Tag Archives: Tomoji Tanabe

Recent news

19 Jul

A few things:

  • The world’s oldest man, Henry Allington from England, died today at the age of 113 years and 42 days.
    He had been the world’s oldest man for only 29 days before he died. Before Mr. Allington, the world’s oldest man had been Japanese Tomoji Tanabe (died at age 113 years 274 days). I wrote a post about Tomoji Tanabe when he died…click here to read it.  Now the world’s oldest man is Walter Breuning from America. He’ll turn 113 years old on (2009) September 21. (The world’s oldest person is Gertrude Baines, also from America. She’s 115 years old.)
  • As with most kids all over Japan, my daughters began their school’s 夏休み (summer vacation) today. They will return to school on August 25…so they’re off from school for about five weeks.In Japan, the new school year begins in April, not after summer holidays…so they’ll return to the same class.
    Also, in Japan, kids get alot of 宿題 (homework) to do over the summer.
  • My oldest daughter also started her first day of work at her first part-time job today. She began working at Domino’s Pizza.
  • To attract families with kids to travel by 新幹線 (bullet train) to go somewhere during their 夏休み (summer vacation)…新幹線 (bullet trains) in Japan have been painted with pictures of characters from the 「ポケモン」 (“Pokemon“) cartoon.

    pokemon01

    pokemon03

  • The fast-food chain, Lotteria, in Japan has started a “money-back guarantee” for it gourmet 「絶妙ハンバーガー (“Zetsumyou (Exquisite) Hamburger“).  If you buy one and don’t like and return more than half of the burger, they will give you a new one (in case the first one simply wasn’t prepared properly)…if you’re still not satisfied (and return more than half of the second one), your money will be refunded.

zetsumyou

On the news today…

19 Jun

A few things that were on the TV news today…

  • A woman in Belgium is suing the tattoo artist who put 56 stars on her face.She claims that she requested that he ink only three stars on her face, and then she fell asleep while he was tattooing her…and when she woke up, she discovered that the entire left-side of her face was covered in stars.

    56stars

    The tattoo artist, who is completely covered in tattoos and piercings himself, claims that she requested a tattoo of exactly 56 stars on her face and that’s what she got.

    tattooist

    The tattoo artist

    It’s hard to be sure who’s lying…but, personally, I think I believe the tattooist. Even though he looks bizarre…why would he jeopardize his livelihood and give his customer a tattoo over 18 times the size that they requested?
    And could a person sleep who their face is being tattooed?

  • 田鍋友時 (Tomoji Tanabe) died today at the age of 113.He was the world’s oldest man. (Now the world’s oldest man is an Englishman named Henry Allingham. Mr. Allingham is also 113 years old…but he just turned 113 a couple of weeks ago—田鍋友時 (Tomoji Tanabe) would have turned 114 this September, had he lived.)
  • The longest continuously-running manga ever, 「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」 (“This Is The Police Box In Front Of Kameari-Park in Katsushika-ward (Tokyo))”, will be made into a live-action TV series.
    「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」

    「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」

    It already has a popular anime series. I like to watch the anime (TV cartoon)…so I’m planning to check out the live-action TV series when it starts airing this August (on Saturdays).

    The main character, 「勘吉両津」 (Kankichi Ryoutsu), will be played by 「香取慎吾」 (Katori Shingo) of the J-pop band SMAP.

    "Shingo" as "Kankichi Ryotsu"

    "Shingo" as "Kankichi Ryotsu"

    The story 「こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所」 (“This Is The Police Box In Front Of Kameari-Park in Katsushika-ward (Tokyo))” is about a team of police officers in a small town in Tokyo…the main character is Kankichi Ryoutsu. He’s very strong and can run extremely fast…even though he always wears 「下駄」 (Japanese traditional wooden sandals).

    But he prefers to try get-rich-quick schemes rather than police work.

    There are also many other characters in the series…for example, a motorcycle cop named Honda who’s extremely timid and nervous–until he gets on his Kawasaki motorcycle (his brother-in-law is named Kawasaki and rides a Honda motorcycle!).

    If you go to the town in Tokyo that this manga is based, you can see the police box that the characters are stationed at. (If you ask the real policemen at this police-box where Kankichi Ryoutsu is, they’ll often say that “he’s out on patrol”!).

    Also, at either exit of the 亀有駅 (Kameari Train Station), there is a statue of Kankichi Ryoutsu.

    I took a photo of each one:
    kankichi-1

    kankichi-2