This one will be brief, but here’s some extremely local news (within 15 minutes walk from my house) which, while it has the potential to be very tragic, I think it’s just going to end up goofy and embarrassing for a lot of people.
Yesterday night someone called the police saying that two kids fell from a bridge into the Katsura River (桂川) right here in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto. Naturally, that’s a big concern, so the proper authorities rushed onto the scene and started combing the river with what really is some impressive manpower.
However, the kids have not turned up. No sign whatsoever. Moreover, there have been no schools in the area which reported kids as having not shown up for unexplained reasons. Oh, and there’s the fact that was recently unveiled that the 46 year-old man who alerted the police has a history of making false claims. Yet the search continues… come on!
One other interesting bit, which already had me suspicious last night when I heard the initial news report. The bridge the kids apparently fell from is called 羽束師橋, which has the odd reading of はづかしばし. While it’s not exactly the same reading as 恥ずかしい, it’s darn close, and I’m predicting the guy who sent in the alarm had a bit of irony on his mind in embarrassing the cops.
京都での遊び：西から北へ、山科と御所も。