flatearther comments

Kira- Really? You threaten to call the police?? I'm sorry, that's too cute! :)

Just do what my parents did, tell them about the closet monster who eats naughty little girls/boys. It kept me on the straight and narrow till I was 7.

Well, this is one way to guarantee that she will continue to refuse his advances. What a little creep! I hope Japan starts giving out tougher penalties to guys who do this. The way the law is now, it's just a slap on the wrist, certainly not a deterrent.

Ah....that makes more sense.

Thanks, goddog! :)

This is bizarre. They confined him and made him go grocery shopping and have a party with them? It doesn't even make sense! I used to think the up skirt photo takers were bad, but these guys....

There isn't even a method to their madness.

Is this guy really ready to get married? Maybe people should think twice before tying the knot with someone like this.

Hmm....I wonder if it knows how to use chopsticks?

Well, I WAS feeling bad about not going home for the holidays. This recent news just changed my mind. Flying sucks enough already, these new rules make it sound unbearable. At least now I have a good excuse to avoid flying home to see my family, there isn't enough Ambien in the world to make these regulations more tolerable. Don't the people who make these pathetic rules realize how easy it is to make a bomb? Any idiot with a college chemistry textbook and basic literacy skills can do it with common ingredients.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Nutters everywhere.

Reminds me of the 911 service back home. They get the same funny calls from helpless adults, as well. It's most prevalent around the holidays, too. People call in for help baking turkeys and other nonsense.

Wow, I grew up on this guy's music! My dad used to say "Tambourine Man" was the only song that could make me fall asleep when I was a baby. I'd love to see him live! Hope I can get my hands on some tickets.

I miss Christmas ham.....or honey glazed deliciousness, as I like to call it. :)

She looks beautiful to me. Who cares about her racial background? She's free to sing whatever she wants.

Good question.

Too bad i can't answer it. Happily married posters (kira, I'm thinking of you), do you have any words of wisdom to offer about this?

I hope she gets help for her emotional disturbances. It's hard not to feel sympathy for a person like this. I read about so many violent crimes committed in Japan because people are angry or frustrated or because of some other pathetic excuse. For all of her (obvious) faults, at least this woman chose not to hurt someone because she felt "angry or frustrated". There's hope for her if she can get counseling, I think.

"The only words she can speak in Spanish are Hola and Adios". Amazing! A Japanese expat who doesn't even bother to learn the native language. I wonder if any posters will complain about her lack of ability the way they criticize gaijin here who don't speak a lot of Japanese?

@kyokosmile- I am sure there is little we (JT posters) can offer you by way of advice and suggestions. It seems as though you have explored all your options and come up wanting. As such, I can only offer you my sincerest sympathy for your heartache and your child's loss. I can also offer my gratitude, because every time I hear another story like this from a foreign woman it only makes me more cautious and careful. Like I wrote before, were I to ever consider having a child, I would write a prenup with a custody clause first. I'm not certain if prenups are legally enforceable in Japan, but I would consult with a Japanese lawyer about this.

Perhaps all foreigners in Japan should look into this as well. It's unfortunate, but it seems like this is one of the things we must do to protect our children here when we marry a Japanese spouse. Along with childproofing, breastfeeding and inoculations, we must now look into getting prenups to protect their right to have both parents in their life!

It almost doesn't seem worth it to have children in this country, we have to work twice as hard just to protect them here and when it doesn't work out, the suffering seems almost unbelievable. Mostly for us (the foreign parents) but also for the children. No doubt they wonder where their parent is and I feel so sorry for these little darlings.

The right wingers and the Catholic Church won't be happy until abortion is completely unobtainable in any circumstance. THAT'S what this fight is about. Health care for every American is just a vehicle for them to push their anti-woman agenda. I'm surprised they haven't brought up the "immorality" of the birth control pill yet.

If this DOES pass and abortion becomes nearly unobtainable for a majority of women in America, I desperately hope they strike down the recent amendments to conscience clause laws. The ones that state a pharmacist has the right NOT to fill your b.c pill prescription if he has moral objections.

The religious right has no place deciding what I should do with my uterus and I am getting sick of them passing laws that directly affect my life in severely detrimental ways. Their actions are pathetically transparent. The abortion/contraception battles in America have little to do with babies and everything to do with control over a woman's body.

Things like this make me happy to be an ex-pat. The pill may be unpopular in Japan, but I can still get it here and if worse comes to worst, I can even get an abortion. It's sad when I hold more reproductive rights in a foreign country (as a foreign woman, of course, the situation would possibly be different were I Japanese) than in my own. My right over my body SHOULD be an absolute and it disgusts me to see neanderthals trying to yank my rights out from under my feet.

@stirfry- Too funny! Man, this would be the WORST hangover food ever! As if you don't feel bad enough, shoving a cheesy, greasy whopper down your gullet will absolutely finish you off.

I'll stick with ramen and avoid this gastronomic nightmare entirely.

At 30, I'm getting a little old for binge drinking in general, let alone the suicide that drinking at BK would be.

@KyokoSmile- You're the second woman on JT to tell your personal story of losing your child. I'm sorry for your loss and hope that you can someday be with your child again. Stories like yours tug on my heartstrings and I can only hope that Japan will change these damaging laws regarding custody.

These laws punish everyone, male/female/Japanese/foreign but most especially, they punish children.

I'm ashamed to say, but the laws regarding custody would make me think twice about marrying someone here. At the very least, I would make sure to get a prenup about custody before I even considered marriage at this time.

Ah, but it IS beginning to have an effect. A small effect, but an effect nonetheless.

The drug gangs are keeping note of the marijuana trend, and adjusting operations accordingly. Couple that with the increased policing of the border and other factors and you get this increase in violence.

I won't argue with you about marijuana legalization, this thread isn't for that and besides, I agree with your points. It should be legal, but it isn't.

My point is that Americans being able to grow marijuana won't solve the problems with Mexico's drug gangs. They will simply find new products to branch out into.

Also, most of the marijuana sold at the dispensaries is grown by Americans, not the Mexican gangs.

@biglittleman- I haven't been to a sporting event since I was a kid.

Besides, it's a little different (a beer at a ballgame) from going to my local BK and ordering a whiskey with my whopper. Fast food eateries are nauseating in general, I don't think whiskey goggles will improve the ambiance much.

@yokomoc- Evidence of Higgs-boson IS revolutionary!

I like the way you think, though. :)

Correction: pot WAS a cash cow. Now, you can get it almost legally by going to a dispensary in some states. My sister USED to buy pot from a dealer, she now gets it from a friend with glaucoma. She's not the only one who does this, either.

This has seriously cut into their profits. Hence, they have increased their meth operations, which are becoming more profitable due to the recent laws that have been put in place in several states limiting purchases of cold medication (an ingredient used to manufacture meth).

As drug laws regarding marijuana are softened, they will keep branching out into the hard drugs and the violence will only increase.

This violence won't end any time soon, unfortunately. The mexican drug lords are ruthless when it comes to business. These people make the bootleggers of the 20's look like boy scouts by comparison. Unfortunately, marijuana isn't the only drug they deal, anything that makes a profit will do. Currently, with the relaxing of laws regarding marijuana, they are now branching out into meth, which is cheap and easy to manufacture.

Fast food and alcohol? Gross, gross, gross. I feel sick already.

This is only more evidence supporting my theory that you can drink literally ANYWHERE in Japan. However, I draw the line at Burger King. If you need hard alcohol that bad, you have a problem. Who would drink whiskey there?

Okayyy...well, I want a million dollars, but, seeing as I have no PLANS to accomplish my goal, I guess I'm SOL.

Seriously?? "Wants" is the best this politician has to offer? How about alternative locations? Got any suggestions? Why are the people of Japan wasting their tax money on this woman?

At least the Osaka governor has some ideas. What does she bring to the plate besides empty words? Being a politician here must be the easiest job ever! You don't even have to pretend you have a clue what you're doing. Sigh....wish I was Japanese, I'd run for office and get a piece of this free money.

LOTTA physicists commenting on this site, I see. (sarcasm)

Black holes, wormholes and anti-matter, huh?

Alright, I will throw out my loony theory, then. This Atom smasher is going to single handedly throw the Earth's alignment off by five degrees, causing us all to be flung into the cold recesses of space.

Whhoo..science is scary....

On a more serious note, I hope they do find evidence of Higgs-boson, it would validate a lot of theories floating around out there.

@biglittleman- I was wondering the same thing. Maybe Yokohama IS the new Saitama, this is the third or fourth perv-related story we've read from that area.

Amy Yokohamans here to give us the low down?

Honestly, these stories have become so de rigeur that I can barely muster up any indignation. Yawn... another up skirt case in Japan. If I feel so blase about these stories, I wonder how people who have lived here their whole life feel? No wonder these problems continue! Familiarity breeds contempt and inaction. Or as the Japanese say, shouganai.

I guess he's not a fan of "catch and release".

They have a "Spouse Hunter of the Year" award now?

Jeez.

Well, I am now nominating myself for "Eye-roller of the Year", because this kekkon/award business is way out of hand.

I hope more riders on the Chuo line start acting like these Ginza passengers. While I sympathize with those who are depressed enough to take their own life, the delays can eat up quite a chunk of time.