The Associated Press has a story of a unique defense against an assailant… a cup of tea. No word on whether the tea was oolong or green. I wonder if sake would have worked as well.
A man who appeared to be a laborer in his 60s allegedly pulled a knife and demanded money from a 30-year-old housewife as she was walking in a hallway at a downtown Tokyo apartment building Monday morning. The woman told her assailant that she had no money but he followed her and forced his way into her apartment, police said.
But rather than screaming, the woman served the man a cup of tea in hopes of calming him down.
The man put his knife away and began telling the woman about his financial hardship and asked her to lend him 10,000 yen ($94), police said.
Police said the woman put a 10,000 yen ($94) bill and a wallet containing about 30,000 yen ($280) on the table. When the man was looking the other way, she grabbed her daughter and ran out the door to call police from a nearby public phone.
What Japan Thinks has a report on an Internet survey about what Japanese people think are the greatest attributes of Japan and the Japanese people.
The top 10 responses. . .
1. A sense of the four seasons
2. Diligence
3. Kindness
4. Rich food culture
5. Ability to create cutting-edge technology
6. Courteousness
7. Strong sense of duty
8. Consideration of others
9. Flexibility in adopting new cultures
10. Manual dexterity
Other notables further down the list are “Ability to express things vaguely,” “Ability to distinguish between subtle differences in taste,” and “Good table manners.”
I guess not *all* Japanese are eating healthfully. ESPN is reporting that 6-time Nathan’s hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi lost for the second year in a row to his rival Joey Chestnut; this time in an unprecedented overtime period. Kobayashi is 30 years old and from Nagano. Do you think he trains for these contests? The amazing thing is that he is thin as a rail.
Joey Chestnut reclaimed the top spot at the annual hot dog eating contest on Coney Island on Friday after first tying with archrival Takeru Kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down, then beating him in a five-dog eat-off.
The men tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes, before being made to gobble another five dogs in a last-minute tiebreaker. They consumed 64 hot dogs total and were looking quite peaked after the competition.
Kobayashi had hoped to reclaim the throne after a disappointing three-dog loss last year shattered his six-year winning streak.
As usual, Kobayashi’s strategy was to eat all the dogs first, then dunk the buns and eat them. A pause while swallowing the soggy buns meant defeat.
The two will face off again Sept. 28 at the Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Championship in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Meat is a killer and should be avoided, and you should get your protein by eating plenty of soy products like tofu, right?
Not necessarily so if research coming out of the U.K. is to be believed. According to a study led by Loughborough University and reported on in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, eating high levels of some soy products, including tofu, may raise the risk of memory loss.
The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java.
The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.
According to the same study, however, consumption of tempe may actually improve memory.
The latest study also found that eating tempe, a fermented soy product made from the whole soy bean, was associated with better memory.
Professor Hogervorst said the beneficial effect of tempe might be related to the fact that it contains high levels of the vitamin folate, which is known to reduce dementia risk.
“It may be that that the interaction between high levels of both folate and phytoestrogens protects against cognitive impairment.”
Well, like many other households in Japan, we eat plenty of tofu and other soy products. Because of this, I think. . . ummm. . . . er. . . .ah. . . . ???
JAPUNDIT has become quite the talk of the Japanese Internet, which has been boiling over with anger over the now-defunct Mainichi Wai Wai.
It seems that someone has picked up on this JAPUNDIT post that quotes from a Wai Wai column we found particularly amusing because it was so incredibly outlandish. Of course, we intentionally inserted the Wai Wai name into the report as a signal to readers that the information contained in it was at the least sensationalized and the most totally made up.
Most of the comments I have seen seem to take issue with the Mainichi for allowing such things to be published under their name in English. Though Wai Wai sourced much, if not all, of its material from Japanese language weekly magazines, most of the ire seems directed against the fact that it was presented in English for the world to see. I did not see much talk of anyone taking issue with the weekly magazines.
Some are saying that Mainichi should be prosecuted for promoting underage sex.
One comment said that since such information is printed in the newspaper, everyone will believe it.
One girl wrote about how, when she read this report while riding the bus, she burst into tears, and ended up crying herself to sleep that night out of shame.
Another young lady declared that she hated the way “Europeans and Americans” were talking about this story, and then went on to complain that the JAPUNDIT slogan (Japan - A whole lot more than raw fish) made her mad because it is insulting to Japan!?!
Blogging sure is fun, isn’t it?
The following is from a Washington Post report on the cancellation of a trip to Seoul by U.S. President George Bush due to demonstrations against U.S. beef imports there. Emphasis is mine.
President Bush canceled plans Tuesday to visit Seoul next month amid protests over U.S. beef imports, and his administration made a key concession to North Korea by allowing it to exclude atomic bombs from a required disclosure of its nuclear activities.
You mean this whole exercise was intended to limit North Korea’s electrical power generation options!?!
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has assured Japan that The United States will continue to press for the release of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
Japan worries that the United States will remove North Korea from its list of nations sponsoring terrorism before a resolution of the issue.
“We have made very clear that the United States is not going to set aside or forget the Japanese abduction issue,” Rice told reporters on the plane to Berlin, where she will attend a conference on security in the Palestinian territories on the sidelines of a donors conference.
“We’re going to continue to press North Korea to make sure this issue is dealt with,” Rice said. “Japan is one of America’s strongest allies in Asia, I should say one of America’s strongest allies in the world and we recognize the sensitivity of this issue,” she said.
Right. . . Just about no one is falling for this in Japan, where the latest U.S.appeasement concession is being met with condemnation by people on both sides of the aisle.
A top LDP politician bitterly criticized Washington for repeating a past mistake. “The United States is doing the same thing over again.”
He was referring to the U.S. government’s failure to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons even though it promoted reconciliations with Pyongyang by dispatching then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang at the end of the Bill Clinton administration that stepped down in 2001.
“The Bush administration has become too lenient toward North Korea as its tenure is approaching an end,” he said.
Many politicians feel that the administration of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has supported the U.S. position even though there has been no tangible progress in the abduction issue because it places top priority on Japan’s ties with the United States.
However, some politicians expressed concern that the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-supporting countries could adversely affect Japan-U.S. relations.
Gold & Jewelry Tamaya of Sapporo has started selling an 18-carat gold Hello Kitty mobile phone strap.
Tamaya came out with the mobile phone strap to mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the series of Hello Kitty products made to commemorate particular places in Japan. The 1.8 gram gold Hello Kitty was made by Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry in Tokyo’s Ginza. Normally, Hello Kitty has a red ribbon in her hair, but the mobile phone strap version uses a lavender-colored ribbon as lavender is strongly associated with Hokkaido.
Lavender is said to mean “waiting for you,” and the jewelers are eagerly awaiting orders.
Price: 50,000 yen
An Osaka man has been arrested for a string of convenience store hold-ups that netted some 587,000 yen, which he used to feed his two dogs, five cats, five turtles, two snakes, and tropical fish.
Dubbed “The Dogman,” Takaharu Kawata would rob convenience stores at knifepoint while wearing an oversized black-and-white dog mask.
Mr Kawata, who is unemployed and living on welfare, was arrested in March while he was attempting to rob a convenience store. He is suspected of having robbed two stores previously.
Despite receiving monthly benefits of 120,000 yen ($1170), Mr Kawata said he did not have enough money to cover the basic necessities for him and his pets.
He was reportedly without the mask when he was arrested, saying that his beagle - which he apparently bought with stolen cash - had ripped it up.
The Mainichi Daily News has decided to discontinue its WaiWai column because “some readers pointed out” that the content of some of articles has been “inappropriate.”
Thanks to Mr. Pink
The things you learn online… In this week’s issue of Time Magazine there is an um, ah, er, interesting piece on Japanese pornography featuring the elderly.
Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. The WHO reported in March this year found that one in four married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all. Yet, at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with “elder porn” one of its fastest growing genres.
Tokuda’s exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an “old-man” series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. “The adult video industry is very competitive,” says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. “If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers’ hearts.”
Japan’s adult video industry is believed to be worth as much as $1 billion a year according to industry insiders, with the largest rental video store chain Tsutaya releases about 1,000 new titles monthly, while and the mega adult mail-order site DMM releases about 2,000 titles each month. Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward “mature women” has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are “mature women” films.
The dream of every tubby around the world. . . A pleasant tasting magical fruit that will allow you to eat your way to a slimmer waistline. That is what is being claimed for the Thai mangosteen.
“Mangosteens are sometimes called the Queen of Fruits,” Koichi Okabe, a dessert company president who deals with a variety of different Thai foods, tells Sunday Mainichi. “Mangosteen juice, made by crushing the fruit, skin and seeds, not only tastes great, it has wonderful health benefits. It was only developed last year in Thailand, but American buyers are swarming to get it.”
Mangosteens contain over 100 different beneficial substances; most notably xanthones, said to help fight the effects of allergies, cancer and lifestyle diseases, as improve blood pressure and the immune system, and restore youthfulness to the body’s cells.
This isn’t the first time that magical properties are being claimed for a plant growing in Thailand. Long-time readers of JAPUNDIT may remember that a number of years back we had a report on a plant called the Pueraria Mirifica, which is said to enhance female breasts if ingested regularly.
After the dreadful knife attack in Akihabara last week, it was discovered that the killer had announced his intent on an internet message board, but his threat was not taken seriously.
Well anything in that vein is being taken very seriously now. On Monday, police made two unconnected arrests of idiots posting online death threats.
Yo Suzuki, 29, of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, was arrested after posting his intent to “to unleash an attack to ‘kill 100 people’ on the streets of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district” on the 2-Channel bulletin board.
“I saw the TV coverage of the case in Akihabara and thought I’d create a bit of a stir,” Suzuki told the police, referring to the June 8 case where a random killer’s rampage on the Akihabara district of Tokyo claimed seven lives.
“I did it half as a joke,” he said.
Meanwhile in Fukuoka, a 17-year-old girl was arrested after using the same message board as Akihabara killer Tomohiro Kato, to threaten -
I intend to carry out a massacre at a station in Kyushu which will go down in history. I’m the same as Kato. I feel sympathy for him. I will be executed because I will kill more people than he did.
She too later claimed, “I was just joking. I didn’t imagine it would turn into such a big deal.” Well you got that wrong then didn’t you.
This week both Japan Today and Mainichi Daily News revealed that that a new tower which will be built in Tokyo’s Sumida ward will be named the “Tokyo Sky Tree.” It will be completed in 2012 and will be the world’s tallest tower at 610 meters (2000 feet). As for the, ahem, unique name:
[It] was chosen after a 10-member panel narrowed down the number of candidate names to six from 18,606 submitted in a nationwide poll conducted online and by mail.
Out of a total of 110,000 votes cast in the poll, ‘‘Tokyo Sky Tree’’ garnered around 33,000. The second most popular name was the ‘‘Tokyo Edo Tower.’’
Norimitsu Onishi is reporting in the New York Times about a new program in Japan to slim down. It’s hard to believe on many levels. First, Japan has to have one of the healthiest and slimmest populations in the world. Second, it’s hard to believe that the government will get away with imposing these measures on companies and individuals with no backlash. Third, I don’t understand how the government has a standard measure for obesity based on waistline regardless of height. One other interesting thing is the introduction (or at least use) of the word “metabo” which they think will be more effective in their campaign.
Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.
Those exceeding government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, which are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks — and having a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.
To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10 percent over the next four years and 25 percent over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.
The word metabo has made it easier for health care providers to urge their patients to lose weight, said Dr. Yoshikuni Sakamoto, a physician in the employee health insurance union at Matsushita, which makes Panasonic products.
“Before we had to broach the issue with the word obesity, which definitely has a negative image,” Dr. Sakamoto said. “But metabo sounds much more inclusive.”
NEC, Japan’s largest maker of personal computers, said that if it failed to meet its targets, it could incur as much as $19 million in penalties. The company has decided to nip metabo in the bud by starting to measure the waistlines of all its employees over 30 years old and by sponsoring metabo education days for the employees’ families.
A popular cosplay event that has been held at the Flower Center, Heidi’s Village theme park in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture was suspended after an elderly woman complained that the participants detracted from the flowers there.
The Yamanashi prefectural government, which owns the park, asked the park’s managers to review whether or not the competition should be continued after receiving the complaint.
Many fans are calling for the event to be restored.
The park opened in 1998. A confectionary manufacturer from the prefecture and another organization were appointed its custodians in 2006. They refurbished the park and reopened it themed on the anime Heidi, Girl of the Alps.
The cosplay event has been held six times since April last year and has become the park’s main attraction. The park’s managers have even set up changing rooms and held contests.
About 19,000 people, mainly young women with homemade costumes and multicolored wigs, participated in the contests in the last fiscal year.
A single senior citizen complaint shuts down an event enjoyed by 19,000 young people. . . No wonder Japan’s youth feels so depressed.
The Korea Times is reporting that the Korean Supreme Court has reached a landmark decision concerning the nation’s sexual harassment laws. . .
Squeezing a person’s nipple or hitting their genitals with the back of one’s hand does not constitute sexual harassment if the incident took place in military barracks, the Supreme Court recently ruled.
Glad they got that straightened out.
Via The Marmot’s Hole.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting on a yakuza-related story which has recently come to light. Apparently in the early 2000s, four yakuza had liver transplants at UCLA Medical center in Los Angeles, California and then two donated $100,000 afterwards. Of course, paying for transplants of any kind can be illegal and is certainly controversial; especially when the money is tainted by crime.
The transplant recepient was identified by a law enforcement official as one of four Japanese men now barred from entering the United States because of their suspected gang affiliations, criminal records, or both. All four received new livers at UCLA between 2000 and 2004.
The surgeries took place at a time of persistent shortages of donor livers. In the year of Goto’s transplant, 186 patients on the list for livers died while waiting for the operation in the greater Los Angeles region.
A black watermelon was auctioned for a record 650,000 yen recently, the highest price paid for watermelon ever in Japan.
The 8-kilogram premium “Densuke” watermelon, grown only on the northern island of Hokkaido, was purchased by a marine products dealer who said he wanted to support local agriculture, according to Kyodo News agency.
How can a watermelon cost so much?
Its unusual black skin, [Kazuyoshi Ohira, a spokesman for the Tohma Agricultural Cooperative in Hokkaido] said. Inside, the watermelon is crisp and hard. And, he says, it has unparalleled taste.
“It’s a watermelon, but it’s not the same,” he said. “It has a different level of sweetness.”
A Tokyo trucker, Masahiro Fujiwara, 47, has been arrested on charges of counterfeiting after using a colour photocopier to produce about 10 ¥10,000 notes.
His plan was to replace the bills in his wife’s purse with the fake ones, and go out drinking.
His wife, of course, had no notion that the money in her purse was fake, and spent two of the bills later. Which is when the fireworks started.
He reluctantly turned himself in to police after he was grilled by his wife, who suspected that the bills in her purse were fake, according to investigators.
Ah, the image that that sentence conjures up…
The girl on the left of the above image is supposed to be Jesus Christ, who is is the object of the um. . . affections of the boy on the right.
A scanlation is can be downloaded here and here.
Via Topless Robot.
