Heroes on the Platform

Yesterday, at a train station near Tokyo, a woman became stuck when she fell into the space between the platform and the train.

The people on the platform pushed the train enough for her to be pulled to safety.

Did you hear about…?

Did you hear about these recent Japan-related news items?

• Takeru Kobayashi, the hot-dog eating champion from Japan who won the annual Fourth Of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City six times just won a pizza-eating contest in California.He ate 5 ¾ pizzas in six minutes. Just beating American Joey Chestnut who ate 5 ½ pizzas.

  Kobayashi and Chestnut are always rivals at the hot-dog eating contests in New York every year. Joey Chestnut beat Kobayashi the last two years at the hot-dog contest.

  They both said that they will attend the hot-dog eating contest this July to continue their rivalry.

• The Japanese ambassador to America offered an official apology from the Japanese government to a group of American WW2 veterans who were held POW by the Japanese military and forced to work in a labor camp.
• A 20 year old Japanese man who had been drinking all night on Saturday and was still drunk on Sunday morning fell off of a train platform at a train station in Tokyo…and, as he was falling, grabbed onto the arm of a nearby 59 year old female commuter.They both fell off of the platform onto the train tracks.

  Luckily, no train was coming at the time.

  The man sustained minor injuries. The woman, though, broke her pelvis.

  The man is currently in police custody while they investigate whether he really did fall and pull the woman by accident…or if he jumped and pulled her intentionally.

End of GW

This year 憲法記念日 (Constitution Day) was on a Sunday, so it’s observed today.
So today is the last day of 黄金週間 (Golden Week).*

(* GW is a common written abbreviation for Golden Week in Japan. Thus the title of this post.)†

Tomorrow most everyone goes back to school or work.

Many people take a trip either overseas or domestically during Golden Week in Japan. So airports, train stations, and highways are crowded at this time.
At the beginning of the holidays, 下り (away from Tokyo) trains and highways are crowded…and at the end of the holidays, 上り (to Tokyo) is crowded.

Yesterday at about 2:00PM on a highway from 仙台 (Sendai, Japan) heading back to Tokyo there was a head-on collision between a passenger car and a mini-van.
Four people were injured and three elderly people died.

The accident caused the highway to be closed for a few hours, resulting in a huge traffic jam.

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This Friday (8 May 2009), my oldest daughter’s high school class will take a field trip north of Tokyo to the countryside.
They’re going to make 「うどん」 (thick Japanese noodles), have a バーべキュー (BBQ), and go ライン下り (white-water rafting in a Japanese-style boat)!

I’ve been white-water rafting in the countryside in Japan with friends before…but I’ve never gone on such great field trips when I was a student in America that my kids do with their schools!
The biggest school field trip I ever took as a kid was from one side of Florida to the other for a trip to NASA Space Station…it was interesting, but not as fun as the places my kids have gone over the years.

What types of school field trips have you gone on as a student in your country?

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† As I wrote above, GW is a (written) abbreviation for Golden Week in Japan. But there are many other abbreviations in Japan. For example, if you are in Japan, have you ever noticed “W” written on an ad. “W” is a Japanese abbreviation for “double“.

You might have seen, for example, “W (double) point-card points” or “Kirin W (double) Tanrei beer” (I show a photo of this beer in another post (Click here)).

新聞より

Yesterday I read the newspaper while I was riding the train.

A few stories made an impression on me (let me know if you’ve heard any of this news…and what you think!):

1. At the Six Flags amusement park in Georgia, USA, a 17-year old boy climbed two fences that surrounded the perimeter of a roller-coaster ride.
   He went in there to get his hat or something…and the roller coaster hit him and decapitated him!
   I was shocked to read this…but, then again, I’ve read quite a few stories about tragedies at amusement parks. That’s why I’m always hesitant to let my kids go to one with their friends (I let them go…but I’m always nervous about it).
2. Many countries are sending their Olympic teams to Japan to practice for the upcoming Olympics in 北京 (Beijing) rather than have them practice in 中国 (China).
   This is because, the newspaper said, many countries are concerned about air pollution, food safety, and political tension in China.
   Also, they said, Japan has good training facilities.
3. Tokyo is the largest city in the world. And it’s the most densely populated (Tokyo has 36 million people…nearly double the population of New York City. There are more people in Tokyo than in all of Canada!)
   But, despite Tokyo’s large population…this city was recently voted the third most livable city in the world by the London magazine Monocle!
   Copenhagen and Munich were voted first and second respectively…but those two cities have only just over one million people. Tokyo has nearly 36 times as many residents…but the magazine says Tokyo is “a big city getting the basics right”.
   The link to the Monocle magazine’s article is here (they require a paid subscription to read the entire article…but you can see the headline for free 😦 (whatever)).