From: Peter Rivard
Date: Tue Dec 3, 2002 9:07:51 PM Japan
To: newsletter
Subject: OK, first it's the giant jellyfish from hell, now...

      A single wild monkey attacks and injures nearly two dozen women in Nagano. Remember those cute little things we saw crossing the road, Rho, John, and Chris? Apparently monkey attacks rank up there with woolly caterpillars as reliable predictors of a cold winter.
      What is this country coming to? Rising crime and unemployment, declining wealth and education, homeless in the streets, and now monsters from the deep and marauding primates. Fuji is threatening to erupt and a major earthquake is overdue in Tokyo. Our reactors are being mismanaged and underregulated, leaking radioactive materials into the environment almost monthly. Can Godzilla be far behind?

Peter

      Today's Japanese expression (should you be looking at your Japanese word-a-day calendar) is for a flunky or hanger-on: ningyo no foon (lit.: "goldfish poop"). If you don't get it, go look at some goldfish. I love this language.

From the Japan Today web site:

Wild monkey injures 23 women in two days in in Nagano

Wednesday, December 4, 2002 at 06:00 JST

NAGANO — Nine more women were attacked and slightly injured Tuesday morning by a monkey in a residential area in Shimosuwa town, Nagano Prefecture, police said.
       The police said they believe it was the same wild monkey that attacked and injured 14 other women the day before in the same area in the central Japan prefecture.
       The monkey bit a 27-year-old female TV announcer on the back of her right leg around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and then ran off. Eight other women in their 50s to 80s were also bitten in the morning, according to the police.
       The Shimosuwa town office issued a warning over public loudspeakers in the town about the attacks and advised residents not to walk alone.
       Authorities equipped with tranquilizer guns and cages are searching for the monkey, they said.
       According to the town office, areas surrounding the town are not known to be home to monkeys and officials believe the monkey may have strayed from its group. (Kyodo News)