Japanese among dead in Mumbai terrorist attack
Multiple terrorist attacks have taken place in Mumbai, killing at least 100 people. Two Japanese businessmen who were about to check-in to a hotel were caught in one of the attacks and wounded by gunfire. Although they managed to get out of the building, one of them did not survive:
Hisashi Tsuda, 38, an employee of Mitsui Marubeni Liquefied Gas Co., was pronounced dead at a hospital after he was shot in the chest and abdomen at the Trident Hotel, sources said.
He had arrived in Mumbai, the commercial center in western India, on a business trip earlier in the day.
His colleague, Tatsuya Kessoku, 44, was slightly injured.
The Japanese government has reportedly confirmed the safety of about 90% of the 300 or so Japanese citizens known to be visiting or residing in Mumbai. They have not been able to confirm the nationality of hostages currently being held by terrorists.
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Categories: General Japan
Popular guidebooks help tourists walk through Tokyo using Edo period maps
If you’re looking for a new way to explore Tokyo, why not walk through the streets of Tokyo with Edo period maps as your guide? Mainichi has translated an article about a boom in historical map guidebooks: Check it out!
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Categories: Books
Surveillance cameras installed to prevent people from secretly filming schoolgirls
Don’t worry girls, from now on only authorized individuals will be able to record video of you walking to and from school:
Crime prevention associations and a local security equipment company donated five security cameras to a girls’ high school in the Yamate district, following a spate of incidents involving groping and secret filming of students earlier this year.
The cameras were recently installed along the 360-meter-long route between JR Ishikawacho Station and Yokohama Yamate Girls’ Junior and Senior High School.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Zoo wonders why two polar bears won’t mate, discovers they’re both female?
Back in June, a zoo in Hokkaido put a male polar bear named Tsuyoshi into an enclosure with a female polar bear named Kurumi. Months passed, and the bears showed no signs of mating, so they carried out an examination and found that Tsuyoshi was actually a female:
The pair started living together in June this year but Tsuyoshi never exhibited any signs of amorous intentions. The zoo on Nov. 4 put Tsuyoshi under anesthesia and found the bear to be female.
Yoshio Yamaguchi, head of the Kushiro zoo, said, “I have rather mixed feelings, given the need for breeding, but Tsuyoshi is an idol for Kushiro,” adding that he will consider what to do with the help of other zoos in Hokkaido.
On the bear’s name, he said, “We will not be changing it to ‘Tsuyoko’ since it is loved by citizens (by the current name).” “Ko” is a common suffix for a Japanese female name.
Tsuyoshi’s “brother” Pirika, who lives at another zoo in Hokkaido, was also recently discovered to be a female.
[hat tip to Caine]
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Godzilla’s fearsome lawyers
Remember the above-pictured Subway advertisement that was subject to a lawsuit and eventual settlement over the unauthorized use of Godzilla’s image? It seems that was just one of many examples of how far Toho will go to protect its intellectual property.
Wired’s Threat Level blog has an article about Toho’s lawyers, who have won numerous lawsuits against those who dare to use fire-breathing dinosaurs with anthropomorphic torsos without first paying money to Godzilla’s owners.
But there have been lawsuits a bit too ridiculous for them to win:
In one of Godzilla’s few U.S. courthouse losses, a federal appeals court sided with Sears, Roebuck, which marketed “bagzilla” garbage bags as “monstrously strong bags.” The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in essence, said Toho’s arguments were rubbish.
The court ruled that Toho’s claims of infringement and trademark dilution were “implausible.” Sears, the court found, “means only to make a pun.”
[via JapanSoc]
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Categories: General Japan
Narita Airport’s 700 millionth traveler
Narita Airport officially declared yesterday that Tomiko Nonomura, a resident of Shizuoka Prefecture returning to Japan from a trip to Paris with her husband, was the airport’s 700 millionth traveler. Here’s a video clip that shows the airport honoring her with a small ceremony:
Meanwhile, the Japan Times reports that the world economic situation is causing a big decline in the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan.
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Categories: General Japan