Owing to staff shortages, Mount Fuji will be closed to climbers this summer - but only on Sundays. The authorities have been having trouble finding people willing to spend the whole season on the mountain, and so have decided to restrict access on Sundays. This effectively means that those who want to do a weekend climb have to be off the mountain by midnight on Saturday, although the most detailed news report I found made no mention of penalties. Perhaps they’ll leave you stranded up there…

I’m also not sure if this means the Self Defence Forces will have to find somewhere else to train as well, although to be honest, no-one really cares about them. Especially North Korea.

(more info here.)

Japan is internationally renowned for its love of cute. This is oft exaggerated, but isn’t entirely without merit. What is often missed is the side effect of this obsession, whereby nearly every business, organization, event - or indeed, just about anything - irrespective of size or purpose, seeks to get itself a mascot.

The Aichi expo had these guys -

The Japanese police have this guy -

Hikone Castle has this guy -

The Japanese military settled, famously, on this guy (the one on the left, who won’t be fingerprinted on coming to Japan) -

Nara, one of Japan’s most popular tourist destinations, site of the ancient capital, and famous for deers and temples, didn’t have a mascot. This oversight needed correcting, obviously, so the city government contracted themselves a nifty looking logo that they thought would sum up the charms of their city as cutely as possible.

This is what they got -

According to Yahoo news, there have been a few complaints that it isn’t cute enough. I’m inclined to agree.

source - Yahoo news (only Japanese)

A team of audacious thieves, apparently disguised as a cleaning crew, made off with one of Tokyo’s most famous landmarks in the early hours of Saturday. The statue of “loyal dog Hachiko,” a popular rendezvous spot on the north side of JR Shibuya Station since 1934, was reported missing shortly after dawn, when a newspaper delivery truck driver spotted the bare pedestal and notified policemen at the nearby “koban.”

Full article here : http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070401×1.html

Other juicy parts of the article (for those who don’t like clicking):

A network technician described what clearly appears to be a well planned caper. “Five men in khaki work duds, wearing hats, safety glasses and gauze masks, moved in about 1:43 a.m., after the trains had stopped running,” said the man, who declined to give his name.

“They set up traffic cones and ‘Men Working’ signs, and then raised several blue vinyl work sheets around the statue. It took them about 10 minutes to get it off the pedestal.

“They put it on a hand truck and threw a drop cloth over it. On the video you can see them wheeling it toward the street before they disappear from view.”

Hachiko’s a major meeting place for the young and hip in Tokyo and now the dog is gone  - where are the people going to meet? I suppose you could meet at the place Hachiko used to be.  The full story of why Hachiko is such an important icon to Tokyo can be found in the original Newspaperlink above.

Ah, the inimitable Doctor Nakamats, famous for the way he spells his name (dropping the ‘u’ at the end, because “that’s how you say it”), famous for claiming to have invented the floppy disc and managing to convince people his tale was true, famous for a ton of inventions that actually serve no purpose (who could forget the Cerebrex, a device not unlike a 1950’s recliner combined with a Star Wars Arcade machine from the eigthies, that was designed to boost your brainpower.) He’s truly a hero in a world where everyone else has let us down. 1 part inspiration, 9 parts conman, Nakamats is probably the best choice for Tokyo governor.

He’s running again (for the fourth time) in the upcoming gubernatorial elections because he thinks -

I had not intended to run, but those who will run in the election are unable to ease the uncertainty felt by Tokyo residents. I’m the only one who meets the qualifications for Tokyo governor.

Not sure if the last part is true; I haven’t heard of the wonderful Doctor saying anything offensive about foreign folk…

Link to Mainichi article on Dr.Nakamats entering the race.
Link to Dr. Nakamats rather poorly designed website.

UPDATED: The Japan Times reports that Dr.Nakamats is promising to protect Tokyo from enemy attacks, thusly -

[He] said he planned to invent a missile shield system that can “make missiles turn around.” When asked how he planned to accomplish the feat, he replied, “I cannot give you a simple answer.”

Wowzers. Got my vote.

The sushi cops have apparently been called off - if you have a good memory, you’ll remember this post from late last year, in which I detailed Japanese plans to go abroad and rate Japanese restaurants in other countries.

Something that most people felt was pretty cheeky given the penchant for mentaiko spaghetti and mayonnaise on pizza that the locals wear on their sleeves. I’ve yet to see an Italian in a Japanese version of their restaurant checking boxes on a clipboard, the whole while clicking his tongue & shaking his head.

I think he’d be more than entitled to, given the thought process behind the Japanese idea -

The plan had been championed by Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who has accused overseas restaurants of using “culinary techniques and ingredients far removed from those of authentic Japanese food”.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the idea is now, thankfully, dead in the water. And I say thankfully not just because of the idiocy of the plan, but also because of this little bit of trivia I hadn’t noticed previously -

The ministry had earmarked more than Y276 million ($A2.9 million) for the project.

Pensions in crisis. Rural communities disappearing. Sushi is more important?

Yay! The new Miss Universe Japan hails from round these parts (Shizuoka), although I’m not exactly sure where, thus hobbling my plans to stalk interview her - even her blog doesn’t surrender such vital information, although she could really do with installing some kind of spam filter. Check out this screen cap of her trackbacks:

Riyo Mori is a ballet dancer, and, while she may be exceptionally beautiful, I’m not sure she’s as hot as Kurara Chibana, last year’s Miss Universe Japan.

(I actually thought Chibana had won the Miss Universe title until I stopped by her Wikipedia article. You got to love that media saturation in Japan - best form of brainwashing known to man. I’ll be eating natto with a ‘mmmmm, yum’ expression on my face next.)