Baibaikin comments

Easy fix: climb on a weekday and take your own bento. Can't climb on a weekday or carry your own bento? Enjoy the view from sea level. It's much nicer and less likely to result in sore legs. Not quite the same sense of achievement, though.

There is no longer a need for a public, largely taxpayer-funded broadcaster, and the likes of NHK and the BBC should not be able to sting everyone with a TV for an automatic license fee. Goodness knows we pay enough in taxes already without having to finance an inefficient, extravagant, old-school monster of an organisation.

@Amidalism As for how they get the wolf urine...well that just baffles me. Do they milk them like cows or have them potty trained? Regardless, not the type of job that I would want to have.

I suspect that milking the wolves like cows would produce something other than urine, but I wouldn't like the job either. Problem solved, however. Amazon sells it...

http://www.amazon.com/Deerbusters-Wolf-Urine-Lure-32-oz/dp/B0006IGZSM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

The reviews are worth a read, too.

Hero I don't know but whatever you think of his cause. it's a guy that has guts and does what he sincerely believes. Whatever you think about his action, he knew the risks. We live in a world when the huge majority of people would shut it up if they saw something shocking, just for the fear of losing one job.

Was Snowden so naive when he signed up for his NSA job (and undoubtedly signed a non-disclosure agreement)? How complicit was he in espionage before he realised it was all too much for his conscience? I find it impossible to sympathise.

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any Beatles stuff when it appeared on iTunes, but bought the White Album a few minutes of reminiscing, so I've no chance resisting the cherry picking this time either... .

Sad news, and far too young to die.

bilderberg_2015Jun. 18, 2013 - 02:54PM JST

Filthy, stinking habit. I expect half of them stink out the train carriage with their stinky clothes and breath on the way home.

Super Cool Biz in my office may also be contributing to the less-than-fresh commuter trains at the moment. As for breath issues, well, more middle aged men in Japan need to lay off the cigs and sweet coffee and get themselves to the dentist.

Despite all this hullabaloo about head, I really don't leave the beer in the glass long enough to care that much.

@ultradarkmelvin Please make sure you only use happoushu if you're making red eyes. I suspect the UK barman considered it a crime against beer.

And, even when the kids are caught red-handed, the children’s parents will argue things like ‘If my child stole that game, then isn’t it you who needs to tighten up security?’ and become angry on behalf of the miscreant. They won’t acknowledge that their child has done something wrong.”

These are perhaps the same parents who blame schools for their child's bad behaviour and make teachers' jobs harder than they should be. Parents need to take responsibility for their little angels. As for the ranting and raving from adults caught in the act, I think an extra few weeks of community service should be added to their sentence.

If you pour a beer properly (and it's decent beer), you don't need a fancy clip on machine, or to reverse the lever on the tap. As a barman in the UK, I was always told that reversing the lever upset the balance of gas in the beer, making it go flat faster. Speaking of beer, is it still too early?!

@sushi

This is pathetic! I was expecting bus service(s) from central Tokyo to the suburbs, like London's night buses, so that people can get home. What do they come up with? A clubbers shuttle service! WTF?!

It will definitely be a clubbers' shuttle service, but there are loads of night buses to the suburbs from Shibuya, so you can choose to party on or go home, albeit slowly. Probably worth waiting until the first trains to start up.

Yopparai Express. I'm sure it'll be a success, and 400yen is much cheaper than the taxi fare over that distance.

Too many dolls and too much pink in my house at the moment. Can't wait for my son to get old enough to want stuff like this!

Looks yummy, but the journalist is clearly lacking the balls to get the real story. We've seen a Japan and American school food comparison this week, so the journalist now needs to get himself locked up in overseas prisons in order to do a proper job. I look forward to the Bangkok Hilton edition.

Nope, but it will get tired if there is nothing tangible to show for it this year. I'm tired of AKB, though, so perhaps that would be a better question to ask.

ebisenJun. 07, 2013 - 09:47AM JST

Airion, righ on the salt. Japanese lunches might be healthier from the nutritional point of view, but the amount of salt generally found in Japanese food would reduce to tears any Western nutritionist. I'm sure this is one of the reasons for the high stomach cancer rates in Japan.

A brain surgeon in my first Eikaiwa school many years ago (seriously), also told me a lot of his business came from aneurysms, largely caused by excessive salt in the diet of his patients. Sodium content varies, but a single bowl of miso soup will generally give you more than your RDA in the US. Your general lifestyle/fitness can affect how much sodium you can eat safely, but it's worth keeping an eye on how much 'healthy' Japanese food you put away.

I'm from the UK, but have homestayed in a Baltimore suburb a few times, and the school lunches were well thought out and healthy. But that was only one school, very much like the Japanese journalist in this article, whose research can hardly be described as exhaustive. I can almost hear muttered 'やっぱり' and 'さすが' from the people who lap up all this stereotype-reinforcing bollocks.

I heard that the routes up the moutain can be like supermarket queues during the peak times, so I took a Friday off work a few days after the mountain 'opened' for the season, and it wasn't at all crowded.

Take your rubbish home with you, people. It's not too much to ask. What is it about mountains and beaches that make people here want to leave their bento boxes, etc, behind?

A great coup for Toshiba advertising. It would seem there's more to it than the Mona Lisa as well... http://www.toshiba.co.jp/lighting/about/louvre/index.htm

Elder sister has a duty of care to her younger sister. If she does not know her duties as carer, she has been raised without the proper discipline

I think that we can assume that the whole 'raising' thing hasn't been great given that the mother left the country, leaving a minor in charge of a baby.

I've met young teenagers who vary from completely useless to seemingly very switched on for their age, but I wouldn't expect any of them to have to fend for themselves for days on end, and it's quite possible that the older daughter in this case didn't have the wherewithall to look after a 3 year old - or herself for that matter. Parenting can be hard enough for fully-grown adults. This terrible story boils down to a mother who shirked her responsibility and killed her own child through neglect.

Again goes to show that 'harass' in Japan is merely seen as a part of a woman's body.

@sfjp330 Why are you flogging your argument to death?The mother in question didn't just pop to the local supermarket. She left the country, leaving a toddler in the care of a minor. Yubaru is spot on.

Swift smack on the back of the hand, as well as a show of anger, as my very young daughter went to poke her wet fingers into a plug socket. She was more shocked by it than hurt, and never did it again. I intend to go out of my way never to hit my kids, and hope that consistent, fair parenting and alternative forms of punishment will suffice.

He was quite lucky to survive this climb. After being picked up by helicopter from Camp 2, he admitted he had to be helped down by his son and others, after losing strength in his legs and not being able to move at all. He cited taking off his oxygen mask at the summit for photographs as a factor, but revived after food and water at the base camp. Gutsy guy, knows when to call it a day too...

Gutsy is the word. He's made of sterner stuff than most of us, and the problems he experienced affect many many climbers, young and old. The fact he's 80 makes his achievement all the more impressive. Mind you, ruling out further Everest attempts is one thing, but I can't imagine him taking up gateball with a bunch of regular octogenarians.

Extraordinary, inspirational human being. Everest is unforgiving, especially on the way down when climbers have almost exhausted their reserves of strength and willpower.

I produced something like that at home recently, only to be told by my 5 year old daughter that I was shite at drawing (or words to that effect). I guess McD diners could try eating the art-adourned tray liner if their fillet-o-cardboard doesn't satisfy.

@Nessie Inspired. Brightened up a bizarre article.

As a trained lawyer, you'd think Hashimoto would be better at communicating this thoughts. Or is it simply a case of him　seeing what he can get away with before back-pedalling when he pisses off too many voters or loses the support of other political parties?

Everyone is assuming that she held the brush in her hand to create the calligraphy. These porn stars are very skilled, you know...