Debio comments

Japan can't source from China and sell to the states for a profit under these regulations.

“very” is an adverb

Do the hustle:

There is a facility in Mutsu City, Aomori, Japan calles the Spent Fuel Storage Facility. リサイクル燃料貯蔵. It is meant to house spent fuel that is no longer usable for an undetermined amount of time. It has been a work in progress for nearly 2 decades now and is nearly complete. The entire region of Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori has been earmarked to store recycled fuel that no other region will take. Money from this facility has been keeping the region afloat financially ever since I lived there from the early 2000s. The government has definitely been preparing for this.

In Japanese gender = 性別

For all comments drawing a difference between gender and sex, you have to remember that gender is a Western social construct that has not taken hold in Japan. This story is about sex change. Because gender does not exist in Japan.

You're thinking of route 102.

338 runs north/south along the coast of the Shimokita Penninsula (most beautiful place in Japan in the summer) and connects with 45 in Oirase, which heads south through the tsunami-effected regions of Tohoku.

338 is very dangerous in the winter - slippery, snowy, and often in white out conditions in semi-mountainous terrain.

This is incredibly common in the countryside. Although I bet the girls in the countryside make far less money.

I love yakizakana. My wife makes it for breakfast every morning. Japanese seafood is very delicious. However, when we traveled to Massachusetts last summer and bought Atlantic Salmon and cod, my wife was blown away with the superior flavor, and the fact that the fish is de-boned. If you are a fan of seafood, eat from the Atlantic 0 the quality is far superior.

This is not a good idea. It is a nice friendly way to separate foreigner and Japanese. Just like the foreigner JR Express gate at Narita. I am fluent in Japanese and have lived here for 9 years, but last year when I came back from the US, a kind lady pulled me out of the Japanese JR booth line and told me to go to the foreigner line (which was twice as long and not advancing quick at all). I told her I live in Japan and spoke Japanese. She told me since I was a foreigner, I should use the other line, then she went on to grab other foreigners to guide them to the correct line. I ignored her and stayed in the regular line and got my ticket in less than 2 minutes. This new taxi service will give every other taxi driver a license to pass up foreign looking riders. Stop the separation. It is Jim Crow with a smile.

This is terrible news. It looks like the almighty questionnaire is not enough to prevent bullying. maybe treating people like numbers and statistics is why they become numbers and statistics too soon.

First world problems. Most of us expats living in Japan are just trying to pay residents tax and rent on our meager salaries

Japan is really only concerned with numbers and growing the economy, so I suppose they will need to deal with the side-effects of mass consumerism brainwashed into the masses all day long. Everything on TV and everywhere is all about buying crap that no one needs to find fulfillment. TV shows parade miserably lonely celebrities wasting money on overpriced crap. And the people here just get entranced by that stuff. The whole time, the value of the yen is dropping, the perceived value of families and human relationships is dropping, and the government is finding new ways to wring money out of the entranced masses. It's no wonder under this backdrop people have turned away from families.

I recently gave up buying things from convenience stores realizing that I have absolutely no need for anything from them. My wife cooks delicious food and playing with my daughter is much more interesting than reading magazines or trying the New Coke Life or tomato flavored water. I spend about 2man less a month now cause of the change, and after getting used to it, I don't even miss it.

Oma J-Power nuclear power plant, Higashidori Tepco Power Plant, Recycled Nuclear Waste storage in Mutsu, MOXA Nuclear power plant in Rokkasho, The Shimokita Peninsula is scheduled to be one of Honshu's most densely packed nuclear hubs. Every time I drive to work, I wonder how long the pristine nature of this peninsula is going to last. The relatively active fault lines coupled with dense placement of nuclear facilities are one of the main reasons I would never purchase land here. Which is a shame, because it is my favorite part of Japan.

Come up to Aomori. I live in the northern reaches of Honshu and I only see a foreigner about 2 or 3 times a year. This is the best place in Japan. Onsen are cheap, natural, and plentiful, Tattoos are permitted, hotels are cheap and the weather is cooler in the summer. Not to mention the Nebuta festivals (over 40 different local variations) in August, the fresh and affordable seafood (the Tsugaru Straight provides the best seafood in Japan to Tokyo bar Hokkaido), and the rich Japanese experience (still an untouched land). And in the winter, it is a skiiers wonderland.

I saw a short version of this documentary a few years ago on Japanese TV. I thought it was a twisted late night TV joke because it aired at about 11 pm at night and it was WAY over the edge of acceptable entertainment. The depressed wrestler, Yuki Nakajima, is the strongest one in the league, and he is not handicapped at all. He just gets in the ring and wails on people with much more severe handicaps. The mentally and physically handicapped compete making for blood drawing biting and scratching, mized with crying and screaming. It was so horrifying to watch that I questioned whether or not it should be legal. 90% of the show looked like dark sick humor and 10 percent tried to explain it as giving the handicapped participants confidence and kind of justifying it since it is run by an individual with physical handicaps (many wrestlers are severely mentally handicapped). Awesome that Japantoday is talking about it, even though they seem to be on the side of promoting it.

This is one of those things that just shouldn't be happening in the human race, so it shouldn't technically have to be designated as illegal, since human beings normally wouldn't concieve of doing this. But some ridiculous couple has to go and do this and make us all question our humanity. Who the hell would traumatize their own children; or any three year old child?! But the fact that the child is being protected by the authorities is actually something I am happy about. I wish someone would punch these parents in the face. But on deeper thought, they probably went through the same bullying themselves when they were young. At least no one was raped or killed. But Still, prosecute these a-holes, please. Any decent human being should know the correct response to a child crying. Or at least what NOT to do.

Not very responsible on the teachers part, but I am certain fifth graders se much more disturbing images all the time in manga cartoon form.

The problem is that children's moral education is left up to the government. Families need to take more responsibility for the morality of the children. The more the government tries to indoctrinate children and babysit everyone with Japanese blood, the greater the pushback will be by the youth. At least, this is the case in western countries. I have two kids here and plan on having more, and they are gonna learn morals from their families. I'm going to teach them to question everything. I have read through some of the existing moral education books and they mostly resemble stories I read in English class in elementary and junior high school, but there is always an overtone of us vs them mentality.

Matsuko Deluxe is one of the only talents I can stand to watch on TV. She makes a lot of sense and tells things how they are. Anyone who can understand fluent Japanese will tell you that she is one of the only talents that truly thinks outside the box and doesn't just try to fit into the J-TV celebrity mold. I agree with her assessment of AKB. But I know that there is a large subculture that truly enjoys acts like AKB. Not that she needs defending, but Everyone criticizing her weight and sexual identity sounds real shallow here. This 'fat tranny' is more successful and adored than any of you will ever be. I love her confidence in herself and her high level of intelligence and wit, it is way more appealing than the 'skinny real girls' false stupidity and cutesy-wutsey attitude (exemplified by idol singers).

I've been driving by this very fumikiri in Asamushi a couple times a month for eight years. It is located after a right angle curve off of a main road where traffic is traveling up to 80k/he. The land is raised to meet the track making it difficult for low carriage vehicles to cross and there is only about 1 car length of room before the gate after one pulls off of the main road. Not to mention that at this time of year there is over a meter of snow on every street corner limiting visibility. I have always thought that it was dangerous. You can't even hear the chime from the main road do to traffic. It is not only possible, but also very likely in my opinion for someone to become bewildered as soon as they make the turn - especially if the gates are closing right before a train is coming. This poor women most likely was caught up in a situation that any one of us could find ourselves in and she had very little time to react. My heart goes out to her and I hope that we all think for a second just how dangerous some fumikiri can be. Attempted triple suicide is the most fantastic and ridiculous conclusion I've read here. Anyone who is familiar with the area will tell you it is a dangerous place for a Fumikiri. Everyone be careful driving out there and may this woman find peace.

Japantoday and other Japanese news sources steer away from using the term ISIS. I was curious about this because the other day I saw a Japanese car in front of me on the road. It was called Isis. I am not sure if it was Toyota or Honda. But it was definitely called Isis. Does this have any impact on why the Japanese media steers away from using the term ISIS? Only in Japanese media do I see the term IS. If anyone has any knowledge about this, please share.

I've been in Japan for eight years. Learned the language, passed N1, have started translating, married a Japanese, have 2 children, also started translating from Chinese to Japanese and interpreting for my city hall. My skill level has gone through the roof, but my annual salary has decreased by around 100 man per month. No one will let me work other than contract employment with no future. I'm only sticking around for my kids and my wife. This country is a pitfall for foreigners no matter how hard you try to adapt. I still do enjoy the food and the scenery though.

Yes the Japanese are very good at cleaning. Thats nice, but it looks to me like it is a more 'in your face' to other countries. Does a Japanese guest clean up after eating at someones house in Japan? No, absolutely not. The host does it. But in Brazil, they have a wonderful platform to remind the world how grungy they are. This is less a display of Japanese manners and more of an 'in your face' passive agressive Japanese style.

Peter Payne - Awesome idea. Let these nutbags blow each other up.

FangWannasiri - your advice is tantalizing (or maybe its just your profile photo).

Biked past this place a week ago. Higashidori gets tremors all the time. Whenever there is an earthquake in Aomori, Higashidori always ranks the highest in magnitude. Also interesting, the whole town of Higashidori is pretty much a nuclear facility now. The nuclear power plant built a new elementary/junior high school and re-centralized the whole town around the nuclear disaster command center. They built a giant residential area with NO commercial areas anywhere to be found and it looks like an odd neo-ghost town. The only people who live in this residential area of the future are government employees, the mayor (who has an AMAZING house), and Tohoku Electric employees. Not to mention 2 American ALTS who have to treck 30 minutes to the nearest convenient store. Tohoku Electric owns this town and it is not a fun place.

After living in Japanfor a few years an only having sexual contact with Japanese girls I went to the doctors once for a rash in my Japanese town of 70000 people. The doctor looked at my rash and then smiled and said, don't worry it is only herpes. Everyone here has herpes.

He then prescribed me with medicine for my 'lower abdomen'. Got to love clean Japan.

I live in Aomori and we can only really enjoy 'airing out' tatami weather from May until September. However the good thing about Aomori is no cockroaches. That said, the bad thing about Aomori- millions of nasty stink bugs. I used to not notice the smell (I thought it was nature). But now it ruins everything immediately. And those things. Once they get in your house in the fall, they hide in your clothes and stuff throughout the winter. But they mostly like hiding under the tatami. I told my Board of Education about the problem and they gave me 4 rolls of masking tape and asked me to deal with it myself. I don7't know why the heck Im paying so much for juminzei with this service.

I lifted up the Tatami in my government housing last October and there were literally hundreds of stink bugs just nesting everywhere. Tatami is nice, but it is asking for nasty bugs - especially if it is government housing.

I used to care about this a lot more. But the fact is is that elderly farmers are dropping like flies in my prefecture. My towns population decreased by 11 percent last year alone. It wont belong before there wont be any JA old timers left to care enough to keep up their fight. And besides the handful of government sponsored young farmers being forced into agriculture for lack of work to do, there will be no one to fill the shoes of the jijis. (god bless them). Then finally Ill be able to get my cheap beer! And rice wont be priced as if it was shipped in from Mars.

Everyone talks about how Japan cant afford stuff. Like Japan can't afford to keep reactors offline. Well, 7 years ago when i was living in the states, the biggest bills people ever carried where 20s. In Japan, even the single mothers in my town with runaway (or chased away) husbands, regularly deal with 1man en bills. This countrys got a ton of money. If Japan can't afford this stuff its because Japanese people are the highest maintenance people on earth. Japan is sitting on a 1 trillion plus pension system. They can afford almost anything.