Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Japan stuff category. Noteworthy entries are filed topmost.
Omega Drags 2008 (July)
Well, the Omega Drags have been and gone this past Sunday and they were a big disappointment, although not an unexpected one. I was up until about 3am on Sunday morning trying to work out what was causing my engine misfiring problem, all in vain. To be honest, when I went to bed I was in 2 minds about even competing on Sunday. The only reason I did in the end was because I’d paid my money to enter. To summarise my problem, when driving normally and when I put my foot down from a roll, there are no issues. However, if I launch the car then when I hit 2nd gear my car seems to misfire through the rev range up until about 6,000rpm. The problem is temperamental and very annoying as it can cripple my runs. As it indeed did on just about every run I did on Sunday. My times were slower than before, even after the methanol injection I have in the car, mainly due to my not getting a clean run at full boost the entire day. And the weather was scorching up there. I like warm weather but it was just solid sunshine all day with virtually no shade. And for some reason there was almost a 2-hour wait between qualifying and the actual knockout tournament, where everyone just sat and burnt to a crisp. A few people talked about just leaving, noting that they weren’t going to win anyway and were just uncomfortable. I could understand where they were coming from. I drank about 6l of fluids on Sunday, and was still dehydrated at the end of the day.
So it’s looking forward to October 19th now, when the next drag tournament will take place. I have a couple of strong leads about what could be causing my misfiring though and I intend to put in a much better showing next time. To be honest it can’t be much worse! Ah well… my first tournament was a learning experience but a fun one; this was a poor one all round; next one will be more successful and fingers crossed I’ll be competitive again. I’ve got my eyes on a couple of things to help that but will tell you more about that later.
So all that remains is for me to give you some photos from the day. Am pretty pleased with how my camera is working, and it’s taking some decent shots. See more of my photos here. Mentioning that, my soldave.ismysite.co.uk site might be closing soon. It is probably better for me to just have a Flickr account for my photos and I think it’s cheaper for me. Will let you know if this happens though.
News confirmed: Yomiuri Giants player gets let off scot free
You may have read my article earlier this week about Mona Yamamoto being caught at a love hotel with Yomiuri Giants player Tomohiro Nioka. I commented in that story that a lot of the emphasis seems to have been placed on Yamamoto and very little seems to have been said about Nioka. But it seems that Nioka was the instigator in what went on when they met and what they did afterwards, as this report in Japan Today shows:
Mona takes the fall, while Nioka gets off
Hardly a day has gone by over the last week that the tabloid media hasn’t put the boot into Mona Yamamoto, 32, after she was forced to quit her job as a news program anchor due to a scandal surrounding her visit to a love hotel with a married Yomiuri Giants baseball player. Since Yamamoto had to leave another news program in October, 2006 in similar circumstances, the media have been calling her all sorts of names.
But those who were at the party on the night of the latest scandal say that baseball player Tomohiro Nioka, 32, was hitting on Yamamoto much more eagerly than she was hitting on him. Yet he barely received a slap on the wrist.
“As Nioka got drunk, he started to approach a group of girls who were drinking together. But these girls ignored him, so he started to hit on Yamamoto,” said one of Nioka’s friends who was at the party. “He talked to her, and was whispering in her ear. The distance between them got closer.”
After the party, Nioka left with Yamamoto and looked as if he was pushing her into a taxi around 4:30 a.m. “While he was drunk, he tried to kiss me,” Yamamoto said in an official statement to media. “Mr Nioka asked me to go to another bar on the street, but I refused that offer. Because I didn’t want to make it a big deal in public, I reluctantly went to a love hotel nearby to talk with him until he could sober up. We just had a drink there but didn’t do anything more.”
Nioka married a freelance announcer in 2005, and has a son who was born in June, 2007. He is currently president of the Players Union. Nioka’s wife told Shukan Post: “I heard everything from my husband and I am sorry that he has caused so much trouble for many people.”
One Yomiuri Giants fans says, “He hasnft been in good form these days. If Mona is forced to suspend all activities, Nioka should do the same.”
However, a spokesperson for the Yomiuri Giants says, “His behavior was very senseless. We apologize to our fans. He is sorry for his own actions now. Since he is one of our key players, we decided to let him off with just a verbal warning this time.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)
Japanese newscaster involved in another scandal
Well, I say “another” but in the sense that this woman has form with this particular thing! Various news feeds are reporting that Norwegian/Japanese newscaster and tarento, Mona Yamamoto (see below), has been caught at a love hotel with Yomiuri Giants baseball player Tomohiro Nioka over this past weekend. The problem is that Mr Nioka is married and with a 1-year old son. Back in 2006, Miss Yamamoto was dropped by TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) back in 2006 when she was found to be having an affair with DPJ politician, Goshi Hosono. She managed to salvage her career but it will be interesting to see what comes of her after this setback. Amusingly, one of the employees of the love hotel has told Asahi News that Miss Yamamoto is apparently a regular customer there! Well, when you find one good love hotel I guess you just keep going back…
Been a while since an update
I have been waiting for something big to happen so I could provide a report on it, but over the past weke or so there’s not been so much happening in this little part of Japan. So here I am with lots of little updates on things that have been happening in my life.
Firstly, this entry is going to be dedicated to a very good friend here in Okinawa, who because of an unfortunate situation, is having to return to England this afternoon much before she planned. Over the past 9 months or so we’ve become really good friends and she will be missed by me and quite a few others here on island. One slight saving grace for her is that her car (one of her loves) is going back with her and will be in England in a month or 2. So be on the lookout for a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III flying past you on the British roads soon. If it’s being driven by a good looking blonde, give her a wave!
Akihabara murders: Kato was unhappy with life
Bits of news are still coming out of the Japanese news feeds about Tomohiro Kato, the man who murdered 7 people and injured 10 others in the centre of Akihabara on Sunday. He is reported as having told police he was unhappy with working conditions and the fact there had been personnel cuts at the car factory in Shizuoka where he was working. Apparently the decision to downsize the firm from 200 to 50 workers is sufficient to make a temporary worker go over the edge and decide to try and kill anyone within reach. It has also been revealed that Kato changed job a number of times after leaving college.
I’m sorry, but the sooner people realise the economic bubble in Japan burst about 15 years ago, the better. We no longer live in an age where you have job security for life, great conditions and working hours for workers, a salary that allows you to go to a hostess bar every night and a wife who is doesn’t do anything about the fact that you do. Well, maybe the latter is still here in Japan, but that’s a subject for another topic altogether. You have to put in hours of work these days, and lots of people don’t really like their jobs. Many Japanese companies still believe that the way back to success is to make workers to “voluntary” overtime until 9 or 10pm each night, but the fact of the matter is that productivity is going down like a lead balloon. And any temporary worker knows that they will be the first to leave a company when cutbacks are made. The word “temporary” can act as a slight giveaway to some. But it seems in Japan some people are still not realising the reality of it all.
And it was a sad sight yesterday to see Kato’s parents apologising and bowing deeply on the news, 
apologising for their son’s actions. I’m sure Tomohiro has made mummy and daddy very proud of him now. But as the cameras flashed, it is hard not to feel sympathy for the parents. It’s not as if Kato junior was 10 years old and the parents had bought the knives for him. There is only so much responsibility that parents can take over a child before it goes over to them to act like an adult.
Kato said he bought 6 knives the day before the attack, which was confirmed by shopping receipts. But he also said he gave one knife to a colleague, and police only recovered 5 knives from the scene of the attack. Now that could mean a couple of things. Did Kato have an accomplice, who was supposed to join him in the killing frenzied attack, but who then backed out? Did the colleague know about the attack beforehand, and if so why didn’t he contact the authorities? If not, why did he accept a knife given to him; did he not think to question why he was being given a blade?
