Cool Japanese Police Motorcycles

About a week ago I was out for a morning run. It was during my wonderful holiday.As I ran through Kobe's Merikan Park メリケンパーク, I spotted a long row of brand new Hyogo Police Department motorcycles. I know next to nothing about bikes, but these Honda VFR's are apparently pretty amazing motorcycles. The police officers were apparently going to be doing some sort of demonstration later in the morning. Unfortunately, I was on a tight time budget and had to get my run finished.

Check out a few pictures I took as well as a video on You Tube:

A Sad Day in Ottawa

As many readers of this blog and followers of my video blog know, I have a strong connection to Ottawa, Canada. Although I did not grow up there, I lived there most recently before moving to Japan. I earned my Education degree from the University of Ottawa and really enjoyed my time in the city. I would really like to live there again someday. My wife also enjoyed living in Ottawa and likes it very much as well.

I suppose that is why I want to share some sad news.

Yesterday, one of Ottawa's finest fell in the line of duty. He was the first police officer killed in the line of duty in Ottawa since 1983. What seems like a random attack, Const. Eric Czapnik was ambushed and stabbed to death while writing in his notebook in his patrol car. The incident took place in the parking lot of Ottawa Civic Hospital. A suspect was apprehended while in the midst of the attack by four paramedics at the hospital.



You can read more here at CTV news.

Read more at CBC News.

Perv tries to squeeze a cop!

There are a lot of perverts in Japan and that is no secret. Bizarre sexual stories are commonplace in local newspapers. I thought this one was particularly interesting sicne I spend a lot of time in Akashi which is a small city located a few kilometers from Kobe.

This is a tale of a very stupid pervert!


60-yr-old man arrested for trying to molest policewoman in front of police station
HYOGO —

A 60-year-old-man was arrested right in front of Akashi Police Station in Hyogo Prefecture on Wednesday night after he allegedly tried to fondle the breasts of a 47-year-old female police officer who was leaving her shift. The officer dodged Tamotsu Inaba’s wandering hands and dragged him into the police station, where he was charged with violating prefectural nuisance prevention laws.

Police quoted Inaba as saying that he “wanted to touch a woman.” The officer was dressed in street clothes at the time. Inaba told police he didn’t realize she was an officer or that he was in front of a police station. see original

Tatsuya Ichihashi Captured in Osaka

It is pretty strange when you hear news of a "Most Wanted" fugitive on the loose somewhere close, but a relief when you hear he's been captured by the police. That's the case tonight as the suspected murderer of English teacher, Lindsay Hawker was captured this evening in Osaka.


ICHIHASHI ARRESTED BY POLICE IN OSAKA


OSAKA —
Police on Tuesday night arrested the suspect in the 2007 murder of a British woman after fingerprints confirmed he is Tatsuya Ichihashi, a 30-year-old fugitive wanted in the case.

Currently, Ichihashi is wanted only on a technical charge of abandoning the body of language school teacher Lindsay Hawker, who was 22 at the time of her death, at his apartment, but the police will upgrade the charge to murder.

The case has attracted widespread public attention as Ichihashi, who media reports once suggested had killed himself, was found alive and with a new look after undergoing plastic surgery on several occasions.

Ichihashi escaped from police officers when they called at his apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in March 2007 and then found Hawker’s body inside a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony. The police later distributed fliers and offered a 10 million yen reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

Hawker’s family also visited Japan to ask for help in resolving the case, but no significant progress had been made over the last two and a half years.

The case took a sudden turn when Ichihashi showed up at a clinic in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, in late October for another round of plastic surgery. The police soon released a photograph of his post-surgery face with double-fold eyelids instead of single, a higher nose bridge and thinner lips, and it was widely displayed.

It led to numerous further discoveries about him, including his attempt to receive another plastic surgery operation in Fukuoka Prefecture. He was also found to have lived and worked at a construction company in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, for over a year up until this October. See original here

Anti-Pervert campaign

Those who live in Japan know that there is a huge problem on busy trains in this country. Often perverts ride the trains preying upon young women and girls. They try to corner them and then grope them. The term for these freak-shows is "chikan." In Tokyo this week, there has been a massive Anti-Chikan" campaign. I caught this Fuji TV special (with English subtitles) on Japan Probe. Scary stuff!!!

Did Jesus live in Japan?

Jesus Christ lived in Aomori - really?
An active conspiracy theory that rivals the revelations of “The Da Vinci Code” awaits visitors to the sleepy village of Shingo, between Hachinohe and Lake Towada in Aomori Prefecture. Every year in June, a ceremony unlike any other in Japan awakens Shingo (called “Herai” in times long ago) and women in kimono dance around the grave of Jesus Christ. Yep, THE Jesus Christ.

You didn’t know? You can visit his grave in a beautiful park in Aomori. But, behold, there is a lot more to this legend. Back in 1935, a well-known researcher dug up some ancient scriptures in Herai. They were written in Hebrew and supposedly signed by none other than the man, Jesus Christ, himself. These scripture allege that Jesus came to Herai when he was 21 to study religion for 12 years. Then he returned to Judea to teach everyone what he had learned in Japan.

As the story goes, people there didn’t agree with what he was trying to preach and arrested him. It seems however, that here’s where the story takes a twist. Jesus managed to escape crucifixion by having his little brother take his place on the cross. Jesus had a brother? You ask. Apparently so. The real Jesus did a bit of backpacking, then came back to Japan where he settled down in Herai. He married a Japanese woman named Miyu and became a rice farmer. His gravesite marks the end of his 106-year life (or 118 according to some people). His brother’s grave sits comfortably beside Jesus’ grave. Read More...


Two police officers stabbed while trying to subdue 74-yr-old man
OKAYAMA - Two police officers were stabbed while trying to subdue a 74-year-old man brandishing two kitchen knives in his home in Nadasaki, Okayama Prefecture, on Friday. The man, identified as Kenji Nanba, was charged with assault and interfering with police in the line of their duty, but he has denied the charges. Read More...



Former South Korean President and Nobel Prize winner, Kim Dae-jung laid to rest in Seoul.

South Korea Remembers Kim