GyGene comments

Well, I’m glad. We, the customers, can prepare for a few holidays a year for these stores.

Right on, semperfi.

Beautiful, and makes me homesick..

I always pull for the locals in agriculture. But also in manufacturing. And this is where Japan whipped USA years ago with cars. USA car industry seems to be doing okay, but I don’t know. Old zones above is right.

Wait. Iran just blatantly bombs Saudi Arabia oil facilities?! You mean a country can do this and get away with it?! Seems to me that Saudi Arabia allies should step in and blow the smithereens out of Iran. I don’t see how this should be allowed to happen.

I loathe nuclear.

Japan needs to have fast free wifi internet first for visitors.

NHK are the bullies.

I'm pulling for Rakuten. We need more competition.

Boys, we’ve made it this far, we shall make it from here.

Great! I like the farming idea too. Farmers are the REAL backbone for all of us. As I enjoy my coffee, natto, eggs, etc. this morning.

Just when we are changing to Korean Air! Maybe not now.

Starbucks for comfort, no smoking, and atmosphere. But we love Doutor! Except for smoking. And no comfortable seating, no WiFi, cannae charge phones! These days, it’s absolutely inexcusable to not have WiFi internet, and it’s plain cheap and chintzy to not be able to charge a phone! So, it’s Starbucks!

Whew, life can get complicated! From the U.K. press having a front page headline saying, “Japan's Evil Sun god Burns in Hell” when he died in 1989, (y’all remember that one?) to those who still revere Hirohito, and everything in between. I don’t truly know, but my opinion is he had great culpability for Japan’s role.

Hey, afanof (Russian, eh? Sloveka Afanov, eh?), I agree. We avoid new year and obon travel.

albaleo, if Chinese people try to get a life, they’ll be persecuted terribly. They must toe the party line. Oh, hey panda faced Xi.

Yes. I’m for Japan having a very strong self defense force.

Oh me, since I get my money in USA dollars to change to yen, it hurts me.

Well I was in Vietnam at the time. Those of us there never even heard of Woodstock. And I still am not a supporter of what they stood for. Seems to me the results of all that “peace and love” aren’t so good overall. Just look around at USA now...

We try to never go with the flow during Japanese holidays.

I have a bit of ash from Asama eruption many years ago. I also climbed to the very top. A spooky site, peering down into the abyss.

A homogenous society has pros and cons. So does a multicultural society. It’s people.

So, that’s how you got Toasted, eh? Whew, it ho’.

ifd66, how’d you do that? Build a house that doesn’t need air conditioning in this heat?

For 40 years, I worked for a non profit NGO and did a bit of research on per capita giving in the USA. For several years, guess what state gives the most per capita in USA?

One of the poorest: Mississippi. Yes, for several years running, Mississippians gave more per capita than any other state! I think per capita giving is the only real way to measure charity.

No. Japan had ample warning about what was going to happen but still refused to surrender. The USA did not want to drop these terrible bombs. There were even several days between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and still Japan’s leaders would not surrender! War crimes were committed in Nanking, Thailand, and some other places. But we have forgiven Japan of those terrible things and have moved to our mutual futures for peace and prosperity.

I was in Aeon in Izumi, Sendai paying at register when it hit. Very strong here, fortunately all seems okay.

Didn’t President Park take all the Japanese money, $500 million (?) and put it into South Korean economy in 1965 instead of helping the South Koreans who were actually hurt in the colonial period? If so, that needs to be brought up again. All I know is I want good will and cooperation in these parts.

This mess is so ridiculous that I wonder if somehow North Korea is behind it. Are South Korean people that stupid?

Have I said lately that I loathe nuclear? I do.