Hollytree comments

Posted in: Start-up firm develops tiny portable toilet See in context

#Dave g

Does a bear crap in the woods? In a disaster, me too.

No convenient woods anywhere near where I live -(

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: Influential U.S. country rock pioneer Don Everly dies at 84 See in context

@BigYen

Thanks. Yes, you're right. I'll ignore it. Love the Everly Brothers and have been listening since yesterday!

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Posted in: Influential U.S. country rock pioneer Don Everly dies at 84 See in context

Soundtrack of my early teens! Were they popular in Japan?

-1( +1 / -2 )

Why the minuses???????

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Influential U.S. country rock pioneer Don Everly dies at 84 See in context

Soundtrack of my early teens! Were they popular in Japan?

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Posted in: Volunteers sing anthems to cheer Tokyo Olympic athletes See in context

I am sometimes very touched by Japanese people's non-cynical approach to life. This is so sweet..

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Posted in: 8-year-old boy suffers fractured skull after being hit by mini-truck while returning home See in context

Really hope he will be ok.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Gov't asks airlines to halt new bookings as Olympic traffic rises See in context

Er...it is a bit late for this. People will have booked their flights ages ago. Are they proposing a mass cancelling of bookings suddenly?

28 ( +28 / -0 )

Posted in: Local governments striving to minimize waste of COVID-19 vaccines See in context

I had my first shot on May 12th in a Tokyo ward. It was really efficiently managed, and I was very impressed. The vaccine centre was absolutely full , but properly socially distanced, and all the medical staff and support staff worked like a real team. I got my second appointment that day and went back for the shot this Wednesday.

Same efficient set up, but to my amazement, less than half the number of people waiting for their shot. There were medical staff sitting in empty booths and support staff standing around with nothing to do.

I asked my local doctor why this had happened, and he said that some of the elderly people had had bad reactions to the shot and didn't want to have another one, and anecdotally, some people didn't realise why they needed another shot.

I felt really sad at the missed opportunities, and also wonder what happened to the vaccines which had presumably been taken out of storage.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: As unpredictable Games loom, Japan's sponsors struggle to adapt See in context

I am wondering just what these 'public viewing sites' are!!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan's most senior medical adviser says hosting Olympics 'not normal' See in context

Only 2.7% of Japanese have completed inoculations, a Reuters tracker shows, though the pace of new infections has slowed.

Someone needs to suggest a fact check to Reuters!

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Posted in: Universities across Japan gearing up to provide vaccination venues See in context

But some university officials have expressed concern about an influx of vaccine recipients to the campuses that could disrupt classes for students and their club activities.

I so don't understand this!! How can it cause disruption?? I can see if a student tests positive for covid, that would cause disruption.

Sometimes Japanese logic just defeats me.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: IOC tries to reassure Olympic athletes over virus liability waiver See in context

Did you notice the word 'mostly' snuck in here?

The IOC and Japan’s government insist the games will be safe and secure with participants kept mostly isolated from the general public.

Mostly isolated is not the same as isolated! I wonder what the original Japanese was.

31 ( +32 / -1 )

Posted in: Tokyo reports 602 new coronavirus cases; nationwide tally 5,038 See in context

'The number of infected people hospitalized with severe symptoms in Tokyo is 62, down three from Friday

Good news! '

Probably means the poor souls died.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Posted in: IOC offers medical help for Tokyo Olympics See in context

I know plenty of people in their seventies and eighties who are completely in touch with what's going on.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Tokyo Games workers to self-collect saliva samples for COVID testing See in context

"Those who will have regular contact with athletes will be tested for the virus on a daily basis, in principle,"

In principle????????!!!!!!!!!

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Posted in: 60% feel it is hard to raise children in Japan: gov't survey See in context

Gosh expat, well done for getting your kids into cheap public Japanese universities! Don't know about them, but most children have to go through years of cram school, starting when they are about nine years old to get into them. Without this support it is practically impossible. Parents pay millions to the cram schools to give their children this chance, even if the children are super smart.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Vaccine chief Kono blames drug approval system for slow inoculation drive See in context

"Most countries do not require a domestic clinical trial, but Japan does," Suga told reporters on Friday. "I strongly feel that we need to update our legal framework for emergency situations."

The revisions could be submitted to parliament as early as next year.

I keep seeing the expression 'as early as.....' in articles about the vaccination in Japan. Don't know what you think but next year is not early!

I'm guessing this is the standard translation for a particular Japanese expression, but it doesn't sound right in English. 早くも?

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan's coronavirus vaccine booking system crashes after Salesforce outage See in context

I would like to add there was social distancing the whole time, including while waiting to go in, and hand sanitiser everywhere.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan's coronavirus vaccine booking system crashes after Salesforce outage See in context

I have to say that my experience with Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo has been all positive, At the end of April the online booking worked very well and very fast. (Friends who just tried the phone had a harder time.)

Today I had my first shot at Juntendo Hospital and the system was organized like clockwork, and I was really really impressed. My appointment was for between 2.15 and 2.30, and I was out by three o'clock, with my appointment for the second shot .

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Posted in: Tokyo reports 1,121 new coronavirus cases; nationwide tally tops 7,000 See in context

 My son who has 3 passports I took him to Guam and he is now staying with a family and going to a very small and private school. I miss him over the moon, however, his safety is my utmost priority.

But my guess is that most of us don't have the money to do this, even if we wanted to.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Suga says Japan aiming for 1 mil COVID-19 vaccine shots daily See in context

Would Japanese government humbly accept vaccines from China?

Er.... the problem is not so much the lack of vaccines, Mr. Shimizu! It's the 24 million pfizer doses sitting in refrigerators here!

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: Tokyo reports 1,121 new coronavirus cases; nationwide tally tops 7,000 See in context

For a city like Tokyo, numbers are kept low.

'Kept' being the operative word. Concealed a better choice!

28 ( +29 / -1 )

Posted in: Unused COVID shots piling up in Japan amid slow rollout See in context

@Maybe they can just hand them out and let us do them ourselves.

Thank you for making me laugh! Seriously! I was literally on the verge of tears :-)

30 ( +33 / -3 )

Posted in: Packed trains, drinking: Japanese impatient over anti-virus measures See in context

@While more people are dying from suicide than the actual virus. But we don’t get to talk about that

see quote from website below

Japan, Egypt and several Central Asian nations — the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's death toll estimate is more than 10 times higher than reported totals.

from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/06/994287048/new-study-estimates-more-than-900-000-people-have-died-of-covid-19-in-u-s

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Packed trains, drinking: Japanese impatient over anti-virus measures See in context

"young, healthy, fit: social distance, wash your hands and enjoy life"

Then take the infection home and kill your family members?

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Posted in: Packed trains, drinking: Japanese impatient over anti-virus measures See in context

I personally find it offensive that Suga can report with a straight face that all the athletes will be vaccinated, so not to worry, when most of the country will not be. And does this include support staff coming from abroad, and Japanese staff and volunteers here?

And I agree with the poster above about "When the holiday ended, many defied requests for remote work and returned to their offices on packed trains." That is so tone deaf. Wow, did we want to WFH!! But the company expects all walking workers to do their duty -to paraphrase Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.

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Posted in: Tokyo governor says mutant strains of COVID-19 becoming dominant See in context

A different take on the variants.

Are the variants more contagious?

The WHO has strengthened its international monitoring system as it tracks the spread of three coronavirus variants that contain a particular mutation: N501Y. The mutation affects the notable spike proteins on the surface of the particle and increases the infectious capacity of the virus. The variants emerged from the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.

UK variant

The variant originally confirmed in the UK was first identified in September of 2020. According to WHO data, it is 43 to 90 percent more contagious than the original virus. The WHO also says that analysis shows the variant’s effective reproduction number — the average number of people a single carrier will infect — is likely to be 41 percent higher than that of the original virus. Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases puts the figure at 32 percent.

The WHO says the variant has been found in 132 countries and regions as of April 13.

South Africa variant

This strain is believed to have emerged in early August of last year. An analysis of South African coronavirus cases conducted in mid-November of last year showed that the majority of infections at that time were of the variant.

The WHO says this strain is 50 percent more infectious than the original virus. It also says the effective reproduction number is likely to be 36 percent higher. As of April 13, the body had confirmed the variant in 82 countries and regions.

The variant also has a mutation known as E484K which allows it to evade antibodies and could lead to an increased risk of reinfection.

Brazil variant

This variant was identified on January 6 during an airport quarantine check in Japan for people arriving from Brazil. Researchers believe it emerged the previous month in the northern city of Manaus. As of last month, 73 percent of infections in the city were cases of the variant.

The WHO says the effective reproduction number is likely to be 11 percent higher than the original virus. As of April 13, it had been confirmed in 52 countries and regions. It also has the E484K mutation found in the South Africa variant.

This information is accurate as of April 21, 2021.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1614/

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan to introduce 'vaccine passports' for international travel See in context

Have to laugh! It seems somewhat premature to be talking about vaccine passports when practically none of us are anywhere near getting vaccinated!

37 ( +39 / -2 )

Posted in: Tokyo area governors warn against holiday travel amid virus surge See in context

Lots of groups of people, mostly men, were gathered, drink in hand, near my Yamanote Line station at 10.30 last night as I returned home from work. The bars and restaurants clustered around the station were also full.

20 ( +21 / -1 )

Posted in: Koike pledges utmost anti-virus steps to deliver 'wonderful' Tokyo Olympics See in context

CNN's take

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/13/sport/japan-covid-tokyo-olympics-100-days-dst-intl-hnk/index.html

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