Himajin comments

Let them remove the beam in their own eye first....

“you have murders left right and center it's not a safe place at all. “

But there AREN’T murders left right and center. That’s the point.

Please do tell me which countries you consider safer.

“ The use our taxes for the food they don't deserve to eat. Also, until you are not (and I hope you'll never be) directly in such a situation, where somebody murders a large part of your family, you can not possibly know the feelings of the surviving relatives.”

I was addressing Smithinjapan’s comment-

”Safest place on earth, eh? Just look at all the family murders in the last few days alone and you know that's utter BS”

not the death penalty. An intentional murder rate of 0.31 per 100,000 for Japan...Great Britain has almost three times the rate (0.92) . Familial murders do not endanger Smithinjapan at all, nor make the country less safe overall. If 0.31 per 100,000 makes you feel unsafe, where else are you going to live?

“Just look at all the family murders in the last few days alone and you know that's utter BS”

Thise family murders endanger you, how?

If you're right at, or near the epicenter, the alarm may not reach you in time. We had a 5+ on Awaji in April 2013,

the quake was almost over when my phone went off. In contrast, in Tokyo in 2011-2013 when they were still having a lot of tremors (many centered in Ibaraki Minami) I got 10 seconds or so of warning, due to distance.

"I was surprised to see a 4 on the TV map as far east as Okayama, and as far south as Ehime in Shikoku"

The shocks from shallow ones travel farther. 7km is pretty shallow. There was one in another part of the Japan Sea coast a couple of years ago that was less than 10km depth that caused some rocking in Sannomiya.

You have a certain amount of time to get the inheritance process completed, and, as long as they have the house they have to pay the taxes on it, in the case of someone passing. My friends’ mother is still living, but she wants to move down to Kobe, so they go every long holiday and throw out or sell more stuff. They can’t bring everything here, there’s too much. Evidently no one did any sorting or tossing when the father passed over a decade ago, so it’s still the issue of a large house in the country stuffed to the rafters, even though it’s just the Mum living there.

Sometimes it’s a matter of distance. Friends are going up to Niigata on Golden Week and Obon since last year to clean out a house, and progress is slow. If they wanted to do it all at once, they’d have to close his business and go up for a few weeks.

I found a news report about lost skiers who got back on the trail late last night and called on their cells, and were met and brought back to their lodgings. It must be them....no names in any of the articles.

‘Members of militias throughout the country are adding more bump stocks, semi- and fully automatic weapons to their arsenals and stocking up on ammo.’

Any evidence to support the claim that people are stocking up on fully automatic weapons? The qualification costs $200, and the weapons average $10,000-12,000 each. Not exactly within the reach of a lot of people.

‘If you do live in a state which allows automatic weapons, you must possess a Type 1 Federal Firearms License as well as a type 3 (Often confused with class 3) SOT (Special Occupation Tax) to sell, and an ATF Form 4 with $200 tax stamp to purchase. This makes it expensive to qualify a person to purchase an automatic weapon.

In addition, no new automatic weapons can be registered for private ownership that have been manufactured since 19 May 1986, so fully automatic weapons are very expensive, upwards of $10,000 and more.’

‘The school in Florida did have a Broward Sheriff’s deputy funded by the city but one that unfortunately wasn't on campus at the time due to responding elsewhere, or it may have been his day off.’

He was there. He never went into the school while the shooting was taking place. He’s been fired, or resigned, depending on what source you look at.

" You don't think there's just a touch of hypocrisy in "Maga" when the president's daughter makes her clothes in Chinese sweatships? Really?"

And you don't think there's a touch of hypocrisy in almost all Americans wearing Chinese made clothing and not giving a hoot until now? Really?

“Ivanka won’t be happy”

This apparal group makes clothing for Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Cole Haan, Jessica Simpson, Andrew Marc, Kenneth Cole, and Vince Camuto, among others. On the everyday clothing level, they make Dockers, Bass, Guess, Levi’s, and horror of horrors, all the team jerseys and fan apparal of the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association franchises, among other American brands.

And no outrage in the US at all for Chinese workers who get paid next to nothing for the clothes people wear every day, until a Trump was found to be using the same supplier. Anyone suggesting a boycott on stores that sell NFL or MLB jerseys, or any store that sells Dockers or Levi’s until those brands are made in the US?

The mother seems to be a piece of work. I read some weird stuff about her last year, something about trying to become an astrologist, and that she's very odd and difficult to get along with. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember thinking that it doesn't seem like a good match.

I hope the postponement is the beginning of backing out of the marriage.

‘A little bias, maybe?’

Maybe, but he has accomplished a lot in a few short years.

‘Hanyu has broken world records twelve times, and currently holds the world records for the highest short program, free skating, and combined total scores.He is the first man to have broken the 100-point barrier in the men's short program, the 200-point barrier in the men's free skating, and the 300-point barrier in the combined total score, as well as being the first Asian figure skater competing in men's singles to win the Olympic gold. At the age of nineteen, he was the youngest male skater to win the Olympic title since Dick Button in 1948. At the 2015–2016 Grand Prix Final, he broke the record for the largest victory margin, with 37.48 points.At the 2016 CS Autumn Classic International, Hanyu became the first skater in history to successfully land a quadruple loop in competition.’

"trying to stop the influenza virus with a mask is like trying to stop water with a fishing net."

Well, I wear them in crowded trains as I feel it is slightly better than someone sneezing or coughing in my face. Some people are pigs and never cover their mouths.

" Each participating country determines, on its own, the policies and emission reductions to which it is prepared to commit. It then submits a Nationally Determined Contribution, i.e., a set of emission targets and a plan to achieve them. The US voluntarily offered up an NDC and can voluntarily offer up a different or weaker NDC any time it wants.

Trump can weaken the US NDC, without penalty. He can roll back all of Obama’s carbon regulations, without penalty. He can simply fail to meet the targets of the NDC, without penalty. "

Which is why I think it's a waste of time, pure self-congratulatory 'eco' BS. They can set their own targets (whether those target reductions are based on reality re environmental benefits or not), set their own time frame (untethered to how fast it supposedly needs to be done to save the planet), and if you don't live up to it, no penalties??

What use is it?

And they all fly from all over Europe to Paris on private or government planes, causing God knows how much additional pollution....it's an exercise in patting oneself on the back. No country is going voluntarily opt for levels that actually cause economic pain...what a waste of time and resources.

アホやねん。。。。why the hell post it on the internet ? Why not just use the flame thrower at the koban and save everybody some time? Same difference...

Here’s the promotional video, at this link-

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/17/nintendos-bringing-diy-robots-and-more-to-the-switch-using-cardboard/

They are planning on offering replacement cardboard parts.

 Women are more likely to be isolated in old age simply by the virtue of living longer.

Women are much more likely to have networks of friends than men are. Men in Japan seem not to cultivate friendships outside work much, and then when they retire, all their former work 'friends' just fade into the woodwork.

It's proof that if slavery existed today it would be the Republican party behind it.

Huh? That's a wild leap if I ever saw one, and a 'look, a squirrel!' move on your part.

 How can an emergency broadcast system not have backups and multiple redundancies to prevent false alarms like this?

Don't know, but earthquake alerts have gone out by mistake when testing the system here, as well.

' a delusional paranoid schizophrenic, probably a manic depressive, Bi Polar definable.'

Wow...you're a shrink, and can diagnose long-distance? His live hour-long broadcast of his meeting with reps in the White House pretty much destroyed the mental illness/dementia argument (you hadn't noticed that it has pretty much disappeared for the time being?).

Every report of this utterance has been 'based on reports of those briefed on the meeting'...how many times is that removed from the people who actually attended the meeting? Since when are the reports of 'people who were briefed on the meeting' considered the burden of proof for publication? Others at the meeting are saying the remark was not made.

Oh, no one will like it when these standards of 'proof' are all used on the next Democratic President, but they will be...I'm thinking that people will not be happy with the consequences, should they succeed, of the tactics they are willing to engage in, in order to get rid of Trump. Do you really want to change the rules so a President can be unilaterally removed under the 25th Amendment , solely on the basis of social media posts? That can impeach a President for decades-old incidents that were known pre-election, and occurred before they took office? Do you really want a press that presents rumor as fact? The blow-back on this for the next Democratic administration will be spectacular, if they succeed in all of this, but nobody's thinking that far ahead, past 'Get Trump!'...

Durbin has a history of making up comments out of thin air, causing a ruckus, and then refusing to comment.

“In a ‘negotiation’ meeting with the president, one GOP House Leader told [President Barack Obama]: ‘I cannot even stand to look at you,’” Durbin wrote in a post on his Facebook page over the weekend.

However, both the White House and the House speaker’s office denied Durbin’s account of events.

Asked about the post in the White House daily briefing, press secretary Jay Carney said he checked with a participant of the meeting in question.

“I looked into this and spoke with somebody who was in that meeting and it did not happen,” Carney said.

Durbin's office "had no comment on the post and offered no further details."

"Sen. Durbin’s accusation is a serious one, and it appears to have been invented out of thin air," said Brendan Buck, spokesman for then-House Speaker John Boehner. "The senator should disclose who told him this account of events, retract his reckless allegation immediately, and apologize."

But, any port in a storm, eh? Trump says enough dumb crap on his own, jump on him for that. You can cheer on all kinds of sleazy reporting now, as it targets the object of your hate, but I hope to hell it doesn't become the new journalistic standard.

One girl and her bike were thrown, but it looks like his car either smashed into or rolled over on the other one, the bicycle is completely wrecked. TBS news said that bystanders were performing CPR on one of the girls until the ambulance came. It looks serious. I, too, hope they can recover.

The reporter showed up at his house during the New Year holiday and asked for an interview, and he said no. The reporter kept approaching the house and was really pushy about it. So evidently he blew up when the same guy asked him a question at the event.

the water is silty and stagnant and devoid of sea life. 

I was just there last year, and took loads of photos of beautiful fish swimming around right off the beach near the Westin. The water was beautiful.

Japan ranks 26th overall, but is second highest amongst developing nations, according to 2015 stats.

“Japan has over 8 million abandoned properties in Japan, many of these have derelict home on them”

“mostly these properties are left to ROT & are eyesores & dangerous as well over time!”

You can thank the government for that as well. If you knock down a house and grade the land etc to sell it, the property taxes almost double! It’s ridiculous, actually an incentive to leave the building to rot...they should offer a deep discount in property tax if the owners clean up the lots. As the laws stand now, they encourage people to abandon houses. That’s why so many people make parking lots out of small parcels.

Yup. Same here. MIL's mother took over the care of a small single-level house in their home town shortly before she passed away. She hadn't had time to do the paperwork with the aunt who owned it. Aunt lived too far away to do the upkeep on it, so she gave it to her sister, leaving no documentation. They both passed away the following year, and MIL took it over, dividing it into four small apartments and rented them out. She didn't do the paperwork, either, it was 'mendokusai' (too much trouble). When she finally got around to starting on it, in the late 90's, there were 40 people who had to put their seal on the documents.

Some were in their 90's and sent the wrong paperwork, and had to do it over. Three or four direct descendants of the original aunt refused to sign, and demanded it be sold and they given the money, when they hadn't even known about it. MIL and FIL had made 2-4 man a month from it depending on how many of the apartments were rented out at any one time, the apartments were tiny so they only rented for 10,000 yen, but the relatives thought they had made a mint and wanted their share. They didn't consider that MIL/FIL had been paying the property taxes on it for decades, they had put a new roof on it, and had converted the house to flush toilets, and other improvements and upgrades over the years that the rent didn't really cover. It's a Taisho-era wood and tile building, it's unusable now. They hung in for 6-8 years demanding it be sold and the money handed over. Eventually MIL got dementia and now nothing can be done about it, and our lawyer has all but given up. It will be taken over the by government once MIL passes.

“ Buddhism is not used in modern Japan, just a borrowed word and a few gestures, bells etc.”

“ The five precepts of buddhism.

harming living things

taking what is not given

sexual misconduct

lying or gossip

taking intoxicating substances eg drugs or drink”

Yes, and if we look at the Ten Commandments, it’s clear there are no Christians either, just a bunch of songs and twinkly lights on trees.....