Tokyo Times

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Arnold’s adverts

Arnold Schwarzenegger will visit Japan in November, his first sojourn as Governor of California. The, ahem, actor turned politician plans to meet Japanese political and business leaders, in an attempt to strengthen business ties between Japan and his state.

But official work aside, I wonder if he’ll find the time to make anymore TV commercials whilst he’s here?

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Click on the picture above to see one of the Governor’s more accomplished performances. And for more Schwarzenegger (and other celebrity) commercials, go to the wonderful Japander.com

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Karaoke king?

I must confess that karaoke is not my favourite way of spending an evening. And the few unfortunate souls who have found themselves sat alongside me in a karaoke booth can well understand my aversion to this popular pastime.

But perhaps help is at hand. Vodafone has released a mobile phone that allows you to download karaoke songs, and then project them on to a TV. Allowing woeful warblers like myself the chance to get a bit of private practice in before making another ill-advised public outing. And no need to worry about not having a microphone either, as the handset doubles up as a one.

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Plus, when you are belting out your favourite number, you can always check the lyrics on the phone’s Japanese-English dictionary. Whilst simultaneously taking pictures of your performance with the device’s 1.3-mexapixel camera.

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Internet indecency

“There have been more and more cases where people are posting slanderous messages or offering nude pictures of former girlfriends on the Internet.”

Cyber-sleuth Masaya Orita, director of an Internet detective agency, Mars Agent, who tracks down such people.

Who would have thought it eh? Nudity and slander on the internet. What is the world coming to? The way things are going, people will be keeping online diaries next…

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Soporific shopping

I’ve heard the expression, I’m so tired I could sleep on a washing line many times. Although admittedly not recently. Is it still in use?

Anyway, considering the width of a washing line, the man pictured below might not have been quite that tired. But at the same time he must have been more than a little bit sleepy. And if his precarious sleeping and balancing act wasn’t enough, the photograph was taken in the middle of Akihabara on a Saturday afternoon. Which for anybody unfamiliar with the area, is incredibly noisy and busy to say the least.

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High school hoax

School is not everybody’s idea of fun, but rather than feign stomachache, or simply skive off and spend the day down at the local game centre, a 16-year-old high school student made a bomb threat in a desperate attempt for a bit of time off.

The unnamed student hit on the idea after having one of his classes cancelled when the train line his school is situated on temporarily suspended services due to an accident. And with this in mind, he sent an e-mail to the Seibu Railway Company saying, “I’m going to blow up a station on the Seibu Line between September 14th and 18th. I have already planted the bomb. You’ll never find it so don’t waste your time.”

This resulted in the police and railway officials searching all 92 of its stations. An unenviable task to say the least. Although how this affected services, and whether the young prankster managed to miss any classes wasn’t disclosed.

But, as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The school-hating hoaxer was arrested on Friday, meaning he got at least one day away from school.