CHAMADE comments

Tokyu did this with Hilton. It's a poignant warning to those international hotel companies who want to enter the Japanese market with alleged Japanese 'partners'. It rarely works once the Japanese side gets the expertise which motivated the initial collaboration.

China must be continually reprimanded, monitored and effectively contained by all its neighbors, Japan and the West until it begins to behave as expected and recognizes and honors internationally held rules of law, such as those governing intellectual property, currency manipulation, IT hooliganism, high tech theft, transparent government and human rights.

Japan must continue to defend and protect its homeland, including the Senkakus. And like it or not, the West and America must be prepared to help enforce Japan's position on this and other matters vis a vis a blatantly rogue China.

I hate to say it, but I prefer a China more similar to..ah..say Brzail, than to Europe, Japan or the United States. I don't trust the Chinese one iota - and haven't now for the past decade or so. Technological theft, intellectual property theft, vicious and adverarial web hacking, invasive belligerence vis a vis the Senkakus, economic campaigns to invade Africa, while embracing a virile protectionism of their own markets and manipulating their currency. They are abusing the goodwill the world had for them when they began pulling thmselves up by their boostrapes. Now they are simply antagonistic, expansionist and secretive - a loud mouthed rogue nation without laws. China must be minutely and continuously and quietly monitored and effectively contained.

Romney LOOKs untrustworthy! His manner gives me the shivers. Those forced fake smiles evoke a vaguely serial killer ambiance. I wouldn't trust this cheesy creature with a ten foot pole. He reminded me of the car salesman in"Fargo".

May Obama clean up once again.

It's a wonderful idea, and it could be very productive and beneficial to many people. It's far, far, far too expensive, in my opinion, though. It will be interesting to see how it's accepted or otherwise by the market.

And things change. There used to be "spooky" teahouses and sunakkus here where the frequently purposely weird-looking staff would jump out of dark corners or creepy corridors dressed in scary costumes, or popped up out of coffins placed here and there. The idea got old fairly quick and they all disappeared.

Living in Tokyo (for over 4 decades now) and eating now and then at places to whom the Michelin people have given their little stars', you have to wonder if the writers covering Japan really know what's what - and especially about Japanese cuisine. I've eaten at a number of places, some very obscure and in the middle of nowhere, who have or had stars here (and which will remain unnamed), and frankly was deeply disappointed. The publishers, whom some of the local media criticized for their first edition choices (some calling the book "Mi-shiran!"!) claim to be employing a few Japanese these days, but the first couple of years I understand they 'ranked' restaurants in Tokyo and Kyoto by non-Japanese who did the testing and the subsequent ranking. There is an odd and potentially unconvincing chutzpah about having some fresh-off-the-boat Frenchman, for example, profess to enlighten Japanese readers of their little red books just what Japanese food and genres are good and what isn't. As if they could possibly share the same tastes and palate orientations. You kind of want to order them up a hefty serving of Casu Marzu....

Built in CHINA? You can have it.

****中国封じ込め！ China must be contained. It's popularly embraced and frighteningly abrasive nationalism will insure it remains deeply suspected and minutely monitored wherever there are Chinese interests overseas.

Boycotting Chinese products is a start.

China needs to be quietly contained and closely and continuously monitored by all its neighbors and the major global powers - until its clear this currently rogue "narikin" nation intends to contribute to world peace and stability and relinquishes its policies of restructuring global hegemonies unilaterally.

Japanese customs can be just as erratic ! I recently tried to send all of my personal belongings from a home i owned in France to a new home I bought in the countryside here. It took six months to clear customs once arriving in Japan; at first the customs tried to consider it all commercial import items! Most of the items actually came from Japan, and what's worse they were from flea markets and antique shops - basically "garakuta" from Japan. Nittsu, the expensive shipper, did virtually nothing to help. After about six months the things were finally delivered to my home, and I have yet to be advised of the reasons for the ridiculous delay.

The enhanced tensions underline the viability and practicality, however temporary, of the US Japan Security Treaty

Ishihara will get himself assassinated if he doesn't pipe down, the old rightist, racist fart.

****How pathetically demonstrative of festering traditional national hatred!

What happened when Japan colonized Taiwan? The Taiwanese adore their former colonial masters (like the Filipinos do the Americans; the Indonesians the Dutch; and the Indians and Sri Lankans the British.) Korea has always seemed culturally somewhat bleak compared with Japan, whose postwar protectionism, neo-mercantilism, quietly adversarial trade and cost free technology acquisition strategies Korea (and China) have shamelessly embraced. The behavior of the Korean badminton team displays an unacceptable dismissal of the very spirit of sports and an attitude Japanese also frown upon.

How much does the average Japanese disapprove of recently uppity and abrasive Korea?

I bring in bags of "Atomic Fire Balls". With the stunningly strong cinnamon centers that melt your tongue!

Is it true that rivers here have currents that actually pull swimmers down and submerge them under the water?? Would these kids have survived had they had inner tubes? Or life vests? I want to know. I want to try swimming in a few rivers in the countryside, to cool down, this month, but I am very wary of the unknown currents and various dangers when the river is a fairly deep one. We see kids swimming in rivers here and in the US, commonly, but what do we need to be especially careful of here in Japan when river-swimming? Any counsel from the experienced readers?

Japan should be gravely ashamed of this tragic story. And the man should be invited to remain here if he so chooses. This kind of thing is one of a number of truly hideous faces in this otherwise frequently very sane nation. Shame on you, Japan.

How very big of Japan to allow this man to be deported. After having detained him on insufficient evidence for years! How very Japanese to just ship him off and get the issue out of everyone's hair.

I find this repugnant and shabby, but when it comes to non-Japanese, typical of the authorities here.

French youngsters, like it or not, happen to love McDonald's - go see for yourselves. It's ironic, too, because from my experience there, the things served at MacDonald's in France are far less tasty than what Mac serves in the US or Japan. But then, good food is not by any means a given in many French restaurants and cafes around that country. I find most French restaurant food around France far inferior to what's served in similar level places in Japan, for example.

I bet a baguette makes a Mac burger taste better, though. Try French toast made from baguettes - in Japan they taste heavenly that way.

Chinese money seems risky for the US - enhancing their leverage over American sovereignty seems the very last thing the US needs right now. Beware.

National health works for Japan and many rich countries in Europe. Why is the Supreme Court unable to envision the future benefits of such a system in the US? America is beginning to look like it deserves it's current decline; it's citizens appear uneducated and suffer from terminal dreams of entitlement. They consume but fail to produce.

I certainly wouldn't call Uniqlo chic, either. Nothing from there lasts very long. I refuse to buy their socks as they tear after just a few wearings. The t shirts fade and seem to stain easily. Their garments don't last long. And you can get warmer long johns and sturdier socks for less at any Workman shop. Uniqlo needs to offer fresh looking merchandise and most of it is not new enough nor of sufficient quality. Uniqlo って終わっている！

Aside from the shrine float and costumes, Japanese o- matsuri seem like little more than pushing and shoving. This may be why people here can endure subway rush hours.

My favorite is o-bon, with the dancing.

****We need to leave this country. Academics are talking now about a huge quake about to hit Tokyo. Can you imagine the sheer horror? More of what's happened, and worse.

As Andrea Bocelli says: time to say goodbye.

What's there to see here other than Kyoto? Most cityscapes here are identical to each other. And usually unattractive. Kumamoto looks far too similar to Mito to have its own draw - and on and on. Tokyo has its contemporary areas but westerners prefer the more traditional faces of Japan. And I think many Japanese feel sweet-sour about an increase in Chinese tourists, not famed for their discrete low key conduct and exemplary manners. Moreover though is the unending nuclear contamination, the absurdly high yen and the poor value in travel expenses. I also detect a general indifference towards foreigners here these days. People are nominally polite but that's it.

For the money, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia , the Philippines (Asia's most undiscovered jewel), Malaysia and Taiwan deliver far far more all around. And there's no cesium in the food.

What in heaven' s name makes these people imagine they will be welcomed, accepted or tolerated by the current IT establishment or American entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley? After decades of observing Japan's strident adversarial trade strategies and protection of their own markets and the damage that can be done through unristricted foreign access to important US industries, do these people think they can just waltz in and "hack" away without being monitored and contained? Their activities must be carefully observed and brought into public attention. Sheesh.

Anyone whose seen the hokey travesties those tasteless Hoshino people operate will NOT be charmed by their self-aggrandizing plans for Okinawa!! Keep this ugly family out of Okinawa -they should stay with the fake trad junk and dorky imitation glop they have on the mainland!

Where is Aman when we need them? They would be the ideal group to create upscale small, elegant and tradition respectful resorts on the outer Okinawan islands. The Terrace group is another possibility.

Anybody but the repellant Hoshinos and their Enka-goes-On-holiday world.

Aman! Get going!

Nice try. Very pretty.

And given that Roppongi often turns into to a thug-infested, sleazy, ugly street scene within seconds, or should I say within steps, of whoosits Mori's assorted Expo-esque attempts to gentrify the area, the place truly needs all the help it can get. Nice to see this non Christian country gets a bit of the message of Christmas, and lucky for them Christianity isn't Islam, as with this kind of blithe, cheeky redeployment featuring fake places of prayer everywhere for commercial gain, were they fake mosques there'd be bombs galore, I suspect.

The light people who selected the grays and blues along Keiyakizaka also did a nice job making that dully swank street a bit livelier.

Has anyone noticed that Christmas decor here gets dismantled at midnight on December 25th? A testimony to its lack of deep roots and to the deity of commercialism, as people and businesses get ready for O-shogatsu and couldn't be bothered with anymore Christmas stuff.

How can the rest of the world contain Pakistan so it supports the defeat of terrorism rather than its spread? Surely not by bombing its innocent civilians. How does NATO and the US get these things so ruinously wrong?

Will have a look next time I am up that way. It looks delightful,.

The thought of being at the top of that thing gives me the shivers. In earthquake-prone Japan, and on a subsoil that may not hold up, it's the last place I would like to be during any size tremor. Then there is the sheer height alone. I have vertigo even glancing slightly downward from such heights. I am not afraid of airplanes but high structures give me the creeps. Like the Empire State Building - which is a Taisho Era antique.