Meanwhile, in Japan...

Discuss anything and everything relating to that fascinating island empire of the east
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greg
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Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

I thought I'd start a thread of just random stuff going on in Japan and named it after the Internet meme. If you find stuff on current news, trends and whatnot, please share it here.
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greg
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

There's been some A-hole uploading videos of himself shoplifting onto YouTube for a while now, and he's been making the news a lot lately. They finally caught him. His channel is here. He filmed himself shoplifting, cramming toothpicks into various items into stores, and doing various other delinquent activities. His videos have been on the news every day for the past week at least. I'm glad they finally got him.

When ISIS was posting videos of them murdering people, I had to have YouTube automate a phone call to me to verify who I was and where I was uploading from. I wonder how this guy got past that, because I assume everyone had to do that.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

Last Saturday (January 17th) marked the 20 year memorial of the Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe in 1995.I was in college at the time, and I was tempted to go and work as a volunteer for a month after the disaster hit. However, I would have had to drop out of my classes for that semester and by doing so I would have been removed from my parents' insurance policy. Consequently, I did not go.

Coming up soon is the 20 year memorial of the Tokyo subway terrorist gas attack by the Aum Shinri Kyo death cult.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by usamimi »

greg wrote:There's been some A-hole uploading videos of himself shoplifting onto YouTube for a while now, and he's been making the news a lot lately. They finally caught him. His channel is here. He filmed himself shoplifting, cramming toothpicks into various items into stores, and doing various other delinquent activities. His videos have been on the news every day for the past week at least. I'm glad they finally got him.

When ISIS was posting videos of them murdering people, I had to have YouTube automate a phone call to me to verify who I was and where I was uploading from. I wonder how this guy got past that, because I assume everyone had to do that.
Woooow, that's awful! I'm glad they caught the guy. He probably used a burner phone for verification, I'd assume? Or maybe that was how they finally caught him...either way, glad they did get him.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

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So the journalist Kenji has been finally killed by ISIS over this past weekend. His story replaced the coverage of the toothpick shoplifter guy. It is all the news has focused on lately. While it is sad, I really couldn't muster much compassion for the guy. He overstayed his visa that was to have him return to Japan back in October. The problem I have with him is that he purposely went out of his way to put himself into danger and thus was abducted by those barbarians. And his naivete in thinking that he would be perfectly safe around terrorists because he's Japanese is just extremely ignorant and inexcusable for an adult (especially a journalist). He was strongly warned to not go to ISIS. What was he thinking? "Maybe I can reason with them. After all, we're all human beings, right? I can try to use logic and appeal to their sense of justice." Sorry. They don't work that way. They're savages. They've been raised from birth to be savages. Apparently he thought that he could just reason with them, convince them to let the other Japanese guy go, and they could go home together. If you're not Muslim, you deserve to die, according to them. Even being Muslim isn't enough, since they'll kill them too if they don't fit their ideology.

To make it worse, Kenji was married and was a father. His wife just had a baby, even. Being a father really changes things. I won't take up skydiving or drag racing because I have a responsibility to my wife and daughter. Heck, being adventurous to me would be to eat some fugu (blowfish). If it was just my wife and I, maybe my perspective would be a bit more selfish, but I live for the purpose of being my daughter's father. Going to somewhere like Syria was bad enough, but to go there, not come home as scheduled, and then purposely hand himself over to the terrorists was just too irresponsible. At least he made a video beforehand in which he said he takes full responsibility for his actions. If he had just used some common sense, his wife would not be a widow, nor his children fatherless. The whole situation was messed up, with ISIS trying to dictate to PM Abe to take responsibility for Jordan in some weird triangular relationship. Finally there is some resolution. Sorry if I sound too cold and uncaring, but it's just difficult to feel sorry for someone who disregarded the wise counsel of others, put himself into an easily avoidable predicament, and threw his life away.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

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I watched some English language coverage of this story and I made a mistake. Apparently he sought out the terrorists as soon as he arrived in Syria to go and try to rescue that hostage. He was captured by ISIS within hours of his arrival. He believed that his Japanese citizenship would protect him, and he believed that somehow the terrorists would be friendly to Japanese. I have no idea what gave him that idea, but because of his rash and ignorant actions, he caused an international fiasco and was used by terrorists to try to bully two countries at once. His heart was obviously bigger than his head. I have a hard time viewing him as a hero...
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

There are too many interesting trade shows here in Japan that I'd like to attend. Some I'm not aware of, and recently there was the Anime, Comic & Character License Fair at Tokyo Big Sight where a new Uglydoll crossover campaign is taking place. I love this! As an Uglydoll fan living in Japan, I'd like to see them become popular here. I can't understand why Japan hasn't quite taken with Uglydolls yet, and they can only be purchased at a very few stores (Kiddie Land and Yamashiroya in Tokyo being two I can think of). I've introduced Uglydoll to some students who have really liked the designs, but so far real popularity and recognition of Uglydoll has eluded Japan. Meanwhile, the poorly-drawn Funasshi is extremely popular here, and I despise that obnoxious, loathsome yellow blob. In 2013 there was the Uglydoll x Hello Kitty crossover. I tried showing it to some kids, but for some reason, they just don't take to it. Then again, I'm dealing with adolescents, and liking stuff that isn't popular and being unique is not a treasured virtue, especially here in Japan.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

An unemployed hikikomori living on Awaji island in Hyogo Prefecture killed 5 people with a knife yesterday.
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/111692.php

Awajishima was the epicenter of the great Hanshin Earthquake 20 years ago. January marked the 20 year memorial of that event. I was in college at the time, and I wanted to volunteer to go help clean up in the aftermath. However, I would've had to drop out of the semester of school I'd just enrolled in. And if I did that, then I would've been dropped from my parents' health insurance.

The longest suspension bridge in the world connects Awajishima to the city of Akashi, called the Akashi Oo-hashi.

This month marks the 20 year memorial of the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways at the hands of the Aum Shinri Kyo death cult.
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by greg »

Today is March 11th, and it marks the 4 year memorial of the great Tohoku earthquake that killed so many people and forced over 200,000 people to relocate due to the tsunami and Fukushima disasters.
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/news ... 1000c.html
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Re: Meanwhile, in Japan...

Post by ParaParaJMo »

I have seen some of the damages there in Ibaraki 4 years ago. It was pretty scary but at the same time, I see people just living regular lives.
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