Out and about
Some of the 50 or so Macaca mulatta monkeys at Ohama Park in Osaka Prefecture have become so fat that they can barely move around their enclosure. The “metabolic monkeys,” as they have come to be known, have been overfed by visitors who ignore signs not to give the roly-poly primates food.

A cat named Tama, who was appointed stationmaster of Kishi Station in Wakayama Prefecture last year, was recently given a new “office” featuring a ventilation fan and a toilet. The railway said it recognized the efforts (their words) of the 8-year-old feline and promoted the cat to division chief-level in January.

It was reported that Shimizu Corp., a major Japanese construction company, is keen on developing technology to make concrete on the moon in order to build a lunar base.

Next time someone calls you a “woman driver,” wear the tag with pride. At the Twin Ring racetrack in Motegi, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win a race in IndyCar history when she motored to victory at the Indy Japan 300.

Torch-light charade
In Malaysia, police detained a Japanese family who unfurled a pro-Tibet banner at the starting point of the Olympic torch relay. The two adults and one boy were “taken in for documentation.”

In Nagano, meanwhile, organizers decided to start their leg of the Olympic torch relay in a parking lot after a Buddhist temple backed out of the event over security concerns and sympathy for Tibetans.

Later, graffiti was found on the main building of Zenkoji temple and police suspect it was targeted over the torch relay issue.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told South Korean President Lee Myung Bak that he wanted a new era in relations between the countries as the two resumed regular summit talks suspended three years ago due to a dispute over Yasukuni shrine.

A 16-year-old Tokyo high school student was left in a coma after being hit on the head by a 6kg hammer thrown by another student practicing for a track meet.

Anyone still holding ticket stubs from American rock band Cheap Trick’s groundbreaking 1978 concert at Tokyo’s Budokan was invited to attend an event prior to the group’s recent show in Tokyo.

Off the rails
Service was disrupted after a passenger was spotted jumping off a speeding bullet train between Hamamatsu and Kakegawa stations in Shizuoka Prefecture.

A drunken man injured his leg after being hit by a train while staggering on the edge of a platform at Tokyo’s Okachimachi Station.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that pansies were found pulled from planters and strewn on the sidewalks and streets of Soka, Saitama. Apparently, vandals have been active across the nation destroying flowers that had been planted to beautify streets.

Hydrogen sulfide, which reportedly offers a “smoother passage,” has replaced charcoal briquette fumes in popularity as a means of committing suicide, according to a story in the Yomiuri Weekly.

Ayman Al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda’s No. 2 and Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, vowed to punish Western countries that took part in the Iraq War, hinting that Japan could be a target and advising it to end its alliance with “Americans who had occupied, looted, humiliated and bombed them with nukes.”




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