GETS Armor!

[Taro Toporific]

Citizens gird up amid street violence
The Asahi Shimbun IHT / December 11, 2003
FUKUOKA-When taxi driver Hirofumi Semura gets ready for work, he dons the same item every day: knife-proof vest. "You never know when you might get attacked,'' said Semura, 54. He has been driving people around for 10 years. As random stabbings become more common, individuals increasingly are buying protection devices.....Osaka-based Big Wing... recently started selling apron-shaped protection vests suited for convenience store workers on night shifts. Most of the company's products are imported from South Korea.

[GargoyleTS]

Man, talk about disappointed! I soooooo thought this might be about some kind of Mecha-suit test

On topic though, yep! Its a rough world out there, and the kids need protection. Knife- and bullet-proof aprons, stun-guns, expandable batons and the ever-lovable Mace are simply becoming standard equipment for people who handle cash exchanges in a non-corporate environment. Here's a tip for all you commuters who may run into trouble or have that irrational Gaijin instinct to run towards trouble instead of away: Duct Tape is your friend! From a quick patch for that torn train seat, to temporarily sealing knife and gunshot wounds, duct tape does it all! Unsightly hole in your jacket? Turn that fashion don't into a fashion DO by applying patches of tape all over the jacket! Remember Duct Tape: Its not just for mallards anymore!

[Taro Toporific]

....Duct Tape is your friend! From a quick patch for that torn train seat...

WOTS a hole in train seat?

(I never saw one of those in Japan, except for the guys sitting in the Silver Alien seat.)

[Caustic Saint]

Semura said a passenger once threatened him and kicked the front seat in anger. Another time, he found a pocketknife when he was cleaning his cab. It was apparently left by a passenger.

Wow... someboody threatened him and kicked the seat?!? Dear god, he must be scared for his life! And then he found a pocketknife someone had lost?

Everybody should have it so rough.

[Kanchou]

Maybe I should hit the streets of Tokyo (eh, eventually) on a horse with a 16th-century samurai saddle, full samurai battle armor, yumi, wakazashi, and tachi strung to my waist? Let's see some little punk mess with me then

Eh, if I was worried about getting stabbed, I'd carry a huge-ass knife instead of wearing a cut-resistant vest... Like they say, the point of a big knife is to scare the guy, not to kill him.

Hmm... Or just practice knife defense techniques more, as soon as I can get back into my martial arts school.

Anyone know how to fight 8 guys who have steel pipes armed only with a shoestring, a wad of chewing gum, and a safety pin? I've been trying to figure that one out, too.

[GargoyleTS]

Tie your shoe, chew your gum and prick your finger then tell them you have AIDS while flicking blood around! (just make sure they speak your language!) Hopefully one of them will drop his pipe and run from your blood, then you got a pipe!

[Robato]

pure genius....I was thinking there was some enlightened walking on rice paper answer.

[Caustic Saint]

Eh, if I was worried about getting stabbed, I'd carry a huge-ass knife instead of wearing a cut-resistant vest... Like they say, the point of a big knife is to scare the guy, not to kill him.

The Crocodile Dundee school of self defense. "That's not a knife. This is a knife."

[Kanchou]

Tie your shoe, chew your gum and prick your finger then tell them you have AIDS while flicking blood around! (just make sure they speak your language!) Hopefully one of them will drop his pipe and run from your blood, then you got a pipe!

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of using the bubblegum to stick the open safety pin onto the shoe string, and then waving it around like a pyscho... But your AIDS NO RYUU seems to be an effective technique, as well...