furuigakko comments

Maryville, TN has a small Japanese population connected to a few Japanese-owned manufacturing facilities. Hotaru-san will have plenty of support when she comes home to Tennessee.

She will face racism by both in the small town, ignorant southerners and the Japanese community in the same small town. Hope she doesn't have this idea that Maryville, TN is L.A., NC or Seattle as she may have seen on all the TV and movies

She'll go back to Okinawa within 18 months.

Agreed!

Had a friend visit, lactose intolerant. No Starbucks to be found, went to Excelsior. Soy latte in menu board, asked for a soy mocha. No can do from clerk, no can do from manager. Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors, like the Banana Royale, instead of fudge topping prefer strawberry topping. Again no can do, mind you this is in Nishi Azabu/Hiro-o, gaijin central. McDonald's like tartar sauce with fries, willing to pay extra. Again, no can do. Made 10,000 JPY bets with colleagues both Japanese and gaijin to score tartar sauce as a n extra condiment. All confidant they can do it, all end up losing bet.

I reminds me of the movie Grave of the Firefly where the older brother was too proud to ask for help. In the end the little sister died.

Children are too precious and the parents should have done everything in their powers to make it through the tough times. Lean on a family member, apply/ask for social services.

I didn't know so many people were anti-hanami. Outdoors, a little nature, good friends, a few drinks, some music, a bit of dancing, meeting new people, seeing familiar faces. All adds up to a good time in my book.

Just like every event in Japan you and 500,000 of your closest friends jocking for position with a blue tarp. No thank you!

I applaud her achievements, it is not easy to become an astronaut. However, I wonder if a person from a hard working immigrant family in Japan has the opportunity like Ms. Yamazaki? If there were, that truly would be diversity.

We recently relocated back to Orange County, CA and where we live there are many Japanese companies and their family members. The Japanese kids in my daughter's school and district look much happier. Lots of parks with green GRASS and play grounds, ESL programs, recreation programs with the city......

A quite a few mothers my wife has met are not looking forward to returning to Japan after their husband's 3-4 year term is complete.

America has it's own educational problems but hopefully these parents can take the positive experiences they had here and try to implement them back home in Japan. But for some reason I doubt they will.

They are sentient animals. 2. They live in highly-developed and effective family units. 3. They are intelligent with high IQs. 4. They have an effective language/system of communication. 5. They are free, happy creatures that express emotion.

The above concepts are completely alien to the Japanese

So true! Right on Smash you called it like it is!!

very sad, but parents should be less selfish and avoid travel while their child is that young and weak. Lesson to all...

What are you talking about? It's an unfortunate situation and has nothing to do with selfish parents. If children should not fly at one year old the airlines would not allow it.

You know what the call a Quarter Pounder in France? Nothing. They got the metric system over there, they wouldn't know what the bleep a Quarter Pounder is, ha ha ha!

Is that a fact or are you quoting Pulp Fiction? How about a Royale with cheese?

Interesting, I was talking to J friend tonight and she said they are standing in line to win the lottery. If one of them get a seat in turn they would sell it to a media outlet for like 100,000+ JPY.

I am a believer now, J-Peeps love to stand in lines, Krispy Kremes, Ginza H&M....

Like the tune from Styx, too much time on my hands....and it's ticking away!

I like Sanada, first saw him in Twilight Samurai. Last season of Lost will be interesting, looking forward to it!

Inflexibility and stubbornness still frustrate me.

Will still be here in Japan long after we become ash or six feet under!

"I wonder what Suzuki will think of me if I don't come in to the office by 9AM"

"I need to get to the office so I don't burden Tanaka with my work"

Lemmings.

It is good that Latin America can organize the Olympics for the first time

Mexico City hosted in '68

“But invisible dynamics were at play. It is a game that is very difficult to win.”

Someone please offer Ishihara some cheese to go with his whine.

I don't think it was so much Obama's fault rather the riff btwn the USOC and the IOC.

Consecutive Olympics in Europe, gaijin unfriendly Tokyo, racist Japan, glad to see Rio got it.

Makes me wanna visit Brazil soon!

Here's the Time Magazine posting:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904132,00.html

Yeah, my hat is off to him, he was also featured in Time mag.

And the fact that you need an invitation from someone in order to join. It's very representative of the closed nature of Japan.

The "in" group vs. the "out" group, it is also indicative in the language.

You can recognize the real and smart man from the loser once you dump a guy. The guy who accepts his defeat wiht dignity is the real men, he will never stalk and cry and will understand that it is over. The loser will continue to stick around even if he is unwanted and he knows it.

Well put!

In short, Japanese people in general are untrustworthy, secretive, and deceitful. From the outside looking in via my job, I hear and see a lot of cheating and usury. Rampant cheating by women and of course men. It would shock you.

I agree with you, yes was shocked too.

Just a social facade for Japanese and stereotypical myth upheld by gaijin.

Along with western media and pop culture. One quote that I remember well was from the movie "Heaven and Earth" when Tommy Lee Jones' character stated "What I need is a good oriental woman". How deceived he was (the charater in the movie) and how the audience is naive to believe that.

@ bobbafett there you go assuming. How do you know I don't speak the local dialect?

The intelligent Japanese women I have met and dated were the ones in grad school the ones that have left Japan. The posting is addressing the Japanese women written in the Spa article.

Then in their mid 30's 35 or so they suddenly wake up and realize, heck I want babies I desperately need to get married. By then most J dudes cast them off as being Obasan.

J chicks are so stupid and material. Ever try to carry on a intellectual convo with one? They are so much more attractive with their mouths shut.

7 bills, rather pricey.

Are they going to have the stewardesses in body paint like in the safety video? That would increase ridership quite a bit, I think.

The chicks in that commercial are nice, but the dudes are total and complete flamers.

There are other cases:

US 60 minutes:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5088149n&tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea.2

@ Nessie, everybody is grammar teacher.

Though neither knew much of the other’s language, something clicked.

What clicked was he was her ticket out of Okinawa and he was a naive 22 yr old Marine from Farmland, USA and first time off the farm. Exactly the why this law was created. Having being a Marine Corps veteran, how many times have I seen this?

As for the son, yes he should be an automatic for US citizenship based on the father being American. Hotaru san will just have to wait until the son turns 18 and he can sponsor her residency.