Pour yourself a Strong Zero and strap in. This week’s Happy Hour is a fever dream that starts with public displays of 2D affection and ends with a map of bears and suspicious people in Gifu. We cover the rising price of rice (and the rise of “Pasta Japan”), the legal ramifications of calling your coworker “-chan,” and why Tommy Lee Jones is the greatest alien to ever sell canned coffee. Plus, we take a dark dive into the “Hentai Teacher” ring in Aichi and the ultimate compilation of “Truck-kun.” Oh, and do stick around for the WORLD PREMIERE of our new original Outro track: テレアモリー・メモリーズ. You’re gonna love it.

🥃 LINKS & RESOURCES: 

• Reaction to foreign man holding anime waifu pillow in public
• Former coworker who used ‘-chan’ at work and commented on appearance ordered to pay ¥220,000 in damages for sexual harassment (Japanese article)
• Sex act in police box: officer disciplined with pay cut — Kanagawa Prefectural Police sergeant in his 40s and a female officer in her 20s (Japanese article)
• Japan’s No. 1 Serial Killer | Ultimate “Truck-kun” Compilation
• Rice prices soar, consumers turn to pasta: January imports up 180% year-on-year
• Sam Rockwell monologue about being an Asian girl on The White Lotus
• Davido-kun loves Japan (Japanese variety show clip) 
• 20th Anniversary Suntory Boss Coffee jacket from back in 2012
• Tommy Lee Jones Boss Coffee  Commercials
• Gifu Prefecture Bear-Sighting Map (Updated in Real Time): Suspicious-person alerts also visible at a glance — based on the Prefectural Police ‘Safety & Security Mail’ service 
• Mei and the Kittenbus (めいとこねこバス , Mei to Konekobasu)
• Driver’s license of perpetrator revoked — Saku City junior high school student fatal accident; Supreme Court recognizes hit-and-run (Japanese article)
• Cocorade Bakery in Ueda (get the milk bread) 
• Aichi police arrest seventh teacher in ‘Hentai’ group on child porn charges

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Thank you for listening, fellow traveler of the ear.

🚀🚀 Yoroshiku & rockets 🚀🚀