Tokyo Times

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Peeping professor

The picture below is Kazuhide Uekusa. Renowned economist, regular television commentator, and professor at the prestigious Waseda University.

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But on Monday, Mr. Uekusa was arrested for peeping at Tokyo’s Shinagawa station. He wasn’t however just trying to have a crafty peek up a woman’s skirt, or a quick leer at her cleavage. No, the perverted professor was caught on an escalator, trying to look up the skirt of a 15 year old schoolgirl with a small mirror.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. How terribly embarrassing!

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Logging on

Forget the running of the bulls in Spain, or even the bizarre sheep run in New Zealand. For sheer danger and lunacy, Japan’s recent Onabashira festival takes some beating.

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Held every 7 years, it is designed to bring the people and local gods closer together. Although how belting down a hill on a log is supposed to achieve this I don’t know.

The overall aim (apart from avoiding serious injury) is to try and stay on the log all the way to the bottom of the hill. But by clicking on the picture below and watching the video, you can see it’s by no means easy.

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Personally I like the way everyone jumps on at the end, just as the log has come to a standstill. But I’m not sure what the gods would make of such brazen cheating.

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Tantalizing tennis

Due to regular rotation in the Japanese education system, from this week I’ve started at a new school. And judging by my first 10 minutes in the place, it could be an interesting year.

Having only just found my desk, the English teacher came over and quickly got his introduction out of the way. He then wasted no time in telling me that the previous day a man (naked from the waist down) had been spotted masturbating whilst watching some of the students play tennis.

With the new school year not yet fully underway, heaven knows what’s to come!

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Hamasaki hustler

As a brief bit of background information, this is a picture of Ayumi Hamasaki (or Ayu as she is commonly known).

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Not only is she pretty, but it’s probably fair to say that she’s Japan’s most popular female singer, having produced a steady string of hits over the last few years.

But sadly, like many pop stars, some of Hamasaki’s fans can be a little obsessive. Although perhaps non more so than 35 year old Masashi Tsueda. A man who was arrested this week for a series of robberies he committed to feed his love of attending concerts and buying Ayu merchandise.

Since July 2001, Tsueda is alleged to have committed around 170 robberies. Although before you immediately condemn him, he was a criminal with a conscience, as he made a rule of never stealing more than 200,000 Yen (about 1,000 pounds) in a single day! But even after heroically restricting himself in this way, the besotted fan managed to acquire over 22 million Yen (112,000 pounds) in his crime spree.

You’ve got to wonder what he was buying though. 22 million Yen! I don’t care how many concerts you go to, or posters you buy, getting through that kind of money would be quite a challenge. But by the sounds of it, one that Masashi Tsueda was obviously up to.

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One-legged flasher

On Monday, an Asahi Shimbun editor was arrested for allegedly flashing his genitalia on a crowded bus.

The accused however claims the incident was a complete misunderstanding, as he wears a prosthetic leg and was merely adjusting its position. The 43 year-old man was arrested after a schoolgirl complained to the bus driver, who then reported the incident to the police.

Despite such denials, prosecutors remain confident that they have taken the right decision. Stating that “We have decided to prosecute him after comprehensively examining the testimonies [sorry] of the schoolgirl and the driver”

The nation’s publications have had a field day with this story, sporting headlines along the lines of he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, and other similarly cheap shots. But here at Tokyo Times, coverage is much more balanced. Oops.