone use didn't have a major effect.

I still don't believe in sleeping with your cell phone next to your head, though. If only because I don't think sleep should be interrupted by people drunk texting you.

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Text Msg Code for "I'm a Japanese School Girl Selling Sex"

Last week, cops broke up a schoolgirl prostitution ring in Saitama and Tokyo, arresting at least five junior high and high school girls who were selling sex online via their cell phones. One was a sixth grader. About 80% of the customers were pedophiles.

The amazing thing is that everything, including detailed ads soliciting customers, was written in code.

Take this piece of seemingly benign code, for example:

IkebLURV1700Yukichi2JC1

Ikeb = Ikebukuro. The neighborhood that the girl is in.
LURV = "I will have sex with you."
1700 = Time: 5PM
Yukichi2 = Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy whose face is on the 10,000 yen note x 2 = I cost 20,000 yen
JC = Joshi Chugakusei (Junior high school girl. JS would be elementary school girl, JK would be high school girl)
1 = Grade 1. In Japan, 1st year of junior high = 7th grade.

Parents are being warned to look out for code like this on their kids' cell phones. It's a sure sign that they're involved in the sex trade, too.

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Astronaut To Throw Boomerang From Space

The Japanese like to throw things from space. First it was paper airplanes. Now it's boomerangs. Astronaut Takao Doi took a break from space travel to take boomerang-throwing lessons from a world champion. He's now ready to throw one down to earth from the Kibo testing room at the International Space Station in March to see what happens.

The fifty-something year old astronaut is doing this at the request of the thirty-something year old boomerang champ. Got anything else you want Doi to throw down from space? Maybe you should ask him.

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Origami Airplane to Fly From Space to Earth

The Origami Paper Airplane Association is sending a super-strong, heat-resistant paper airplane from the International Space Station to earth with a message of peace. Read more

Former PM Abe: Resigned Because of Diarrhea?

It's official—former prime minister Shinzo Abe told the press that the main reason he resigned from his post last last year was because he had really bad diarrhea.

Abe has a condition called ulcerative colitis. It actually sounds really awful and painful—he's had it since the age of 17. Diplomatic trips to India, Malaysia, and Indonesia only worsened the condition, causing frequent urination and painful bleeding. Here it is in his own words:

To mention an indelicate matter, I rushed to the lavatory after having keen abdominal pains and saw the basin all red with tremendous bleeding. Bleeding causes slight anemia. More than anything else, though, you feel depressed as you see fresh blood every time you go to the toilet.

You can never get a good night's sleep as you shuttle between the bed and toilet.

The need to go to the toilet many times a day hampers election and other political activities very much.

Once ulcerative colitis worsens, I would need to go to the lavatory 30 times a day. It would be absolutely impossible to perform the heavy duties of prime minister.

His last straw was when he couldn't remember the lines of his parliament speech in September.

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Bicycle Rule Crack-Down!

Some people think Tokyo is all high-tech and futuristic, but one very blatant way that this isn't so at all is the amount of people who ride mama-chari, or those housewife-y bicycles with baskets on them, around town. People use it to get to the train station in the morning, to pick up their kids from school (kids ride in a little booster seat in the front or back), and to go grocery shopping.

This year, after 30 years of lawlessness, the police department is cracking down on cyclists by banning cell phone use, headphone use, and "triple-riding"—carrying two kids, one in front, one in back, on your bicycle—nationwide. They're also trying to pass a law banning riding on sidewalks, although this is going to be markedly harder to enforce among car-fearing cyclists.

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Japanese Cops To Attain Superhero Powers in 2008

This year, Japanese cops are getting a major upgrade in their policing skills—they're going to get superhero power equipment to help them fight kidnappers.

The Metropolitan Police Department is buying a Wall Through Radar, which can detect objects on the other end of a solid wall, and 80 headsets with air-activated transmitters that can hear things way beyond the capability of the normal human ear. The MPD is citing a gangster hostage crisis last April as its incentive to amp up its gear.

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Shu Uemura Dead at 79

Shu Uemura, the most famous Japanese name in makeup, died on December 29th. Ever since the nameless Hollywood beautician transformed Shirley MacLaine into a geisha for the 1962 flick My Geisha, the demand for Uemura's services skyrocketed. He started his cosmetics line shortly before that, in 1960, opened his first boutique in Tokyo in the 80s, and by now has shops all over London, New York, and Paris.

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