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Foreigner Skinny-Dips at the Imperial Palace: Why?

Tue, Oct 7, 2008

Crime, Questions

Have you heard about the crazy gaijin-related incident that happened today? I wouldn’t be surprised if you have; it’s getting a ton of media coverage at the moment. Rightly so, too, as this level of crazy deserves talking about. If you haven’t, here’s a quick run-down of the events that took place:

Apparently, a British man was visinging the Japanese Imperial Palace (皇居 or kouyo) with a Spanish tour group this morning when he decided to take a brisk swim in the palace’s moat, possibly to retrieve someone’s bag that had fallen in. When workers tried to approach the man (via rowboat) to tell him to knock it off, instead of complying, he threw largish rocks at them and swam off. Eventually he became such a nuisance that 50 law enforcers were called in to apprehend him with a motley collection of ballistic shields, safety barriers, and whatever other stick-like things were handy. And, if that’s not ridiculous enough for you, palace officials felt it necessary to report that “the Emperor was in the palace, but it was unlikely he saw the nude swimmer”.

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So my question to you guys is: Why do you think he did it? Is he just crazy, confused, and foreign, or is there another possible explanation for his behavior? Share your theories with us!

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This post was written by:

Erin - who has written 37 posts on Tofugu.com.

Erin is Tofugu's culture, food, and fashion writer. She's a quiet Hawaii girl who loves shopping, eating sweets, and traveling whenever she has the time and money to spend. She also has a little photo blog going, which can be found here.

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