ACrowe comments

Dont forget the outfit he is wearing. I think my Dad donated it to St. Vincent De Paul about 25 years ago. Dont know how Akishino ended up with it.

Nice one, DentShop. Good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read that. It would've all come out my nose.

You'd think that Darth Vader would have been able to use the Force to cut the tape.

"Thick and lush" eyebrows, that's how they were when I first came to Japan 18 years ago (Yes, I know: time to leave). Women looked like they had caterpillars on their foreheads. I welcomed the plucking at first, but it's gone too far. Wash their faces and most women now have punctuation marks where they ought to have eyebrows.

That chick's displaying more than enough biodiversity for my taste.

Please open up Store No.2 in Fukuoka, and preferably on the first floor of my building.

If I am not mistaken, I believe some of these dancers may be the very same ones that were in Fukuoka a few months ago samba-samba-ing through the underground arcade here. That would also explain the trail of boa feathers that leads from this city to the nation's capital.

Ditto what boboh says.

Let me add that I think the high number of absentee-fathers thanks to the practice of tanshin funin (単身赴任) is far more pernicious to Japanese society than a few kids smoking herb and have told the cops so when I was being interrogated for drugs smuggling. (For more on this search Google for Aonghas Crowe No. 6 Cuckoo )

“It’s easy for young people to get. And marijuana is likely to be a kind of gateway to the use of other drugs.”

This is a myth. You know what is a real gateway to drug use? That beer resting on the coaster to the right of your keyboard.

"That is why successful companies making great products don't have any employees, just one guy pushing buttons and eating donuts."

Classic!

I wonder if they teach that business model at the Harvard Business School. It would go a long way in explaining why their most famous graduate, W., drove the U.S. economy into the ground.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

hachmike66 I disagree. There was some superb passing by the Japanese team: right into the arms of the Korean keeper every time.

What a miserable line-up they've got for the World Cup this time 'round. And Okada as head coach, ugh! Is this really the best Japan can do?

Ach, if only I worked for Asahi Kasei's polymer division, what a happy boy I would be.

The things we do for love〜♪

I'm in the wrong b'ineth.

Sounds like the beginning of bad suspense drama.

Caught red-panty-handed!

I like to think that I've got both a healthy libido and a fertile imagination. And yet, I cannot fathom how a man can get his rocks off stealing a woman's skivvies. It does indeed take all types to make this world go round.

Ugh, the end of humanity is nigh.

Who is this translating dynamo, Taro Fujimoto? Most of the articles I've read this evening have been translated by him. My hats off to you, sir.

The once privately owned studios of Hollywood are now, by and large, subsidiaries of major entertainment and media conglomerates more interested in stock performance over the short term than in producing quality feature films. The creative drive has fallen by the wayside as companies try to bump up their stock prices. And what better way to do this than to announce a known quantity: a remake or a sequel with marquee names.

Hollywood has got some of the most clever, creative and well-compensated minds in its employ, and, yet, what does all that money and talent produce? More often than not, Crap.

Fortunately, there is still the occasional filmmaker who rises above stench of bad movies, to create a unique and moving cinematic experience, such as Wes Anderson. It's a sad commentary on the viewing public, however, that such films are not always blockbusters. Knucklehead moviegoers, who flock to "Rocky XII", "Predator vs Alien vs Godzilla", and "Kimba the Lion Shares a Ride with Speed Racer", must share the blame.