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.
Go outside and use your
cell phone, or a neighbor’s
phone, and call NW Natural
at 800-882-3377.