Cutta-kun/Katta-kun is dead カッタ君が死ぬ

From the rather sparse wikipedia entry about Ube City:
"One of the main attractions of the park is a white pelican called 'Katta-kun', so named after his parents who were from Calcutta, India. Born in the park in 1985, he became famous as he began visiting schools in the vicinity by himself." (Note: Katta-kun would be the straight romanization of his name but souvenirs from Tokiwa Park spell it as Cutta-kun which is how I've always known it as.)

According to the Tokiwa Park history of Cutta-kun (sadly not updated yet), Katta-kun started terrorizing visiting schools on his own back in 1988. The story made national news and from that time onward he became a symbol of Ube City.

Cartoon images of Cutta-kun can be seen around Ube on buses, maps and there is even a postcard set featuring Cutta-kun.

An animated film about him, カッタくん物語 (Cutta-kun Monogatari), was made as a fundraiser for the city back in 1994.



The movie was not based on fact since Cutta-kun apparently could SHOOT BEAMS FROM HIS MOUTH:



Cutta-kun was 23.

NHK story on Cutta-kun.
Asahi Shinbun story.

Teenage Bus hijacker is from Ube

From the Japan Today article on the story of a 14-year-old boy hijacking a JR bus with a knife (By the way, unless you enjoy the feeling of banging your head against a wall, it's generally a good idea to ignore the comments section of any Japan Today story):

"Police arrested a boy Wednesday for hijacking a bus on the Tomei Expressway in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture. Ten passengers and a driver were on the bus from Nagoya to Tokyo, operated by JR Tokai Bus Co, at the time, none of whom were injured in the incident, according to police.

The boy, who was in possession of two knives, told police he is a 14-year-old second grader at a junior high school in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture. He said he hijacked the bus in order to cause trouble to his parents, who had scolded him, according to police."

The FNN News story clearly has the 宇部市 kanji in the right corner (click for a larger view):


Go Ube! At least no one got hurt. And he'll have something to write about if his teachers ask him to do a "What I did during my summer vacation" essay.

More stories here:
MDN (English)
MDN (Japanese)

Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Sort of Liveblog!

I wasn't planning on doing this but since I'm up (it's 1 AM here in the U.B.E.) and I found a way to watch, I'll do a truncated liveblog.

I had some computer problems with my computer so I missed a couple of minutes. I did catch the narrator absolutely brutalize Kobayashi's name a couple of times.

Did one of the announcers actually refer to Chestnut's win as a great moment in American sports? Oh my.

You can read other (and definitely better) liveblogs at Eatfeats
, AOL Fanhouse and FanIQ.

I'm not doing a good job of liveblogging here.

CMs.

I'll crib a list from Eatfeats:

Joey "Jaws" Chestnut
Takeru Kobayashi
Tim "Eater X" Janus
Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti
Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas
"Humble" Bob Shoudt
Hall "Hoover" Hunt
Tim "Gravy" Brown
Rich "The Locust" LeFevre
Patrick Vandam
Juliet Lee
Juris "Dr. Bigtime" Shibayama
Eric "Badlands" Booker
Erik "The Red" Denmark
Allen "Shredder" Goldstein
"The Natural" Arturo Rios, Jr.
Pat "from Moonachie" Philbin
Crazy Legs Conti
"Nasty" Nathan Biller
Peter "Pretty Boy" Davekos
Kevin Ross

They go to Japan to visit the doctor who has been treating Kobayashi and ESPN uses these awful sounding voice-overs. Just use subtitles next time guys.

Earlier the announcers referred to the contest's change from 12 minutes to 10 minutes (which is "supported" by some found documents) and compared to other sports rule changes. Now they've just referred to the Chestnut/Kobayashi rematch and compared it to other great sports rematches. Then they compared Kobayashi to Muhammad Ali. What?

Right now they are introducing the competitors. The announcers note that the costuming has been kicked up a notch this year.

I also want to punch the announcers in the face really hard to make them shut up right now.

The Gothamist is also doing a liveblog.

I'm not up on my competitive eaters so I can't really comment on who is who. Like everyone else, the announcers mention Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti as being the dark horse.

The last two competitors introduced are Takeru Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut.

The favorites according to ESPN are Chestnut, Kobayashi, Tim Janus, Bertoletti and Sonya Thomas.

ESPN really really wants Joey Chestnut to trash talk.

"The eating begins!"

Kobayashi and Chestnut are right next to each other.

Janus us in the early lead.

No sense trying to keep track until the last few minutes.

Chestnut is in the lead!

Bob Shoudt is ahead of Kobayashi at this point. Now Kobayashi is one back of Chestnut.

Shot of Crazy Legs moving around to get the hot dogs down.

Juliet Lee looks relatively ladylike in her eating.

The USA chants start which, if you think about it, means that crowd is cheering for everyone EXCEPT Kobayashi.

Three minutes have gone by. The announcer drops in a Madonna/A-Rod comment.

Chestnut is still in the lead by about three.

Almost to the half-way point.

About six minutes left and Chestnut and Kobayashi are dead even.

Did Kobayashi take the lead just now?

Everyone else is fighting for third. Kobayashi does take the lead!

Apparently they can eat and eat very quickly according to the color guy. No duh, buddy.

Kobayashi has a one dog lead.

Now the lead is going back and forth.

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

Damn the announcer is annoying.

Kobayashi is in the lead with 51 but Chestnut immediately catches him.

I can't see the timer so I have to just kind of guess.

One minute left! Kobayashi in the lead with two dogs!

Kobayashi takes a glance at Chestnut!

Man, the other people don't even matter at this point.

One dog difference!

SHUT UP!

The final fifteen seconds!

TIME!

Wait a minute. It's going to be a photo finish.

The signs say Kobayashi 58, Chestnut 59.

Wait, now the signs are 59 each.

A complete tie! Sudden death?

Five dog eat-off!

Oh wow.

Never before has this happened!

First one to eat the five is the winner!

GO!

Joey is in the lead.

Now they are matched.

The last dog!

Joey is first one to finish!

That's it!

Joey Chestnut is the winner!

Chestnut takes down Kobayashi again!

Well, that was interesting.

Will Kobayashi be back? "Of course."

This year, no controversy. No disputed reversal, no injury. Joey now goes beyond the "Great White Hope" stage of Nathan's and can now proclaim himself as a TRUE AMERICAN HERO.

I'll try to look for official stats and whatnot later. In the meantime, here's the wikipedia entry which already has this year's results up.