Bamboozled

Two Japanese executives have been arrested for claiming their Chinese bamboo shoots were Japanese.

China is the largest exporter of bamboo shoots, and production is declining in Japan. However the Japanese shoots command a much higher price. Teruyoshi Kanbara and his brother Yoshiaki of Shinsei Foods in Anan, Tokushima Prefecture, are accused of selling at least 19 tons of falsely labelled shoots for ¥10 million in the second half of 2008. The 19 tons were part of 90 tons sold to two Japanese companies.

Bamboo shoots may either be fresh (pictured) or canned, with the canned being less expensive.The fresh shoots are seasonal, with the Japanese production season limited to March through July.

Bamboo shoots are used in many Asian dishes including chicken, smoky bacon and bamboo shoot stir-fry (mmmm: bacon). Other examples can be seen in the Iron Chef Japan Bamboo Shoot Battle episode.

Sources:
The Japan Times
CQ University Centre for Plant and Water Science
Wikipedia (photo)
Daily Mail

Japanese Forrest Gump

That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going.
                      -Forrest Gump

He travels the world by the seat of his pants.

Bored with his air conditioning job, Keiichi Iwasaki left his Japanese home in 2001 with a bicycle and 160 Yen (about $2), and never looked back. So far Iwasaki has ridden his Raleigh  Shopper bike over 29,000 miles in his eight years on the road. He supports himself by busking.

Although attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet, robbed by pirates and arrested in India during his trek, he also became the first Japanese man to climb Mt. Everest from sea level without transportation, and is currently in Switzerland hoping to climb Mt. Blanc.

Sources:
Perth Now
Daily Telegraph (photo)
Telegraph (map)

Traffic Signal Broken for 30 Years

Okay, so Samoa is due to change the direction of its traffic tomorrow (we'll see how that goes), and we have the  Parisian suburbs pointing one-way streets at each other, so this time we go to Japan, where we find a completely different attitude.

Police were investigating an accident in the Fukushima Prefecture where (not surprisingly) both drivers claimed to have a green light. It turns out that the drivers were both correct. The light was green in both directions for about 7 seconds at a time. This problem is due to a programming error that has been in place for 30 years. During that time there have been no other reported accidents, and no one has complained about the issue.

Sources:
Dialy Yomiuri (the link appears to be broken, but my Japanese is kind of weak) (via Seven Days)
New Launches

Any Given Suidae

Although it is unlikely to draw Ty Murray across the ocean, Mikame, Japan just put on the 26th annual Pig Rodeo as a part of its summer festival. As you may have surmised, the video on the right shows some of the highlights.

The festival also features human curling, of which there are many variations to be found on YouTube, although none of them seem to take place in Japan in August or involve the sea in any way.

(Suidae = pig family. It was a joke, a play on the phrase Any Given Sunday. Oh, nevermind.)