HotblackDesiato comments

“The problem is when we go back, there will probably not be enough business seats available. If that’s the case, we will be in premium again,” the 54-year-old quipped.

Ah, they would of course like to upgrade them, if they could, but unfortunately there are not enough seats available. That's again the Japanese way of saying a positive thing without doing nothing.

They could, for instance, exchange the economy seats with the business seats of the men team. Let the more successful team be travelling in business class! But maybe this is to much administrative burden - or they find another excuse.

Almost all countries have stopped whaling, adhering to this international treaty. Even Korea, where it has also been "tradition" to hunt these mammals, stopped doing it. So it is possible, and the Japanese should not argue with tradition anymore.

If Japanese politics does not stop this stupidity, then I definitely support any action by Sea Shepherd against it (indeed I spent some money and will continue to do so each and every year).

It seems to bethe same situation in Germany. You get flooded by the Groupon ads when surfing German web sites, but the forums are full of complaints about the quality of the food. They also say that groupons have not been accepted by restaurants.