Answering phone forgotten in love hotel a sure-fire formula for trouble

People leave all kinds of things behind in love hotel rooms. Some, writes Shoko Harano in Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 26) are the sorts of items one might not ordinarily expect. Like a woman’s full set of false teeth.

Harano, described as a 36-year-old divorcee and a “coquettish [sic] beauty” spent three years working at the reception of a love hotel.

It’s not uncommon, she says, for guests to leave cell phones behind in their rooms. Some phones are pink and festooned with glitter and all kinds of cheap trinkets — the sort of thing one might expect to be used by girls in their mid teens. Read more

Kyoto in 24 hours

KYOTO (TR) – As Japan’s seventh largest city, the ancient capital of Kyoto blends modern urban sprawl with traditional touches. Falling somewhere in between has been the development of an environmental movement considered to be one of the nation’s largest. What follows is a “green” guide to Kyoto for a single day’s stay.

09.00: Kyoto’s nearly 2,000 temples and shrines are well known, yet culinary delicacies are not to be overlooked, and numerous varieties are available at the Nishiki Market, where over 100 family-run shops have offered locally sourced products for four centuries. A walk down the narrow corridor reveals aromas of grilled fish and boisterous shopkeepers enthusiastically peddling sushi and other seafood (oysters, squid and sweetfish), sweets, fresh vegetables and some of Japan’s finest cutlery. For a sampling of the wares, order breakfast at Iyomata (Tel: 075-221-1405), which offers sushi sets, including chirashi zushi (various raw fish over rice).

10.30: In 1997, Kyoto hosted the United Nations conference that set greenhouse gas emission targets, but the streets of Japan’s former capital are often jammed with cars. As an alternative, the Kyoto Cycling Tour Project provides various types of two-wheelers from its outlet just in front of Kyoto Station. Cycle down to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, notable for its path of 5,000 orange entry gates, and back up the bike route hugging the Kamogawa River. Then venture over to the Kyoto Handicraft Center to peruse its selection of painted screens and kimono wear or partake in making your own woodblock print or folding fan in the center’s studio. Read more

Gangster film star Hiroki Matsukata reels in giant tuna

TOKYO (TR) – TV personality and yakuza gangster pic star Hiroki Matsukata (“Yakuza Tai G-Men” and “The Yakuza Papers” series) snagged a 2.73-meter-long, 325-kilogram black tuna in a tuna fishing contest off the coast of Yamaguchi Prefecture in southern Japan on Monday.

Sold at auction at the famed Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo on Wednesday, the tuna netted Matsukata 4.37 million yen, which he split with the captain of the boat. That day he also brought sashimi samples for the guests on a Fuji TV variety show, who pronounced it delicious.

Matsukata, 67, fought the big fish for an hour and a half before landing it — far longer than any of his on-screen battles with bad guys. He looks likely to win the contest, which runs to November 27. The first prize is an unspecified quantity of two local specialties: rice and sea urchin eggs. Read more

Couples cavort atop twin beds in frolicking foursome

“My hubby reserved a spacious room with twin beds on the top floor of a hotel,” writes the anonymous contributor in the December issue of Ai no Taiken Special Deluxe, as introduced in Shukan Bunshun (Dec. 3).

Two beds were needed because the couple was to be joined by Mr. A, a client of her husband’s company, and his wife. Having perused the same specialty magazine, the couples learned of their mutual interest in swapping, and the four quickly agreed the bargain would be too good to pass up.

“It was my first time to meet A, and his sex technique was different from my husband’s,” she writes. “First he used a towel to bind my hands together, and then began thrusting his darkly glistening nikubo (shaft of meat) deep inside me, all the way to my uterus.

“On the other bed, I could see my husband thrusting his hips as he pounded away at A’s wife. She was gasping ‘Hih! Hih!’ which mingled with my own cries and the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh. As I watched them having sex on the next bed, I climaxed like crazy.” Read more

Born as tigers, Kijima and Ueta now ‘around 35′ and ready to roar

Possible serial killers Kanae Kijima and Miyuki Ueta join Kaori Mihashi, accused of carving up her husband’s body with a knife in Tokyo’s Shibuya district three years ago, as having been born in 1974 — the zodiac “Year of the Tiger” that Weekly Playboy (Nov. 30) believes is the source of a number of aggressive females making themselves known today.

Expectations play a role, says Atsushi Miura, a marketing researcher and author of the best-seller “Karyu Shakai” (Lower Classes). He explains: “International Women’s Year was dedicated in 1975. This led to a decade-long worldwide campaign advocating women’s social status. In Japan, too, there was the birth of publications such as More, With and Cosmopolitan. They provided voices for the advancement of women in society. Those around the age of 35 were in their childhood (up to elementary school) and were raised under the social ideal that it is natural for women to become independent.” Read more

Female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida battles Carp, wants to join NPB

The top of the order for the Central League’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp could not contain right-handed knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, Japan’s first female professional baseball player, during an exhibition game in Hiroshima on Wednesday, reports Daily Sports (Nov. 23).

The seventeen-year-old Yoshida, nicknamed “Eri-chan,” who recently left the Kobe 9 Cruise of the Kansai Independent League, was on the mound against the “best lineup” the Hiroshima Carp were capable of fielding during the club’s “Fan Festival” on Monday at Mazda Stadium.

The exhibition was played under a special rule in which Yoshida would be declared the winner if she was able to hold the Carp to two or fewer runs in one inning. Read more

Hostess Miyuki Ueta possible second serial killer, connected to six deaths

While police are still investigating Kanae Kijima and the suspicious deaths of six men once acquainted with her, a former bar hostess from Tottori Prefecture has been linked to an equal number of men who succumbed to the same fate, reports Weekly Playboy (Nov. 30).

Miyuki Ueta, 35, was arrested on November 2 for defrauding a woman out of 1.26 million yen by falsely claiming that the victim’s son had been lent money. Her 46-year-old male roommate was also taken into custody for swindling a tractor dealer. Separate fraud charges were added against the pair on November 20.

Police are presently attempting to build murder cases around at least three of the six deceased, all of whom have been connected to Ueta. Authorities have also learned that insurance policies had been taken out on some of the dead.

Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporter Akira Seo, 42, was killed in 2004 after being struck by a train. Security guard Shinichi Furuta, 27, died three years later while swimming. 41-year-old police officer Houitsu Sakai was found hanged in February of last year. Kazumi Yabe, a 47-year-old truck driver, drowned in April of this year. 58-year-old Kazumi Taguchi (unemployed) was discovered dead in his apartment in October. Electrician Hideki Maruyama, 57, was found beaten and face down in the Mani River that same month (initially ruled a suicide by Tottori Prefectural Police). Read more

Naughty ladies cause Ikebukuro ‘mistress bank’ to go bust

Japan’s first “Aijin Banku”(mistress bank) in Osaka back in the 1970s created quite a stir at the time of its founding. The service, which made its money by serving as a go-between between women seeking steady employment in a prone position and men who could afford it, gradually disappeared, to be replaced by such customer-direct transactions as enjo kosai (“compensated dating”).

But in 1994, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 21), things were still going strong and a shop in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district came up with a new twist. Instead of introducing divorcees down on their luck or middle-aged moms who sought income on the side, the “High School Girl Mistress Bank” charged 30,000 yen for membership, upon which a customer could peer through a two-way mirror at a selection of real, live high-school girls. Read more

Michelin Tokyo guide turns to local inspectors, tops Paris for three-star awards

TOKYO (TR) – After France-based tire manufacturer Michelin targeted Tokyo with its famous culinary guide and three-star evaluation system for the inaugural 2008 edition, the response was swift on two fronts. The book shipped a whopping 300,000 copies in five weeks yet simultaneously raised a prickly question within the local media: How are foreigners able to competently evaluate traditional Japanese restaurants?

Michelin’s response for 2010? They probably aren’t — yet that is true of the 22 other countries it covers as well.

The day before the release of the third edition for Tokyo, Michelin Guide director Jean-Luc Naret told a press luncheon at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan that the company seeks to place local food inspectors on the ground in each of the 23 countries it covers. Read more

Dynamic duo? Yan and Vogelsong possible saviors for the Hanshin Tigers

Following their failure to acquire fireballing lefty Juan Morillo from the Minnesota Twins, the Central League’s Hanshin Tigers may turn to a couple of former foreign players to fill out gaping holes in their bullpen, reports Tokyo Sports (Nov. 20).

The team’s skipper, Akinobu Mayumi, has requested action by the front office in replacing the roles served last year by middle relievers Jeff Williams and Scott Atchinson. Right-handers Esteban Yan, who was a starter for the Tigers in 2007, and Ryan Vogelsong, also a member of the rotation that year, are considered to be strong candidates.

An individual close to the team speculates: “There must be some kind of hidden issue with Juan, as he does not compete at the major-league level while being able to throw at 167 kilometers an hour. Foreign players with unknown elements leave us with a lot of anxiety. So the chances of success by those who used to play for us is higher.” Read more

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