Man with harem of 10

Japan keeps on surprising me every day! This was in today's newspaper:

A 57-year-old man living in Tokyo with 10 women and a baby was arrested Thursday on suspicion of threatening a young woman in an attempt to force her to join the group, police said. Hirohito Shibuya of Tokyo's Higashiyamato allegedly told the woman, aged 20, on Oct. 20 last year that she might be injured or killed if she refused to live with them, the police said. He denied threatening the woman, saying, "I just told her what appeared in a dream," according to the police.

They said they are also investigating whether any of the other women were threatened by Shibuya or are being effectively confined by him, and are questioning two women in the group. Shibuya also allegedly told the 20-year-old woman, "I am a former senior officer of the Self-Defense Forces, and there are some secret agents around me," but his former wife, 59, told the police that he was never a member of the SDF.

Shibuya started living with several women in the western Tokyo city after divorcing his wife in October 1999, and has had several marriages and divorces with nine women, aged 20-49 when the marriages or divorces occurred, according to sources close to him. Most of the divorced women, however, still live with him under his
family name.

Shibuya told reporters Wednesday, "I realize that I can attract women by reciting a charm. Since starting fortune-telling at home, female clients have gathered around me, and now we lead a communal life, just like polygamy."

Funny letter to the editor

I am still totally flooded by work. Also, I have caught a cold. I do not even enjoy smoking anymore---you can tell it is serious.

In all this stress, a friend from Germany (thanks Zefix!!) has sent me a hillarious letter to the editor. Check it out!
Unfortunately it is in German, so non-Germans have to find someone to translate it---I promise the trouble will be worth it!

Article

Canon Song

These days, I am more exhausted than ever. I have an important deadline on 2/2. So I doubt that I will have time to do many postings until than. Sorry! Please bear with me....

On the first day of work of this year, in a big meeting, everyone was standing up and singing the Canon Song.
There was a video shown that accompanies the song. In Karaoke style, the lyrics were shown with graphical feedback of what to sing. It's typical for Japanese companies to have a song. Interesting! If you are interested, you can listen to the song here.

Friends visiting

Some friends from my hometown are visiting Japan right now. Unfortunately, they do not have much time for me :-(
The picture might give you a hint why ;-)

Signs

Again, some funny signs (there are sooo many in Tokyo)

A toy store for children (in Germany, this name would probably make the owner go to jail ;-)


Finally, Microsoft did something sensible! They started a campaign in Tokyo showing what happens to people using Office too much:




A wanted-poster for a Yakuza. He seemed to have disobeyed his boss once, since a part of his finger is missing:

New Year's Party

My new year's parties were quite funky! First, I went to Roppongi. I usually do not like to go there... It is a weird place to be!
Anyways, I went with friends to an all-sake-you-can-drink event. It was outta control (that's why I did not take any sensible pictures...). Sound was so-so, kind of mainstream house :-(
However, I managed to take a picture of the countdown for the new year:


Later, we went to a smallish, funky club in Shibuya (that's muuuuuch nicer than Roppongi!). There, the sound was highly experimental (my cup of tee!). This trio was kicking ass: a scratching DJ (mixer around his neck), a bongo player and a live-synthy player!