12_year_sensei comments

Interesting point, grammefriday, how much of Japan's cultural exports are just stuff for kiddies or arrested adolescents.

The authorities, the electric company, the media here have all lied so much about every facet of this disaster. Since radioactive food was sent around the country and discovered overseas, it's no wonder people fear Japan. When Ishihara junior said people needed to be stopped from using geiger counters, it was creepy. When it was revealed that the Japanese government has been keeping people in areas where the radiation surpasses the Chernobyl evacuation area, just to try and protect the image of Japan, it made me sad and angry. One flaw of official Japanese thinking has always been that they seem to think foreigners are as gullible as Japanese. Seven decades ago, this ego trip attacked half the world. Now it has poisoned the entire world.

Atami has many nice, hidden charms. A few blocks from the station is a little park along a stream. The park is below street level, where in many other cities would be a drainage ditch. They built nice stairs down and stone seats beside the stream. In some places, small, strategically placed waterfalls create a soothing noise that blocks all sounds of city traffic passing on bridges above. A very nice place. Nearby I found a nice second-hand shop that had a right-wing beer stein from the 1930s I wish I'd bought. The boat to Hatsushima is recommended, more for the boat ride than the island. Take the return trip around sunset or later. Atami is a small city but it has a lot of neon and other bright lights. Because the city rises up a hill, the illumination makes it look huge from a distance and quite grand. It actually seems to shrink as you approach it. On the downside, a lot of buildings downtown look dilapidated and stand empty, as if they're waiting for the overdue earthquake to finish the job. Overall, however, a nice place to visit and I've only seen half of it.

Skylark has announced that Gusto restaurants will be sold to a consortium of the Daiei Group and Lotteria. The new restaurant will be called "Daieiria".

Kan says he did all he could with all the difficulties he faced, like not having a backbone or an ounce of creativity. Why is anyone surprised? That's the kind of psychology this country's culture creates.

How much of Japan's culture creates people whose emotional and psychological growth is stopped at the pre-adolescent level? It's all social engineering done to keep everyone small and under total control. Just like bonsai trees. Now that initiative is needed, it's too late, it's been cultured out of the country. How many people just here are just sitting around and wondering when the leadership that they cannot create is going to come and change things. Too late.

Clearly Ozawa is the de facto leader of this country. He's the Shin Kanemaru of the 21st century. And the people just sit and take it, watching shows about this and other drivel instead of thinking of doing something about the nuclear situation. BAA-AA-AA-AA-AA-AA-AA-AA-AA-AAHHH!

Moondog- Tohoku Electric Power Company knew about the previous tsunami and built a wall big enough to protect their plant north of Fukushima Daiichi. Tepco was truly criminal.

Not only is he a crybaby, he was crying over his part in the responsibility for the world's worst environmental disaster ever, one that he helped occur by default, and he STILL WANTS TO BE PRIME MINISTER???!!! How much denial does he live in? How can anybody support him? He went to Ozawa for help? Doesn't anyone realize that Obama nixed meeting Kan precisely because of the leadership void in Japan? ( It also didn't help that Kan LIED to Obama when he said that the helicopter water drops on the melting-down reactors were "a success"). Does anyone in Japan REALLY know in what low esteem Japanese leaders are held internationally? Now I have a new definition of the word "cowed" to tell my students: It's YOU!!!

YuriOtani: You say that "the crybabies need to get a life and move forward." So you mean we shouldn't have to hear the endless tributes to Hiroshima and Nagasaki year after year?

Paulinusa: The "Fluxus" movement was a failed collaborative group that never amounted to anything. Ono mostly just collaborated with others. Anyone who knows the art world knows that there are a lot of bad artists out there filling galleries with inconsequential art. No institutions of any merit ever noticed Ono until she snagged her pop star. On Her Groupiness' energy plans, she's just Japanese, that's why she's regarded highly in Japan.

I can imagine Ishihara riding the Japanese bomb through the sky, with his hand in a WWII-era banzai salute, like a Japanese Slim Pickens out of Dr. Strangelove.

What "art" did Ono ever do that was good enough to warrant the Hiroshima art prize? Be famous and Japanese and say "Hiroshima" enough times?

Of course this robot was made as a bulwark against foreign caregivers. Again I'll say it, it's xenophobia driving the technology. If Japan were indeed the leader in robotics, why did they have to borrow American robots to help in Fukushima.

Mt. Fuji is not dormant. Supposedly there is a gas vent on the northern shoulder, a hole about 1 meter or so. An eruption may ruin the shape of the mountain. I wouldn't be surprised if there is an eruption soon.

You're right, Ben, it's a flower, not yet opened. But a nice shot. I wonder what camera, lens...?

The ONLY intellectual argument in Japan in the last two years is 'Why can't we have comics about raping little girls?' What does that say about a society? Why are there women-only carriages on so many trains? This culture is designed to stunt the intellectual development of it's people to the level of 12-15 year olds, to make them easier to control. How many things, from sumo, to politicians, the police, to their fantastically self-serving interpretation of history, to their disaster preparedness have been revealed to be a sham? Societies generally fall into three categories: the 'participatory democracy', 'the iron fist', and 'the grand illusion'. Japan is mostly the latter.

Wow, Japanese people telling us how unique Japan is. Just in time. I wonder what they'll think of next?

Soooooooooo Japanese.

Run, Sarah, run!

Panasonic/National owns a huge tract of land, along the Tokaido line, just west of the Hikiji River, where their factory used to stand. It can be seen from the train, between Fujisawa and Tsujido stations.

The Japanese themselves have long exaggerated how "small" Japan is, so, of course, others pick up that untrue stereotype. It is also perceived as alien and "inscrutable", another stereotype the Japanese gladly reinforce. Then it is rightly seen as expensive. A glass of beer in Roppongi costs nine dollars. Of course izakayas are more affordable, but only the intrepid traveler enters a building covered with unreadable signs, let alone learns to discern between the pretty neon signs for loansharks and Watami and Hana No Mae. Also, most people don't want to disturb a place they think is still in chaos, recovering from a disaster. This loss of tourists may also be a form of karma, because the Japanese media and many Japanese themselves have almost gleefully exaggerated dangers overseas for decades.

What does "experienced cosplayer" mean? Should this be important to anyone with a fully developed pre-frontal cortex?

Doesn't anybody think it's sad that this is the FIFTH story visible on this news site? What does that say about the local culture? Or is it a reflection on the editors?

Why? Maybe a manifestation or symptom of many techno-geeks' inability or disinterest in real relationships. Remember that so many of the first Japanese humanoid robots looked like young girls. To me it was an obvious attempt to create what they couldn't have. Make it better, more obedient, etc. The robot boffins never seem to notice that the elderly don't really like nurse-robots. By the way, have they asked any of the foreign astronauts if they actually WANT talking robots? It seems like more totally inward Japanese-style thinking, and simply assuming that others are similarly inclined.

The color looks cool.

WilliB thank you for the factual background info.

Any connection between this and the child-porn comic books that the publishers and newspapers in Japan have defended on 'freedom of speech' grounds?

Ask women here how often a Japanese man flashes them. More than once I've met girlfriends at train stations who were enraged after a jerk flashed them. It may be a unique, ancient traditional ritual. You know we hear a lot about all the ancient unique traditional rituals here in this unique traditional country...

Why not revoke Rupert Murdoch's citizenship for sedition? He's certainly guilty of it.