1. Shinzo Abe, 65,  starts his run. In 1977, he left USC they say.  He's on his quest for "a beautiful Japan".

2. "I had hearing difficulties and tended to speak loud, and when I talked to my husband, who was showing signs of dementia, (Chiho or Bokenoho) he sometimes beat me, saying I was too loud. So I killed him," said an 80 year old woman of her 90 year old man.

3. Shifuku, (glory) a 2,000 yen boxed lunch can be had at JR Central.  It has 33 dishes: atsuyaki tamago, masu no Saikyo yaki, smoked salmon, aomomijifu, hamagurini, surenkon, yaki anago, himetake, muki ebi, awabi and donko shiitake.

4. Actress Erika Sawajiri has released "Taiyo no Uta".  Before released it sold 500,000 downloads at 200 Yen. (That's over a million dollars.) She was in the  film, "Pacchigi" and TV drama, "1 Rittoru no Namida". (Does anyone care that she is 1/4 French? Her grandmother was French.)

5. Yuki Saito's blue handkerchief is no longer in production. A new one received a 10,000 Yen bid. (Nyuusatsu) It's made of terry cloth.  Saito did some well-mannered interviews.  He was dubbed,  Handkerchief Prince. (Hankachi-ouji) The president of the handkerchief company said,  "If we produce a new one, we'll give some to Saito as a gift".

6. Brooke Shields says Tom Cruise apologized.

7. 'West Wing' star Martin Sheen registers for classes at Irish university. (So, I guess Clinton's "Education for LIfe" is kicking in.)