Archive for January, 2009

Parking Lot Garden

A video of a parking lot owner in Hiroshima that has created a vegetable garden in one of his parking spaces:

The man says that one day he became unsatisfied with the small garden at his house, so he took the one space in his parking lot that was not reserved and turned it into a garden. He didn’t bother with rearranging his customers’ assigned parking spaces, so the garden in smack-dab in the middle of the lot.

[from ナニコレ珍百景]

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Foreigners do PR work for Japan Tobacco

Japan Tobacco uses friendly foreigners in its newest commercial about community service projects it participates in:

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Japanese comedian attempts part of an Obama speech (in English)

Nocchi, the Japanese Obama impersonator that doesn’t use face paint, attempting to say a phrase from President Obama’s inauguration speech:

Grade him on his performance:

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Meryl Streep meets Empress Michiko

Meryl Streep is in Japan to promote the release of “Mama Mia!” and she had a chance to meet Empress Michiko at a charity screening of the film in Roppongi. Here’s a clip from FTV’s coverage of the event:

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Elderly shoplifters in Japan

You’ve probably seen one of the many articles in the international press about the problem of elderly criminals in Japan, but have you seen video of them in action?

Japanese evening news programs are regularly air feature reports about shoplifting that contain sad cases like this old woman:

The woman, who looks to be about eighty, can be seen slipping items into her bag. When confronted and brought back into the store by security, she confesses that she stole the food because her granddaughter was coming to visit her and she wanted to serve the girl some food she likes. She asks for forgiveness, but the store security summons the police to take her away.
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Tokyo University research student arrested for drug smuggling

A Spanish student conducting graduate-level research at Japan’s top university has been arrested fro smuggling drugs into the country:

Cabrera Gonzalez de Candamo Alfonso, a Spanish national, allegedly smuggled about 6 grams of dried cannabis resins in an airmail parcel from Spain, the police said.

The suspect sent the parcel from a post office in Spain to his home in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward on Jan. 2 and the parcel arrived at Kansai International Airport near Osaka on Jan. 6, where customs officials found the drug in a CD case in the parcel the following day, they said.

Investigators from the Tokyo police arrested Cabrera on Tuesday upon his arrival at Narita International Airport outside Tokyo, they said.

Cabrera has told the police that the drug was intended for his own use, and that he had smuggled marijuana earlier in April and July last year.

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