Otaku husband returns home after argument to find wife has destroyed his anime robot collection

Broken Gundam and broken trust sparks Internet debate about whether or not her actions were justified.


On the morning of December 26, Japanese Twitter user @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM and his wife got into an argument before he went to work. Apparently there was still a lot of simmering animosity, at least on his wife’s side, at the point their conversation had ended, because when @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM returned home later that day, this is the scene that was waiting for him.

That room of overturned shelves and display stands is where @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM stored the plastic models he builds as a hobby. While he was out, his wife decided to take her frustration out on his collection, with a variety of robots from the Zoids and Gundam anime franchises suffering her wrath.

@fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM tweeted:

“I got into an argument with my wife this morning, and when I got home, she’d broken my model shelves. Lightning Saix, Blade Liger, Gun Sniper, Shadow Fox, Unicorn Gundam…farewell. This is so sad.”

▼ At least he still has this photo he took of his mecha from before their untimely demise.

Many online commenters offered their condolences as they criticized the way in which @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM’s wife channeled her anger.

“What a disaster. Breaking defenseless things is such a cowardly act.”
“Unforgivable. The models didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’d want a divorce.”
“Did she stop psychologically developing as a child?”
“Even if you’d been in an argument, breaking someone else’s things when they’re not around is wrong. Actually, it’s wrong if the person is around too.”
“I don’t know what you two had been arguing about, but breaking things is hardly ever the right thing to do.”

In contrast to that last comment, though, a handful of Twitter users felt that the basis for the disagreement that led to the attack on the models is important.

“Of course it’s wrong to break someone else’s things, but something made your wife unable to keep from doing that. As her life partner, I think you should be concerned about her feelings.”
“Why did your wife end up going that far? If I had a husband who was more focused on models than family affairs, I’d probably be so constantly irritated by the presence of his models that I’d want to puke. It might be just my imagination, but maybe that’s what caused the argument in the first place?”

This isn’t the first time the Japanese Internet has debated the ramifications of a romantic partner purposely doing something to damage one’s otaku hobbies, and as in those previous cases, most of those saying they couldn’t forgive @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM’s wife aren’t citing the loss of cool robot fun, but the loss of trust they’d feel in such a situation.

Adding another wrinkle to the story is that @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM and his wife have a three-year-old daughter, and regardless of what caused the argument or who’s in the right or wrong, this doesn’t look like very constructive, or particularly safe, behavior to be modeling for a young, assumably impressionable child, and on the morning after the incident @fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM tweeted that he and his daughter have temporarily relocated to the home of one of his friends.

Source: Twitter/@fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM (1, 2) via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@fTWrU0Wawr5tnPM



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Spirit of volunteering strong for Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but data suggests something may be off

Outstanding Japanese student participation may not be what it seems.

The Organizing Committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics struggled in the initial stages to find suitable volunteers, an effort that luckily managed to rapidly gain pace among foreigners.

It is now well past the 21 December deadline for volunteer applications, and despite negative sentiments by some Japanese netizens about how helpers were being exploited with long work hours and little remuneration, a grand total of 186,101 applications have been filed.

▼ Which far exceeded the required 80,000 positions.

“I would like to express my gratitude to the overwhelming response,” said Toshiro Muto, secretary general of the Organizing Committee.

Analyses have revealed that 63 percent of volunteers were women, and foreign nationals made up 37 percent of the overall force. The highest proportion of helpers came from the 20s age bracket at 29 percent, but a closer examination shows that the highest number of volunteers from the Japanese side was in the teens bracket at 25 percent.

While student volunteers brimming with excitement to assist the Olympics may sound nice, a tweet from a Japanese student revealed that something else was going on in schools.

▼ “We were all ordered to fill up volunteer application forms.
This is the dark side of metropolitan high schools.”

Japanese netizens were impressed with the numbers, though some were upset that students in their teens made up the bulk of the Japanese volunteers:

“That’s because some of the schools were forced to participate.”
“25 percent in their teens? Did the schools pressure students to do so?”
“I really respect those who decided to help out.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
“That isn’t recruitment at all.”

Although the volunteer shortage has been alleviated, it is disconcerting to know that the offset may have been caused by some schools “strongly recommending” volunteering to Japanese students. At least they will get paid, even if it is only 125 yen an hour.

Source: Kyodo via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso



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Man in Japan orders female store clerk to prostrate herself over misunderstanding with his change

”I’ll kill you! Get down on your knees!” customer orders convenience store cashier.

While it’d be an exaggeration to call them “rules,” Japan has lots of little manners points that customers are expected to follow when shopping at convenience stores. And on the flip side, there are certain operating procedures that the employees generally follow too, in order to make sure everyone has a smooth and pleasant shopping experience.

For example, cash is king in Japan, and it’s not uncommon for customers to pay for even small items, like a single steamed bun, with a 10,000-yen (US$88) bill. When giving change, most clerks are trained to hand customers the bills first and then place the coins atop the bills, since that’s usually the quickest way to complete the transaction and move on to the next waiting customer.

But things happened a little differently at a convenience store in Nagoya’s Minami Ward on the morning of December 27, when a 47-year-old man walked into the store at around 9 a.m. and made a purchase that came to just a few hundred yen. The man paid with a 10,000-yen bill, and when the 31-year-old woman who was working the register handed him the coins from his change first, he assumed she wasn’t going to give him the nine thousand-yen bills he had coming to him.

At this point, the man had two options for rectifying the problem: calmly ask about his as-yet unreceived nine thousand-yen bills, or go completely ballistic. He opted for the later, bellowing at the female clerk:

“I’ll kill you! Get down on your knees and prostrate yourself in apology!”

Naturally, the police were promptly summoned. However, it wasn’t the clerk who called them, but the angry customer himself. “I paid with a 10,000-yen bill, but she only gave me the coins in change,” he told the officers. Meanwhile, the police, utilizing advanced investigation/basic human communication techniques, asked the clerk for her side of the story, whereupon she told them that she was just about to hand the man the bills for his change when he began threatening her with death and demanding feudal-era contrition.

So in the end the man got his change, but also got arrested. Really, it’s hard to imagine things turning out any other way, since telling someone you’re going to kill them right before you yourself get the cops involved is usually going to end badly for you.

However, there may have been a method to the man’s madness. In Japan, it’s customary for police reports to include suspects’ professions, and in this case the man was listed as “unemployed.” Though he apparently could at least scrape together 10,000 yen, it’s possible the man is living in abject poverty or even homeless, and so perhaps he figured getting arrested would at least guarantee him a roof over his head and food on his plate while he’s being processed, especially with a severe cold snap predicted to hit Japan over the coming weekend.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Tokai TV via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image ©SoraNews24



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Japanese police requests train stations in Shibuya to shut exits during New Year countdown

Measures to reduce problems related to overcrowding have ramped up this year.

If partying all night is your idea of fun, then one of the most exciting ways to welcome the new year in Japan is to join the massive countdown event held at the Shibuya Scramble Crossing in Tokyo. This year’s event is called “You Make Shibuya Countdown 2018-2019”, and like most other countdown celebrations in large cities, the place can get so packed with people that it adversely affects surrounding areas for hours.

In an effort to limit the amount of people during its peak, Japanese police have teamed up with various companies to ensure that things run as smooth as possible from the eve into the first day of 2019. Aside from streets closing off to traffic, train stations have also been requested to literally shut their exits.

▼ Just be there early if you plan to make it for the countdown.

Railway train company JR East will be lowering their Shibuya Station exit shutters from 11 p.m. to 12:20 a.m., while Tokyu Corporation will be shutting exits 1, 2, 3, 3a, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7a and 8 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Pamphlets and station announcements will be reminding train passengers of the temporary closures, so that partygoers will not find themselves stranded with no way to get home.

As event attendees have risen sharply in recent years — 67,000 in 2016 and then over 100,000 people in 2017 — these measures will be strictly enforced for safety reasons.

This year’s countdown will probably see even more people squeezing cheek by jowl at Shibuya Scramble Crossing to usher in the new year, which may potentially amplify some horrifying behavior witnessed during the recent Halloween. Nevertheless, be sure to arrive ahead of time if you still plan to go or you will likely spend New Year’s eve staring glumly at a closed roller shutter.

Source: The Asahi Shimbun Company, Livedoor News
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso



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The best Japanese cosplayers from the first day of Winter Comiket 2018【Photos】

Ghibli, Star Wars, and a Japanese politician inspire some of the creative cosplays in this photo collection.

This weekend a cold snap hit Tokyo, with news reports advising people to rug up and stay warm as snow fell in Japan’s northern areas, and temperatures in the capital’s Kanto region plummeted to below zero.

This didn’t deter the nation’s avid comic fans, though, who had been looking forward to the weekend for some time, as it marked the start of one of the season’s most exciting events: Winter Comiket.

▼ Winter Comiket 2018 runs from 29-31 December.

Held in August and December every year, Comiket draws a huge crowd of people from around the country who congregate on the Tokyo Big Sight venue to purchase self-published doujinshi manga, magazines, and novels.

The weekend’s cold weather did nothing to keep crowds away from the venue, and this year one of our Japanese-language reporters, Tasuku Egawa, was on the scene to bring us a first-hand report of all the cosplay action from day one of the event.

▼ Comiket is the largest fan convention in the world, with more than half a million attendees.

Every time Comiket is held, cosplayers also attend, drawing attention outside the venue as photographers crowd around each cosplayer’s cordoned-off area in an attempt to capture their best angles and poses.

Seeing as Tasuku had arrived early on the first day, though, the cosplay area was relatively crowd-free, as most people had gone straight inside to get their hands on the best items at the fair. That meant he was able to get some great photos, with cosplayers looking straight down the barrel of his lens and giving him their undivided attention.

So let’s get right to it and take a look at this selection of his top 13 favourites from day one of the event!

▼ Donald Curtis and Porco Rosso from Porco Rosso | Cosplayers: @hiropokomaru, @dugongr

▼ Takeshi Konno from Sengoku Comiket | Cosplayer: @Satokken1

▼ San from Princess Mononoke | Cosplayer: @elle_taso_oo

▼ Gilles de Rais from the Fate series | Cosplayer: @pumpkin6non

▼ Saichi Sugimoto from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @dgcksk529

▼ Ashiripa from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @dgcmy1

▼ Genjirou Tanigaki from Golden Kamuy | Cosplayer: @goropachi

▼ The three characters from Golden Kamuy together

This next cosplay depicts red-spectacled Keizo Obuchi, who announced the Heisei era on television on 7 January 1989, when he was chief cabinet secretary. It’s a particularly poignant image, as this is the last Comiket to be held in the Heisei era, due to the emperor abdicating the throne next year.

▼ Heisei Announcement from The Obuchi Cabinet | Cosplayers: @SirCry_s56, @EtO8y

▼ Padmé Amidala from the Star Wars series | Cosplayer: @MarieBoPeep

▼ Marie Antoinette from the Takarazuka Revue version of The Rose of Versailles | Cosplayer: @totoko03s

▼ And rounding off the collection is this “National lightbulb”, because… well, why not?

▼ This character, along with its sign saying, “Lightbulbs are…National” hark back to an older era of advertising.

And though it’s not a cosplay per se, Tasuku couldn’t help adding in an extra shot of a Fate/Grand Order poster he found by the escalators in the northern part of the stallholders’ area.

The image was made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller images from the popular franchise, making this some next-level virtual cosplay.

Covering a wide range of genders, characters and costumes, Tasuku was satisfied with his day’s work. As he made his way home, he was pleasantly surprised to see the clear day gave him a view of Mt Fuji jutting out on the horizon, just to the left of the Ferris Wheel.

With Day 2 and 3 yet to come for Tasuku, this was just the start of his Winter Comiket 2018 cosplay collection, so be sure to check back in the next few days for more new photos. Until then, feel free to enjoy these beautiful cosplayers from August’s Summer Comiket!

Photos ©SoraNews24  



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