JJNN 18 June 8th, 2008

Welcome again to JJNN for Sunday June 8th, 2008. Today was a slow news day. I will do a story from the city I live in.

I live in a city called Nagaoka in Niigata prefecture in Japan. Nagaoka is not a big city, so it doesn't really make it into the news that much. This is why I want to do this news story.

The basic jist of the story is that on Friday afternoon the police found 3 people dead in a tent. Yeah, I know...this is not a cheerful story, but it is close to home. So, you would probably think that all 3 of these people were from the area and died in some freak accident, right? Nope. It was a person from Kanagawa, a person from Nagano, and a person from Tokyo. Those are places that are far away from Niigata.

You might be asking yourself what connects these people. Well the only connection is that they all wanted to die. Yeah, that's right. In Japan there are freaky websites where people of like mind about dieing can get together. What happens is they start talking about committing suicide and they choose a place and a means.

In this case the 3 people used cleaning products to create hydrogen sulfide gas. Not a nice way to go, but it does get the job done. The 3 people did not leave any notes, except one on the tent flap that said "Poison gas, do no open." How nice of them to warn people.

This is the thing that gets me. When I think of suicide I think of a person going somewhere to be alone and doing what he/she thinks they need to do to get the job done. But, in Japan you see cases of this type of suicide from time to time. I guess they just need strength in numbers. They don't have what it takes to do the job by themselves so they need to do it with other people.

Well that was depressing. On the bright side, the iphone is making its way to Japan soon. Softbank is going to pick it up and sell it for maybe 40000 yen. I really want to get one of these phones, but I don't see it happening. I got a ipod touch (which is basically an iphone without the phone part) and it is already falling apart. I am not happy with apple. But, maybe my next computer will be an apple...let's see.

Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is　硫化水素(りゅうかすいそ). It is pronounced ryuuka suiso and means hydrogen sulfide. hydrogen sulfide is H2S. It is also has the smell of rotten eggs. Yep, the last smell those people smelled on earth was that of a fart. What a terrible way to go.

That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.