Extra Virgin Palm Oil comments

I'll bet this story would make a great movie!

I celebrated the global unity alone in my small Japanese apartment.

Quietly, and only in my heart, as I was directed.

Let's make sure that, in our rush, we are cautious about squirting live but slightly weakened viruses so near and direct to our brains.

Yum-yum! These promises taste just as good as they did 20 years ago, but they're just empty sugar.

LDP only cares about imaginary North Korean child abductions, and doesn't give a fig about abused and abducted children here; as well, daycare and parental support are always "tomorrow".

I honestly thought that when vaccines became available in January of this year that the government and health ministries were going to make the maximum effort to get everyone vaccinated before the opening of the Games. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to show Japan's "victory over the Coronavirus" and give doctors and other healthcare workers front-row seats in the packed stadiums.

But instead we got . . . this.

All PM Suga needed to do was focus on getting as many people vaccinated as possible before the Olympics started.

The empty "vows" and "pledges" while flying-by-the-seat-of-the-pants decision-making doomed him.

It's refreshing to see someone with concrete plans, instead of Pollyanna pledges

Jim, can you please cite your source that the Mu strain is "highly resistant to vaccines"?

Foreigner in Tokyo-san, Over the past year (and a half) I have I often struggled to explain my frustration at the leadership in Japan, and you have summed it up perfectly.  

No one wants to be responsible for making a wrong choice, but there is also a responsibility when leaders' procrastination leaves few or no good choices.

So, by "mixing and matching" they actually mean "mixing, NOT matching".

And by "'We have already secured the necessary quantities' for a booster shot rollout," Kono actually means "LOL, I dunno. We'll cook up a plan later."

am very thankful that MacDonald's restaurants replaced their menus with large flashy advertisements hawking only their newest and highest-priced promotions.

Since I can't see the entire menu I've stopped going there.

Stop telling me what I want

any and all Monty Python movies and original shows.

any and all Godzilla movies (sorry, but no cartoons, nor American Hollywood versions)

any and all pre-2000 Jackie Chan movies

With the current hot and humid weather, I welcome anything cheerful that will make my blood run cold and send a chill down my spine. The Halloween spooky season is a nice, sanguine distraction from the daily madness, and a sign of the cool weather to come.

Congratulations, Ms Yamada! May you forever be an inspiration to others, and I wish you continued success with your studies! And much praise to your wonderful mom too! Cheers!

Big Chungus:

"In all fairness, weed makes me brain dead."

There, I fixed it for ya!

Unbelievable. I mean, literally.

I'm going to get vaccinated because of the pressure I feel from my peers killing me with their nasty virus.

That is not a postcard.

So, is the Japanese government going to shift its enormous funding subsidies to a domestic pharmaceutical company who can make RNA vaccines, or is it just going to keep pumping money into this lost cause?

--By lost cause I mean the vintage chimpanzee-based adenovirus vaccine, not the vintage lost cause occupying the prime minister throne.

I wish Mrs. Oil and I could have been there.

It seems like a once-in-a lifetime chance.

I've been completely bewildered why so many mistakes have been made.

And very distressed by the careless destruction of so many Japanese people's lives and businesses.

All this pandemic kabuki and intimidation, for such little return for so few people in power.

Thank you, Japan Today, for publishing this, but I think that almost no one will read it.

Tell me when we've triumphed over anything.

Well, that's a lie.

And then there's this:

(T)he government's job is to tackle challenges.

The key word there is "tackle" NOT "poke someone else's finger into"

Overwhelming problems require overwhelming solutions, not overwhelmingly empty vows and pledges.

And lies.

LOL.

Tell that to Julius Ssekitoleko, if you can find find him.

Last seen buying a shinkansen ticket to Nagoya.

Cold fresh cucumber slices dipped in your favorite miso sauce with a bottle of ice-cold beer (Asahi is my preference) makes summer a good friend.

One look at this hastily-prepared hotel conference room with its fold-up PTA banquet tables and loose, mismatched carpet tiles and I know that yes, this is going to be the best-ever.

If they were all wearing green toilet slippers, I would give this photo a chef's kiss.

I hear you, Kawaguchi-san.

We were all originally hoping for some kind of benefit from the Games.

Or now, at least some competent leadership and management through the crisis.

tone down Olympic-related festivities

LOL this, from tone-deaf leadership

What a mess. Let's look at the truth.

--"126 on Tuesday compared with 1,200 in mid-May."

Mid-May Osaka numbers ranged from 851 (5/12) to 415 (5/21). There was a 1262 high on 05/01 but it continued to fall since that day.

The number was 40 on July 28, but now, just over a week later, it's 151.

With no vaccine and no leadership we are now headed toward disaster.

That's all well and good, but how do the magnets taste?