Man passes away on Tokyo train, no one notices until nearly 12 hours and 650 kilometers later

Man’s body continued to make trips back and forth across downtown Tokyo until the end of the day.

It’s not at all uncommon to spot people sleeping on commuter trains in Japan. As a matter of fact, it’s probably more unusual to find yourself on a train that doesn’t have at least one passenger who’s dozed off, intentionally taking a nap, or otherwise getting some Zs, especially if it’s later in the day and they might have had a few beers before they got onboard.

So when a JR East train pulled into Odawara Station on the night of May 11 at about 7:35 p.m., the station worker tasked with checking the interior probably wasn’t surprised to see a man sitting motionless in a two-person bench seat even though everyone else had already gotten off the train. The train had finished its last run of the day and was headed into the depot for the night, though, and it couldn’t do that with a passenger still onboard, so the station worker called out to the man, but got no response. Looking closer, he saw that the man was completely motionless, and didn’t even appear to be breathing. Checking for a pulse, he found none, and even his attempt to resuscitate the man using a defibrillator proved unsuccessful, as he was already dead.

The man had apparently passed away while onboard the train. With no one noticing the moment at which he expired, it seems that all other passengers had thought he was sleeping and left him alone. The story gets even more shocking, though, as he had been on the train for nearly 12 hours, traveling back and forth on the line while deceased.

A subsequent investigation determined that the man had boarded the Shonan Shinjuku line train at Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo at 8:02 that morning. From Shibuya, the train headed north, passing through Saitama Prefecture before reaching its last stop at Utsunomiya Station, in Tochigi Prefecture, about two hours later.

▼ Shibuya to Utsunomiya on the Shonan Shinjuku Line

After arriving in Utsunomiya, though, the train switched over to the Ueno Tokyo Line tracks and travelled back south through Tochigi, Saitama, and Tokyo, going all the way to Hiratsuka Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo’s prefectural neighbor to the south.

▼ Utsunomiya to Hiratsuka

This trip took about three hours, and once it was done, the train went back north along the same route, returning to Utsunomiya around 4:15 in the afternoon. The train still had one more trip to make, this time going all the way back down to Hiratsuka and then further southwest to Odawara, where it completed its run for the day.

▼ Utsunomiya to Odawara

In total the man spent 11 hours and 32 minutes on the train, covering 652.7 kilometers (406 miles) and making four trips across downtown Tokyo. With the train’s initial Shibuya-to-Utsunomiya route almost entirely overlapping with the first half of its subsequent Utsunomiya-to-Hiratsuka run, it’s likely that the man passed away, or was at least unconscious or unable to move, before the train reached Utsunomiya for the first time at around 10 in the morning.

The police have ruled out foul play, and the man ostensibly appearing to other passengers to have been sleeping suggests no visible physical injuries either.

With the quick turnaround required for commuter trains in Japan, trains often only get a thorough check when they’re headed into the depot, and otherwise the aim is on getting them back out on the tracks as quickly as possible. If you do spot someone on a train who looks like they’re not just sleeping, but in need of medical assistance, the phrase to tell the conductor or other station staff is “Densha in ishiki fumei no hito ga iru,” meaning “There’s an unconscious person on the train.”

Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital
Top image: Wikipedia/Toshinori baba
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Groundbreaking ‘90s isekai shojo anime series Rayearth getting new anime adaptation【Video】

Back to Cephiro we go as Clamp anime celebrates its 30th anniversary.

Last week, the big news in the anime world was the announcement of a new anime adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2. The ‘90s nostalgia is continuing to surge, though, as another beloved classic is also getting a new anime, and this time it’s Magic Knight Rayearth.

Starting off as a manga in November of 1993 from creative team Clamp, Rayearth made the jump to TV anime series less than a year later, premiering in October of 1994 and running for 49 contiguous episodes. Though a shojo (girls) series, Rayearth is also an isekai fantasy adventure series, liberally borrowing its world-building blocks from role-playing video games, and the mix of personal emotional drama, spectacular action sequences, and unabashedly frequent sight gags where the cast goes super-deformed gave Rayearth a very broad appeal, making it one of the first big success stories for a shojo anime series among English-territory anime fans in the mid-1990s.

“30 years since the anime TV series broadcast, you will see them again,” promises the teaser video, with “them” no doubt referring to the three ordinary schoolgirls who cross paths on separate field trips to Tokyo Tower before being whisked away to the magical land of Cephiro: primary protagonist Hikaru…

…emotional Umi…

…and gentle Fuu.

The video includes images taken from the original manga and TV series (though not the 1997 alternate continuity OVA series). As long-time anime fans will see, Rayearth’s character designs are very indicative of their mid-‘90s origins, and the teaser only shows the core trio from behind, saving their new facial designs for a later reveal. The orchestral background music also doesn’t give any hint as to whether or not J-pop vocalist Naomi Tamura’s original opening theme “Yuzurenai Negai” will be coming back, nor if the opening animation for the new Rayearth, if it turns out to be a TV series, will once again be done by legendary action director Masami Obari. But with the original Rayearth TV series ending roughly half a year before the manga’s finale, it’s likely that the new anime will be a more faithful/complete adaptation of its source material.

Source, images: YouTube/TMSアニメ公式チャンネル
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An unexpectedly creepy path takes us to Utopia in east Japan【Photos】

Searching for Ubara Utopia.

Recently, our Japanese-language reporter Mariko Ohanabatake was in Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo’s neighbor to the east, doing field work for an article. She was all set to head back to Tokyo, but suddenly decided to take a detour to Utopia.

And no, we’re not speaking metaphorically. Utopia was clearly marked on a local tourism map.

Ubara Utopia, or Ubara Risokyo (risokyo meaning “utopia”), is located in the town of Katsuura, on Chiba’s eastern coast. According to the map, Utopia is just a seven-minute stroll from Ubara Station. Mysteriously, the map didn’t say what exactly Mariko could expect to find at this promised paradise, so she was going to have to hop on a Sotobo Line train to go check it out for herself.

Trains are few and far between on this line, usually with only one per hour. When Mariko’s got to Ubara Station, she was the only one who got off there, and there wasn’t another soul to be seen on the platform…

…inside the passenger waiting room…

…or even at the ticket gate, since the station is unstaffed.

Mariko tapped her IC card against the terminal to complete the payment for her fare, and as she stepped out into the street, she was still completely alone, and starting to get a little unnerved.

She quickly spotted a sign with an arrow pointing in the direction of Utopia (理想郷), but the blood-red color of its “Welcome!” (ようこそ！) text also seemed somehow sinister.

Following the arrow, Mariko began walking down the road, but aside from a very small number of people she passed by, the place felt deserted.

▼ Walking route from Ubara Station to Ubara Utopia

The isolated atmosphere was feeling creepy now, and Mariko felt her steps slow, then stop, as she approached a tunnel she was supposed to pass through on her way to Utopia.

▼ Do…do people who walk through this tunnel never return?

Mariko took a deep breath to try to calm her nerves. Just as she was about to force herself to take a determined step forward, though, a shipping truck came barreling by with its cargo rattling. Startled and freaked out, Mariko pulled up Google Maps on her phone to see if there was an alternate route she could take to Utopia without going through this tunnel, and when she found one, she decided to follow it instead.

This route took Mariko through a neighborhood with houses and ryokan inns. With a few more reassuring signs of nearby life, Mariko breathed a sigh of relief and could appreciate the quaint architecture and lush greenery.

Eventually the road went up a small rise…

…and Mariko was presented with a beautiful view of a sandy beach, the sea, and the blue sky.

There was even a touch of divinity in the form of a Shinto torii gate, painted white, standing on the beach.

As pretty as it is, though, this stretch of the seashore isn’t Ubara Utopia. This is Moriya Beach, which has been voted one of Japan’s 100 most beautiful shorelines.

Ubara Utopia, meanwhile, is farther down the road, Google Maps indicated. So Mariko kept walking…

…passed by another torii gate…

…and then…

…the road just, kind of, stopped.

Now Mariko was very confused, because according to Google Maps, she hadn’t yet reached Utopia.

She turned around to look back and see if she’d missed a turn-off somewhere along the way, but instead actually spotted another person, an elderly man who looked to be a local fisherman.

“Excuse me, which way is Utopia?” she asked him. “Just keep going the same way you were,” he told her. “Didn’t you see the tunnel? Utopia is on the other side.”

Sure enough, when Mariko walked back to where she thought the road had ended…

…she could see a shadowy tunnel.

Small, dark, and damp, this tunnel creeped Mariko out even more than the one she’d gone out of her way to avoid earlier. This time around, there was no other way to progress, so stepped inside.

Jaw clenched as she moved forward, Mariko approached the light at the end of the tunnel…

…and stepped out into Utopia.

“Welcome to Ubara Utopia!” the cheery sign greeted her, and it was now that Mariko finally learned that Ubara Utopia is…

…a hiking trail inside Minami Boso Quasi-National Park.

The paved road quickly turns to gravel, and that turns to dirt paths and stone steps, and it was still early enough in the summer for Mariko to see some pretty hydrangeas along the route.

So why is this place “Utopia?” Likely because the trail splits off into a number of different branches, which each lead to different scenic outlooks to the sea and surrounding coastline.

As we mentioned above, Mariko was making her visit to Utopia on her way home from a different appointment in Chiba earlier that day. She’d gotten a late start to her hike, and was actually lugging her laptop too, so she decided to just hit the nearest point of interest on the trail, the beautiful Kedo Misaki (Cape Kedo).

With trains being so infrequent on the Sotobo Line back to Tokyo, she decided to cut her hike short on this day, but she did get a bonus view of Moriya Beach on the way back to the station…

…and now that she knows how to find Utopia, she can go back and explore the rest of it whenever she feels like it.

Related: Ubara Utopia website
Photos © SoraNews24
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Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki’s films now available in DVD and Blu-ray sets with extras

From Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro to The Boy and The Heron, these sets will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

Hayao Miyazaki has achieved a lot in his 83 years, including directing 12 feature-length anime films, 11 of which were released by Studio Ghibli, which he co-founded with fellow director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki in 1985.

As one of the most celebrated animators in the industry, Miyazaki’s films are considered to be some of the best in the world, and now you can own every one of them in a special boxed set, thanks to a surprise release by Studio Ghibli.

Available as either a Blu-ray set (pictured above) or a DVD set (pictured below), each bundle contains all 12 of Miyazaki’s feature films, including 1979’s Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, the first film he ever directed, which preceded Studio Ghibli by six years.

These collections don’t come cheap — the Blu-ray bundle retails for 72,600 yen (US$449.22) and the DVD set for 48,400 yen — but they’re bound to be snapped up by fans as soon as they’re released. As a special bonus, the studio is offering a special “first-come-first-served benefit” for those who get in quick to buy the first rollout of the sets, with a trio of theatre poster cards included with each purchase.

▼ The cards measure 14.8 by 10.5 centimetres (5.8 by 4.1 inches).

This special bonus will also be offered to customers who buy any of the five other items being released on the same day.

▼ The Boy and the Heron Special Collector’s Edition Blu-ray (12,650 yen)

This edition includes the film and a bonus extra — “Hayao Miyazaki and the Grey Heron… ~The Road to ‘The Boy and the Heron'”, a two-hour documentary that draws upon seven years of exclusive coverage to reveal what was going on behind the scenes at Studio Ghibli in the lead-up to the creation of the movie.

▼ The Boy and the Heron Special Collector’s Edition DVD (9,350 yen)

Though the Blu-ray contains two discs and the DVD three, they both include the movie and the documentary, as well as bonus content covering interviews and overseas trailers. The Blu-Ray comes with Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese audio and subtitles, while the DVD has English and Japanese audio and subtitles.

▼ The Boy and the Heron 4K UHD Blu-ray (11,880 yen)

4K UHD (4K Uktra HD) is the evolution of Blu-ray that far exceeds conventional Blu-ray in terms of resolution, brightness, and colour gamut. A compatible display, player, and cable are required to play this disc.

▼ The Boy and the Heron Blu-ray (7,480 yen)

This Blu-ray includes the movie and bonus extras, but no documentary, and it includes Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese audio and subtitles.

▼ The Boy and the Heron DVD (5,170 yen)

This DVD includes the movie and bonus extras, but no documentary, and although it comes with Japanese and English audio and subtitles, all the DVDs listed here are designed for use in Japan as they’re classified Region 2.

▼ One item that has no regional restrictions is the 2LP The Boy and the Heron Soundtrack (5,280 yen).

Although this is the one product that doesn’t come with the first-come-first-served-bonus cards, it’ll still be highly sought after, as it contains 37 tracks, including the theme song. It also comes with a new jacket design and English text in the newly written commentary that comes with the pack.

All the new items listed above will go on sale online at 10 a.m. (JST) on 3 July, so be poised to make your purchases then, before the products sell out. After all the publicity following The Boy and the Heron’s win at the Oscars, there’ll be a lot of interest in this new collection!

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Our lunch plans are foiled but we end up eating heavenly all-you-can-eat sushi instead

We might just make a beeline to the top-notch Hina-Sushi the next time we’re looking for lunch in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area.

Our Japanese-language reporter Ahiruneko was caught off guard. He had just arrived at the 8th-floor restaurant area of the Shinjuku Marui Annex department store, but his path forward was completely blocked off for some kind of reserved event. Who knew that reserving such a space in a public department store was even an option!

Just as he was about to admit defeat, he spotted a sign for a sit-down restaurant called Hina-Sushi on the same floor that offers an all-you-can-eat premium sushi deal. Normally that’s not the kind of place where he would eat an everyday lunch, but with his stomach rumbling and the minutes ticking by on his lunch break, this seemed to be the best option to save his midday outing for food. He hurried over to the entryway and was promptly shown to a seat.

Naturally, Ahiruneko sprung for the all-you-can-eat high-quality sushi option with over 60 kinds of sushi to choose from. He’d have 120 minutes to eat, with his last order due 30 minutes before the end of the timeframe.

The price was 4,609 yen (US$28.66) for women and 4,939 yen for men, which was enough money to buy about 10 bento from the restaurant in his neighborhood where he usually eats. He felt a small pang of regret but was also determined to enjoy this unexpected experience to the best of his ability.

The ordering system was a piece of paper which he would hand to a server with his requests. He could order up to 20 pieces of sushi at once and was allowed to submit a new order as soon as the previous one arrived. Miso soup refills and pickled ginger were also included. Personally, he had a good feeling about this system because there was no requirement for him to order “X” minimum number of pieces first, as is sometimes the case at all-you-can-eat places.

This month’s limited special menu items, conger eel sushi and chawanmushi (steamed egg custard), could only be ordered once, so Ahiruneko sprang for them first. Then it was completely up to him what he wanted to order and when.

Here was his first batch of sushi. Just look at all of the colors! He had tuna, white fish, shellfish, glistening fish…many of the most popular sushi toppings.

In the case of the tuna, there was not only the lean meat, pickled meat, and albacore tuna, but also the medium-fatty meat (chutoro) as well. Ahiruneko was sorely tempted to order a plate of 20 pieces of medium-fatty meat by itself.

It was freeing to both his appetite and soul to know that he could order as much of anything as he wanted, unlike when going to a conveyor-belt sushi chain where the plates would be counted for a final total. He actually felt a sense of gratitude for the Marui Annex restaurant area being unavailable and foiling his original lunch plans.

Ahiruneko was further delighted to realize that both unlimited uni (sea urchin; below left) and ikura (salmon roe; below right) were also part of the deal. Sure, half of the topping on each was taken up by a slice of cucumber, but he wasn’t going to complain. The ikura version seemed to be of a slightly higher value.

On the other hand, there was no way he could go wrong with any of the monthly specials–they were all of extremely high value. He recommends you order at least one of them even if you don’t particularly feel like it.

▼ The conger eel special on the far right

Before long, Ahiruneko had moved on to his second batch…

…and then his third. Every single piece was a winner, and he found himself wrapped up in a dreamlike state, focused on nothing but the sushi in front of him.

While he would have loved to stay for a full two hours until the staff begged him, while crying, to stop eating because he had wiped out all of their stock, the necessity of work soon pierced through his dreamlike state. Instead, he was the one who felt like crying as he gathered his things and made for the exit.

The most delicious sushi Ahiruneko had eaten was the medium-fatty tuna. No joke, he could have eaten another 20 pieces of that. Runners up were probably the grilled barracuda, the fin sinew of flatfish, and raw squid tentacles.

That sense of invincibility at being able to order anything he wanted in the restaurant soon left him as he walked back to the office, but he vowed to visit Hina-Sushi again soon to re-experience the feeling. The restaurant has other branches in Tokyo’s Ginza, Ueno, and Ikebukuro districts, plus one more location in Shinjuku, so it shouldn’t be too hard to go back sometime–unless another all-you-can-eat restaurant offer gets in the way first.

Restaurant information
Hina-Sushi / 雛鮨
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 3-1-26, Shinjuku Marui Annex, 8th floor
東京都新宿区新宿 3-1-26 新宿マルイ アネックス 8F
Open: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (lunch), 5-11 p.m. (Monday-Saturday dinner), 5-10:30 p.m. (Sunday dinner)
Website

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