Facebook Group for Odawara

There is a Facebook group for Odawara.
To visit the facebook group visit the following link.

Teens Held for Stealing Policeman`s Gun

Minami Ashigara City, Kanagawa

Two teenagers were arrested on Sunday, December 21st on suspicion of assaulting a police
officer in Minamiashigara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and stealing his handgun
and handcuffs.

The suspects, a 17 year old male high school student and a 16 year old unemployed male, both members of a motorcycle gang based in Hadano,
allegedly hit a police car shortly after 2 a.m. while riding a motorbike.
They then allegedly assaulted the officer and stole the handgun.

The boys were caught 15 minutes later, police said.
"We take the fact that the handgun was stolen very seriously."
said Shinji Okoshi deputy head of Matsuda Police Station.

Japan Times

Woman found dead on Odawara beach

Woman found dead on Odawara beach

Thursday 11th December, 09:45 AM JST

ODAWARA —

A woman was found dead on the coast in Odawara City on Wednesday
morning. A fisherman discovered the body at around 7.20 a.m. and
alerted the police. The woman was buried face down in the sand, close
to a downward sloping path which led to the shoreline. Her left leg
remained above the sand and her jeans and shoe were visible.

Police said there was no sign of blood at the scene, but a cord was
found around her neck. The woman is thought to have died several days
before, and police have put her age as somewhere between her 40s and 60s.

The woman's body was found about 300 meters southwest of JR Kouzu
station, about 20 meters from the shoreline, where the waves do not
reach even in high tide.

On Pandemic Preparedness

US Health and Human Services
Secretary Michael Leavitt said:

"If there is one message on pandemic preparedness that I could leave today that you would remember, it would be this:

Any community that fails to prepare with the expectation that the federal government or for that matter the state government will be able to step forward and come to their rescue at the final hour will be tragically wrong,

not because government will lack a will, not because we lack a collective wallet, but because there is no way that you can respond to every hometown in America at the same time."

Sobering advice for communities in Japan, that will be on the front lines
when a virus eventually mutates and emerges from the Asian continent.

We all need to be better prepared.