Archive | October, 2009

That's a mighty big tab…

By on October 20, 2009 in japan

bottles

A little bit of local news for some entertainment -this caught my eye as probably the king of all Dine & Dash attempts:

Man arrested for running out on expensive bill at hostess bar

SHIZUOKA — A 42-year-old man has been arrested for running out on a 370,000-yen bill at a hostess bar on Sunday night.

Hideyuki Toko, 42, was arrested by Shizuoka Chuo Police Station on Monday. They accuse him of running up a massive drinks tab at a hostess bar in the city’s Ryogaecho district — including two bottles of Dom Perignon champagne — totaling around 370,000 yen, before making his short-lived break for freedom.

According to police, it was his first visit to the bar. When an employee told him the champagne would be expensive, he replied, “no problem.”

Police picked him up the next day. He reportedly only had around 2,000 yen in his wallet.

[from the Mainichi Daily News]

Yes, a 370,000 yen ($4000.00) bar tab! On a SUNDAY night to boot…

One occasionally still hears about the massive tabs that hostess bars inflict on customers, but this one seems to be self-inflicted. It is somewhat reassuring, however, to know that someone (i.e., owners of hostess bars) still thinks it’s the 1980s…

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Stingray update

By on October 18, 2009 in japan

I doubt anybody really needs a stingray update, but a few weeks ago I posted on the stingrays happily swimming through Tokyo canals and, by sheer coincidence yesterday afternoon, I was looking out the window and saw a man frantically reeling in something from the canal.

My video camera was on the desk behind me, so I grabbed it and caught this (just at the 14 second mark, the stingray seems to release some purplish red fluid as he pulls it up onto the concrete):

The two photos at the end were, yes, taken with the Sigma 150-500mm at 500mm and then cropped slightly. The guy spent so much time taking photos of it with his keitai that I had plenty of time to grab my camera and change lenses – I was worried that it had been out of the water too long to go back in, but in it went and disappeared.

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