Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

Mystery Writers of America Presents

Death do us Part

New stories about Love, Lust and Murder by Jeff Abbot, Lee Child, Jim Fusilli, Laura Lippman, Ridley Pearson, Tom Savage, R.L. Stine and 12 others.

Edited by Harlan Coben

Recently I picked up a copy of “Death do us Part” from the new books section of our local library in Azabujuban. This compilation of marriage and murder short stories features nineteen stories by contemporary United States authors, many of which have never been published before. I must admit I haven’t read many contemporary American mystery short stories, so I had never heard of any of these authors before and as a result I didn’t really have any expectations regarding this book before I got stuck in to it. But overall it was an enjoyable and recommendable read.

Highlights for me included One Shot by P.J. Parish, A Few Small Repairs by Jeff Abbot and Charles Ardai’s The Home Front. The selection as a whole had quite a consistent tone, even though the stories range a lot in the periods they covered and there was a definite Steinbeck feel to a number of the pieces.

One Shot is the story of a university professor returning to the home of his birth to face the “ghosts of his past” and has a wonderful twist at the end – as do many of the stories. A Few Small Repairs deals with the illness of the protagonist’s father, while The Home Front is a delightfully twisted play on fate. I don’t want to give away too much about this collection, as that would spoil the fun.

If you are looking for a good read with some tantalizing surprises, you couldn’t go far wrong with Death do us Part.

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Saw a longer “expose” on this yesterday morning on the news. Below is the story from the Yomiuri Newspaper – but as to why he really did it, who knows!

Nude foreign man caught swimming in Imperial moat

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A foreign man was spotted swimming naked in the moat of the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Tuesday at about 11:30 a.m., sparking a police and fire service operation to apprehend him.

About 50 members of the Marunouchi Police Station and fire service were mobilized in pursuit of the man, some of them in boats, as he swam around the moat near Wadakuramon gate.

A crowd of about 300 bemused passersby gathered to take in the rare sight of a nude foreigner thrashing about in the moat and watched him as he clambered out of the water onto a path, from where he hurled stones at police and firemen before fleeing. It took police officers about 1-1/2 hours to finally capture and subdue the streaking man after he climbed up a stone wall.

According to a senior police officer, the nude swimmer described himself as a 40-year-old Spaniard. Along with four other foreigners, the man had apparently been to a police box at Wadakuramon at about 11:20 a.m. to say that a bag had fallen into the moat. The man apparently spoke in English.

However, after telling police about the bag, the man suddenly launched himself into the moat, stripping off his garments as he trod water in the moat.
(Oct. 8, 2008)

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I have heard of couch surfing, where people stay on various people’s couches as they travel around, but this story that is doing the rounds takes that to the next level. It appears that a homeless Japanese woman, aged 58, lived for a year undetected in the closet of a Japanese guy in Kasuya, Fukuoka.

Japanese woman caught living in man’s closet

(story source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_re_as/japan_closet_woman )

A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

[Read more]

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# Title: Tokyo Underwold: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan
# Author: Robert Whiting
# Publisher: Vintage (September 26, 2000)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0375724893
# ISBN-13: 978-0375724893

No, Tokyo Underwold isn’t an announcment for yet another visit by British electroheads Underwold tour to Japan to play yet another version of Hello Slippy to all their Japanese fans, rather it is a fascinating look at the seedier side of Japanese life and business.

In 1945 when the Allied forces began their occupation following the surrender of Japan, the country was in a right and utter mess. This left the field wide open to all sorts of dodgy entrepreneurs to set up shop. Tokyo was in ruins after heavy bombing by the allies, and food supplies were very short. The black markets which sprung up within days of the surrender being announced served in many ways to keep the population of Tokyo alive during those very difficult times. Tokyo Underworld starts from this point, and develops by recounting the mindboggling corruption and nefarious goings on in the post war period, including tales of both Japanse gangsters as well as the GI’s of the occupying force who stood to make a great deal of money at this time.

Two characters from Tokyo’s colourful past stood out in particular. First was Rikidozan, a former sumo wrestler who was almost at the top of the sumo ladder when the end of the war brought the sport to a crashing holt. He became a professional wrestler and for many Japanese an icon of the rebuilding as he fought and won against many much larger and stronger American opponents. Little did the populus know, or want to know, that both these fights were fixed, and also of his Korean parentage. Such are the machinations of a defeated nation.

The other character who provides much of the backbone of Robert Whiting’s well-written book, was an American from New York’s Italian East Harlem, Nick Zappeti. An amazing character who was once known as “the King of Roppongi and the Mafia Boss of Harlem” he seems almost to have stepped out of a Martin Scorsese film. Involved heavily in black market trading during the occupation, and then later moving out into more legitimate business Zappeti’s risa and fall, mirrored in an oblique way much of what has befallen Japan in the post-war era.

I particularly enjoyed reading this book and learning a lot about what went on back then, as well as picking a great deal of information about our local areas history. That this is non-fiction, and not fiction, makes it all the more worth reading.

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Pretty strange piece of news this morning in the Christchurch Press. It appears that someone dressed up in a panda costume was involved in a hit and run and unfortunately a woman, quite unconnected to the said panda was injured during the incident.

Will the People’s Republican Army be mobilised? Will there be an initial bamboo relief supply drop over Christchurch?

Panda impersonator sought after hit-and-run
By JO McKENZIE-McLEAN – The Press | Tuesday, 13 November 2007

Police are on the look-out for an injured panda impersonator who was involved in a hit-and-run in Christchurch.

A person dressed as a panda, hanging out a front passenger window, was one of up to four occupants of a car that ploughed into a pedestrian without stopping at 2.25am on Saturday in Riccarton.

Constable Moira Wyeth said the woman was getting into her white Toyota Vitz, which was parked on the west side of Riccarton Road beside a dairy near Wainui Street when she was struck from behind.

“As she partially opened her door she was hit in the back by a vehicle.”

The impact of being hit caused the woman to be thrown into the front seat and her front driver’s door was ripped off.

The woman, who was alone, sustained back injuries. A passerby waved police down.

The vehicle is described as a red, four-door sedan, mid-1990s and last seen heading west on Riccarton Road.

There was a blonde woman sitting in the back seat, and the panda possibly sustained upper body injuries, Wyeth said.

Anyone with information should contact Wyeth on (03) 3637400 or contact her via email: moira.wyeth@police.govt.nz

Photo taken from Cousin Bujur’s From America to Turkey Blog. The entry with the Panda costume photos is here. Çok teÅŸekkür ederim!

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There is nothing like snuggling up with a nice hot cup of Milo and good read as a way to relax during ones’ nights away from the bars and clubs of Roppongi, Kawabata and Ame-mura.

If you are in Japan, or are interested in this country you will probably want to read some of the delightful fiction produced on these isles. Top of your list would have to be Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto who offer deep and revealing perspectives on contemporary life in Japan. Ryu Murakami is a good place to start if you are looking for Japan’s darker side. For crime and detective fans, Seichi Matsumoto and Miyuki Miyabe will leave you turning pages till late into the night and for fans of horror fiction the eery works of Koji Suzuki will send a shiver down your spine.

Here is the list of 69 contemporary Japanese novels:

Haruki Murakami

1. Pinball, 1973
2. A Wild Sheep Chase
3. Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
4. In a Norwegian Wood
5. Dance Dance Dance
6. South of the Border, West of the Sun
7. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle
8. Sputnik Sweetheart
9. Kafka on the Shore
10. After Dark
11. The Elephant Vanishes

Banana Yoshimoto

12. Kitchen
13. Asleep
14. Goodbye Tsugumi
15. NP
16. Lizard
17. Amrita
18. Moonlight Shadow
19. Hardboiled & Hard Luck

Genichiro Takahashi

20. Sayonara Gangsters

Kenzo Kitakata

21. Ashes
22. Winter Sleep
23. The Cage
24. City of Refuge (forthcoming)

Taichi Yamada

25. Strangers
26. In Search of a Distant Voice

Kaori Ekuni

27. Twinkle Twinkle

Keigo Higashino

28. Naoko
29. Malice (forthcoming)

Mari Akasaka

30: Vibrator: A Novel

Natsuo Kirino

31. Out: A Novel
32. Grotesque

Miyuki Miyabe

33. The Devil’s Whisper
34. Brave Story
35. Shadow Family
36. Crossfire
37. All She was Worth

Mariko Hayashi

38. Green Green Grapes of Home

Akimitsu Takagi

39. The Informer
40. The Tattoo Murder Case (Soho Crime)
41. Honeymoon to Nowhere (Soho Crime)
42. No Patent on Murder

Randy Taguchi

43. Outlet

Seicho Matsumoto

44. Inspector Imanishi Investigates (Soho Crime)
45. Pro Bono
46. Points and Lines

Asa Nonami

47. The Hunter
48. Now You’re One of Us

Ami Sakurai

49. Innocent World

Seishi Yokomizo

50. The Inugamui Clan (Stone Bridge Fiction)

Yusuke Kishi

51. The Crimson Labyrinth

Hitomi Kanehara

52. Snakes and Earrings

Koji Suzuki

53. Birthday
54. Dark Water
55. Death and the Flower
56. Paradise
57. Ring: The Ring Trilogy – 1
58. Spiral: The Ring Trilogy – 2
59. Loop: The Ring Trilogy – 3

Kenzaburo Oe

60. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
61. The Silent Cry
62. Somersault
63. The Changeling
64. A Quiet Life

Ryu Murakami

65. In the Miso Soup
66. Coin Locker Babies
67. A Paler Shade of Blue
68. Piercing
69. Sixty-Nine

The list is in no particular order, although I started with my favourite Japanese author Haruki Murakami and worked my way down to his namesake Ryu Murakami with his novel Sixty-Nine being a nice place to end a list of 69 Japanese contemporary novels. I would say I have read about half of the books on the list – and it was quite nice to find some new names while I was researching this list – Mari Akasaka and Hitomi Kanehara being two new finds I will have to track down.

I wonder if I missed any contemporary Japanese authors? Japan does have a huge publishing industry – and those authors who make it to translation into English are the cream of the crop. I left off authors such as Konno Abe, whose work, despite being post-modern in nature doesn’t fit into the realm of the contemporary.

This list was inspired by upstairsforthinking’s list of books from the Guardian’s List of Top 100 Books of All Time that he hasn’t read.

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A small New Zealand Brewery had a laptop stolen earlier this week and in a bold move are offering a life time supply of beer (well 12 bottles a month) for anyone who can name the thief.

Who would do such a dastardly thing? I hope they catch the thief and make him (or her but lets face it, him) drink fosters for the rest of his life. That will serve as a stronger lesson than anything the courts can send down.

Sounds like a great reward – and I hope the Croucher Brewing Company of Rotorua get their laptop back!

Brewery offers lifetime supply of beer for laptop

A New Zealand brewery is reportedly offering a lifetime supply of beer for the return of a stolen laptop.

The laptop was allegedly stolen from the Croucher Brewing Company in Rotorua earlier this week.

Owners were desperate to retrieve the computer containing designs, contact details and financial information, the Rotorua Daily Post said.

They have offered free beer to anyone giving clues leading to its recovery.

Co-owner Paul Croucher said the company would provide a lifetime supply of about 12 bottles a month to anyone who could name the thief.

The company has back-up copies of the material stored on the laptop but these are not up to date, the newspaper said.

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With the rising crime rates in Japan we have been forced to implement a higher security level and as a result have beefed up the security presence around our house. With frogs. It is unfortunate that we have been forced to take such actions, and while we regret having done so, terrorist threats from unidentified foreign parties which may or may not eventuate, must at all costs be met with force completely disparate to said threat. And the frogs are damn cute.

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Just saw a strange news story on morning television. It seems that Japanese police have arrested a man in Nagano for stalking a woman by GPS.

The victim found it strange that he would turn up in places that she rarely, or had never, visited before and contacted the police. The police searched her car and found a global positioning device taped to the underside of her car. Using his mobile phone he was able to get updates on her position and stalk her. Each time he checked her position it cost him 200 yen and from what the report said he spent many tens of thousands of yen on checking up on his victim each month.

This isn’t the first case of stalking by GPS globally – boingboing.net reports a case from 2004 in Los Angeles where a Glendale businessman was charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend after doing the exact same thing.

Technology has its place and GPS is extremely useful for things like mountain safety. But one has to wonder when it is used in such a way. And this is certainly taking stalking to a new level of creepiness.

Oh, and don’t ask what boingboing means in Japanese…

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Have a nice day!

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