Safety is Relative (Murder in the market, murder)

I like to refer to Japan as the safest place in the world. It isn't, but it might actually be the safest of the developed nations. My predecessor told me that he's actually lef the house unlocked when he travelled overseas and that the biggest thing that happened was that a construction worker came in to use the bathroom. (I don't know how he knew.)

Anyhow, I've lived in the West too long to leave the house open, unless I am just swinging around the corner. Still I do lots of stuff here, that I wouldn't dare do at home. Like I will leave my bag in a chair in the train station while I go to the drink machine.

The further away you are from the big cities the more you can get away with. I had my camera disappear when I put it down for 2 seconds in Tokyo, but nothing like that happens in my dinky little town in North Japan. Or so we thought.

Yesterday, a Japanese Coworker from Town Hall told us there had been a murder in town. A murder! And not in some remote outlying edge of town, right by the minimart we pass on our way from our houses to town hall on office days. Now, we hadn't asked her how it happened. And only when my neighbour retold the story to friends from other towns at dinner, did somebody ask.

This is the story we got:

There were 3 guys, hanging out in a house, drinking. One guy went home. The other two guys continued drinking. Apparently the two guys that were left, one of them felt the other had slighted them sometime in the past. They got to arguing eventually and he CHOPPED THE OTHER GUY WITH AN AXE!!!

Not much crime here, but when they do, they do big. I guess evil can reash even into the farthest recesses of nowhere...