The Chocolate dropper
262
got disqualified
The air mattress traveler
The saddle lickers
The 2 meter tall bear to defend himself.
Robbery happened at a Yakitori Store
Pop Thrower
Welcome back on Ask Japanese, this is your reporter Cathy Cat speaking.
Today. Breaking News. Just in.
We are gonna talk about 7 strange incidents that made the news here in Japan.
We're curious to find out so let's head out and start off withnumber one.
The Chocolate droppers. As you know Valentine's day in Japan is celebrated
slightly differently from the west, meaning, girls do actually generally not get anything.
on Valentine's day in Japan. Girls are the ones who have to do something for the guys
generally it is the exchange of chocolate.
Should be Valentine's chocolate.
There are different types. There is the honmei choco. The true feelings chocolate that only one person gets
There is the giri-choco that other people will get. And all kinds of Tomo choco... chocolate for friends.
And similar things like that.
We don't know wheather this was honmey, tomo or giri choco...
But
But all the passengers at Osaka station 2014 6:30 were not very amused
when all their trains stopped because of Chocolate
That was because one of the passengers had dropped their precious chocolate right on the train tracks.
Now you'll be glad to know that the chocolate came out alright.
The chocolate survived. The station staff safely retrieved the chocolate alright.
There hasn't been any harm done to the chocolate.
There are no news about whether it was still edible or not.
Now this might be a chocolate conspiracy...
As on the same day at 2:24 earlier to that incident, in Yokohama... all trains had to stop...
and again someone had dropped the chocolate on the train tracks.
Not sure if that's gonna be a trend but guys and girls hold on tight to that chocolate.
Don't let it go.
Next Sports!
Feb5th 2017 a Marathon made the news...
This marathon was supposed to be for elementary school children...
Why did it make the news however?
The contestants were 263 participants that took part in this elementary school marathon
which was held after the grown ups' marathon. So they had a specific route.
However 262 got DISQUALIFIED.
Only one made it through and all the way to the goal. The reason for that being was...
The marathon for the adults was held on a similar course and the elementary course was supposed to be shortened.
However staff made a mistake. Lots of the kids ran a super short route which meant the wrong route.
Meaning only the last one... the last kid.... who was running, still trying to make this marathon...
hating it! Downright last! "Oh no behind me the staff is already...." (T-T)
This is like the worst day ever!!! "What the staff is telling me to go left? I thought everyone is going right?"
"Alright I am gonna go left then!"
Only that kid made the race
Because that kid did not get disqualified.
because it actually went down the right path.
for the marathon
Sometimes it's not all about speed. Sometimes...
the very last one can make the race.
Next weather or the story of the air mattress traveler.
Now we are expecting some stronger winds, and also some stronger waves...
so this person here 2013 who was traveling on a little air mattress... made the news
In Kanagawa a university student hopped on top of an air mattress, with just a long stick to push himself off...
And pushed himself and pushed himself. There are a couple of little islands just off from Kanagawa....
and he planned to reached the nearby one called Najima island on his air mattress.
from the shore of Kanagawa...
He was only using a little pole to push himself through the water...
Then he realized once he got further away from the shore...
The water got deeper so there wasn't anything underneath to push himself on his little air mattress.
The wind and the waves did their job and they pushed and pulled and carried him
500m right into the ocean.
That's when he realized he messed up. So this lucky dude had a phone and he phoned rescue services.
His rescue mission took 12 rescuers and one boat to pull him and his tiny little air mattress back up to safety
This guy was 19 and part of the universities adventure club.
This adventure spirit definitely didn't go so well.
Made the news. Probably hugely embarrassing or maybe he was the new hero of his university.
We'll never know.
The saddle lickers...................
I can't read this with a serious face!!!
We are coming to crime news. Especially the saddle licker incidents. Now... 2020 in March which is this year...
A 57 year old man made the news....
He had stolen bicycle saddles. Now did he steal 8? Did he steal 500?
No
He stole 5800 bicycle saddles.
They found them all. He had rented a storage unit in which he stored his bicycle saddles.
The guy was giving the reason that he had been very stressed at work...
he started stealing those bicycle seats and then he could not stop.
He was a truck driver so he was driving around a lot. He would know where are the bicycles were.
And so he started his bicycle seat collection.
This incident reminded people of August 2013 on the 24th... a 35 year old man was arreststed.
He didn't steal as many. He only stole 2500 bicycle saddles.
That's over 2000 people without their saddles...
He was a man of distinct taste.
He didn't just steal any bicyble saddles for his collection.
He only stole bicycle saddles of young girls and women.
So when he was arrested he was asked why did he do it? Why was he doing it?
He didn't steal it because he was angry of his job. He just stated in an official statement
that he liked the smell and liked licking the bicycle seats.
Imaging Japanese newscasters being very serious, trying to read out his statement in the news.
During that time all the casters who had to read out his statement .... looked kind of troubled on TV at the same time.
And that was the incident of the saddle licker.
We stay with sport and the story of the karate master. 2016 september 1st
A gentleman had to be put into hospital.
This is not a usual story. What had happened, this gentleman in Gunma prefecture... was the survivor of a bear attack.
This happens sometimes in Japan, especially in the rural areas. This man was 63 years old.
The 63 year old man had been peacefully fishing... when suddenly a bear jumped out of a bush near him.
And this is said to be what happened
Just 5m away from the old gentleman a beat jumped out and came at the man.
The 63 year old man is like 170cm so he is not very tall. The bear is 2 metres tall.
So the bear goes at the 63 year old man, starts trying to grab his head, arm, legs, trying to bite and attack him.
Don't know, he felt threatened in his environent.
However the 63 year old man was not a usual 63 year old man. He was actually a karate master.
And so he used his karate skills as a form of self defence. He tried headlocks, he tried certain karate moves
on the 2 meter tall bear to defend himeself. In the end he managed to attack the eye of the bear in an attack and the bear
Ran away!
Usually this would have been a decided game with any normal 63 year old man fishing in the forest
and a bear attacking him. But it turned out that this man survived.
He got brought into the hospital with some minor injuries that healed after 2 weeks.
At the beginning the man said to the media, "please do not release my name..."
"Just call me the karate master"
Later people finally managed to convince him to come on camera.
There are actually videos of him explaining what happened. So yeah. 63 year old and good to go.
Keep up those karate skills guys.
We continue here with more news about crimes and similar. So in 2013 in December a very peculiar robbery happened at a Yakitori store.
Yakitori is pretty much chicken on a stick.
You put lots of little bit of chicken on a stick and fry it over fire. Have it with a little bit of a drink and colleagues...
What happened at that store: A masked man came in. He was wearing a mask... sunglasses....
and he pulled a knife on the staff telling them to hand over all their cash.
However what made the robbery so peculiar is that the staff looked at the armed robber in front of him and said....
Tencho?
Which means "boss? Is that you?"
Turns out it was the boss of the actual yakitori place. So....
He took off his mask and sunglasses and said "beware of burglars!"
And then left the store. The staff....
as well as the customers that night were very confused. But this is not how the story ends.
On the next day the boss phoned the police...
and said money had been stolen. Nevertheless...
So the police investigated the situation and it ended with the yakitori owner being arrested.
Now what happened inbetween that. After this very peculiar circumstance....
A lot of things came to light BECAUSE he had phoned the police. They went to investigate...
his business and it turned out that he had embezzled 600,000 Yen.
He didn't know how to hide the fact that the money of his business was missing and thought to use...
some kind of robbery burglary as a reason to justify the loss of money. However him doing all of these
things and pretending to be a robber and phoning about a robber, he actually drew attention to the whole issue
It came to light, and so his chicken isn't frying anymore right now.
And finally we have 2009, August 16 in Osaka prefecture...
We have the incident of the poop thrower.
Now in Japan... a couple of crimes get justified by people saying "I was very stressed at work"
And such was the same reason that this man gave for his unusual crime...
That he committed.
A 39 year old man was driving on his motorcycle down the road and when he saw a woman
walk down the road he had an item prepared in his hand and threw it at her...
and it turned out it was his freshly prepared, still slightly warm... poop....
He threw poop at people.
He did not do this only once. He did it twice. In the same day! After that he realized
he had done a crime. He realized he probably wasn't able to get away from this crime...
and he actually went to the police to turn himself in.
He had freshly prepared both poop right beforehand...
to carry on his bike...
to throw it at random women on the street. They weren't people he knew, just anyone would have done.
Apparently.
On the 16th at 3 o clock he turned himself in. So just one day after he actually did it.
Right on the next day... he went and turned himself in.
And his reason for having done the crime was "I have been so stressed at work!"
Japan remains a fairly safe country. There is a lot less violent crimes and Tokyo is generally ranked as
as one of the safest cities in the world.
However some crimes like these happen around Japan from time to time from...
panty stealers, to saddle lickers, to poop throwers, that make the special news here in Japan.
But they are definitely not a common thing. I hope though you enjoy these type of news let me know!
Which one was your favourite, or are there any funny or peculiar crimes in your country that you know of.
Let us know in the comments. If you enjoyed this video and you'd like to see more don't forget ...
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I catch you soon for more stuff here on Ask Japanese. This was Cathy Cat from Ask Japanese.