Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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Apple ardour

After years of, ahem, fruitless effort, 71-year-old Tetsuo Watanabe has finally achieved his ambition of growing an apple over a thousand grammes in weight. The happy horticulturist boasting, “I have finally achieved my goal.”

Watanabe-san’s Stark Jumbo apple — a variety unsurprisingly known for its size — measures a whopping 15 centimetres in diameter; weighing an equally impressive 1,030 grammes. Yet despite his understandable glee, the large fruit specialist may well have achieved his aim last year, had a similarly large apple he’d nurtured not been stolen.

However after finally tasting success, Mr. Watanbe appeared relaxed about the theft, even joking, “Next year, I want to grow an apple too big to steal”. The old man’s sense of humour equally apparent in this decidedly freaky looking photo.

big apple

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Political suicide?

With suicide levels still at record highs, and the number of yearly victims stubbornly sticking above the 30,000 mark, the authorities are desperate to rectify the situation.

Yet despite his usually impeccable political astuteness, this recent picture of the wavy-haired Prime Minister appears to show a man singing from a very different song sheet.

political suicide

(A big thanks to the always wonderful Spirit Fingers for the tip)

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Research ruse

On Tuesday morning, a fleet of whaling ships bound for the Antarctic, left Shimonoseki, in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The purpose of the trip being more ‘experimentation’ for the Institute of Cetacean Research.

During the expedition, the institute hopes to bag its first batch of fin whales – ten apparently being enough. Plus in what will no doubt be a busy trip, the research organization plans on doubling its catch of mink whales. Bringing the figure to somewhere in the region of 850.

Now the cynical amongst us may point an accusing finger at such ‘studies’, claiming that it’s merely a ruse for the commercial sale of whale meat. The recent introduction of whale burgers arguably backing up such claims.

whale burger

Yet this is obviously grabbing the wrong end of the stick. Asked (on its website) if the research program wasn’t simply commercial whaling in disguise, the Institute of Cetacean Research robustly stated:

The fact that the whale meat ends up on the market is a requirement of the treaty to ensure that resources are not wasted. It is not a “loophole” or “illegal” or “commercial whaling in disguise” as the anti-whaling rhetoric suggests. Income from the sale of by-products (meat) is used to partially offset the cost of the research.

Ah, now it all makes sense. The sale of whale meat helps fund further research trips, which in turn just happens to produce more edible extras. So much so in fact that kids can now enjoy the odd bit of whale in their school lunch. A situation that harks back to ‘the good old days’ when there was precious little else to eat.

Anyway, regardless of what any doubters may think, the institute clearly believes that the big greedy beasts deserve all they get. Why? Well, do you know how much they eat?

The research has found for example that whales are consuming 3 to 5 times the amount of marine living resources as are caught for human consumption. In the waters around Japan we have a situation of declining catches in certain fisheries while at the same time the sampling from our research program reveals that minke whales are eating at least 10 species of fish including Japanese anchovy.

Yes, it seems they are nothing but gluttons, wolfing down fish like it’s going out of fashion. And Japanese anchovy too! With behaviour like this, perhaps ‘research’ is exactly what they deserve.

whale meat japan

Or not, as they case may be.

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Spectacular spectacles

“Nowadays, what women are looking for in men is intellect. And that’s why men wearing glasses are suddenly so hot.”

Psychologist Yasufumi Nagoshi in Spa! magazine, speculating on why men who wear glasses have become more attractive to women.

After suffering years of rejection, it would appear that young Suzuki-san’s time has finally come.

cosplay maid

(Click image for added intellect.)

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Costly calendar

To commemorate 15 years of selling ridiculously expensive and unbelievably extravagant gold calendars, jewellery shop Ginza Tanaka has upped the ante even further by producing a poster-sized version. The 1-milimetre-thick offering priced at a truly preposterous 20.06 million yen.

gold calendar

For anyone with more money than sense, the calendar contains 5.5 kilogrammes of solid gold; and for ease of use, weekdays are coloured blue, whilst Sundays and national holidays are resplendent in red.

However as the press release failed to mention it, having an engraver over to make a note of dental appointments and important birthdays will presumably cost extra.