Perhaps not the most inspiring place in the world to live.
Perverted panty procurer
Whilst the ban on used underwear selling is probably to be commended, it could be argued that the clampdown has pushed the nation’s panty perverts into ever more desperate and debauched behaviour.
As in the early hours of Saturday morning, a man armed with a paper cutter attempted to get a 25-year-old woman to part with her panties in the middle of a Sapporo street. Thankfully the woman didn’t succumb to part-time worker Mitsuaki Fujieda’s deviant demand, and after letting out a scream, the would-be panty pilferer ran away.
Yet perhaps emboldened by her attackers reaction, the woman and her friend gave chase and managed to catch the fleeing Fujieda-san. After eventually being handed over to the police, the man was charged with attempted robbery.
Country criticism
Whilst the word countryside conjures up many images, such as fields festoon with faeces, irate farmers, and fox hunting toffs, it’s not all bad. There’s the beautiful scenery, homemade jam, and the fresh smell of faeces flowers.
In Japan however, inaka (the countryside) seems wholly bad. Certainly in Tokyo anyway. It’s generally used as a term of derision, and arguably at its mildest means backwards and unfashionable. Which in regards to the latter especially, is akin to calling someone’s partner pug ugly. Well, almost.
Yet for some reason this only really dawned on me the other day. As when out near my sister-in-law’s place in west Tokyo, I was surprised to see how close the mountains were. But despite how beautiful they looked, and before I had time to really think about what I was saying (or implying), I mischievously said that the area was very inaka.
The reaction was as swift and uncompromising as I (subconsciously) expected. And although she knew I was joking, perhaps defecating on her kitchen floor would have been only marginally less insulting.
However what was surprising was that I’d actually made the jibe in the first place. Despite the beauty of the mountains and the refreshing change it made from grey concrete, my first reaction was mockery.
Perhaps I’ve been in Japan (or Tokyo at least) for too long. I’ll be bowing whilst talking on the phone next, or extolling the virtues of unpaid overtime. Even worse, I may even feel the urge to start a Japan weblog…
Anyway, to further cement my new found disdain for mother nature and all those connected with her, here’s a gratuitous picture of a bit of country cool.
Scenic sumo
As we are currently about halfway through the January Grand Sumo Tournament, I thought I’d treat you to a picture from my 2005 Sumo Calendar.
And before you scoff, I didn’t actually buy it. It was a present.
No really, it was. Honest.
Anyway, before my denials get so desperate as to make me sound even guiltier, it’s time for the promised picture. But as an added bonus, one of the wrestlers is from Georgia in Eastern Europe. Can you spot him?
Fresh fugu
Regardless of how dangerous fugu (blowfish) is or isn’t, this restaurant can’t be accused of not serving the famous fish fresh.
I think I’ll go for one of the lazy little fellas resting on the bottom of the tank. Which one do you fancy?
It’s me
Over the last 6 months or so, the “it’s me†telephone scam has become more and more common in Japan. And buoyed by their success, its perpetrators increasingly audacious.
The con is a fraudulent technique were unscrupulous individuals pretend to be the child or grandchild of the person they call. They then make up a false situation, and attempt to extort money from the unsuspecting victim.
A much-favoured method is to claim there has been a car accident, and that they urgently need some money (deposited into a specified bank account) in order to pay off an injured motorist or pedestrian. As preposterous as this sounds, and the fact you’d assume the victims would recognize that the voice on the telephone didn’t belong to their child/grandchild, it’s obviously a good money-spinner. As judging by news reports, it would appear that this technique swindles at least one person every week.
And we aren’t talking small amounts of cash here either. Generally it’s in the millions rather than thousands, and the more gullible victims have been stung two or three times by the same person, as the accident/incident is further exaggerated, thus requiring more money to settle matters.
But yesterday a woman in her 40’s got swindled in perhaps the most daring “it’s me†scam to date. The naïve lady got a call from her son who is a member of the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF). With the man claiming that, “I was driving a tank and crashed into an SDF facility wall. I want you to deposit over 1 million yen into my account today to pay for it.”
Yes, you read that right. He’d supposedly crashed his tank, and he had to pay for the damages! Yet however unbelievable that sounds, the woman promptly paid the money, no questions asked.
Police investigators were unsurprisingly shocked by the crime. Presumably at both the boldness of the criminals involved, and the gullible nature of the duped mother. One official rather understatedly said, “We’ve never heard of fraud saying that a self-defense official has crashed a tank.”
No, I bet they haven’t.