farcus comments

Surely we can come up with something better than what is basically a rugby symbol.

This is a common misconception. See . . . http://www.nzflag.com/silverfern.cfm

whoever posted the photo and title may well be a Devo fan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBRREj1CLpQ

There are far too many traffic lights in Japan. Especially in the countryside where there is very little traffic they still seem to be placed at almost every intersection. I guess this explains why Japanese drivers fare so badly when driving on international roads where traffic lights are only really placed where they are needed. There seems to be no consideration given to other forms of traffic control such as roundabouts.

Australia want to be best mates? How about they remove the requirement of Japanese citizens having to get a visa to visit for a holiday. Currently it is much less hassle for Japanese to visit that other Oceania country - NZ - where no visa is required.

easiest way to order a good coffee is to go somewhere other than starbucks.

@whiskeysour usually the little earthquake comes before the big one.

This is just not true. While last years big quake was preceded by a couple of smaller quakes there is evidence to suggest that this is an expected occurrence.

Record companies and movie studios are making bigger profits than ever so it is a bit rich for them to always cry about lost revenue. They get no sympathy from me!

I think she looks pretty good. Can't understand all the complainers. This type of news is the only reason I visit Japan Today as I get my serious Japan news fix from other sources.

that is a fantastic menu board. Love it! Next time I'm in town I'm gonna find this place and eat there.

Hollywood has never been very creative - it is all about the money and the lowest common denominator. Mos of the creative movies come from sources other than Hollywood

maybe third in their group if they are lucky.

what's taffy?

thank god I live in a country that has national health cover.

Branded

Ms. Yamazaki needs to prod Japan- her own country- into funding and developing it's own high tech space program.

ummmm . . . have you not heard of JAXA - Japan's own high tech space programme? Admittedly they are not manned (womanned) flights.

http://www.jaxa.jp/about/index_e.html

with the protest mass turnout there is obviously a lot of support to stop whaling in Germany. :-)

I'm not quite sure if this is a tragic story or a humorous story.

ON the TV new in New Zealand they had a couple of Maritime Investigators review all the video footage. They concluded that while the Japanese vessel could have done more to avoid the collision it is clear that the Sea Shepherd accelerates in the last few seconds directly into the path of the Japanese ship.

Perhaps, it's right time that they reviewed the international laws and stepped up the regulations.

These laws are debated quite regularly at the IWC and usually are changed very little

what's interesting here in Japan is that this kind of thing makes the news headlines. I really don't believe Japan is any better or worse for this kind of crime than any other country. While you don't usually see these kinds of headlines in western countries it does not mean it isn't happening - scour the court notices in your local paper and you will see child exploitation/abuse crimes on an almost daily basis.

Yummy! :-)

...but a shame that things like kimono relate so little to how people live in modern japan now. need to build a modern identity for yourself as well...

This seems like a very ignorant comment with little understanding of modern Japan.

Japanese movies - some great - some crap. Percentage wise - I woudl say Japan has a definite edge over Hollywood which is about 85% crap.