Man Arrested For Not Finishing Ramen

[Mulboyne]

Restaurant website here. They also offer a yakitori challenge - 7 60cm sticks in 30 minutes.

An unemployed man in Morioka has been arrested for non-payment of a restaurant bill. Around one o'clock in the morning, Yutaka Baba saw that a restaurant was offering a challenge to customers - if they could eat a 2,070 yen giant bowl of ramen containing six servings of noodles and around 3.5 litres of soup within 30 minutes then there would be no charge and a prize of 5,000 yen. Having eaten little in days, Baba was sure that he could easily wolf down the lot but quickly discovered that hunger had left his stomach ill-prepared to deal with the volume. According to the staff, he managed all the noodles but still had around half of the soup to go when he fell asleep at the counter. As the bar became more crowded around 2:30, Baba was woken up and asked to pay his bill. He was forced to admit that he only had 7 yen in his pockets and the police were called.

Yomiuri story in Japanese here. Jumbo-san, the owner of the restaurant is a local celebrity and keeps a blog. No mention of this incident so far.

[succubusqueen]

That is so sad....poor guy!.. ..At least he had a big meal!:confused:

[ttjereth]

I was heading over to his blog to write a nasty comment about having someone down on their luck arrested over 20 bucks and found there are already thousands of them on the blog in Japanese.

[IkemenTommy]

I tried doing one of those "all-you-can-eat" challenges once and almost died. My only advice.. seriously, don't do it. It's not worth the 10 bucks or whatever you are trying to save and you are not proving anything.

[Mulboyne]

I was heading over to his blog to write a nasty comment about having someone down on their luck arrested over 20 bucks and found there are already thousands of them on the blog in Japanese.

I was keeping an eye on it in case he wrote anything but all he's done so far is disable comments.

[ttjereth]

I was keeping an eye on it in case he wrote anything but all he's done so far is disable comments.

There were some pretty good arguements going on there.

I was surprised so many people jumped in to defend the guy actually. At the risk of stereotyping, it didn't seem like a very "Japanese" thing to do.

I was surprised at how many people there were defending the restaurant too.

In all fairness, it seems like the staff at the restaurant were the ones who actually called the cops on the guy and everything, but I still think the owner could have dropped the charges.

I'd have paid for the poor guy if I was there, it was only like 2000 yen wasn't it?

[eddie]

sticking it to the little guy...happens everywhere to some extent, but the little doing it to the little-er is a common hobby here.

[Charles]

sticking it to the little guy...happens everywhere to some extent, but the little doing it to the little-er is a common hobby here.

Precisely. This guy did it all wrong. Homeless bum wanders into a ramen shop and pigs out and doesn't pay his tab. He's bound to get arrested. Welshing on this tab probably cost the ramen shop a sizeable percentage of the whole day's profits.

Back in the '80s, I remember reading about a couple of LA artists who had an ongoing performance art piece entitled "I Can't Pay." They would dress up in suit and tie, empty every penny out of their pockets, go to a top end restaurant and order an expensive meal. When the bill came, they would merely say "I can't pay." When questioned, they would offer no explanation. Since they looked respectable, sometimes the restaurant would ask if they could come back and pay the bill later, they would say the same thing, "I can't pay." They did it dozens of times and were never arrested, they were invariably ejected from the restaurant and got away scot free.

So there you go. If you want to do this, you have to dress well and pick on an expensive four star restaurant that isn't inclined to waste their time pursuing some idiot who can't pay, while there are other diners lining up to order a pricey meal.

[hundefar]

I was heading over to his blog to write a nasty comment about having someone down on their luck arrested over 20 bucks and found there are already thousands of them on the blog in Japanese.

Hmmm, even if you steal a pack of chewing gum its still stealing. The restaurant is a business, not a welfare office. I can't see that they have done anything wrong by calling the police.

[Mulboyne]

I think most people had sympathy with the unemployed guy (it's not clear if he was also homeless but that's possible). In the staff's defence, he walked into the restaurant at 1:00am and fell asleep at the counter after eating so they might have assumed he was drunk and wondered why he could spend his money on booze and not on his food.

[joshuaism]

When I was a little younger, I was arrested and met a homeless guy who was in jail for welching on a dinner in a restaurant. Actually, he ate someone else's meal at an outdoor table while the paying customer went to the restroom. The lady returned from the toilet, called the cops on the guy, and he was arrested. No one felt sorry for him because he was kind of in a better place because of it.

He was sure to get three squares a day and a matress to sleep on while he was inside.

[eddie]

I think most people had sympathy with the unemployed guy (it's not clear if he was also homeless but that's possible). In the staff's defence, he walked into the restaurant at 1:00am and fell asleep at the counter after eating so they might have assumed he was drunk and wondered why he could spend his money on booze and not on his food.

i certainly don't doubt people felt sympathy...but those are the people with no leg up in the situation. and that's the only thing the jobless fellow has going for him; that now this situation is in the public eye. if this could have been handled outside of the public eye the jobless guy would probably be literally licking boots in front of 'jumbos' lackeys and some hostesses...now 'jumbo' gets to show some magnanimity (a word?) and will proly publicly absolve hopeless dude of his 2000 yen debt.

sorry...i guess i'm projecting a bit...but it's fun.

[eddie]

the whole giant meal 'challenge' would appear to be something akin to a carnival scam...sounds like the guy did a pretty good job eating 6 portions of noodles.

[ttjereth]

Hmmm, even if you steal a pack of chewing gum its still stealing. The restaurant is a business, not a welfare office. I can't see that they have done anything wrong by calling the police.

Not everything is black and white.

There is definately a difference between a poor person stealing 20$ from a rich ex-celebrity and say someone stealing the life savings of a family that's barely scraping by.

No one is claiming what the guy did was right, but he was down on his luck and did it hoping for a big meal. Yeah he was wrong and all, but to sit back and send him to jail for $20 while you go home to your bigass house and relax seems wrong to me.

Maybe it's a by-product of growing up poor.

[kamome]

If the guy was broke and in debt for the 2,070 yen, they could have just made him work it off for a few hours. The wage of a part time busboy at a Japanese restaurant is probably about 900 yen or so. If they put him to work for three hours with no pay scrubbing the floor/bathrooms or washing dishes, wouldn't that have been a better solution than calling the cops? They get the free labor, he walks out with a full stomache.

[ttjereth]

If the guy was broke and in debt for the 2,070 yen, they could have just made him work it off for a few hours. The wage of a part time busboy at a Japanese restaurant is probably about 900 yen or so. If they put him to work for three hours with no pay scrubbing the floor/bathrooms or washing dishes, wouldn't that have been a better solution than calling the cops? They get the free labor, he walks out with a full stomache.

And getting down to scrub floors after eating that much ramen would probably be a pretty good punishment too

[FG Lurker]

There is definately a difference between a poor person stealing 20$ from a rich ex-celebrity and say someone stealing the life savings of a family that's barely scraping by.

So it is okay to steal from the rich? That is a mighty slippery slope in so many different ways.

[ttjereth]

So it is okay to steal from the rich? That is a mighty slippery slope in so many different ways.

No, there's a difference in stealing because you're hungry. I'm not saying it's okay.

[kamome]

Aren't we jumping to conclusions here? It hasn't been established that the man went in there with the purpose of stealing food.

The blurb in Mulb's post implies that the man went in thinking he could win the challenge and get the free meal. He then fell asleep before he could finish and admitted he didn't have money to cover the cost. Is that really "stealing"? It sounds like his intent was to win the challenge, which gives him a plausible reason for not bringing money with him to the restaurant. If his intent wasn't to steal, then really it's just a matter of compensating the restaurant for it's lost profit.

Also, think of the scale of the "crime" as opposed to the reaction. Assuming the worst (that the guy premeditated to steal something valued at 2,070 yen (roughly US$20)), isn't it a disproportionate reaction to arrest the guy? Better to just use the police to enforce payback of the 2000 yen (or whatever profit the restaurant would have made on that food).

[Ke11iente]

Still, I'm surprised that so many Japanese people have stuck up for the homeless guy. I thought everyone in Japan, with the exception of the Christian missionaries , fucking hated the homeless and condemned them as dirty, poor, and perhaps worst of all, *gasp* lazy.

Personally, I tend to think of them as being like birds. There are some homeless people that are just down and out for a time because they lost their jobs, had an unexpected debt, or because the rent is so damn expensive, etc. But the ones that become homeless and STAY homeless for a long time (and aren't mental) are like birds. They don't want to live like the rest of us. They'd rather be homeless and possibly freeze, overheat, or starve to death than to re-enter the mainstream or the workforce. I have to admit that the idea of living like an ascetic, without any rent, car, or insurance bills, without having to get up and go to work or school everyday and worrying about some stupid project that will probably give you an ulcer, without having to make or keep any appointments, or be on time for the bus or the train, or be accountable to anything or anyone is... kind of appealing. But then I remember what it was like that one time when I couldn't take a bath for 6 days and I shake myself back to reality.

Birds don't work for their food, they live off what they can find and what people give to them, but no one begrudges them that. So, I don't understand it when people talk about homeless people as being lazy filth and won't give them food (or money or alcohol) because they didn't WORK for it and somehow, because YOU had to work for YOURS, it's just "not fair".
People feed the birds all the time and it's not like they expect the birds to work for it. And aren't people a little more important than birds? Feed them if you want to, give them money, or alcohol, or cigarettes if you feel like it, and don't bother yourself with any of that "am I really helping them or just enabling them" bullshit. That's a pointless exercise-- you're giving them stuff because you want to, because you feel like it, just like you would feed the birds if you felt like it, not out of some sense of pious obligation.

Just don't treat them any worse than you would treat the birds-- and when I say "birds" this does not include pigeons (whom you are welcome to treat as harshly as you wish with my full support) because as far as I know homeless people don't have a habit of crapping dog-sized turds on my balcony and waking me up early every morning with the sounds of their fucking.

[Iraira]

Still, I'm surprised that so many Japanese people have stuck up for the homeless guy. I thought everyone in Japan, with the exception of the Christian missionaries , fucking hated the homeless and condemned them as dirty, poor, and perhaps worst of all, *gasp* lazy.

Personally, I tend to think of them as being like birds. There are some homeless people that are just down and out for a time because they lost their jobs, had an unexpected debt, or because the rent is so damn expensive, etc. But the ones that become homeless and STAY homeless for a long time (and aren't mental) are like birds. They don't want to live like the rest of us. They'd rather be homeless and possibly freeze, overheat, or starve to death than to re-enter the mainstream or the workforce. I have to admit that the idea of living like an ascetic, without any rent, car, or insurance bills, without having to get up and go to work or school everyday and worrying about some stupid project that will probably give you an ulcer, without having to make or keep any appointments, or be on time for the bus or the train, or be accountable to anything or anyone is... kind of appealing. But then I remember what it was like that one time when I couldn't take a bath for 6 days and I shake myself back to reality.

Birds don't work for their food, they live off what they can find and what people give to them, but no one begrudges them that. So, I don't understand it when people talk about homeless people as being lazy filth and won't give them food (or money or alcohol) because they didn't WORK for it and somehow, because YOU had to work for YOURS, it's just "not fair".
People feed the birds all the time and it's not like they expect the birds to work for it. And aren't people a little more important than birds? Feed them if you want to, give them money, or alcohol, or cigarettes if you feel like it, and don't bother yourself with any of that "am I really helping them or just enabling them" bullshit. That's a pointless exercise-- you're giving them stuff because you want to, because you feel like it, just like you would feed the birds if you felt like it, not out of some sense of pious obligation.

Just don't treat them any worse than you would treat the birds-- and when I say "birds" this does not include pigeons (whom you are welcome to treat as harshly as you wish with my full support) because as far as I know homeless people don't have a habit of crapping dog-sized turds on my balcony and waking me up early every morning with the sounds of their fucking.

Most birds actually do not practice monogamy, the female tends to sucker some guy into thinking he is the father, so he'll raise the kiddies. She actually got inseminated by some big Neanderthal bird.


Just felt like adding something to feather your nest.

[Charles]

Still, I'm surprised that so many Japanese people have stuck up for the homeless guy. I thought everyone in Japan, with the exception of the Christian missionaries , fucking hated the homeless and condemned them as dirty, poor, and perhaps worst of all, *gasp* lazy.

Personally, I tend to think of them as being like birds. There are some homeless people that are just down and out for a time because they lost their jobs, had an unexpected debt, or because the rent is so damn expensive, etc. But the ones that become homeless and STAY homeless for a long time (and aren't mental) are like birds. They don't want to live like the rest of us. They'd rather be homeless and possibly freeze, overheat, or starve to death than to re-enter the mainstream or the workforce. I have to admit that the idea of living like an ascetic, without any rent, car, or insurance bills, without having to get up and go to work or school everyday and worrying about some stupid project that will probably give you an ulcer, without having to make or keep any appointments, or be on time for the bus or the train, or be accountable to anything or anyone is... kind of appealing. But then I remember what it was like that one time when I couldn't take a bath for 6 days and I shake myself back to reality.

Birds don't work for their food, they live off what they can find and what people give to them, but no one begrudges them that. So, I don't understand it when people talk about homeless people as being lazy filth and won't give them food (or money or alcohol) because they didn't WORK for it and somehow, because YOU had to work for YOURS, it's just "not fair".
People feed the birds all the time and it's not like they expect the birds to work for it. And aren't people a little more important than birds? Feed them if you want to, give them money, or alcohol, or cigarettes if you feel like it, and don't bother yourself with any of that "am I really helping them or just enabling them" bullshit. That's a pointless exercise-- you're giving them stuff because you want to, because you feel like it, just like you would feed the birds if you felt like it, not out of some sense of pious obligation.

Just don't treat them any worse than you would treat the birds-- and when I say "birds" this does not include pigeons (whom you are welcome to treat as harshly as you wish with my full support) because as far as I know homeless people don't have a habit of crapping dog-sized turds on my balcony and waking me up early every morning with the sounds of their fucking.

Birds can survive without any human intervention, they do just fine even out in the wilderness with only natural food sources like seeds and berries.

I can tell you have never lived near high density homeless populations, like downtown LA Skid Row or Haight-Ashbury near Golden Gate Park. Let me tell you a little story.
When I lived in a loft near Skid Row, one of my neighbors came to me and said he'd hired a homeless guy to sweep and clean up around his loft, he wanted to help a guy who seemed to want to do serious work and get off the streets. Yeah right. I had a fit, I told him he had no right to let homeless people inside our security building, and he'd regret it, there were homeless constantly trying to break into our building and now he just opens the door wide and lets one right in. I told him he better be DAMN sure the guy doesn't get inside the halls where he could break into my loft.
The next day my neighbor came to me and said the homeless guy worked and swept up just long enough for him to drop his guard, then stole his CD player and camera and ran off.

Your analogy is flawed. The homeless are not like birds, not even pigeons. They are like rats, they will crawl through any little hole they can find, to steal food and money. There is nothing you can do to help them. If you feed rats, you just end up with more rats.

[Ke11iente]

Birds can survive without any human intervention, they do just fine even out in the wilderness with only natural food sources like seeds and berries.

Annnnnnd... sometimes they die because they can't find enough food, or they freeze to death. It's the same thing with homeless people. And please don't misunderstand this statement, I'm definitely not saying that it's anyone's duty to intervene in the death of every single sparrow that dies in winter-- run out of their houses and snatch it up, bring it inside and feed it, etc. But if someone sees a sparrow that's about to freeze or starve to death, they should feel free to save it if they want to.

Your analogy is flawed. The homeless are not like birds, not even pigeons. They are like rats, they will crawl through any little hole they can find, to steal food and money. There is nothing you can do to help them. If you feed rats, you just end up with more rats.

If I let a bird into my house I wouldn't expect it to "behave" itself. I'd expect it to fly around and crap on stuff until it found its way out. Your neighbor made a mistake because he was trying to be pious. If he wanted to give the guy some money, he should've just GIVEN it to him, not expected him to work for it. Obviously, if the guy wanted to get a job sweeping up shit he COULD, he doesn't need your neighbor to give him one. But your neighbor expected to receive something in return for his money-- he wanted the guy to work for it because that's what's "proper" and "fair". That's what I'm talking about treating them like birds. If you give them food or something, you don't expect anything in return. You only expect them to BE birds and yap up the food as soon as you toss it down.

No one's going to MAKE you give them money or food or booze. Give it to them if you Feel like doing it. If you don't, then DONT. But there's no more reason to loathe homeless people than there is to loathe a stray cat or a bird in the park.

[Iraira]

Annnnnnd... sometimes they die because they can't find enough food, or they freeze to death. It's the same thing with homeless people. And please don't misunderstand this statement, I'm definitely not saying that it's anyone's duty to intervene in the death of every single sparrow that dies in winter-- run out of their houses and snatch it up, bring it inside and feed it, etc. But if someone sees a sparrow that's about to freeze or starve to death, they should feel free to save it if they want to.



If I let a bird into my house I wouldn't expect it to "behave" itself. I'd expect it to fly around and crap on stuff until it found its way out. Your neighbor made a mistake because he was trying to be pious. If he wanted to give the guy some money, he should've just GIVEN it to him, not expected him to work for it. Obviously, if the guy wanted to get a job sweeping up shit he COULD, he doesn't need your neighbor to give him one. But your neighbor expected to receive something in return for his money-- he wanted the guy to work for it because that's what's "proper" and "fair". That's what I'm talking about treating them like birds. If you give them food or something, you don't expect anything in return. You only expect them to BE birds and yap up the food as soon as you toss it down.

No one's going to MAKE you give them money or food or booze. Give it to them if you Feel like doing it. If you don't, then DONT. But there's no more reason to loathe homeless people than there is to loathe a stray cat or a bird in the park.

Should we cull them if they are suspecetd of carrying bird flu? Fuck, drop this "treat them like birds" crap, they are people. Lowering them to ave status is what leads to beating deaths of homeless. Most people ignore birds until they shit on them, so stop trying to come up with some cute way to define people who are living a life that I, or probably you don't have to. Just don't dehumanize them by calling them birds or equating their behavior with birds.

[kamome]

I'm getting uncomfortable with all this discussion about birds and homeless people.

[Greji]

I'm getting uncomfortable with all this discussion about birds and homeless people.

You ought to see Kamome sweat when he has to walk in front of a yakitoria!

[Mulboyne]

Back to ramen. A guy has just posted on a Japanese BBS that he was eating ramen around 2:30pm in a fairly empty store when the owner asked him to stop reading his book. When he asked why, the owner replied that the customer couldn't concentrate on the ramen while reading.

The blogosphere is split over whether the owner was being an arrogant idiot or whether he was entitled to make the request. Since the restaurant wasn't crowded, it doesn't seem to have been an issue of the customer taking a long time and holding up the queue. Some think that if it was so important, then there ought to have been a sign up prohibiting reading while others think not reading at a counter is a basic courtesy.