Archive for July, 2009

New Tokyo Helicopter Service

MORI building have announced they will start a helicopter service from mid September shuttling passengers between Narita airport and downtown Tokyo.

Whilst it has been possible to charter a flight from Narita to central Tokyo before, this is believed to be the first time a regular scheduled flight service has been offered. The heliport to be used in Tokyo will be the Ark MORI Building.

The target market is top level executives who are able to pay YEN 50,000 each for a one way flight.  A sleek looking Hermes helicopter that seats 5 has been outfitted for a first class ride.

After leaving from Ark MORI Building the helicopter will land in Chiba about 22 kilometers from Narita airport where a limousine car will be on standby to complete the remaining portion of the trip. It will take approximately 30 minutes from boarding the craft to arriving at Narita airport.

MORI building expect to be able to bring the price down in the future. Maybe they can also find a way to land nearer to the terminal building and make it a 20 minute ride.

[Information Source: Asahi News]

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Contributor Bio: Writer and Photographer, shibuya246 focuses on latest events happening in Japan. Living and working in Shibuya for 20 years this city within the city of Tokyo is always surprising me with new shops, new trends and new places to visit. Through shibuya246.com I hope to introduce you to many of those new and some of the old great places in Shibuya as well as touching on other Japanese related topics.
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Samurai Maid Cafe

Japanese TV news constantly tells me that there is a “Sengoku Boom” going on in Japan right now, so I guess I’m not too surprised that somebody decided to start a Sengoku maid cafe:

Sengoku Style Cafe & Bar Mononopu is staffed by cute girls who wear a combination of maid costumes and samurai armor. It’s located about 5 minutes from Akihabara station (see this map for details).

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Foreign shoplifters in Japan

Last week, NTV’s “Real Time News” aired a special hidden camera report on shoplifting. Most of the shoplifters featured were Japanese, but one foreigner was caught in the act:

The shoplifter in this clip was a Chinese student, apparently stealing some food he wanted to eat. After he is taken away by police, the narrator announces that in the case of foreign criminals, there are “many” instances of groups working together to shoplift from Japanese stores.

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Showa & War

If you’ve watched much Japanese TV in the last week, chances are you’ve seen one of the commercials for the “Showa & War” documentary series:

The commercials play Showa era music along with film clips of events that took place at the time. As the VHS version of the documentary is prominently displayed, it would seem reasonable to assume that the target audience is older people who want to take a nostalgic look back at that period of history.

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Conan O’Brien & Andy Richter do anime voice-overs

American comedians Conan O’Brien & Andy Richter visit Bang Zoom/Manga Entertainment in California and do voice-overs for “Ghost in the Shell“:

[via Reddit]

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Are police detaining foreigners who ask for directions?

Brian Hedge submitted a letter to The Japan Times Online that briefly details the purported tribulations of his elderly associate, an elderly male American tourist that got a surprise when he went into a police box to ask some directions. Brian claims that the following happened:

On July 2 in Shinjuku, a 74-year-old American tourist walked into a police box to ask directions. Inside the koban [police box] were an older (senior) officer and his younger (rookie?) colleague.

The American asked where Kinokuniya bookstore was, and the older police officer responded by asking the tourist if he had a pocket knife. The American, being the law-abiding citizen that he is, said “yes” and handed it to the senior officer. After a quick measurement of the blade, the officer arrested the 74-year-old for having a pocket knife 1 cm over the legal limit.

The most shocking part to the story is that a new revision of a law regarding pocket knives was subject to a moratorium until July 5, meaning those possessing knives that violate the new rules had until July 4 to dispose of them! Moreover, two other American tourists were arrested that same day at the same koban.

It’s hard to say whether or not the story is true however; even some of Debito’s readers are skeptical. My personal opinion is that the officer’s inquiry seems like a thing that could happen very easily in Japan. We’ve heard tales of police officers stopping foreigners and inquiring about knives or asking for ID or even urine samples. Of course, many of these events remain mere unsubstantiated tales.

On the other hand, whenever I’ve been stopped by the cops, they had a reason, albeit minor. Once my bike’s light was off at dusk. Another time, I had to explain why my bike lock was missing. Both times I had to produce an ID, but the encounters were fairly friendly. So what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think cops usually act without some kind of legal handhold to proceed on. I can’t help but wonder if the old man in this story had the pocketknife attached to a key-chain or the like and unintentionally had it out in the officers’ presence. We don’t know the details, and that’s what makes this story problematic.

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Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic, and vlogs on YouTube as well.
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