Anticlimactic weekly roundup

Excuse us for the lull, but it was the sunniest Golden Week in 25 years, and while Jake was out doing the rounds in New England and soaking up more juicy content for a future report, the JSRC base back in Japan was getting our fill of vitamin D for the spring.

As the rest of the country was on vacation during the first half of the week, there was not a lot to be missed. And with the DOW and Greece pulling unforseen tricks out of their sleeves, the latter half will likely be spent avidly watching exchange rates and reading financial news.

Some tidbits:

The Financial Times drummed up some coverage on love hotel funds (perhaps spurred by the same weekly article we were), with super special obligatory commentary by foreign loveho tycoon Steve Mansfield.

In guffaw-worthy yakuza news, two Yamaguchi-gumi-affiliated Shouyuu-kai gang members were arrested Thursday for selling fake Viagra. Police say that the pair sold about 100 million yen of the stuff to around 7,000 wishful guys, and were outsted out by another group of three men who were arrested for the same crime in February.

A 63-year-old Yamaguchi-gumi boss is on the run after police issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of fraud and attempted fraud. The gangster rented a room in a municipal housing complex for two months under someone else’s name in order to take advantage of reduced rent for low-income earners. The boss weasled out of paying a total of 28,200 yen, and police suspect he may be involved in a conspiracy with two other rooms.

The manager of a delivery health shop in Gotanda went for a run himself and ended up with a broken foot during a robbery on Tuesday. He and a fellow employee were running from a man armed with a knife who had entered the shop late that night. The manager jumped through a window in an A-Team-worthy escape but broke his left foot when he landed. The robber got away without any cash.

And finally a video: “Yakuza’s Attempt at 早口言葉: Tounge-twisters in Kansai Dialect” (via @AdySan)