| A Nigerian man has been charged after he allegedly took a flight attendant hostage aboard an airplane preparing to depart Narita airport, near Tokyo, when he was to be deported in January, according to an indictment document. The 46-year-old man allegedly grabbed the flight attendant around the neck on the plane Jan. 27, poked her with a key and demanded his release, the document says. The man was immediately overpowered by an immigration officer and was arrested, the police said. (AP) |
Friday, April 9, 2010
JAPAN: Man takes flight attendant hostage at Narita airport during deportation
JAPAN & N. KOREA: Fee row shines spotlight on Japan's pro-North Korean schools
The framed portraits of North Korea's past and present leaders, the "two Kims", gaze down solemnly from the wall as 30 pupils hunch over their desks in a slightly decrepit classroom. The boys are dressed in dark blue school blazers, and the girls in traditional chima chogori costumes. A map of the Korean peninsula hangs on the wall, and the teacher talks about its troubled history. At first glance, this school could be in Pyongyang. In fact, it is in Japan, where a row over school funding has put a spotlight on this Tokyo school and nine others like it, operated by Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang organisation that serves as North Korea's de facto embassy. (AFP)
TRAVEL: How I Became a Better World Traveler
Thibault Camus / AP
Published Apr 9, 2010 (From the magazine issue dated Apr 19, 2010)
By Seth Stevenson | NEWSWEEK
The joy of travel is to let different cultures seep into your identity. It's not to bring your own culture with you so you can inflict it on the native populace.
Recently, while circling the earth for a travel book, I experienced one of my greatest thrills as a globe-trotter: I was mistaken for a German. Don't misunderstand. I am no Germanophile. It's just that wherever I journey, I try hard to blend in with the locals. So when a German woman stopped me in the town square in Cologne and asked me for the time—in German! clearly assuming I was also German!—I couldn't help but congratulate myself on a job well done. I'd successfully melted into my surroundings, shedding my Americanness the way a snake sheds a sheath of dead skin.
Now, I can hear you asking: Seth, why would you want to pretend you're not American? Are you ashamed of your country? Far from it. I adore America. The reason I disguise my nationality is mostly anthropological. Think about those nature photographers in the wild who camouflage themselves, not wanting their presence to alter the behavior of the animals they're observing. Now imagine me, people-watching from a table at a café in Antwerp, or Quito, or Cape Town. If I've got my NFL jersey on and my white tube socks pulled up to midcalf, I turn myself into an object of curiosity for the locals. Their behavior changes as their eyes are drawn to my blinding white hosiery. I'm no longer the watcher, but the watched. Remember, as you shake out your duffel bag for a summer on the road, the great joy of travel is to let different cultures seep into your identity. It's not to bring your own culture with you so you can inflict it on the native populace.
So how do you avoid coming off American? In general, you should shun corporate logos, stick to blandly neutral colors, and—I can't emphasize this enough—don't ever wear white tube socks. In particular, don't wear them with knee-length shorts and a pair of overdesigned running shoes. That outfit is a dead giveaway that you hail from the land of the free and the home of the brave. (Also known as the land of the baseball cap and the home of the baggy khaki trousers. Better ditch those, too.)
Of course, no matter how you dress, you will still bear indications of your nationality. Your haircut. Your jewelry. Your American-flag tattoo. Perhaps the biggest tip-off is the way you walk. We walk big—swinging our arms, letting our legs amble wide—in a manner that's fitting for folks from a country with plenty of empty space. Citizens of densely populated Europe exhibit a far more compact posture, with elbows and knees tucked tight and arm swings restrained.
The longer you're on the road, the easier it becomes to disappear into foreign environments. It just happens naturally. If you've packed light—as you always should—you'll end up buying a new shirt or two somewhere along your journey. Maybe a new pair of shoes. Probably some socks. Eventually your wardrobe turns into a hard-to-identify collage of the places you've visited. Over time you'll lose track of what's going on back home and instead start following the local news. And then one day you'll stroll through the town square and a woman will ask you the time in German. But since you don't speak German, you'll just hold your watch up to her face.
Stevenson, a contributing writer for Slate, is the author of Grounded: a Down to Earth Journey Around the World.
TAIWAN: Boyle has a Taiwan equivalent
AS a younger man, Taiwan's Lin Yu-chun sang for hours on end, trying to get his mind off the sneers he endured because of his portly figure. The round-faced soprano with the bowl haircut never imagined his voice...
S. KOREA: Birthday Preparations
Ahn Young-joon / AP
| A South Korean worker decorates lanterns to celebrate Buddha's upcoming birthday on May 21 at the Chogye Temple in Seoul, South Korea. |
CHINA & JAPAN: China executes three Japanese drug smugglers
China executed three convicted Japanese drug smugglers on Friday, just days after another Japanese citizen was put to death for the same offence -- prompting concerns in Tokyo that ties could suffer. The trio were executed in the northeastern province of Liaoning, Xinhua news agency reported, citing an announcement from China's supreme court. The Japanese foreign ministry confirmed it had been notified by the Chinese side. On Tuesday, China executed 65-year-old Mitsunobu Akano -- the first Japanese citizen to be put to death in the country since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972. (AFP)
JAPAN: Right-wingers vow to block 'The Cove' in Japan
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Dozens of right-wing activists protested Friday outside the office of a Japanese distributor of the Oscar-winning "The Cove," demanding that the gory portrayal of dolphin hunting in Japan not be shown in the country. "The Cove" won this year's best documentary Oscar with its depiction of dolphin hunts in Taiji, a small fishing village in western Japan. The protesters Friday accused the distributor of betraying Japanese national pride by supporting the film, which they see as insulting to traditional village culture of which dolphin hunting is part. (AP)JAPAN: Japan's students slacking off, study finds
Japan's high school students, once renowned for their diligence and self-discipline, are slacking off and falling behind their peers elsewhere in the world, a study has found. The Japan Youth Research Institute, a non-profit group, said it found that Japanese students study less regularly and sleep more often in class than those in China, South Korea and the United States. "Japanese students are happy with the status quo and lack vision about their future," the institute's head, Tamotsu Sengoku told AFP Thursday. "Among all the nations studied, Japan is particularly bad." (AFP)
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