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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2015)
ASIA / PACIFIC Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER June 1, 2015 Artsy coffee chain Blue Bottle brews long queues in Tokyo Continued from page 2 SEPTUAGENARIAN SMUGGLER. Japanese national Masaru Kawada, center, is mobbed by the media upon arrival for his sentencing hearing at district court in Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Kawada was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling 5.18 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into the country in November 2014. (AP Photo/Rivo Andries) Japanese grandfather gets life term in Indonesia drug case PARIAMAN, Indonesia (AP) — A Japanese man who says he was deceived into carrying someone else’s bag on a flight into Indonesia was sentenced to life in prison for smuggling methamphetamine into the country. Masaru Kawada, 73, was arrested in November at Minangkabau Airport in West Sumatra’s capital, Padang, after customs officials found 5.18 pounds of crystal methamphetamine in his luggage. A three-judge panel at the District Court in Pariaman found Kawada guilty, saying his deed weakened the government’s struggle against drugs. “We found no reason to lighten his sentence,” said presiding judge Jon Effreddi. Chief state prosecutor Budi Prihalda said they recommended a light sentence of 16 years because of the defendant’s age. Kawada’s lawyer said they would appeal. According to court documents, a man identified as Edward Mark met Kawada in Japan last November and asked him to travel to Macau, for which Mark paid for his tickets and accommodations and gave him $500 in travel expenses. While in Macau, Kawada met a Chinese woman who asked him to carry a bag to a friend in Padang. Kawada, who flew to Padang from Macau via Kuala Lumpur, said he had checked the bag and did not find anything suspicious. He only realized he was carrying methamphetamine upon arrival when customs officials arrested him and confiscated the drug, he said. The grandfather of two is believed to be one of the oldest drug smugglers to be sentenced in Indonesia, which has extremely strict drug laws and often executes smugglers. More than 130 people are on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners. Indonesia has executed 14 drug convicts, including 12 foreigners, this year amid protests and an international outcry, but Indonesia insists the punishment is part of confronting a drug emergency. Such newcomers have hammered the once omnipresent kissaten. Their numbers have dropped by half from the 1980s, or to 77,000 in 2009, according to a Japanese government study. But Blue Bottle’s popularity is part of a rediscovery of cafés serving carefully prepared, quality coffee, a trend already long evident in the U.S. Blue Bottle’s first Japan shop, which has a roaster, is in Kiyosumi, an older part of Tokyo, chosen because it reminded Freeman, the founder, of Oakland. It opened in February. The second shop, in a backstreet of Tokyo’s fashionable Omotesando, opened in March. A third, likely opening later this year in Tokyo’s Daikanyama shop- ping area, will feature a menu that reflects Blue Bottle’s recent acquisition of San Francisco-based Tartine Bakery, which serves croissants, sandwiches, and pastries. Blends such as “Giant Steps,” combining Africa- and Indonesia- grown beans for a chocolate taste, sell for 450 yen ($3.75) a cup. A latte costs 520 yen ($4.30). On a recent day, the Blue Bottle shop in Kiyosumi, Tokyo, was filled with sunlight pouring through huge windows, the hum of a giant roaster, GOURMET GOODNESS. Coffee beans are roasted by an employee of Blue Bottle coffee at their coffee shop in Tokyo. Artisanal American coffee roaster Blue Bottle’s first shop in Japan, which has a roaster, is in Kiyosumi, an older part of Tokyo, chosen because it reminded founder James Freeman of the city of Oakland. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama) the fragrant aroma of fresh coffee, and a crowd of people. Takuya Nakagawa, a 39-year-old hairdresser who came all the way from rural Toyama prefecture (state), was impressed with the coffee’s taste and the store’s stylish stark decor. He bought granola and coffee beans as souvenir gifts. “I just love the taste,” he said. “This kind of place doesn’t exist in Toyama.” q True to its inspiration, Blue Bottle is learning from Japan, said Andrew Smith, 29, of San Francisco, a barista and one of three Americans who came to work for the chain in Japan. “People here have different ways of conceptualizing about coffee so they taste things differently,” Smith said. “They are looking for different kinds of things in coffee. And that is a fun way to learn how everyone in the world perceives coffee differently.” South Korean court frees Korean Air ‘nut rage’ executive By Youkyung Lee AP Business Writer S EOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court has suspended the prison term of a former Korean Air executive whose onboard “nut rage” tantrum delayed a flight last year, immediately ending her incarceration. The Seoul High Court said Cho Hyun-ah, who is the daughter of the airline’s chairman, did not violate the aviation security law when she ordered the chief flight attendant off a December 5 flight, forcing it to return to the gate at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The upper court sentenced Cho to 10 months in prison for assault and then suspended the sentence for two years. A lower court had earlier sentenced Cho to a year in prison. She has been locked up since her December arrest. Cho achieved worldwide notoriety after an onboard tantrum triggered when a first class flight attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a dish. Cho, head of the airline’s cabin service at the time, had a heated, physical confrontation with members of the crew. Swarmed by reporters at the court, she made no comment in front of television cameras, bowing her head and burying her face in her hands as the media pressed in and yelled for her to say something. The nut rage incident was a lightning rod for anger in a country where the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol that often act above the law. “If she was released because she showed repentance, other criminals should be equally released,” said 19-year-old college student Kim Ryeong-hui. “I think the court went easy on her. I feel angry when people mistreat other people in lower ranks.” The lower court had convicted Cho of forcing a flight to change its route, obstructing the flight’s captain in the performance of his duties, forcing a crew member off a plane, and assault- Continued on page 11 How to identify a possible gas leak. If you smell ROTTEN EGGS it could be a gas leak. And the best thing to do is leave your home and call NW Natural. We’ll be out to make sure everything is safe. Unsure of what to do? Just take a look at our tips to the right. Smell. Go. Let Us Know. 800-882-3377 If you smell a rotten egg or sulfur odor, you hear a blowing or hissing sound, or you see blowing dirt, it could be a gas leak. What to do. Leave your home and the area immediately. Don’t use any electrical device such as a light switch, telephone, appliance or garage door opener. And don’t try to fi nd the leak yourself. Who to call. 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