by bintangkecil on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | Entertainment, News | No Comments

Japanese pop star and actress, Noriko Sakai, pleaded guilty Monday to illegal drugs charges and prosecutors demanded 18 months’ jail in a trial that has sparked intense public interest and frenzied media coverage.

Noriko Sakai was born on February 14, 1971 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She married in 1998, and has one son born in 1999. She is particularly popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

More than 6,600 people lined up for just 20 visitors’ seats in the Tokyo District Court — second only to the crowds drawn by the 1996 trial of the doomsday cult leader behind the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks.

Sakai, 38, is a former teenage pop idol turned actress, known in the 1990s for her innocent girl-next-door image and later for her perfect mum persona, whose fame extends to China, Taiwan and South Korea.

She was arrested on August 8, a week after her surfer-husband Yuichi Takaso, 41, was taken into custody after police caught him with drugs, reportedly methamphetamines, in Tokyo’s Shibuya entertainment district.

Sakai told the court she started using drugs about four years ago, encouraged by Takaso, and had used them almost every month since summer 2008.

“I was exhausted physically and mentally at that time,” said Sakai, who appeared in a black suit and clenched a white handkerchief.

“I am to blame,” she told the court, Jiji Press reported. “I want to quit stimulant drugs completely and make efforts to rebuild public trust.”

Asked her occupation, she said she was “unemployed,” media reports said.

Sakai said she wanted to divorce her husband and start her life over again, possibly joining the nursing profession, local media said.

Takaso, a self-described professional surfer, said in his own trial last week that he was carrying illegal “stimulants” at the time of his arrest on August 3 because he was planning to use them later with his wife.

His arrest eventually resulted in drug charges against Sakai, whose enduring fame had won her advertising contracts with carmaker Toyota, government public awareness campaigns and even a role in a commercial against youth drug abuse.

Adding to the drama, Sakai went on the run for about a week before turning herself in to police and admitting to habitual drug use.

She then spent more than a month in detention on charges of possessing and using illegal stimulants before being released on bail of five million yen (about 55,000 dollars).

A verdict and sentencing are scheduled for November 9.

Source: Yahoo News

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by nate on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | Deals, Hot | 2 Comments

For beef lovers, there are good things come out from this recession. Please check with your local restaurant, and most importantly, ENJOY!

Tags: bbq, Deals, good food, great restaurant deal, grill, gyukaku, japan, Japanese, Japanese food, japanese grill, japanese restaurant, kobe beef, special

by nate on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 | Travel | No Comments

Another interesting article found by a friend of mine, tea that can calm down a robber’s anger. Do you think it’s the tea or the japanese-woman? Hmm…

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman and her six-month-old baby escaped unhurt from a knife-wielding thief this week after the mother calmed him down with a cup of tea and a chat.

The 30-year-old Tokyo woman was walking along a corridor in her apartment building with her daughter on Monday when a man brandishing a knife demanded money, the Asahi newspaper said.

When the housewife told him she had none, the man barged into her apartment. Hoping to calm him, the woman made the thief a cup of tea, whereupon he put his knife away and began a 20-minute monologue about his life.

The woman then gave the man 10,000 yen (47 pounds) and ran outside to call the police from a pay phone, the report said.

Police rushed to the scene, but the thief had fled and is still being sought.

(Reporting by Mari Saito)

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Tags: japan, tea