Archive for April, 2008

Crying Sumo Babies – 2008

Another year, another nakizumo competition:

An annual “crying sumo” contest for babies, in which pairs of infants are brought together to see who can cry the first or the loudest, was held at Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple on Sunday.

In crying sumo the babies are held up by amateur sumo wrestlers in a ring, and the baby who cries first is the winner. If both babies cry, then the one that cries loudest wins. A total of 84 babies born last year participated in the contest at the temple.

If you haven’t seen it already, check out our April 2007 post of pictures from last year’s “crying sumo baby” competition and our June 2007 post about a similar competition in Shizuoka Prefecture!

[Via: 1, 2]

Kumamoto Castle Gravestone

Jiji News (Japanese) has reported that a stonemason in Kumamoto Prefecture has created a gravestone shaped like Kumamoto Castle. The gravestone has been drawing lots of people to his store, but no customer has yet been willing to dish out the 2,450,000 yen ($24,000) asking price.

The stonemason is hoping that a wealthy castle-lover will eventually come along and buy the gravestone.

Adult Film Actress Kills Self With Hydrogen Sulfide Gas

The number of people killing themselves with hydrogen sulfide gas continues to grow, and it has come to light that one recent suicide victim was Miyuki Asou(麻生美由樹), a semi-famous gravure idol who had turned to making adult films:

This 22 years old woman had been a stages actress when she was a high school student. Later, she entered in the show business world, and until recently, she’d been active as a gravure idol. However, she couldn’t become so popular, and this February, she challenged to a porn video. And thanks to her past career, she could become one of popular actresses.

But it seems this change and transfer was a stress to her, and on March 18th, she killed herself in a bath room at her apartment. Before she passed away, it is rumored that she had notified her suicide on her blog, but her agency has already closed it, so there are no means to confirm it.

Read the full story at the Road to the Deep East.

Japan Arm Wrestling Championship

The first stage of the Sapporo GO-1 GrandPrix arm wrestling competition was held yesterday in Tokyo:

Apparently the dude with the big arms, a salaryman whose co-workers call him “muscle,” did pretty well.

The final round the of the competition will be held on May 5th. Details can be found at the GO-1 GrandPrix site (Japanese).

Weirdo Arrested

A man has been arrested in Hokkaido for putting on some make-up and a blouse and hanging out in a women’s public toilet:

Tsukasa Okazaki, 45, the banker from Monbetsu, Hokkaido, was arrested for trespassing. He admits to the allegations.

“I wanted people to see me as some sort of weirdo,” he told the police.

Mission accomplished.

Kyushu Castles

Thinking of traveling around Kyushu? Be sure to check out Daniel O’Grady’s wonderful Castles of Kyushu website, which combines historical information, photos, and Google maps on all the island’s significant castle sites!

[via Ampontan]