TRAVEL

A copilot of JAL Express Co. became Japan's first female captain Friday after passing the government's qualification screening. Ari Fuji, 42, is scheduled to make her maiden flight as a captain next Monday, from Osaka to Sendai, according to the airline, which is wholly owned by Japan Airlines International Co. (Japan Times)

Six movie theaters - in Hachinohe (Aomori Prefecture), Sendai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto - on July 3 started showing "The Cove," a documentary film about dolphin hunting in the whaling town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture. There have been no reports of big disturbances. Originally, the movie, the winner of this year's Academy Award for Best Documentary, had been scheduled to be shown from June 26. Three movie theaters in Tokyo and Osaka gave up on screening the film after groups who call the movie "anti-Japanese" threatened to stage noisy protests near the theaters. Besides those six movie theaters, 18 others are to show the film. The distributor and the movie houses deserve praises for not bowing to pressure from protesters. (Japan Times)

The annual cherry pit-spitting competition in Higashine, Yamagata Prefecture, was won this year with a championship blast of 15.95 meters. The winner, Shinya Kikuchi of Sendai, received 2 kg of sato-nishiki cherries, one of the most expensive varieties, as his prize. About 1,000 people turned out Sunday to participate in the contest. (Japan Times)

A pure platinum toy car worth as much as ¥7 million emerged at a Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry K.K. outlet in Sendai on Wednesday. The one-of-a-kind car under the long-selling Tomica brand was produced jointly with toy maker Tomy Co. to mark the 40th anniversary of toy line's debut and took veteran craftsmen six months to make. (Japan Times)

From his start in soft pornography in the 1960s to "United Red Army," the 2007 film that recounts Japan's leftist student movements from four decades ago, director Koji Wakamatsu has never shied away from provocation. For his new war drama "Caterpillar," he attacks the hypocrisy inherent in nationalism and the suffering of innocent civilians. "More than anything, we must not be duped by figures of authority," said the director following a screening of the film last month at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. The 74-year-old Wakamatsu grew up in a small farming village about 5 kilometers from Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture. He has childhood memories of the World War II air raids upon the metropolis and seeing it burning red. (Tokyo Reporter)

Police suspect a connection between the murder of a high school teacher here and an attack on the same man in March after determining he had been struck repeatedly in the head with a blunt weapon. Hideo Matsumoto, 56, a teacher at a private high school in Sendai who was found dead in front of his home Friday night, suffered a skull fracture in an apparent attack after a post-graduation ceremony party on March 1. According to sources, Matsumoto arrived to school the following day with a bleeding head injury, and told colleagues only that he was injured after he fell down on a concrete stairway. He later told police he could not remember the incident clearly. (Mainichi)

JR East has appointed its first female bullet-train operator on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, it was announced on Tuesday, as Yukie Sakai boarded the Tokyo-bound "Hayate-Komachi" bullet-train at Sendai Station in front of reporters. The 29-year-old Sakai was born in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. (Mainichi)

A high school here waited four days before reporting a stabbing incident at one of its dormitories to police, it has been learned. The attack occurred in a dormitory of Sendai Ikuei High School in Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture, at about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 30. Police arrested an 18-year-old Chinese student for the attempted murder of a 20-year-old third-year student on Thursday. He has denied acting with murderous intent, however. (Mainichi)

Three men indicted in Hong Kong in connection with last month's theft of watches worth 250 million yen from a jeweler in Tokyo have been found in possession of watches stolen from a Sendai department store in 2006, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. The Sendai heist, which netted 116 wristwatches worth a total of about 66 million yen, had similarities to the theft from the Tenshodo store in the Ginza district, with the thieves breaking in by boring a hole in an exterior wall. (Yomiuri)

The Sendai District Court sentenced Tuesday a 28-year-old woman to one year in prison, suspended for three years, convicting her of taking indecent pictures of her young daughter in violation of the Child Pornography Law. Judge Kenji Yoshinouchi said the woman from Iwate Prefecture "repeatedly committed an act that should be described as sexual abuse" on her then 5- or 6-year-old daughter between October 2008 and January 2009 by taking revealing photos of her at home and thus "seriously damaged her mind and body." (AP)

Holders Gamba Osaka edged second division Vegalta Sendai 2-1 on Tuesday to set up a date with Nagoya Grampus in the final of the Emperor's Cup. Lucas struck both goals for Gamba in a scrappy semifinal played in chilly conditions at National Stadium, while Nagoya advanced after seeing off Shimizu S-Pulse 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in extra time in Shizuoka Prefecture. (AP)

Masamune Date is not an obvious heart-throb for today's young Japanese women. He has an aristocratic lineage and love of the arts - but he is also a one-eyed ruthless killer. He lost an eye to smallpox and in his relentless pursuit of power is said to have slaughtered his own brother, as well as Christian missionaries, Korean peasants and countless of his compatriots. The biggest turn-off might have been that Lord Date has been dead for 373 years, having flourished during the Azuchi-Momoyama Period. (Times Online)

Miyuki Isobe traveled alone to Sendai to celebrate her birthday with someone she adores: Date Masamune, a warlord who came to fame in the 16th-century civil war. In addition to the birthday voyage, the 37-year-old often makes trips to the northern city to visit Date's grave and other historical places related to the warlord. When she first saw letters written by Date at a local museum, her eyes filled with tears of joy and awe. (Yomiuri)

Japan ran in six tries en route to a 46-8 demolition of Canada in the first match of a two-match test series in Sendai on Sunday. Michael Leitch dived over to put Japan on their way after nine minutes following a good rolling maul and Takashi Kikutani and Go Aruga added tries as the hosts romped into a 25-3 halftime lead. (Japan Times)

Some cities in the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan such as Morioka, Yamagata and Niigata observed the region's first snowfall of this season Tuesday as a cold air mass moved above the Japanese archipelago, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Many cities across the country also recorded their lowest temperatures of this season on Tuesday morning, with Asahikawa of Hokkaido logging minus 6.1 C and Sendai of Miyagi Prefecture at 3.4 C. (AP)

Taxis waiting for customers can form up to 12 long neat lines in front of the west exit of JR Sendai Station. The sight of the army of cabs forming an orderly queue symbolizes the extremely fierce competition among taxi drivers that can be seen in few other major cites in the nation. (Yomiuri)