Music

When it comes to lunchtime at work, some people like to sit and read the newspaper, while others would rather eat out. But this young fella prefers to take his drum to the incredibly busy Yoyogi park and hammer away on it for all he’s worth.

But this music loving salary man wasn’t just content with playing the drums. He was singing too. Although I use the word singing rather loosely. Now I’m not in any position to criticize others for their vocal ability (as those who have witnessed one of my rare performances in a karaoke box will testify), but his efforts were truly appalling. And as you’ll notice from the picture, he was wearing headphones, so he obviously had no concept of volume. He mustn’t have done, as he was loud. Excruciatingly so.

But if nothing else, there was no shortage of passion. So for the big finale, take it away maestro!

As a brief bit of background information, this is a picture of Ayumi Hamasaki (or Ayu as she is commonly known).

Not only is she pretty, but it’s probably fair to say that she’s Japan’s most popular female singer, having produced a steady string of hits over the last few years.

But sadly, like many pop stars, some of Hamasaki’s fans can be a little obsessive. Although perhaps non more so than 35 year old Masashi Tsueda. A man who was arrested this week for a series of robberies he committed to feed his love of attending concerts and buying Ayu merchandise.

Since July 2001, Tsueda is alleged to have committed around 170 robberies. Although before you immediately condemn him, he was a criminal with a conscience, as he made a rule of never stealing more than 200,000 Yen (about 1,000 pounds) in a single day! But even after heroically restricting himself in this way, the besotted fan managed to acquire over 22 million Yen (112,000 pounds) in his crime spree.

You’ve got to wonder what he was buying though. 22 million Yen! I don’t care how many concerts you go to, or posters you buy, getting through that kind of money would be quite a challenge. But by the sounds of it, one that Masashi Tsueda was obviously up to.