bookowls comments

As for the pension scheme here, I refuse to pay into it since my wife lost hers in the scam from several years back where the government conveniently lost over 60 million pensions and all data related to them! She started paying back into it again, but now stashes a large portion of her money in a private scheme because she no longer trusts the J-government.

Just 2 days ago I was watching the Star Trek movies on Netflix and his performance in the 2nd movie was absolute class! A great young actor who will never be forgotten. Taken too young. R.I.P. Anton.

Doesn't every movie state at the end credits something like "Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental"? There's nothing in this movie for Greene to determine they are portraying him. And besides, it's Hollywood...always that extra topping on every character.

Not seeing any mention of the M5 quake that hit Oita this morning. It's 100kms across the water from where I am in Yamaguchi. Quake warnings going off all morning. This is bad and the volcano situation is only going to make an already bad situation, worse.

Incorrect. They shut down because the companies' inspectors wanted to assess the damage and logistical disruptions.

No, that's not entirely correct at all. People are NOT going to work simply because they can't or don't want to leave vulnerable family members alone. Don't try talking about something you clearly know nothing about! My sister in law left Fukuoka this morning, but said transportation such as local trains, are at a standstill. She had no sleep since Thursday and won't be returning to work in Kyushu for at least another week. Thousands of others are doing the same.

It's very scary in Western part of Japan.

No it isn't....we rarely get earthquakes in this area. Compared to other areas of the nation, it's one of the safest.

I've been married to a Japanese woman for the past 16 years. For most of that time she's been a miserable wretch but I stayed for our son who is now 15. I'm 48, she's 47. Around 7 years ago she started saying she was an old woman. Cut off all affection for the last 5 years, whines about anything and everything and is only nice to me when it's salary time! She's been pushing me for a divorce for years, well I finally had enough and put FOUR sets of papers on the table and now she's refusing to sign them!! She doesn't want me, but doesn't want to let me go!! I'm done! I don't care what anyone says - Japanese women are difficult and cold. My wife wasn't always like that in the first couple of years and I've tried everything to get us back to what we used to be, but she isn't budging.

I have Japanese friends whose parents have slept in the separate rooms for many years and some of the wives balk at the idea of doing anything together!! I even met a friend and his father on his 60th birthday. He didn't look happy and I asked why. He told me his mother divorced him that very day. 40 years of marriage thrown away like a used cup and she's taken 50% of HIS pension? ! I'm not giving my 'wife' the satisfaction....and I refuse to be lonely and bitter any longer! I've done all I can to save the marriage, but I stopped being who I am as a result. I see many old Japanese guys going the same route. Don't ever think she'll go back to being the sweet sexy woman you once knew, your soulmate, your best friend....as my 'wife' once said to me: "She's gone and not coming back so get used to it!"

It was 10 kms deep, not miles. Another one of 4.2 just happened 4 minutes ago at the time of writing. Initial shock wave hit Yamaguchi at just M3.

Japan's justice joke system at work again.

While they are recipients of welfare payments due to such reasons as ‘I can’t work’ or ‘I can’t make it with this amount of income,’ they are often absent from home during the daytime, which raises the suspicion they are out doing something that brings in income.”

Yeah, they're out looking for work! Jeez...this country and its continuously suspicious attitude of everyone. No room for encouragement, just deem anyone who can't work in this overly corrupt government run system, an instant scrounger, regardless of whether they've paid their taxes and insurance, ergo, meaning those payments are rightfully theirs in the first place. So let's send a couple of ex keystones out to spy on folks and casually brush aside the fact that 5 years on, Fukushima residents are still waiting for the government to sort its act out and pay them their dues!

So this is their first oyajisan party in a sense. Many more of those to come in corporate necessary team building skills.

Disgusting!! She deserves jail time at the very least!

My own settings on 2009 iMac - bottom right window corner, music list, click, play, done. 7 seconds. Free.

Snow will come and so will the cold. This is very similar to December 2000 when temperatures were summer like right up to December 16th. Come December 17th, temperatures plummeted to 2ºC and we had heavy snow through April. (Yamaguchi/Hiroshima). Japan does tend to have some crazy weather!

Okay, he's 12. Pretty sure when most of us were that age, we didn't the difference between making an innocent statement and snitching. Lay off the kid.

And people/officials really need to quit calling Marijuana a 'drug' - it's a herb. A plant. A leaf. No one ever died of it, no one ever went on a killing spree from using it, no one broke into a home or store when using it... you'd be lucky if you have the strength to open a packet of chips! That and the fact you'd be laughing and too relaxed to do anything.

NOT-A-DRUG!

It was said that it was only a matter of time before internal attacks started taking place, and now it has happened. And it will clearly happen again. This should be a huge wake up call for Europe.

And as for this:

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bite me. It's AP - you can get the story from a thousand sites worldwide and I'll be pasting the entire story on one of my news blogs just like everyone else.

Gumo and his Japanese wife have three children.

Wrong. Gumo [and his Japanese wife] had three children.

Gumo had a Japanese wife.

This guy should be locked up for the rest of his life. End of story.

Only America is nervous. The rest of the world is applauding Putin for doing something.

so the police force had a hand in this killing?

No. Try reading the story properly.

Tired of seeing 18+ year olds labelled as 'minors'. She's 19 - she's not a kid!

You really need to get out more often. Whale meat can easily be found in countless numbers of places in supermarkets and sushi shops throughout Japan.

Completely untrue!! 16 years in Japan, travelled extensively with my work here and never seen it in more than 3 places! Yamaguchi, Hiroshima and Tokyo (once). My son's school banned whale meat despite the local government demanding that they put it on the menu, approximately 9 years ago. Some of my Japanese work colleagues have never even eaten it! Anyone who thinks whaling is justified through false facts is deluding only themselves!

And here in Yamaguchi, the weather has become warmer with a high of 12ºC today, and a little higher expected tomorrow. Only lasts an hour or so, but very welcoming. Expecting a hard snowfall soon. Much colder than usual here for this time of year.

Ever see those kids in the mornings etc with mega runny noses, almost oozing into their mouths? It's the mucus like substance that is made from the digestion of whole milk. The human body cannot process cows milk properly and the result is a glue like mucus. (Hence why some people recommend drinking a pint of milk before a night on the town. The milk will literally line your stomach and help keep alcohol digestion to a minimum). It's a complete fallacy that cow's milk is good for you anyway, as the calcium in it cannot be digested or processed by humans. I personally quit drinking milk 11 years ago and have never regretted it! Even if I have it in coffee now, I get little spots on my skin around my stomach area.

The real 'perverts' here are those that thought he was taking her clothes off for sexual purposes. Never ceases to amaze me how people 'think' here.

I have a friend whose father owns a solar panel business out here in Yamaguchi. He said they can't keep up with demand for solar panels and power companies especially, are eager to buy up watts produced by these panels.

Some of those with vested interests in the nuclear power facilities have been pushing for years to get reactors back online, with unreasonable and illogical reasons for doing so.

Japan is definitely not short on power and Germany is a prime example of how solar power works. To say Germany et-al is having a problem with it, is pure nonsense!

choiwaruoyaji

I've identified three types of Japanese women:

1). Child

2). Witch

3). Loony

Spot on!

Park is the worse president for South Korea.

I agree, a complete overreaction by the meteorological agencies. Again. It was the same with the previous one. Some of us have to prepare our business and homes for such storms and that takes time and money! This 'storm' amounted to nothing more than a few blasts of wind and some rain, no more than you would get in the UK for example. Looking out my window now in Yamaguchi prefecture, nothing. A breeze.

StormR - it was a workplace dormitory, so it would seem the killer possibly works and lives there too and thus, has a key also. Or the victim invited someone back and this happened. Either way, let's hope they find the killer soon!