First post back / In The News?? - Chopstick Robbery?

Okay guys, I went away for way too long, and now my obsession with Japan and all things Japanese has hit back, and this time it's hit hard.

When I first started this blog I had a crazy obsession, I loved everything Japanese and considered moving there. Then over time I had other things to think about, I still loved everything I knew about Japan, but I didn't have the time to think too much into it. However, it seems now I have been having withdrawal symptoms and my Asian love affair (My girlfriend won't like me saying that, so sorry <3) has returned with a vengeance. Now I don't only want to move there, live there, speak their language and eat their food, I don't feel like I'm at home anywhere else. Which is unbearable considering I've never even been. Crazy right?

So here I am again at the blog, trying to channel my passionate fondling through the medium of words.

Japan fans - Welcome back let's get this show on the road.

I thought I'd start back with the thing I loved writing about the most, a segment called "Is This News?"

For those who do not remember, or have never read any other posts of mine, this segment consists of the craziest things I've found in the news, or things I can't believe even happened to begin with, let alone made it outside of Japan;

The first post I found amazed me, as much as I struggled to call it "talent" (as it's unlawful) it is absolutely incredible, and I will be brave enough to call it; A talent.

As you can see, this guy is chasing after a woman on a bike, with a pair of chopsticks in his hands. Seems legit. Also seems like something relatively normal.

Anyway watch what happens next:

Yup. That's him pickpocketing a woman using his trusted chopsticks. And some of you guys thought eating with chopsticks was hard.
So I was reading this story on www.weirdasiannews.com and I was thinking 'this is really cool, but what does he plan on stealing with a pair of chopsticks'

Turns out - A phone. And here he is using the phone just minutes after taking it out of the pocket of a woman riding a bike with a pair of chopsticks.

All sounds easy enough, right?

All pictures were taken from weirdasiannews - check them out

As I said, a crime but at the same time a stroke of genius. Talking of intelligent crimes;

 


Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the world of a man named Shota Ishibashi.
Mr Ishibashi is a 25 Year Old, Unemployed, apparently pretty clever family man.

Here's the story - As someone who was unemployed, money must have been pretty tight for Shota Ishibashi, regardless of the money issues he may have been facing he desperately wanted to go and visit his grandmother ( a good 260 miles away from where Shota was). Now before I go on, I want you to think about this for a second, as the person you are now;

You are unemployed, money is a little tight but you want to visit your grandmother 260 miles away, what's the first thing you think to do? Find a way of making some money for a train ticket, maybe sell some possessions if you're that desperate? that's what I would do anyway. Maybe that's because I'm not as clever as young Shota.

Mr Ishibashi walked into a Toyota dealership lied through his teeth and gained the trust of all staff there. Somehow he managed to convince them to allow him to take a $77,000 Lexus for a test drive with no-one in the passenger seat. All Ishibashi was told was "Make sure it's back within 30 minutes"

Anyway 2 hours later the delearship realised something was wrong and called the police. The police used the GPS tracker in the car to locate it, along with Mr Ishibashi about 130 miles away in a supermarket parking lot. Ishibashi was later arrested for theft (which is a shame, up until then it was fantastic)

I do wonder what he would of said to them when he returned from visiting his grandmother?
Still, next time you are a bit low on cash and need to visit someone, pop down to Ford and see what they're offering.

Source: - Itai News

Okay guys, don't lose focus now, this is important part.

We're back, and it feels great to be writing and sharing my love of all things Chapanese (Chinese/Japanese)
Albeit a bit bias towards Japan.
Thanks for your patience and continued support.
You can catch us on twitter -  @TurnChapanese or facebook www.facebook.com/turningchapanese
It'd be great to hear from some readers and chat some Japan.

Thanks once again, I'm humbled you chose to read our blog.
See you guys next week with a new blog post (please please please share this one)

In the news/ Yamanote Line Accident:

The Yamanote line is one of Japan's busiest railway lines. Consisting of 29 stations circling Tokyo, it is used to connect most commuters to both Major and Urban areas of the City.

I have to admit I am personally a fan of Rail lines/Trains etc, especially those Japanese ones.

Although, it's not that I am really a fan, I just love the look of the Japanese trains, and if they had a Japanese train line on any simulator I would play it..

Here's your average train running on the Yamanote Line:

There's something very stylish about these trains, well I think so anyway. I will probably do a post about Japanese Trains at one point, just because their system is amazing.

However this post is slightly less upbeat unfortunatly.


A couple of days ago the words "Jinshin Jiko" echoed around all stations on the Yamanote Line.

Jinshin Jiko literally means "Human Body Accident".

Of course accidents happen all the time, but unfortunately as this is Japan (and the suicide rate is relatively high there) I would assume this is more of a suicide than an accident.

The area of glass that is smashed seems to be just the right height of that of someone who would have jumped a bit.

All thoughts will undoubtedly go out to the mans family (if he had family) but more so I think to the driver. Who came to work the same as he did everyday, but went home to a life that will never be the same again. It's a horrible thing from all angles.

Eye witnesses of the event, took to twitter to post some pictures from the station:

The train lines were up and running again pretty fast as Authorities rushed to remove any evidence of the "Accident" and return the trains to normal service. However after doing a bit of reading online apparently one twitter user stated that "as much as all the evidence is removed, the rush of air pulling into the station brings with it a scent of blood".

It's a real shame, not only that this incident occurred but the sheer number of times it occurs in Japan. It seems that people have become numb to the words Jinshin Jiko. Although the sight of the accident will most likely remain horrific, the words seem to no longer have effect on people.

The reactions started out as tweets expressing the fact that there will be delays on the JR (Japan Railway) line, although once the news about what happened spread the tweets soon change to that of Horror. It just shows that the words alone were not enough.

It's a terrible accident and hopefully theres not too many blog posts like this.

However it's in the news and it deserves to be shared.



@TurnChapanese

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Enjoy your weekend, and be careful.

Dan