WHAT’S ON THE MENU?

Something fishy was going on in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where a wholesaler was searched on suspicion of passing off fugu pufferfish from China as being homegrown. Probably poisoned them as well.

A canned eel drink called Unagi Nobori (Surging Eel) went on the market as temperatures rose in Japan.

“It’s mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer heat,” said a spokesman for Japan Tobacco, which produces the beverage. Guess it’s too hot for some guys’ eels to surge.

At the Ice Cream Expo in Yokohama, some pretty bizarre flavors were rolled out, including ox tongue, sea urchin, eel and horse sashimi. Awesome… two scoops of raw horse, please!

Nobody was laughing when comedian Kenji Tamura held a press conference to apologize for a food-poisoning incident at his yakiniku restaurant in Nagoya. The eatery was shut down after four customers got sick and one was hospitalized following their meals.

A dozen people were taken to the hospital with possible carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an apparent lack of ventilation at a bakery in Osaka.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Part XXVI

Kiyotaka Ozaki, who attempted to cover up a hit-and-run accident by choking the female victim, told police,“I tried to kill her to prevent the discovery of the accident and to avoid responsibility.”

(But here’s the “best” part: when the woman eventually regained consciousness, she asked the 32-year-old Ozaki for his name and phone number, which he provided. Police later called Ozaki, then arrested him for attempted murder.)

Fuji TV announcer Kazuhiro Watanabe, who got married last summer, allegedly used company funds to bring his mistress to Tokyo for a little nookie, according to the weekly magazine Shukan Asahi. His bosses, however, weren’t buying the accusation.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office decided to drop charges against Nova and its former president Nozomu Sahashi for failing to pay 400 foreign teachers and other employees of the English language school chain.

Aichi police investigators said an 18-year-old suspect “had strong murderous intent” when he stabbed a former teacher in the lung. The alleged assailant said he held a grudge against the instructor, claiming the man “severely scolded me, which led me to suffer from social phobia.”

A man was collared over a phishing scam in which he bilked more than 20 people out of ¥12 million. Well, at least he didn’t stab anyone.

A famous multi-armed wooden statue of the Goddess of Kannon was stolen from a temple in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture, and replaced with a fake, police said.

THE FRIENDLY SKIES

In a passenger satisfaction survey, Singapore Airlines was chosen by Japanese travelers as the best carrier, while local airlines fell several spots from a year ago. Singapore was followed by Virgin Atlantic and Emirates, while ANA, voted best in last year’s poll, dropped to fourth place and JAL fell to 13th from third.

A pilot with Air Central, a subsidiary of ANA, was banned from flying for 60 days for letting cabin attendants and other workers sit in the pilot’s seat during flights.

An engine on a Vietnam Airlines jet caught fire after the plane landed at Narita, but none of the passengers or crewmembers onboard was injured.

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT

Bam! Zap! Pow! Actor Christian Bale, who was in Tokyo for the premiere of the new Batman movie The Dark Night (see Star Struck, facing page), sidestepped questions about assault allegations involving his mom and sister. “It’s a private matter,” the American Psycho star said.

Fans gathered at bookstores for the release of the Japanese translation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Nearly 2 million first editions of the book went on sale around the country.

The International Gundam Society, a group of researchers from colleges with too much time on their hands, agreed to consider the anime TV series as an “important object for futurology research on the environment, population and food issues.” Get a life, boys.

The 11th-century Japanese classic The Tale of Genji just got longer after a new set of chapters was discovered, revealed Haruki Ii, director general of the National Institute of Japanese Literature.

VARIOUS AND SUNDRY

In Arlington, Texas, Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki tipped his cap to the crowd after reaching the 3,000-hit milestone with a first-inning single against the Rangers. Nearly 1,300 of Ichiro’s hits came during his nine seasons with the Orix BlueWave in Japan.

Former Livedoor head honcho Takafumi Horie had ¥100 million tacked onto his ¥500 million bail by the Tokyo High Court. The 35-year-old internet entrepreneur is appealing his sentence for violating the Securities and Exchange Law.

Almost half of four-year private colleges in Japan were under-enrolled at the start of the current academic year in April, the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan said.

U-PROJECT, a Chiba-based group of neat freaks, is planning to hold a record-setting cleanup rally on November 24, with 190,000 volunteers expected to pick up trash around Tokyo Bay. The current benchmark for this sort of thing, according to Guinness World Records, was established in Oita in 2005, when 146,679 people pitched in.

An ongoing dispute between Japan and South Korea over some small islands in the Sea of Japan has scuttled student exchange programs. Among the canceled activities is an annual hockey match between high school teams from Sapporo and South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province.

Three kids were among four people who died after being washed away by a swollen river in Kobe in the wake of heavy rain and thunderstorms.

It was reported that Nippon Steel resumed operations at a plant in Kitakyushu even though a gas fire that disrupted production hadn’t even been put out.

Enough already! Nintendo and 54 other domestic game makers, including Sega and Capcom, filed a suit against five companies that produce devices allowing players with portable consoles to use illegally copied game software.

A 64-year-old woman was killed during a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in northern Japan when she suffered brain hemorrhaging after falling out of her hospital bed.

Visitors wearing special diving helmets can hop into the pool at Enoshima Aquarium in Kanagawa to get up close and personal with the facility’s dolphins.