THE LAND OF THE RISING BATHTUB

You may remember my flaky post back in March about the purloined million dollar golden carp and the 100 kilo gold block that was stolen, and how amazing it was that neither precious item was actually guarded or otherwise secured...

After the latter theft, I figured that anybody else in the country who had anything sizeable made out of the Midas stuff would take heed and make haste to secure their equity; well I was wrong. But in an oddly gestaltic way, it is comforting to realize that trust is so hard to kill in Japan.

Turns out that a certain hotel's famous crane-flanked golden bathtub, 176 pounds of 18kt gold worth about a million dollars, was not fastened to the floor or surveilled, and was secured simply by a chain across the door. Last night, the chain was cut and the bathtub stolen. Nobody saw anything. As the hotel's website says, the tub is only available a few hours a day, for security reasons...

Some folks never change. As for me, I figure that anybody else in the country who has anything sizeable made out of the Midas stuff will take heed and make haste to secure their equity.