Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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Disney dolls

March 3rd is Hina Matsuri (Girl’s Festival), a time when families with girls display traditional hina dolls and pray for the health and happiness of their female offspring.

hina matsuri

This festival has been a part of Japanese culture since the Edo Period (1603-1867), and is said to have originated in China along with the custom of transferring bad luck from people to dolls. But such a long history hasn’t stopped Mickey Mouse and his pals from hijacking proceedings, turning the event into just another cute and cuddly moment.

disney hina matsuri

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DoCoMo delight

Being a Vodafone subscriber, I can only gaze enviously at the cool and compact models offered by the likes of DoCoMo and AU. And a quick look at the fairly recent Talby will give you a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about.

But the arrival of DoCoMo’s Premini II has increased the jealousy factor even further, leaving me cell phone salivating. Due to its (relatively) small size, it may lack a few functions compared to its bigger and bulkier cousins, but in the design department it’s second to none.

premini

And look, it even has fancy blue lights.

premini II

Resistance may be futile.

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Mildly amusing English usage #6

Kill you

After receiving a call on Monday night about a man walking around Tokyo’s Taito-ku district with a knife, a police officer quickly arrived at the scene and confronted the criminal. But rather than give up his weapon, the man began to walk towards the policeman, brandishing the knife and shouting “Kill You” in English.

Whilst it wasn’t reported, I presume I’m right in guessing that the officer didn’t correct the man’s shoddy English. Perhaps helpfully suggesting that I’m going to, or I want to placed before his outburst would make for a grammatically correct (and more intimidating) sentence.

Instead the policeman simply shot the suspect in the arm, bringing the incident to a swift and decisive end.

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Haircut horror

People using their children for financial gain by allowing them to star in commercials may or may not be a bad thing. I guess it depends on the amount of work, the product being advertised, and of course how much money is involved.

But putting your child in a kitchen product ad after a haircut that even in polite company can only be described as savage is another thing altogether.

bad hair day

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Panty pilfering imposter

Whilst underwear theft isn’t exactly unusual, 56-year-old Hisao Okumura’s approach to panty pilfering most definitely is.

Adopting a plan that somehow must have seemed like a good idea at the time, Okumura-san dressed himself up as a woman so as not to attract attention as he perused panties. But considering his age, donning a long wig, boots, and a miniskirt arguably wasn’t the best plan in the world. And a similarly poor judgment call was that he didn’t use any make-up.

Needless to say a security guard spotted Okumura immediately due to his unusual attire, and kept him under surveillance as he lingered around the lingerie. A decision that eventually resulted in Mr. Okumura being apprehended for attempting to steal 3 items of underwear worth a total of 13,000 yen (65 pound).

During questioning, the accused was refreshingly honest, telling officers, “I wanted underwear.”

Now whilst there’s nothing necessarily wrong with a desire to possess panties, in the future perhaps buying them might be a better option for Okumura-san. As regardless of the design, surely it can’t be anymore embarrassing than getting caught stealing underwear whilst dressed in a miniskirt and sporting a wig.