Broccoli terrorism!
In light of recent events, not to mention over-hyped dolorous commemorations of past events et. al., I just loved this story about ‘terrorism’ in Japan (in Japanese). To whit:
A bunch of pranksters at Tokyo University (the most prestigious university in Japan) organized a ‘terrorist’ attack via Twitter, targeting the numerous unsecured bicycles that dot the campus. They took off the seats from several bicycles, and replaced then with a broccoli, or in a few cases bananas. Theft does not seem to be the motive, since the seats were left with the bicycles (in the basket and so on).
The tweets organizing this said things like “the only cost of participation is a stalk of broccoli”, and “the act will be done in the middle of the night”. They also included instructions for whittling down the broccoli stalks so that they’d fit into the hole left by the removed seats. In addition, the admonished would-be participants that “we aren ‘t going to steal the seats”.
Motives for the ‘terrorism’ are not clear, but it may have been influenced by a manga called Nichijo (Every Day) which features similar pranks.
One victim, a Tokyo University student, proclaimed that “Real Tokyo University students do not bow to terrorists!” and posted photos of himself stir frying the culprit broccoli and eating it with mayonnaise.
ETA: I’ve found a photo of some of the vandalized bikes, thanks to the good folks at 2ch.
