Man passed out in street gets run over
Well, those of you who know Japan know this story had to come from one of only two possible areas in Japan. This time it is not my home prefecture of Okinawa, but Saitama, near Tokyo. The story in full:
Man lying on Saitama street killed in hit-and-run
Thursday 15th May, 02:40 PM JST
SAITAMA — A man died after being hit by a car on a street in Saitama on Thursday morning, police said. According to a witness, the man, identified as Soichiro Utsunomiya, 30, was hit by a white van while he was lying on the street around 2:25 a.m. He was taken to hospital but died from head injuries about one hour later, police said.
According to police, a woman passer-by noticed Utsunomiya sleeping on the street, with his head on the pavement. As she was calling police at a convenience store nearby, she saw the van run over the man and stop. She told police that the driver got out of the van, but got back in again and drove off.
Police said the victim was seen shopping at a nearby supermarket and was drunk, according to witnesses.
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First of all, he wasn’t lying in the street. he was passed out paraletic in the street from alcohol. Whether it was alcohol purchased from the supermarket or at an izakaya (drinking establishment)/snack bar. First of all, not good at all that the guy drove away, especially as it seems he got out and realised what he had done.
I raise this story though as the same thing nearly happened to me a while back. It was when I had my old car and I was driving home to my village one night one the back roads. Turned round a blind corner and there, straddled across the centreline was a guy just lying there. I swerved and braked sharply and just managed to miss him. Stopped the car and got out to make sure he wasn’t injured. As I approached him slowly I could smell awamori (the local fire-water) on him and realised he was just completely hammered. He saw me and slurred a little (most likely something similar to, “Go home!”), and once I realised he wasn’t injured I got back into the car and drove away. Some may ask why I didn’t remove him from the road but to be honest that’s something I don’t want to get involved in. Another car goes by and sees a foreigner pulling an Okinawan guy to the side of the road; next thing you’ve got helicopters out, hundreds of police officers an you’re getting questioned like you’ve done something wrong.
All I’ll say is that I’m glad I didn’t come across him while taking that same corner in my Evo. My car’s low and he might have damaged the underside of it as I’d gone over him!
Japanese teens arrested for killing swans
This blog is not going to just become a list of crimes that occur in Japan, but I have just read this story which was shocking and worth reporting to others.
Two teenagers detained over killing 8 swans in Ibaraki lake
Thursday 15th May, 10:17 AM JST
Police on Wednesday detained two teenagers for killing eight swans at a park lake in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on April 28. According to police, the two boys, aged 15 and 13, beat the swans to death with wooden sticks at the park from 1 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. on April 28.
The 15-year-old boy was sent to prosecutors, while the 13-year-old boy - who cannot be prosecuted because he is too young - was sent to a child consultation center.
The two were quoted by police as saying, gIt was fun to kill the swans, especially when they tried to swim away.h
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Now is it just me, or is anyone else a little disturbed that these kids will be out of their “consultation center” in no time at all? Are they gonna get bored again and look for more fun. Maybe other animals or people will be even more fun when they try to get away from being killed. What the kids were doing out between 1:00 and 2:30 in the morning is another matter (I know the following day was a Japanese public holiday but even so…). Is it right to question what kind of family background they came from? Maybe the kids came from warm families whose parents had all the time in the world for them, but the kids just had this evil streak in them. Maybe (as happens in many Japanese families), the kids grew up hardly seeing their father due to long working hours & the attraction of snack and hostess bars, they were spoilt by their mother who never saw them do wrong, and so when they hit their teens they thought they could do anything they like to anything/anyone they like. Who knows.
Human fireball story forgotten already!
Well, records are being set left, right and centre today. Less than a couple of hours ago I reported on the police giving a lighter and cigarette to a suicidal man covered in kerosene in Nagoya, reaching new heights of ineptitude. I predicted that the media would drop the story within a few days but I didn’t realise it would just be under 24 hours from the initial event happening (and it then took a while to be reported) and it being deemed not important enough to be shown on any of the front pages of the Japanese online news sites. Looks like a man who robbed a convenience store and then went straight to the police and repented is much more important than this event.
Forget about the police facilitating suicides, Japan. Your government is in full control. You are free to do as we tell you…
Finally, it was funny to see that the police have been unable to determine whether the man was trying to kill himself or whether it was just an accident. Hmmm… to the layman or anyone who dabbles in psychology, it might seem that a person that douses themselves in kerosene and gets out a lighter trying to kill themselves before arrest, who refuses to change their clothes after arrest and then asks the police for a lighter and cigarettes during interrogation might want to kill themselves. But I’m sure the police know what they are doing. Just a thought, can you imagine a conversation when this guy returned home from work to his wife/parents:
Wife/mother: “Welcome home. How was work today?”
Policeman: “So so… not too eventful really. I did give a pack of cigarettes and a lighter to a man who was covered in kerosene and who then proceeded to set himself on fire and kill himself in the police station. Apart from that nothing of note”
Wife/mother: “…”
J-cops under fire again, reach new heights/depths
OK - let me just set the scene here and find out your response to the situation. You are a police officer and arrive at a Nagoya house to arrest a man on suspicion of assaulting a female housemate/partner. As you arrive at the house, you see the man walking out of the house carrying an 18-litre can of kerosene. He walks down the road and douses himself in the liquid on 3 separate occasions, using around 5 litres. You make no attempt to stop him doing this as you are a reasonably inept officer to start with. You do take action when the man gets out a lighter and threatens to kill himself. You wrestle the lighter off the man, he is arrested and refuses to change clothes before being taken into full custody. So off to the police station he goes and into the interrogation room. Again, the man refused to change his clothes at the police station and says he just wants to go on. Now, as questioning is about to start in the small interrogation room, the suspect asks if he can smoke. So, here is the dilemma. Do you:
a) Point out the clearly marked no smoking signs all around the police station, and tell him that it is just not possible.
b) Take into account the man is covered with a highly flammable liquid, and was suicidal before his arrest, meaning any naked flames could turn him into a human fireball.
c) Accept his request and hand the man a lighter and pack of cigarettes, regardless of signs and safety. You then choose to leave the room, leaving the man alone with the cigarettes and lighter for 15 minutes.
Now, if you chose option 3 then please take yourself outside and give yourself a sever beating. To be honest, with that kind of mentality you deserved it. Of course, option “b” would be the obvious answer with answer “a” as a side-point. So now that we’ve deduced what you should do, let me ask you what you think the Japanese police did…
Typhoons starting already?!
First of all, a chilling reminder about the power of typhoons/cyclones/hurricanes has been all too evident in Burma this week. 22,000 dead and a potential death toll of over 100,000 has really hit home the power of Mother Nature. Incidentally, a pop quiz for you here: cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes… what is the difference? Will give the answer at the end of this post.
Well, 2 months before the season is scheduled to start, it looks like the first typhoon of the season is heading Japan’s way. Typhoon Rammasun is curling northward in the Pacific and will reach winds of 115kts. This typhoon is highly unlikely to make landfall either in Okinawa or mainland Japan, but this could signal the start of a very busy year for typhoons. Could do without that as I have only recently replaced the wind deflectors off my car following the big typhoon last year! That, combined with a weather front approaching from the west of Okinawa unfortunately means that I reckon no diving will be on the cards this weekend. It would be possible to dive tomorrow I think, but work commitments mean that I won’t be able to get into the water.
Managed to get a dive in last week though at Maeda Misaki. Dived with Brian and a diver I certified last year. The dive was fun and the weather was beautiful (as it is today; can’t see any clouds out of the window and just a slight breeze keeping the edge off the heat). Was good to get into the water again and wanted to continue the trend again this weekend but it looks like it won’t be happening.
Today is a very special event at my school, or so my students tell me. As I was leaving work yesterday a group of them ran up to me shouting, “Sensei! Tomorrow EU is coming!”. Yes, I was as confused as you readers probably are. I enquired a little more and it appears that our school was chosen for something or other, and as part of it some guy from Sweden is going to come to the school and make a speech about Europe and the EU. I sincerely hope he is fluent in Japanese or will use an interpreter as the students’ English can be a little sketchy at times and I imagine their Swedish isn’t much better. The main even is due to kick off in about an hour though so we’ll see what this man has to say.
Just a short update today so here is the answer to that question I posed above. It is all about location, I believe. Typhoons occur in the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes in the Atlantic and cyclones in the Indian Ocean. Simple really!