Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

Sage advice

• During a visit to Tokyo, the Dalai Lama urged Japanese to learn English and go out and see the world.
• East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta suggested that a good way for the Japanese to stop eating all that politically incorrect whale meat would be to eat more fruit instead.
• About 3,000 people lit candles at Zojoji Temple near Tokyo Tower on June 20 to draw attention to global warming.
• A 15-year-old boy in Yamaguchi Prefecture who stabbed a female classmate in the shoulder said he was inspired by an incident two days earlier in Yokohama, in which a 15-year-old schoolgirl stabbed one of her fellow students during a class.
• A human skeleton was discovered inside a suitcase found discarded in a mountain forest in Chiba Prefecture.
• Headline of the Week: “Supermodel: Save Water, Pee in Shower” (via The Asahi Shimbun)

Shane Busato

PRAISE THE LORD!

• A group of US-based Japanese singers known as the Harlem Japanese Gospel Choir took top honors at Gospelfest, a big vocal competition held in New Jersey.
• With suds sales in decline, Aeon is producing a “third-category beer” called Barreal that sells for just ¥88 a can.
• Hurl alert! If you like a little movement with your beer, for ¥3,000 you can board a special all-you-can-drink “beer hall streetcar” in Aichi Prefecture, operated by the Toyohashi Rail Road Company.
• An abandoned feline at a cat cafe in Saga Prefecture is drawing curious locals to check out a heart-shaped design on its back. Well, at least it doesn’t look like the Virgin Mary.
• Two young male fans of the all-girl pop group AKB48 event were arrested in Tokyo for printing up and distributing a bunch of bogus tickets to one of their shows.
• Police officers raided nearly 430 car junkyards around the country on suspicion that they were rife with “theft, auto-parts smuggling and harboring illegal immigrants.”
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Scuba Instructor Teaches Divers How to Blow Artistic Bubbles Underwater” (via The Mainichi Daily News).

WHERE THERE’S SMOKE…

• Kagoshima’s Mount Sakurajima broke its own record with its 550th volcanic eruption this year—two more than it had in 2009.
• A teenage girl died and three of her relatives were hospitalized after likely inhaling volcanic gas on a trip to an onsen area in the Hakkoda Mountains in Aomori.
• The butler really did do it! A 69-year-old Japanese man and his 67-year-old wife were stabbed to death at their home in Jakarta, allegedly by a recently fired servant and his buddy.
• New archeological evidence suggests that some higher-ups in eighth century Nara were indeed meat eaters, despite a Buddhist ban on such practices.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai paid his respects at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. After all that has happened in his country, he wanted to see first-hand how an area can bounce back from devastation.
• Clad in kimono and carrying samurai swords, 200 Japanese and Americans took part in a parade in New York’s Central Park to mark Japan’s first diplomatic mission to the US 150 years ago.
• Japan’s Cabinet Office said the country’s economy bottomed out in March 2009, but the drop was still not quite as bad as the post-Bubble dip in the early ’90s.
• It was reported that 707,824 marriages took place in Japan in 2009, 18,282 fewer than the previous year.

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED

• Three crewmembers of a Thai Airways flight were taken to an Osaka hospital with various bumps and bruises after the plane went through some severe turbulence over the Pacific near Kochi Prefecture.
• A 3-year-old boy in Fukuoka was tossed out the window by his uncle after he spilled juice during a birthday dinner, falling 11 meters to the pavement. The kid survived; the 24-year-old uncle was charged with attempted murder.
• A suspected thief from China slipped through airport security and entered Japan illegally after having her fingerprints altered. The woman told police she had her prints changed at a clinic in Fujian Province for about ¥30,000.
• According to the Japanese Society of Mood Disorders, fat men “are 2.3 times more likely to suffer from depression.” No shit.
• Vietnam decided to pass on building a high-speed shinkansen network, citing the high costs involved. Come on, what else are you gonna spend your ¥5.1 trillion on?
• It was reported that, in Japan’s opening World Cup soccer match against Cameroon, the Blue Samurai ran a collective total of 110 kilometers. Midfielder Yasuhito Endo was the busiest bee, covering more than 11K during the game.
• Say it ain’t so, Moe! Moe Meguro, the skip of Japan’s popular women’s curling team from Aomori, officially hung up her broom at the tender age of 25.
• Japan’s interleague baseball campaign wrapped up with the Orix Buffaloes the big winners. Thanks to their 16-8 record against Central League, they won a cool ¥50 million bonus.

Compiled from reports by Japan Today, International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, The Daily Yomiuri, The Japan Times, The Mainichi Daily News, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Associated Press, AFP, CNN, Reuters and Kyodo