Tuna sells for record USD 3 mn in auction at Tokyo’s fish market
TOKYO: The owner of a Japanese sushi restaurant chain on Saturday set a record by paying more than $3 million for a bluefin tuna in the year’s first auction at Tokyo’s new fish market, exceeding his own record price of 2013. Kiyoshi Kimura, who owns the Sushizanmai chain, paid 333.6 million yen ($3.1 million) for the 278-kg (613-lb) fish caught off the coast of northern Japan’s Aomori prefecture, or double what he had paid six years ago. “The tuna looks so tasty and very fresh, but I think I did too much,” Kimura told reporters outside the market later. “I expected it would be between 30 million and 50 million yen, or 60 million yen at the highest, but it ended up five times more.” Saturday’s event was the first New Year auction of the Toyosu market, after the famed Tsukiji fish market shut last year to provide temporary parking for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Kimura had held the record for top price paid for a single fish at the new year’s auction for six straight years until 2017. But last year, the owner of a different fish restaurant chain paid the highest price. After the auction, the fish was taken to one of Sushizanmai’s branches located in the old market of Tsukiji. Tuna is prized around the world for its use in sushi, but experts warn growing demand has made it an endangered species. (Reuters)
Teacher refers to students as ‘monkeys’ in Facebook post
WASHINGTON: An elementary school teacher in the US has allegedly been sent on paid administrative leave after she compared her students to monkeys in a Facebook post, the media reported. “The monkeys to my zoo came back today,” the teacher from the Watson Elementary School wrote on Facebook after school resumed after the winter break, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. “I’m tired! It’s difficult to train monkeys again,” she added. The post has since been deleted. Pamela Smith, a spokeswoman for the Little Rock district in Arkansas, confirmed that was the post that prompted a teacher to be placed on leave pending further investigation, the report said. In a statement, the district said it “takes these matters very seriously”. As soon as we were made aware of the incident, the district immediately began taking appropriate action, the statement said, calling it a “personnel matter”. (IANS)
Artist paints mural on friend’s home destroyed by wildfires
CALIFORNIA: An artist, moved by what was left behind of his friend’s home after it was ravaged by the California wildfires last year, used the site as a canvas. Shane Grammer turned the charred remains of a fireplace at Shane Edwards’ Paradise residence into a beautiful black-and-white mural of a woman. “When my buddy Shane posted photos of the only thing standing was his chimney, it was perfect,” said Grammer. “I was like, ‘I gottta paint that chimney.'” Many of Grammer’s childhood friends lost their homes in the devastating Camp Fire. (Agencies)