Random Japan

Oh, so that explains it

Odakyu Electric Railway officials said that a rush hour train which came to a sudden halt, stranding 560 passengers and affecting about 18,000 others, broke down “after the motors suddenly stopped.”

A 67-year-old Tokyo housewife who broke the leg of an elderly woman in a hit-and-run bicycle accident told police that she “was in a hurry to go to a karaoke bar.”

Oh, brother

A 35-year-old employee of food giant Ajinomoto was arrested for spraying pepper gas into the face of a 16-year-old high school girl from Saitama.

STATS

11,000

Cases of illegally parked motorcycles in 2005, according to the National Police Agency

521,000

Number of cases in 2007, thanks to the introduction of private-sector parking wardens

20,000

Number of bank transactions that failed due to a computer glitch on the first day of MUFJ’s highly touted new ATM system

13.5

Percent of Japanese people aged 14 or under as of April 1, a record low, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry

10,000+

People who have signed a condolence book at Ueno Zoo for recently deceased giant panda Ling Ling

Livers, Yakuza and UCLA

It’s not a basketball either

Blind Dates and the Police

You thought match making was all fun and games

Hey! Where did you hide that dope?

Giving lost and found a whole new meaning

This Baby Digs Disco

Its a whole new Grove

Eyewitness Love Hotel

Sometimes there is film At 11

What happens when you don’t listen to Grandma?

She attacks

Lecherous landlord’s ‘payment in kind’ contract proves legally leaky

There was no pay-off But there was some pay back