Japan's Miura raring to conquer Everest at 80

Japan's Miura raring to conquer Everest at 80

Tue Nov 24, 12:15 pm ET



TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese mountaineer who just lost his title as the oldest man to climb Mount Everest to a Nepalese fellow septuagenarian vowed Tuesday to do one better and scale the peak aged 80.



Japan's Yuichiro Miura, 77, was officially the oldest man to have reached the roof of the world until Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan said Monday that the Guinness Book of Records had now named him as the oldest Everest conqueror.



Sherchan, 78, said he had battled for months for the recognition of his feat, collecting proof that he reached the 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit in May 2008 when he was 76 -- a day before Miura who was 75 at the time.



"I congratulate Mr. Sherchan on his success to substantiate his feat," Miura told AFP by telephone from Japan's Sapporo, where he was skiing despite having broken his femur and pelvis in a ski accident in February.



"It is quite awesome to climb Everest after the age of 70," he said. "It is still more awesome to do it at 76. In a sense, he has helped expand the possibilities for people in an ageing society."



However, undeterred by his rival, Miura announced an even bolder plan.



"If possible, I want to assault Everest from China's side in 2013," he said, having ascended it twice from the Nepalese side.



To prepare for the feat, he is planning three Himalayan trips.



"I will start at around 5,000 (metres) sometime next autumn," Miura said. "Then I will go for 6,000, 7,000, and Everest."



Miura, a veteran adventurer, in 1970 became the first person to ski down Everest. His parachute-aided descent was documented in the 1975 film "The Man Who Skied Down Everest" which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.



In 2003 Miura first became the world's oldest conqueror of Everest when he reached the summit aged 70. However in 2007 his record was broken by another Japanese man, Katsusuke Yanagisawa who was 71 at the time.



"I have not done it for the sake of Guinness records," said Muira about his two conquests of the world's highest peak.



Miura said that in January he plans to tour Antarctica in an oceanographic ship in the run-up to his Himalayan challenge. "The tour will have no adventurous element, but I am very much looking forward to it," he said.

Japanese cops cross-dress for bag snatch dragnet

Japanese cops cross-dress for bag snatch dragnet

Wed Nov 25, 12:22 pm ET



TOKYO (AFP) – Patrolling in high heels, wigs and designer bags, Japanese black-belt policemen have been cross-dressing in a bid to beat off bag-snatchers, a report said Wednesday.



The all-male squad has been deployed since last month on night patrols in central Aichi prefecture, wearing skirts and stockings and carrying eye-catching handbags as bait for potential thieves, the Asahi daily reported.



So far the unit has failed to nab any muggers, the Asahi said, and Aichi police declined to comment to AFP on the report.



To qualify for the special squad, police have to be young, slim and hold the top rank of a black belt in a martial art such as karate or judo, the report said.



A 26-year-old officer -- measuring 1.71 metres (5.6 feet) in height and weighing in at a dainty 61 kilograms (134 pounds) -- expressed pride in the mission, telling the daily: "It's cowardly to target women who are weak."



The operation has not been without its pitfalls. Some of the stylish policemen have become targets themselves -- of cat-calls and lewd propositions.



One 25-year-old officer said he "panicked" one night when a male driver leaned out of his car window and asked if he wanted to go for a drive.

Beaujolais nouveau hot in Japan - literally

Beaujolais nouveau hot in Japan - literally

Thu Nov 19, 12:12 pm ET



HAKONE, Japan (AFP) – Japan's craze for Beaujolais nouveau has beaten the global recession, with tourists taking a dip Thursday in a hot mountain spring coloured red with the fruity wine.



The Hakone Kowakien Yunessun spa resort celebrated the annual uncorking of the seasonal drop by having a sommelier pour a few bottles into an open-air hot spring bath as holiday-makers enjoyed soaking themselves.



"It's a very fruity taste," said visitor Eri Yamagida, 21, who also experienced the wine bath last year and said she planned to return next year for the same aromatic pleasure.



It was the fourth annual bath using the produce of the French winery Laboure Roi at the spa, which also offers baths with green tea, coffee and sake.



The Beaujolais service, in which patrons also sip the wine, has struck a chord with Japanese people, who highly value seasonal events, said spa official Mika Okitsu.



Outside the hot spring's soothing waters, however, enthusiasm has waned for the wine, which is traditionally released at the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday in November.



Japanese sales of Beaujolais nouveau have fallen since before the global financial crisis hit the world's second largest economy last year, although Japan remains among its top foreign markets.



Sales in Japan have fallen from a record 12.5 million bottles in 2004 to 8.26 million in 2007 and 6.7 million in 2008.

'I hate whale meat,' Japan's PM confides: report

'I hate whale meat,' Japan's PM confides: report


TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has revealed he dislikes whale meat, a newspaper reported Saturday, in an unusual confession for the prime minister of a country that defies Western criticism of whaling.



"I hate whale meat," Hatoyama said during a meeting with his visiting Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday at the prime minister's office, the Sankei Shimbun reported.



The Netherlands is one of several anti-whaling countries that allows the radical environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to register a vessel in the country.



The group's activists have repeatedly harassed Japanese whaling vessels in Antarctic waters. During the last hunt a Sea Shepherd vessel collided with a whaling ship, sparking allegations that the group was behaving irresponsibly.



Despite Hatoyama's reported dislike of whale meat, however, he urged Balkenende to take action against the group over its attacks on Japanese whalers in the Antarctic, government officials said.



Japan hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on the creatures, but makes no secret of the fact that the meat often ends up on dining tables.



Tokyo often accuses Western critics of insensitivity toward its culture and heritage.



Hatoyama's centre-left government, which took office in October, has deviated little from the pro-whaling policies adopted by the previous administration, which had traditionally close ties with farmers and fishermen.

Bad breath fights monsters at Japan whacky fair

by Miwa Suzuki Miwa Suzuki

Thu Oct 22, 9:09 am ET



TOKYO (AFP) – A monster-slaying bad breath blow gun, a rain-simulating "funbrella" and a navigation-aid helmet that steers users by pulling their ears: welcome to Japan's latest whacky inventions.



These bizarre gadgets and more -- some of them useful, most of them fun -- went on display at the Digital Content Expo, a fair showcasing futuristic gaming, arts, medical and other technologies that opened on Thursday.



A clear crowd-pleaser at the four-day event was a blowgun videogame by the Kanazawa Institute of Technology where the enemies are a scary line-up of monsters including a vampire, a bat and a club-wielding ogre.



Rather than fire bullets, darts or lasers at the fearsome adversaries, players of all ages eat snacks and sip drinks to boost the smell of their breath, then blast stinky bad breath balls at the screen to kill the monsters.



"Your children may shun you when you come home reeking of alcohol, but this could make you a family hero," said Yusuke Sasayama, a Kanazawa Institute engineering student and one of the brains behind the game.



Osaka University graduate students, meanwhile, wowed audiences with their "Funbrella" -- the perfect gift for people who hate sunny days -- which uses a technology the inventors called the "tele-rain" system.



A vibrating device on the gadget simulates the sensation of raindrops hitting the umbrella, and there are advanced settings for hails of marbles, snakes and other objects that don't usually fall from the sky.



"With this 'Funbrella' you could feel an Amazon downpour in the desert," said Yoshifumi Kitamura, associate professor at the university.



He also suggested it could help lovers who are separated by vast distances to share the feeling of braving a rainstorm together as they talk by telephone.



For those with little sense of direction, Yuichiro Kojima, a researcher at the University of Electro-Communications, has come up with an alternative to GPS and navigation systems or the humble compass and map.



His head-mounted device steers users by gently pulling their ears.



One team member said it was inspired by "parents towing their children and pulling their ears, which allows you to lead people with gentle force."



In one of the breakthroughs at the show, electronic powerhouse Sony Corp. showed off a world-first device -- a cylindrical three-dimensional display where the image can be viewed from any angle.



"It is unprecedented that you can see a 3D image from 360 degrees and in full colour," Sony spokeswoman Saori Takahashi said of the device, about the size of a coffee machine.



"This could be used for education or as a 3D photo frame in the future," she said. "If we can adapt this for motion pictures, it would lead to a 3D video-phone or to virtual pets."

Japan Police Blame Hunger for Store Robberies

By Stuart Biggs



Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Holdups at convenience stores in Japan rose this year as robbers focus on stealing food rather than cash because of hunger, the Yomiuri newspaper reported today, citing the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.



The number of convenience store robberies in Tokyo in the nine months to September more than doubled from a year earlier, the newspaper said. Nationwide, there were 487 robberies nationwide in the first half of the year, up 66 percent from 2008, the report said.



Store robberies are rising because of the recession and the number of people facing dire poverty, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified police officials. Out of 30 people arrested for 44 cases in Tokyo, 16 were unemployed, the report said.



A 42-year-old jobless man threatened a Tokyo store clerk with a knife before stealing rice balls and liquor worth 2,600 yen ($28) in September, the report said. About 60 percent of those arrested in Tokyo don’t have enough money to last a day, the Yomiuri cited a police official as saying.

Pouring cold water on fashionista swimmers

Pouring cold water on fashionista swimmers


Wed Oct 21, 11:15 am ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan's swimmers could face lifetime bans if they dye their hair, wear an earring or have brightly decorated fingernails.
Japanese officials have launched a strict policy to prevent athletes turning up for competitions looking more like rock stars than swimmers.
Male and female swimmers caught sneaking into each others rooms at Japanese training camp, where the sexes have separate sleeping quarters, will also find themselves in hot water.
"The United States and Australia are also setting these criteria," the Japan Swimming Federation's executive director Masafumi Izumi told local media Wednesday.
"We have had many recent controversies (in Japan) with marijuana in sport and at universities, and this is about swimming taking a stand on its own initiative."
The JSF's stringent new plan has been written into its charter following an executive board meeting Tuesday and swimmers will have to sign a letter of oath.
Rule-breakers face being booted out of the team and sent home in disgrace, a suspension of up to five years or even a lifetime ban.
"It is more an enhancement of the rules," the JSF told Reuters. "It's a policy top swimming countries like Australia and the Americans follow."