Why did Japan's gymnastics coach have $100 bills in his hand to file appeal?
News On Japan via fremonttribune.com -- Aug 01
Operating within the rules and regulations of gymnastics, a Japanese coach handed over a wad of $100 bills to the governing body of the sport on Monday night in order to file an appeal on behalf of his athlete.
Kohei Uchimura awkwardly stumbled off the pommel horse in the final event of the men's team competition. His resulting score left Japan in fourth place. But team officials protested that his fall had actually been a dismount and should have earned points based on gymnastic's (confusing) scoring system.
International rules dictate that an appeal fee must be paid in order to file a protest. Japanese officials quickly rounded up a number of large bills and sent a coach, armed with cash and the proper forms, to appeal.
Reports differ on how much Japan had to pay, but a report from earlier in the Olympics had a similar appeal costing $500 for the Indian boxing team. Judging by the thickness of the money stack and the paper clip attached to the Japanese protest, $500 seems like a reasonable estimate.
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Operating within the rules and regulations of gymnastics, a Japanese coach handed over a wad of $100 bills to the governing body of the sport on Monday night in order to file an appeal on behalf of his athlete.
A collection of materials related to a 17th century mission sent by a Japanese feudal lord to Europe and the world's oldest autographic diary left 10 centuries ago by a Japanese regent have been selected for the UNESCO Memory of the World registry, the Japanese education ministry said Wednesday. (Global Post 
) 
Almost 1,500 people were transported to hospitals by ambulance due to heatstroke last week, up sharply from 942 in the preceding week, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday. (Japan Times 
Police said Tuesday that a mummified body was found earlier this month in a storage cabinet in a restaurant in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. (Japan Today 
Among about 200,000 traffic signals nationwide, 16 percent are being used beyond the end of the expected lifetime of their electrical systems and some have even toppled over due to age, according to the National Police Agency. (Yomiuri 
Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, will likely see its summer "traffic jam" of climbers worsen this year thanks to its expected addition to the UNESCO World Heritage List. (Yomiuri 
In May, Akira Ikoma, the editor of a guide to men's entertainment called Ore no Tabi (My Journey), said that "Abenomics" had caused a spike in prices at high-end soapland bathhouses in Tokyo. However, the same editor tells Shukan Post (June 28) that the initiative is not impacting the low-end market in the same way. (Tokyo Reporter 
A competition has been held near Tokyo to choose the season's best loquats, or biwa fruit, to be presented to the Imperial Household. (NHK 
Police said Monday they have arrested a 64-year-old woman in connection with the murder of her 59-year-old partner in Seki, Gifu Prefecture. (Japan Today 
Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the bust of a massage parlor in the Gotanda area of Shinagawa Ward on charges of prostitution. (Tokyo Reporter 
Tokyo District Court decided on Monday to open planned examinations of three witnesses who are former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult and now death-row inmates, during an upcoming trial of another former senior Aum member. (Jiji Press