Thieving in Japan

Had returned from Malaysia to my ‘cave’ here in Japan in early September, and of course, was overwhelmed by the mountain of piled-up work...

So, there I was, slugging through that mountain on that Saturday and Sunday wondering whether this was the punishment for being away for a vacation...

On the following Monday at 0840 hours, was surprised to see my cap outside my office door...

And became more perplexed when I found the door to be unlocked as I keyed in...

Didn’t take a minute to realize that a thief had broken into my office...

Ooh, 21 years of continuous residence in Japan and this was the first experience of being robbed...

Called my staff members who then rushed to my office...

About half an hour later, three policemen came...

The thief had entered through the ventilation window, which I had left partially open...

The police combed my untidy room for fingerprints and shoeprints...

One of them asked... is this room always like this? Messy?

Me: Yes...

Policeman: How then, do you know if something is stolen?

Me: Of course I know!!

That rascal of a thief wore gloves, apparently... and he seemed like he knew what he wanted...

The loot included the Nikon D70 digital camera (oooh, this is painful...)

He knew what he wanted because he took the dedicated D70 battery from one of my drawers... and the battery was actually inside a pouch...

Plus, the battery charger... funny he pulled off the cord and took just the unit...

And, 3 pieces of 1 gigabit compact flash cards...

Plus, a video/CD player and an Epson Projector...　grrrr...

Still, odd that the idiot did not take the cables for these either...

Anyway, two more policemen came... and took pictures of the scene while requesting yours truly to point to the spots where the goods were removed...

I must say that they were pretty professional and prompt...

One stayed back to write the report on my behalf and had me verified and signed it...

At 1115 hours, I was able to resume my banging at that mountain of work again...

Back home that evening over dinner, my missus decreed, nose held high, and both arms on hips... ‘Now, no more buying of cameras, ok?’

Grrrr...

Sakamoto Kyu's 'Ue wo muite aruko'...

One of the biggest joys of residing in Japan for me... is listening to the Japanese songs on the radio...

This morning... was once again held captive by Sakamoto Kyu's rendition of Ue wo muite aruko...

Mesmerizing... to say the least...

On Namewee and Yee Yang Yang... what now?

On Namewee... had just been reading the reports and comments on the issue and was feeling pretty disgusted with the way the so-called authorities handled the affair...

Initially had no time to look up the video in question, until Vincent, a reader, asked for my views...

So there I was, doing a search for it and found myself somewhat enjoying the video...

Namewee is a pretty talented artist, at least by my standards...

Depending on one's standing, his style seems abrasive in some ways and crude in other ways (as in showing that lump of sh*t?)

Still, with my biases and slants, I think he speaks in the same tongue as a wide spectrum of the so-called 'nons' of bolehland do...

The discrimination... the corruption... these, no one can deny...

But on the dressing and perhaps even the azan prayers, these may be hitting below the belt...

Reason is, I have no qualms on how people choose to dress or pray but I do have bones to pick with hypocrites who claim to be religious while brazenly committing sins such as corruption and discrimination...

Then we have our so-called 'protectors' at MCA... they are but a disgrace...

Literally, they were slapped on the cheeks once again by big bad brother UMNO...

Yet these are but the same crooks that keep reminding us about that inane concept called 'power sharing'... the very same baddies screaming their throats dry for Namewee's head, harassing his family and demanding to have his citizenship stripped...

The dust has somewhat settled, so, what now with those 'honorable' buffoons?

Wonder if they are still seething to have Namewee extradited home... no?

Ok, let's assume Namewee has done us wrong... but what about the many worse wrongs done by those rascals at the top echelon to the citizens of Malaysia?

Anyway, I would suggest Namewee to stay put as he is now... go sail the world, young man and do what you are good at... family and friends aside, the only thing you might miss is the wonderful food back in bolehland...

While we are on the topic of young men, my attention veers towards the odd case of Yee Yang Yang...

Couldn't agree more with my 'clansman' Kit Siang's comment on UPM being a hooligan institution...

Such high handed-ness... where is the so-called Vice-Chancellor bringing the university?

I salute Yang Yang's courage in standing up to those mobsters, and now that they have returned his stuff... what now?

Can we expect some thug in UPM having one strand the courage of Yang Yang to come up and say gomen-nasai for roughing him up unreasonably?

These little-little incidents... wonder if they are the forerunners to some kind of undesirable behavioral pattern among the mischievous lot of rogues...

Huh?