Word: samurais
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...ancient Nippon, samurai warriors raced their horses for the honor of being the first to lop off an enemy's head. The horses are still running, but today the most that a man can lose is his bank account. In the past decade the total annual betting has increased tenfold to $1.6 billion, or more money than the government spends on national defense or foreign aid. Horse racing in fact has become the new national pastime of Japan, outdrawing major league baseball in attendance last year by the astounding margin of 60 million...
...Samurai Valor. Logistical problems are practically a world's-fair tradition, and Japan's has its share. Expo '70's biggest headache is overpopulation. The guards display samurai valor in coping with the surging crowds, but their methods may be disquieting to the Occidental. If the unsuspecting visitor fails to respond quickly enough to their directions, bellowed through bullhorns, he stands in danger of being trampled by the fast-moving Japanese, who are accustomed to reacting promptly-and in large groups -to orders from guards. There are long lines-and as much as a five-hour...
...aboard Japanese Airlines' Flight 351 from Tokyo to Fukuoka when nine young men strategically stationed throughout the crowded aircraft suddenly sprang to their feet. At first some passengers thought that it was only some kind of show or trick. Then the youths pulled out daggers and short, curved samurai swords. Some of them shouted, "We are the Red Army"-an extremist splinter group of the leftist Zengakuren student movement...
...passengers were released. The free passengers were quickly flown to Fukuoka, where they were greeted with joyous cries of "Banzai" by friends and relatives. Flight 351 flew on to Pyongyang. Next day the North Koreans freed the plane, its crew and hostage Yamamura. They flew home, abandoning the samurai skyjackers to a doubtful welcome: Pyongyang Radio was already referring to them as "Trotskyite criminals...
...ironically named landfill project that grows by 7,800 tons of waste a day. The city is trying to reduce its overhanging pall of smog by persuading homeowners and industrialists to switch from coal to fuel oil (at a cost of increased carbon monoxide). But a 15th century samurai's poem boasting that the city "commands a view of soaring Fuji" is now a wry joke...