THE LOVE BUG An Akita Prefecture company marked Valentine's Day with a line of cakes and candies shaped like rhinoceros beetles. Sweets maker Komatsu Honten said the little buggers sell out during their limited run each year.
While there wasn't any worm-shaped candy inside, apples imprinted with hearts and love messages did big business for the Caloria Japan Company in Aomori Prefecture in the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day.
A Miyagi couple injected some spice into their marriage, getting arrested for separate crimes on the same day. The husband was nabbed for stealing a game console from a truck, while his wife was taken into custody for allegedly embezzling funds from her employer.
Versatile winter meal oden still has a prominent place in the hearts of many Japanese, ranked as the nation's favorite one-pot dish in a survey by Kibun Foods Inc
HOLY SMOKES! White ash and steam could be seen spewing from the sea when an underwater volcano known as Fukutokuoka no Ba erupted just north of Iwo Jima.
In Hiroshima, the municipal government announced plans to re-examine the effects of the radioactive "black rain" that fell on the city after the atomic bombing in 1945.
Over 240 babies took part in a traditional "crying sumo" tournament at a temple in Nagasaki. The little gaffers faced off two at a time, and the first one to bawl was declared the winner.
A 25-year-old unemployed man in Kanagawa Prefecture is in hot water-both with the cops and on the home front-after falsely claiming that he'd been mugged and robbed of over ¥400,000. He didn't want his wife to find out that he had no money or job.
Believe it or not, police sent nearly 40 cop cars and 140 officers to track down the culprits in the alleged robbery mentioned above, perhaps because the bogus victim said the muggers were "two foreign-looking men."
Eleven-year-old elementary school student Rina Fujisawa recently passed a qualifying exam to become the youngest-ever professional Go player.
IT'S ABOUT TIME It was reported that the National Police Agency is considering measures aimed at regulating the sales of DVDs, books and magazines that feature "junior idols"-underage models who strike sexually suggestive poses.
An NPO called the DoggyBag Committee found that 90 percent of Japanese approve of taking home leftovers from restaurants. Doggy bags are illegal in Japan due to fears over hygiene.
Nippon Professional Baseball, the sport's governing body, said that Japan would follow the "universal count" when it comes to balls and strikes. In other words, no more "2 and 3" counts.
A consortium of 24 Japanese architectural firms has developed a new type of earthquake-proof shelter known as the j.Pod, which is "strong enough to withstand the collapse of a 10-ton second-floor room."
7-Eleven became the first conbini chain in Japan to offer official city services like issuing residence and personal seal certification.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said it plans to establish safety guidelines for robots, including "crash tests, emergency brake tests and experiments to assess the effects that heat and humidity can have on a robot's performance."
LIGHTS OUT In recognition of the fact that employees "feel uncomfortable about leaving the office when their colleagues are still working," officials at Shiseido's Ginza HQ have started turning off lights in their building at 10pm. Anyone still toiling away at that hour "must submit a written apology to their superiors, explaining the reason why they had to stay at the office until late."
The ticket reservation website of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro was shut down by the so-called Gumblar computer virus.
Toyama is set to become the first city in Japan to use an electric-powered bus on a regular route. The vehicle, manufactured by Hino Motors and operated by the Hokuriku Electric Power Co, produces just one-third of the CO2 of a standard diesel bus.
Waseda University was forced to cough up ¥90 million because wind turbines it helped install at 19 elementary and junior high schools in Ibaraki failed to generate the promised amount of electricity.
7-Eleven unveiled a store in Kyoto that has solar panels and a charger for electric vehicles.
Prime Minister Hatoyama withdrew his support of a proposed bill to videotape police interrogations, saying it "could be deemed as criticism of public prosecutors."
The Agency for Cultural Affairs said it is interested in relaxing media rules pertaining to the principle of "fair use." The move has been met with opposition by publishing industry groups, though Reg Dunlap gives it a big thumbs-up.
WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT A 52-year-old man who was offered a job as a school principal in Yokohama was later found to have a criminal record-for snapping pics of a woman's cleavage on a bus. The man, whose cellphone was found to contain dozens of such images, said it was just his hobby, but he did turn down the teaching job "for personal reasons."
A 52-year-old Nagoya municipal worker was acquitted of groping a 28-year-old woman on a local train. The woman said the ojisan rubbed his leg against hers, but cops were unable to find any fiber from the accused on the alleged victim's clothes.
A group of 1,200 companies that goes by the catchy name The Japan Stone Industry Association has entered a project with researchers from Kyushu University to try to make headstones at gravesites sturdier in the event of an earthquake.
In Kyoto, a small dog named Boo is attracting his share of tourists after being dressed up in ninja gear, complete with a small sword.
MEDIA HITS
A 5-year-old Japanese boy has become a YouTube sensation playing his version of the hit song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz on the ukulele.
Attention-craving wide receiver Chad Ochocinco (né Chad Johnson) of the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals, who wears jersey No. 85, is considering changing his name again next season, this time going with the Japanese version: Chad Hachi Go.
When frumpy British songstress Susan Boyle hit town to take part in NHK's annual New Year singing competition, media reports said two Japanese men shouted out marriage proposals at Narita Airport. Get your eyes fixed, fellas.
A Canadian researcher at the Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science discovered unedited color film footage of Nagasaki taken by the crew of a US hospital ship about a month after the atomic bombing in August 1945. The film was found at the US National Archives and Records Administration in Washington DC.
Passwords for about 450 celebrity blogs hosted by the popular Ameba Blog service, including those of singer Miki Fujimoto and pro wrestler Jaguar Yokota, were leaked in a security breach.
NOT SO FUNNY
Manzai comedian Tamotsu Kuroda of the popular duo Messenger was arrested for beating a 23-year-old restaurant manager in Osaka and causing "a serious facial fracture."
During a TV Asahi talk show, postal reform minister Shizuka Kamei revealed a private discussion he'd had with the emperor. Apparently, disclosing that kind of thing is a no-no.
Kamei said he suggested that the emperor move to Kyoto or Hiroshima, to which the emperor reportedly replied, "I like Kyoto."
One of the 11 participants chosen to attend the traditional New Year poetry reading at the Imperial Palace on January 14 said she "became weak at the knees from joy and nervousness" when told of the news.
A former executive at a Chiba-based marriage agency called Web Corp. was busted for selling personal data of 11,000 male and 5,000 female customers. If you ask us, the real crime is that this company gets away with charging a ¥3 million joining fee and a ¥200,000 commission for "marriage support."
THEY DID A BAD, BAD THING
South Korean J-pop singer Shion was arrested in Yokohama after she admitted to snorting ketamine.
A 47-year-old Tokyo man whose meishi billed him as "supreme advisor" to a major Kyushu-based yakuza group was arrested for packing stimulants, weed and a weapon.
Don't mess with the Mick! A pair of Chinese men were arrested in Tokyo after trying to get cash refunds for fake Disneyland tickets.
A couple in Kyoto forged a Toto BIG soccer lottery ticket in an attempt to claim a ¥450 million prize. When the duo got busted, the husband admitted to the ruse while his wife maintained that she really thought they had won.
A 27-year-old Fukuoka man who was arrested for pouring boiling water on his wife's head and chest told investigators, "I didn't think she would die." She did.
Kanagawa police nabbed a couple of pervs for operating a cellphone-based website containing child pornography. The site was called the Prohibited js (joshi shogakusei, or primary school girls) Image Storehouse, and it got about 660,000 hits before it was shut down in March.
TRENDS
The Japan Communist Party's official newspaper, the Akahata Shimbun, enjoyed an increase in circulation for the first time in 21 years
Bosozoku motorcycle gangs saw their numbers dwindle to 11,500, from a high of 42,500 in 1982
Local governments across the country are setting up miniature torii in places where illegal garbage disposal occurs in an effort to "appeal to the better nature of even the basest trash dumper"
Fashion-conscious but cash-strapped Japanese women are renting handbags for use on special occasions
Koban in Tokyo have begun installing women-only toilets and "nap rooms"
Seafood and produce falsely labeled as being of Japanese origin are "rampant" in Taiwan
At least one out-call sex service in Tokyo specializes in married women in their 40s and 50s
HEADLINES OF THE YEAR
1. Paranoid Hospitals Turning away Those with Fever, or with a Foreign Friend
2. Escargot Invades Osaka High-rise
3. Cop Rapped for Letting off Aliens
4. Photograph of Crab Eggs Ends 60-year Dispute
5. New Photo Book Opens Door on the Beauty and Style of the Homeless
6. Cops Collar Giant Salamander Spotted on Kyoto Stroll
7. Self-styled God of Ancient Japan Collared for Extorting Owner of Squat
8. More People Irked by Sound of Kids at Play
9. "Homeless" Poet Chooses Asahi over Noodles
10. Injured Sea Turtle to Get Prosthetic Flippers
TRENDS The Japan Communist Party's official newspaper, the Akahata Shimbun, enjoyed an increase in circulation for the first time in 21 years
Bosozoku motorcycle gangs saw their numbers dwindle to 11,500, from a high of 42,500 in 1982
Local governments across the country are setting up miniature torii in places where illegal garbage disposal occurs in an effort to "appeal to the better nature of even the basest trash dumper"
Fashion-conscious but cash-strapped Japanese women are renting handbags for use on special occasions
Koban in Tokyo have begun installing women-only toilets and "nap rooms"
Seafood and produce falsely labeled as being of Japanese origin are "rampant" in Taiwan
At least one out-call sex service in Tokyo specializes in married women in their 40s and 50s
DEPT. OF GOOD IDEAS
The presiding judge of a murder trial in Tokushima decided not to show citizen jurors a photo of the victim's "headless, limbless torso" lest it alarm them.
The National Diet Library announced that it will buy some 50,000 digital recordings made from vintage 78rpm records, leading one historian to comment that the purchase "will shed new light on the history of records."
The manager of a nail salon in Kanazawa has begun a program called Angel Smile that offers discounts at area shops to "people working in the medical, nursing and other welfare fields."
A New York-based designer has teamed up with traditional lacquerware artisans in Ishikawa Prefecture to produce what is believed to be the world's first urushi chess sets. The designer, Alexander Gelman, said he wanted the craftsmen "to work with an object that is a little more familiar to me and completely unfamiliar to them."
SIC TRANSIT
In what is being hailed as the first journey of its kind, a pair of Brits rowed 7,000 miles from Chiba to San Francisco in a 26-foot-long boat. The journey took six months. Though the men wanted to accomplish the feat unassisted, they ran out of food 100 miles from their destination and had to accept provisions dropped from a helicopter. Pussies.
LDP leader Sadakazu Tanigaki suffered minor injuries when he slammed into a fellow cyclist while out biking along the Tama River in the Tokyo suburb of Akishima.
The Miyazaki Prefectural Government inked an agreement with Nissan to create a network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
It was reported that the Tokyo Metro is exploring a merger with Toei subway.
A United Airlines jet flying from Beijing to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing at Narita Airport after developing engine trouble two-and-a-half hours into its route.
Two Japanese submarines scuttled by the US Navy shortly after the end of World War II were found resting 3,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific south of Pearl Harbor.
THE WORLD OF SPORT Students dressed as ninjas at the University of California, Berkeley, produced a record 101m-long California sushi roll to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school's Center for Japanese Studies. Over 90kg of rice, 80 kilos of fish, and a combined 70kg of avocado and cucumber were used, as well as a bunch of tofu.
World Series MVP Hideki Matsui paid a visit to the David Letterman show along with New York Yankees teammates Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte, but Godzilla let the other guys do all the talking.
Before former US President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch for Game 3 of the Japan Series at Tokyo Dome last month, he was overheard telling some of the Giants that it was impressive they were about to clinch the championship. Though Dubya turned out to be right, it seemed a little premature to hang the "Mission Accomplished" banner with the series tied 1-1 at the time.
It was revealed that Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish, who pitched in Game 2 of the Japan Series and got the win, was not only playing with a bad back and a sore shoulder, but also had a broken finger on his throwing hand.
In Wakayama, a high-ranking yakuza member and the brother of popular enka singer Fuyumi Sakamoto were arrested-for the second time-for placing illegal bets on Japanese baseball games.
A 16-year-old boy died after taking an arrow between the eyes at archery practice in Meguro. The 17-year-old student who shot the fatal arrow, a member of the same high school archery club, said it was an accident.
In Chiba, a policewoman had her bag snatched by a man on a scooter just meters away from the police station.
SAY WHAT? In Musashi-Murayama, ¥7 million was spent on an event publicizing Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics... about three weeks after the Games were awarded to Rio de Janeiro.
It was also revealed that the outfits worn by members of Tokyo's 2016 bidding delegation cost a total of ¥14 million.
In an attempt to battle this nasty recession and fill empty seats, tickets on the Tokaido and Sanyo shinkansen lines were being offered at discounts of up to 28 percent.
In Okinawa, a pro wrestling circuit has announced it will spice up its product by adding comedy routines to all the grappling and head-stomping. We always found professional wrestling pretty comical anyways.
IF IT FEELS GOOD
It was reported that a bunch of guys in Harajuku, known as the "skirt tribes," have taken to wearing women's clothing. I always thought those guys were called Scots.
Actress Noriko Sakai said at her drug trial that she was ready for a lifestyle change, vowing to dump her loser hubby and take courses to become a nurse.
Romi, the 38-year-old daughter of jazzman Terumasa Hino, 'fessed up to using stimulants during her own trial in Tokyo.
In a classic case of you-grab-mine, I'll-grab-yours, a 35-year-old Korean purse snatcher was caught in Osaka when one of his elderly victims grabbed his bag as he made off with hers. The thief's ATM card with his name on it was in his bag.
A group of Chinese women working at an underwear factory in Nagasaki filed a complaint after being paid ¥400 or less per hour when working overtime. They also said their break times were deducted for trips to the loo.
Fifty-three students at the Takanawa Kindergarten in Minato-ku performed a dance that "encourages children to thoroughly wash their hands to help prevent infectious diseases such as the new swine influenza."
A 26-year-old policeman in Kobe was being held for supposedly "stealing undergarments from a 14-year-old girl while visiting her house to question her about a crime she had witnessed."
Sentence of the Week: "The carcass of a firefly brought to Japan from Central America about 150 years ago has been found among the property of a ranking government diplomatic mission official of the Tokugawa shogunate who visited the United States in 1860, the Yokosuka City Museum announced earlier this month." (via The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Police found the bodies of three men who went missing while jet skiing on a lake in Fukushima. Curiously, the three were all wearing life preservers when they drowned.
In response to a hoped-for increase in long-haul flights from Europe and the US, as well as direct flights to the UAE, Narita Airport unveiled a new 2,500m-long runway.
Japan led all countries in the total amount of money bet on horse racing in 2008, with just under ¥2 trillion wagered on the ponies. Britain was second, according to a study produced for the British Horseracing Authority by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.
A British man who used a computer program to win ¥16 billion betting on horse races in Japan fled the country and dodged a huge tax bill. Former colleagues told the tax authorities that the man, who was president of a data analyzing company called UPRO, is now dead.
Japan Times sports editor Jack Gallagher took the gloves off when writing about Tokyo's failed bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Among the comments directed at Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara was this gem: "Putting a narcissist in charge of trying to secure a global event like the Olympics was nothing short of off the wall." Ouch!
A survivor of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki hit a nerve during a talk he was giving at Rome's city hall. The lecture by 78-year-old Hiroshi Nishioka so moved his audience that they decided to name a road in the Italian capital Hiroshima Nagasaki Street.
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As many of you know, I have this, uh, background with and in Japan. I sort of talk about it here and there, but rarely shout about it. I did a few weeks ago here, when I notified all that I've organized a group trip to Kyoto for this coming April and today, I'm doing it again by telling you about the new post/story I've put up on my blog, LetsJapan.Wordpress.Com
For the unacquainted, you'll get a little background, a taste, of the bizarre and spooky that goes way back in Japanese history (theater and art, too). And, if you like, you can see some old and new Uncanny Things I've stumbled upon there.
* A conman has convinced the owners of at least ten Tokyo-area restaurants to buy Yomiuri Giants tickets at inflated prices in return for arranging large parties at their eateries. Needless to say, the parties never happened.
* The Ministry of Defense revealed that 67 percent of personnel transported by Air Self-Defense Forces planes in Iraq were US servicemen, contradicting an LDP claim that the missions were "aimed at extending humanitarian support."
* Two men in Osaka whose "umbrellas brushed against each other" during the morning commute got into an altercation, and one of them was stabbed.
* A study by a cancer center in Nagoya found that postmenopausal women who drink more than 1.26 liters of sake per week are nearly twice as likely to develop breast cancer as their teetotaling counterparts.
* The Tokyo District Court ordered a condominium developer to pay a 48-year-old Kanagawa woman ¥36.6 million in compensation after she developed sick building syndrome while living in one of its units.
March on Washington
