Archive for November, 2009

Trapped hunting dogs rescued

A team of men in Kumamoto prefecture rescues 5 hunting dogs that had been trapped under rocks for 6 days:

The plott hounds had accidentally fallen into the gap between the rocks while on the hunt with their master on the afternoon of the 15th. A group of men spent several days trying to remove the rocks, succeeding on the 6th day. All of the dogs were safe.

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U.S. military brats suspected in case of biker nearly killed by a rope

Remember the case from September of a moped-riding woman who fractured her skull after colliding with a rope that had been strung across a road Mushashimurayama City, Tokyo? Police investing the initial reports of “suspicious young foreigners” at the scene of the incident have examined surveillance video footage and concluded that four foreign children from the nearby U.S. Yokota Air Base may be to blame:

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OCN commercials based on classic anime

Japanese internet service provider OCN has a new commercial parodying the classic anime series Sally the Witch (魔法使いサリー see an example clip here):

A previous commercial in the same series parodied the volleyball anime Attack No. 1 (アタックNo.1 – see an example clip here):

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Cosmetic surgery for men

The recent case of fugitive Ichihashi Tatsuya disguising his appearance through cosmetic surgery made the folks at FTV wonder why men get such procedure. To investigate, they traveled to South Korea, a country that is apparently far ahead of Japan when it comes to the idea of men getting surgery to make their faces look better.

Some points from the video:

• Surveys of Japanese and Korean men find that most Japanese men have a problem with the idea of men getting cosmetic surgery. The opposite is true for Koreans, who see no problem with getting cosmetic surgery. After all, if women are doing it, what’s wrong with men doing it?
• We meet two Korean men who had work done on their faces. One man is concerned about his face getting a bit saggy as he ages. Another noticed how dark lines under his eyes always stood out in photos, so he had surgery to improve on that.
• The number of Korean men getting cosmetic surgery has been increasing in recent years. Some men develop an addiction of sorts, seeking operations to fix every little flaw they perceive in their faces.
• 76% of South Korean women interviewed said they had no problem with the idea of men getting cosmetic surgery.
• When asked what they thought of a fugitive like Tatsuya Ichihashi getting cosmetic surgery to evade capture, most people seemed surprised that such a thing would happen.
• A veteran police detective says he is aware of a case in 2007 involving a fugitive who had plastic surgery and disguised himself as a woman. However, his act wasn’t very good and he was arrested after somebody reported the existence of a suspicious individual to the police. Another case in 2007 involved a woman who scammed some money from a man and used some of it to pay for plastic surgery. She was arrested after suspicions about bandages on her face led police to test her fingerprints. (The South Korean government keeps a database of every single citizen’s fingerprints.)
• Korean and Japanese plastic surgeons interviewed said they had never heard anything from the police about how they should be on the lookout for criminals, so they apparently don’t do much to avoid an Ichihashi-like situation.

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Daiwa Man

The newest Daiwa House commercial introduces a super hero:

After the first cut of a Daiwa House commercial, the director tells the actor he needs to speak to him about the next cut. Back in the trailer, the director explains that he will need the actor to put on a ridiculous super hero costume and become Daiwa Man. The actor is so shocked that he can barely talk.

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Kitashinchi Queen

An Asahi Shimbun video shows the selection of 2009′s Shinkichi Queen:

All of the contestants were hostesses from clubs in the Kitashinkichi area of Osaka. The winner was Ayako, a 21-year-old former OL who has worked a hostess for about 2 years.

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