Bob Slefty comments

When are we going to discuss the fact that foreign "english" teachers who come here actively engage in relationships and sexual acts with their students?

What 'fact' is worth discussing? If the school doesn't want their young English teachers having relationships with students, it will be an explicit rule that the teacher breaks at their own risk. If there's no such rule, what exactly is your problem with it? If the student is an adult and consenting, from my perspective it's FAR less of an issue than upskirt cameramen.

Vince BlackToday 05:25 pm JST

Murdering witch. Hopefully she’ll get life in prison, to rot for the rest of her miserable days.

Death penalty would be best though, she’s an animal and needs to be punished.

While I in no way condone what she did, people do stupid things in the heat of passion that they later bitterly regret. We (and that includes you, Vince) have no information at all about what brought her to this terrible moment but I have noticed that your typical reaction to any report such as this is to cry for the person to be killed as an animal. Hang them, you say, choke them, you say, they're animals, you say. Almost every comment you've made on this site is an extraordinarily harsh demand for capital punishment.

I repeat that I do not condone what this woman did. Of course not. However I also feel a little dirty after reading some of your comments here. It almost feels as though your baying for blood goes beyond any sort of justice and enters the realm of some sort of morbid fantasy of yours about killing people.

First he would have had a much better chance of using a hallucinogen drug i.e meth

Um.. meth isn't a hallucinogen, you know...

@ Attilathehungry

The sticking point is that Pres. Trump hasn't been impeached for any actual criminal offence. It's the first time that an impeachment has not included an actual criminal charge, which makes it look more like politics than anything else.

Unfortunately (for Trump), this oft repeated bit of disingenuity simply isn't true. Here are (a few!) of the laws he has broken:

18 U.S. Code § 872: “Extortion by officers or employees of the United States.”

2 U.S. Code § 192, “Refusal of witness to testify or produce papers,”

18 U.S. Code § 610, “Coercion of political activity.”

18 U.S. Code § 607, “Place of solicitation,”

52 U.S. Code § 30121, “Contributions and donations by foreign nationals.”

These are just a few. I hope that now you realise that Trump DID in fact break laws, you will be prepared to reconsider your opinion. I am not holding my breath of course...

Personally, I'm a big fan of Japanese taxis and after nearly 3 decades of using them, have perhaps only one or two bad experiences.

I have often enjoyed chatting with my driver about all manner of things and have found them to be almost unfailingly courteous. I've rarely come across one who spoke good English and never one who speaks it fluently and the thought of a taxi driver having an MBA is incredible.

The automatic doors, smart dress and white gloves are not necessary parts of the Japanese taxi experience but they do perhaps enhance it.

Phoenixikki

Gomen, I didn't mean to suggest that rural museums aren't worth visiting; I completely agree that many are excellent. What I don't see as viable is a plan to bus in foreign tourists to such places. The tourists have to be there in the first place.

I also agree that sustainable growth in the rural areas will come from the middle range regular travellers. For the sort of clients I deal with, 250,000 per night is common, never mind two nights, but getting such people to Shimane in the first place is half the issue. Most of the high net worth clients I have visit Japan just once and don't have time or inclination to visit the countryside unless there is a strong reason to draw them there. A museum on its own isn't enough and a good deal of my time is spent finding people who can offer unique, one of a kind experiences that I can offer my clients so I can get them out of the major tourist spots and into less well trodden territory. The DMO problem is that although they are trying to appeal to the luxury market, they still don't quite get it yet but I do think we're getting there.

I do know that my little world of Japan travel isn't the typical one and is definitely niche. I've been doing this now for 12 years and in that time have seen the number of foreign visitors skyrocket and Japan become immeasurably easier for a non Japanese speaking tourist to visit. It's all going to continue and although I'm definitely not thinking of busloads of Chinese tourists when I say this, I'm happy that more and more people each year are able to experience the wonder and beauty of Japan for themselves.

A few observations to make...

Firstly, "inbound", isn't the Japanese word for international tourists; it's a standard tourism industry term for foreign visitors coming to any country.

Phoenixikki says that museum prices are likely to go up "because the consultants have pointed out the prices of museums in London..."

Hmm.. let's check these London prices:

British Museum - FREE

National Gallery - FREE

Natural History Museum - FREE

Science Museum - FREE

V&A - FREE

Tate & Tate Modern - FREE

So if consultants have looked at London Museum prices, they should recognise that Japan's museum prices are too high and should be either much lower - or free - to attract more tourists. The idea of a law to promote tourism to rural museums is just baffling and can surely only be something to occupy bureaucrats' time and attention. Plans to bus in tourists to such museums can only work if the museums offer something that foreign tourists want.

The rural facility and experience idea can definitely work and does so currently but there has to be something of interest for foreign tourists that makes it sufficiently viable as an ongoing concern. I am a specialist in Japan travel and regularly meet with local tourism boards from all over the country to discuss how they can attract more visitors. In general, I find that their focus is on lower budget groups, which is not at all my market, although I think they cater for that demographic reasonably well. For me the issue is in edging them towards a better understanding of what the luxury market needs and that's more of an uphill battle.

JustAGoodOleBoyToday 01:43 pm JST

Yeah Jiro quit accepting reservations due to the growing number of no-shows from Chinese tourists who had made reservations.

Hmm. I am a specialist in luxury travel to Japan and I can tell you from frequent painful experience that the worst tourists for booking and then cancelling or no show are Americans. It is a constant battle for us to prevent them doing this. I've had American clients admit that they're used to booking 3 or 4 restaurants for a particular evening, then deciding on one of them on the night and simply no show at the others. This sort of attitude to restaurant bookings is common in the US and they bring their entitled attitude over to Japan. More and more restaurants are no longer accepting reservations from foreign tourists and this is definitely the major reason why.

I know that there are lots of Americans on this forum who will be indignant to hear this but it's true. Far too many "I'm a foodie!" Americans come to Japan and want to book dinner for every single night at a Michelin/famous restaurant so they can go home and tell their friends, but then change their mind on the day and cancel or no show. This is something I am dealing with every single week. I know that Chinese can be awful tourists but in my world (very high net worth clients), it's always the Americans who book and cancel restaurants without giving a flying F.

LMAO all these comments. It's a report of American servicemen making a cock-up of things. This is par for the course with the US military, which is responsible for more friendly fire incidents than any other nation. They're famous for their casual approach to military protocol and everyone's surprised that they failed to land in the right place?

Serrano: So? The majority of voters voted for Brexit.

Serrano's typical hypocrisy here being spread thicker than an American trying Marmite for the first time.

Another day, another American shooting.

Another American shooting, another day on JT where everyone's entrenched opinions get repeated.

And the cycle just goes on and on.

Are there easy answers to this problem?

No.

But as long as those in favour of guns insist that their 200+ year old 'right' to their guns supercedes the right of others to live, more Americans will continue to die.

And as more Americans continue to die, those same gun lovers will keep insisting that the problem isn't the guns that are killing their fellow citizens and that their right to own those guns is most important and so nothing will change.

America is constantly making the same mistake but somehow expects there to be a different outcome. It's simultaneously bewildering, mind boggling and utterly sad.

Nothing is more important to the US than constitutional rights.

Clearly, human life is less important. That simple fact ought to be enough to make you reconsider but clearly, this is not the case

Defendind oneself is a God-given right that no other person or government can take away.

This sort of sentiment illustrates exactly the problem with America. What the actual F is a 'God given right'? That is nothing more than a fantasy that bears NO relation to reality and is demonstrably false. This 'right' was given by those who drafted the law. God (whatever that is) had nothing to do with it. If you believe your right to own a firearm comes from some sort of divine edict, prove that to me. Show me when and how you were given this right by your mythical celestial being. You can't? So you do NOT have any sort of God given right. You only have your belief that your right to own a gun is more important than another person's life.

Seriously, anyone who mentions the word God in their claim to be allowed to own a gun should NEVER be allowed a weapon. American is chock full of these people. They are exactly the same as ISIS, believing that their God is giving them the right to behave as they do. It's nothing less than pathetic.

Kazuaki Shimazaki

".....Somehow, I don't see how a prevalent hallucinogen will improve society..."

And somehow Kazuaki, I don't see how you expect anyone to give credence to your words when you describe marijuana as an hallucinogen. It's clear that you actually know nothing about the subject and therefore your opinion is moot, at best.

Educator60 May 26 02:24 pm JST

“showed his love for Japan, and its food culture, by ordering thousands of pieces of traditional candy from a local artisan sweet maker. While that didn’t quite go according to plan”

What does this mean? In what way did it not go according to plan?

There's a hint in the page that's linked in the words themselves...

https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8bucc8/mueller_has_reportedly_decided_to_move_forward/dxa2e7q/

You know, there's really no evidence of Trump colluding with Russia, except for the

Flynn Thing

Manafort Thing

Tillerson Thing

Sessions Thing

Kushner Thing

Wray Thing

Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius "Russian Law Firm of the Year" Thing

Carter Page Thing

Roger Stone Thing

Felix Sater Thing

Boris Epshteyn Thing

Rosneft Thing

Gazprom Thing (see above)

Sergey Gorkov banker Thing

Azerbaijan Thing

"I Love Putin" Thing

Lavrov Thing

Sergey Kislyak Thing

Oval Office Thing

Gingrich Kislyak Phone Calls Thing

Russian Business Interest Thing

Emoluments Clause Thing

Alex Schnaider Thing

Hack of the DNC Thing

Guccifer 2.0 Thing

Mike Pence "I don't know anything" Thing

Russians Mysteriously Dying Thing

Trump's public request to Russia to hack Hillary's email Thing

Trump house sale for $100 million at the bottom of the housing bust to the Russian fertilizer king Thing

Russian fertilizer king's plane showing up in Concord, NC during Trump rally campaign Thing

Nunes sudden flight to the White House in the night Thing

Nunes personal investments in the Russian winery Thing

Cyprus bank Thing

Trump not Releasing his Tax Returns Thing

the Republican Party's rejection of an amendment to require Trump to show his taxes thing

Election Hacking Thing

GOP platform change to the Ukraine Thing

Steele Dossier Thing

Sally Yates Can't Testify Thing

Intelligence Community's Investigative Reports Thing

Trump reassurance that the Russian connection is all "fake news" Thing

Chaffetz not willing to start an Investigation Thing

Chaffetz suddenly deciding to go back to private life in the middle of an investigation Thing

Appointment of Pam Bondi who was bribed by Trump in the Trump University scandal appointed to head the investigation Thing The White House going into cover-up mode, refusing to turn over the documents related to the hiring and firing of Flynn Thing

Chaffetz and White House blaming the poor vetting of Flynn on Obama Thing

Poland and British intelligence gave information regarding the hacking back in 2015 to Paul Ryan and he didn't do anything Thing

Agent M16 following the money thing

Trump team KNEW about Flynn's involvement but hired him anyway Thing

Let's Fire Comey Thing

Election night Russian trademark gifts Things

Russian diplomatic compound electronic equipment destruction Thing

let's give back the diplomatic compounds back to the Russians Thing

Let's Back Away From Cuba Thing

Donny Jr met with Russians Thing

Donny Jr emails details "Russian Government's support for Trump" Thing

Trump's secret second meeting with his boss Putin Thing

And there’s stuff that he’s done that isn’t even on this list... he’s getting impeached. You’re delusional if you think he won’t

Edit: All you russian trolls and Trump supporters in the comments keep on trolling... You think Mueller has been just sitting on his ass this entire time?

Mueller’s team is comprised of the smartest lawyers on the planet. Trump’s lawyers office and house just got raided by the FBI and y’all still think nothing happening? Turn off Fox News and pull your head out of your ass.

While I have your attention this is Putin’s endgame: Removing the Magnitsky Act

https://youtu.be/3V4rGc7Lt_I

https://youtu.be/ieS0HoaaJ18

https://youtu.be/RzzMyhrAenY

As a non American utterly, utterly sick to death of this same go-nowhere 'debate and discussion' after every mass/school shooting in the US, can I propose that we all just shut up and leave them to it?

As Toasted so very aptly calls them, 'those who glorify, worship and promote guns and the culture that surrounds it' are never going to change their opinions, not even when the bodies of their own kids or loved ones are lying on the ground so nothing the rest of the world thinks or says is going to make any difference.

Why does the rest of the world keep on beating its head against the brick wall of American indifference to the value of human life? Enough already; let the idiots keep their beloved guns and we can all sit back and watch the country continue its steady decline into chaos and complete social disorder.

Seriously.. if most of them don't care, why on earth should we?

Alex Einz : ....crystalmeth is the same thing as crack...

Alex Einz: (Here's a link to prove my point) https://luxury.rehabs.com/crystal-meth-addiction/street-names-and-nicknames/

Um.. no Alex.. it's most definitely not the same thing.

And your link actually proves that. Crack does not appear in the list of slang names for meth but does appear in the sentence "When meth is combined with other drugs, such as Ecstasy, cocaine, crack and coffee...."

Ryokan staff can become confused sometimes when the husband is a cross dresser.

What?

Ryokan must anticipate this and have their in house Geisha lend a hand with serving extra helpings of goan

In house geisha, you say?

goan?

I understand that you're not a native English speaker, but that's about all I understand from your comment.

Not at all; the US is the birthplace of graffiti. Credit where credit is due.

Not quite.... graffiti was a thing many many centuries before the US was a thing...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti#history

I think it's probably fair to say that Trump has done more in his first 100 days of Presidency that any other President has done in the first 10 hours of theirs.

@ choiwaruoyaji

People who have lived in Japan for a long time will remember a show about 20 years ago called "Koko wa hen da yo, Nihonjin".

Jeez.. yeah.. do you remember Zomahon? The most colourful character on that show...

He's now the Ambassador to Japan for the Republic of Benin!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zomahoun_Idossou_Rufin

I suppose this explains why a British Jr. High teacher who happens to be Muslim and named Mohammad was recently denied entry while accompanying students on a school trip to the U.S.

Well.. his name wasn't even Mohammed but Juhel Miah. However, as you say, he is British and does not have dual nationality.

“Juhel Miah was with a party from Llangatwg comprehensive who travelled initially to Iceland en route to New York last week. Mr Miah boarded the onward flight in Reykjavik on 16 February but was escorted from the aircraft by security personnel. While the school trip proceeded as planned, Mr Miah’s removal from the flight left pupils and colleagues shocked and distressed.

“The local authority understands that Mr Miah was refused permission by the United States authorities to fly to New York, despite being issued with a valid visa for travel. Mr Miah is a popular and respected teacher at Llangatwg comprehensive school. He is a Welsh Muslim.

“We are appalled by the treatment of Mr Miah and are demanding an explanation. The matter has also been raised with our local MP.

“No satisfactory reason has been provided for refusing entry to the United States – either at the airport in Iceland or subsequently at the US embassy in Reykjavik. Mr Miah attempted to visit the embassy but was denied access to the building. Understandably he feels belittled and upset at what appears to be an unjustified act of discrimination.”

Except for the tea ceremony equipments, are there still handmade products in Japan ?

Srsly? Japan has a wealth of handmade products.

Maybe it is just me, but "Trump" and "intelligence" seem like a self-contradiction

The word you're looking for is 'oxymoron'... which in the case of the current President-elect, has all the stress on the second pair of syllables.

I still can't get over the comment about some poor old British teacher being sacked for greeting his students with "Hello Chaps".

I mean, really? I have to assume that he tried to explain what he'd said to his employer but to still be sacked suggests there's more to this story than we're being told.

@ Speed

U wot m8? Clearly you have absolutely no idea what either Tim Cook or Steve Jobs look like. Nice try though.

When the Romanians brutally killed Ceausescu, their leader, in the early nineties, they asked themselves how they could be so stupid to follow this guy for so long when he just impoverished their people and ruined their country. How could they fall for that? They were enraged and numbed.

That was true at the time, although a poll a few years ago in Romania suggests that nearly 45% of the population feel that life was better under Ceausescu than it is now.

I personally very much doubt that the ordinary NK population will ever rise up against their leaders. A coup, if it ever does come, will be by senior members of the ruling party who KNOW what life is like outside their country.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/raluca-besliu/communist-nostalgia-in-romania

This post from /u/GTFErinyes on reddit recently should answer a lot of the questions posed above...

*Inevitably, the question that always gets asked is - why isn't the world doing more about North Korea?

Any war, not started by North Korea, is simply a lot of risk with too little reward

As callous as it may seem, with 25 million oppressed and often starving citizens, the risk to nations that would be willing to topple the Kim regime is simply too great. Even ignoring the political issues around doing such a thing (whether the UN, particularly China, would allow it), consider that:

The US has 28,500 troops in South Korea, and over 30,000 more in neighboring Japan and Okinawa, who are the first troops to respond to any war in Korea. The US has been there for over 60 years now, and will be drawn in. South Korea has hundreds of thousands of troops, with hundreds of thousands more in reserve. Many are along the DMZ, where if hostilities flare, they will likely be caught off guard. While Seoul is close to the DMZ, it isn't as close to currently established North Korean gun emplacements on the other side of the DMZ. That said, there are parts within reach of longer guns, and as the Yeongpyeong Island bombardments show, civilians are easily caught in the fire in a artillery exchange. The Korean War cost 2-3 million lives over the course of 3 years. While North Korea can't win against a war against the South + US, even a short conflict will be very bloody. Both sides have spent 60 years planning for one another, and have positions marked and weapons in place. Even aside from the costs of the direct conflict, the humanitarian cost will be huge. 25 million citizens of North Korea with little in the way of valuable worldly education - many have been indoctrinated into the Kim cult at an early age - will trigger a disaster with refugees pouring into China and the South.

Keep in mind the heavy cost of German reunification, which was peaceful, and one that dealt with far smaller of a difference in culture and mindsets. Or the costs of integrating Eastern Europe with Western Europe after the Iron Curtain fell and a lot of the social costs that have come of it.

Geopolitics have shaped how the world deals with North Korea

Throughout the Cold War, with China and the Soviet Union as its benefactors, North Korea was largely shielded despite being the aggressor of the Korean War, a war that only ended in a cease fire, not a formal end.

At the end of the Cold War, many predicted North Korea would either collapse on its own or reform as China and Vietnam did. Instead, North Korea held on tight - Kim Jong Il even being more repressive than his father, while doing little as famine killed an estimated 2-3 million in the North.

Through it all, China has helped prop up the regime - again, in part to avoid the possibility of a flood of refugees across its border. In recent years, China has started to care less about North Korea, and even joined in on the condemnations and sanctions. Still, they are the #1 business partner, and strategic considerations (like not having a pro-US nation directly on its border) means they tacitly accept North Korea.

And the question always arises is what would happen if a war did erupt? Would China join in, as they did in 1950? They've never officially left as a party to the cease fire, and have never stated their position. Its highly unlikely they would, but is that a risk the US and South Korea are willing to take, even if the human costs are ignored? No.

Staying the course while waiting for North Korea to collapse has kept a relative peace, but it may not see an end to North Korea anytime soon either

For the most part, all the parties are generally okay with the status quo, given the costs. That said, the hope has long been that economic sanctions and political isolation will eventually cause the Kim dynasty to collapse from public revolt, or from a coup near the top.

Even then, the Kim family has outmaneuvered all of that. Dissent is utterly snuffed out, and their political prison camps are notorious for their brutality. And a coup at the high end? Kim Jong Un had his own uncle executed. In fact, according to analysts, of the hundreds of Kim Jong Un's father's generals and commanders in the photo taken with him upon his accession to the top, over half have been purged/executed.

As the saying goes... any regime willing to kill as many of its own people, tends to stay in power a very long time*

@MsDelicious

portmanteau

What?

Really?? http://tinyurl.com/h54f95k

not if enough people vote. Everyone's vote is a protest vote anyway, so do it right

This is it - if enough people are galvanised into voting for a 3rd party candidate, it can swing. Long shot for sure but c'mon... do it!

Why aren't more Americans coming out in support of common sense, true decency and a real possibility of a bright future for the US? Govs Gary Johnson and Bill Weld are the Libertarian candidates and they've just done an awesome AMA on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/51ijlj/hi_reddit_we_are_a_mountain_climber_a_fiction/

There ARE better options than Trump/Clinton. PLEASE, all thinking Americans... vote these guys in!