The hilarity doesn't stop

In the time that I've spent in Japan, I've never seen the police DO anything. The crime rate is incredibly low (at least for your more everyday incidents, excluding yakuza activities) and the most I've ever asked of a cop is to give me directions. Police boxes are always really small, even in the popular areas like Shibuya and Harajuku, and I'm sure the fuzz in my little town don't get to see much action. But last night I went out to dinner with my co-worker, who goes by Caroline on the internetz, and we were walking around when a first happened for both of us: witnessing an arrest!

And it wasn't even a rowdy gaijin!

Some salaryman was making a scene outside an izakaya by the station. There had to have been at least 10 cops all over the poor guy, but he was drunk and yelling at the top of his lungs. They shoved him into the car and drove him off somewhere. Where do you go when you're arrested like that? Japanese version of a county jail for the night? Does Japanese yakuza Dog the Bounty Hunter come and bail you out for a hefty price and the deed to your house? Does his crazy Japanese yakuza wife have boobs as big as Beth's?

Gawkers at the scene

And there were people standing around for a good 15 minutes after Drunken Salaryman was driven off to his doom. Must be a rare thing for that many Japanese people to wonder what's going on.

Today was more or less a normal Saturday at English school. I'm the busiest in the evenings and on Saturdays since that's when most kids are available to take lessons. I always end my Saturday nights with a typical high school jock, who speaks English fairly well and could probably achieve fluency if he keeps studying. I like to bring in supplemental material for his class because, given his age and ability level, the textbook is pretty boring. I don't always like teaching from the book and I'm sure he gets just as tired of it as I do, so I'm always looking out for short and fun things for him to read.

For tonight's class I showed him an article about ninjas (he thought it was funny) and this article about the new words added to the Oxford dictionary. I skimmed the article earlier in the day and I figured he'd be amused at learning things like LOL, OMG, and BFF. I didn't read very carefully, though, so I ended up teaching him the phrase "muffin top" as well. Heh. I asked him about his BFF and he said, "Ah, he has muffin top." I TRIED SO HARD NOT TO LOSE IT. He now has a special place in my heart for that. What a wonderful student.

And now it's time for your regular reminder about that earthquake and tsunami we had a few weeks ago!  I found another charity that I'm kind of excited about, although I admit I haven't gone through their entire website to learn about them. They're called Shelter Box and they send crates filled with tents, cooking sets, blankets, and even coloring books to areas hit by natural disasters. I believe one Shelter Box could help up to 10 people, which is SUGOI. And some links in case you don't want to scroll:

Charity shirts available for purchase, proceeds going to a variety of different organizations

Donations can be sent to:

Shelter Box

Doctors without Borders

International Medical Corps

Mercy Corps via Peace Winds Japan

Convoy of Hope --- text TSUNAMI to 50555 to donate $10

The Red Cross --- text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10

Save the Children --- text JAPAN or TSUNAMI to 20222 to donate $10

The Salvation Army --- text JAPAN or QUAKE to 80888 to donate $10