World events tend to overshadow the Japanese penchant for photogenic eccentrity, so in the wake of leftists' self-pitying protests on the 59th Anniversary of Hiroshima and this week's Olympic Games in Athens, the Mainichi Shimbun's portraits of Japanese life have been interesting but not compelling enough for the purposes of "Only in Japan." I've learned that the Mainichi draws from pool photography sources like Yahoo! News for its Photojournal feature, and while I prefer to leave subject matter selection to those who ought to know best, a three-week fast is long enough. Using the search string "Tokyo," I stumbled on not one but two photographs in all of fifteen seconds.
So, doubled up, we're nearly back to a weekly dose. A child's ten-minute gape at a sea creature that, if not restricted by time and place, would be pleased to devour them is indeed universal; as is the need to kill house vermin without directly confronting the methods employed, including earnest attempts at anthropomorphism. It's not the Mainichi but it's Japan, and that's exactly where we wanted to be.