Hotbox08 comments

I've always found Western and traditional ways to have its good points and bad points. While some traditional methods may not work for some, the same could be said about Western medicine (e.g. some people are allergic, or would develop unwanted side effects). Acupuncture takes a leap of faith involving possible pain, while taking a pill is easy. Then again, you face a greater risk of becoming addicted to taking pills (e.g. sleeping pills like Trazodone) and causing harm to your body (or leading to death).

“They said we’d come back glowing,” 10-year-old granddaughter Isabelle Ryan added.

LOL. That's funny, but I guess it's not surprising to hear such rumors floating around.

That bearded guy (obviously a die-hard Mariners fan) with the Mariners cap and jacket and baseball glove must be thinking "Damn, there goes my chance for a free ball". I kinda feel sorry for him.

Wow, this facility makes the evacuation centers in Miyagi and Iwate look gorgeous. Looks like the evacuees elsewhere are being treated better than in Fukushima.

Frankly, I've had no problems with the baggage rule with JAL before. International weight limitations seem to be the only hard part to adhere to, but other airlines such as Delta and United tends to be stricter and they make you pay through your teeth for overweight luggage. In addition, when I recently flew JAL, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to pay for extra drinks, like I had to with United.

Johnny Depp always seem to be the most personable actor around. A lot of Hollywood actors and actresses appear snobbish, not really acknowledging their fans, and rarely doing interviews, but not him.

From what I've seen of Selena Gomez, she is a class act and carries herself well. Like other posters here, I too hope she doesn't go the road of so many child and teen actors like Miley Cyrus who started out really nice and sweet, but has recently been projecting an inflated ego of herself and been seeming very arrogant in recent interviews I've seen of her. I won't even talk about other druggies like Lindsey Lohan and MacCaulay Culkin.

That picture don't look like any slum to me. Visit a slum like Compton California or Detroit's East side, and you'll see what a slum really looks like. On second thought, maybe you should stay away from those areas.

I hope one day JAPAN can also learn that smoking IS NOT COOL!

I'll go one step further and urge all countries to follow suit and stop having Hollywood actors smoking in films.

and little about how their foreign coach (who the players didn't originally want to avoid the language barrier) had completely reorganised the squad.

Wrong there, britling. Zacheroni and ZacJapan have been given two "あっぱれ" by TV commentators this morning on the TV show サンデーモーニング. Zacheroni was even praised on サンデー・ジャポン as having good insight into the players' strengths and was especially masterful in how he brought on his substitutes (Lee, Inoha, and Iwamasa).

smithinjapan:

It's easy to say that Japan has more "fair-weathered fans" than other countries if you live in Japan and never take the time to travel to other parts of the world. I myself could have fallen into such a trap. However, having been to stadiums in such countries as the U.S. and England, I can say that there are all types of fans in many places. Some are the die-hard types who will stick with their team through thick and thin, wearing Hanshin Tigers motifs to work in losing seasons, or carry a Kashiwa Reysol bag around (even though they were regulated to J2). In the U.S., looking at American football teams' message boards, you'll find many fans leaving stadiums empty during losing seasons, and then filling them in winning ones suddenly. It happens.

Bottom line is this: You'll find all types of fans everywhere you go, in any country you go.

I agree that Australia really seems to have kick-started the soccer rage

So true, It's good to see that the fans in Australia have started to get into cheering for soccer (since of course, their team is winning). I just hope they don't start getting turned off it just as soon as they got turned on, if Australia starts losing.

I believe the passion of the fans and said soccer rage are realer than in Japan

I would have to disagree with that. Fans are fans everywhere. There will always be fair-weather fans in both Japan and Australia, as in other parts of the world. I've seen fans quickly jump on the bandwagon once their team starts winning, while others jump off it when they start losing, in every country and in every sport. It's sad, but it's the painful truth.

The western commentators and slow motion camera also confirm it was a bad call/undeserved point.

Uh ... vg866 I was watching the game on the Internet (Veetle) and the British commentators said that although it was an iffy penalty, as was a couple of yellow cards against the Japanese, the officials did an overall good job of calling the game correctly. IMO, yes, that penalty could have gone either way, but so too was some other fouls and yellow cards in the game (e.g. the yellow given to the Japanese player who I forgot whose name it was, who was given a yellow for holding his ground and the South Korean who simply ran into him. Since when does a player get a yellow for holding his defensive ground?). In any case, both teams played well equally and thus the 2-2 score proved it. If the game was completely called fairly, the score would probably still end up being a draw with the way both teams played and with the number of calls going against each team.

Japan created more chances and shots on goal, but couldn't convert most of them. South Korea created fewer chances, but made the most of what it created. 2-2 is pretty much what you get for such an effort.

I remember watching an episode of "Family Ties" a long time ago, where the family got spooked by a break-in in their house and decided reluctantly to purchase a gun. In the end, they realized that owning a gun caused them much more worry than not having it at all.

This was pretty much in line with how I feel towards guns. I know that if I ever owned one, I too would feel worried about it 24/7. Is it safe? Have I locked it properly? If there is a break-in, would a thief find it and steal it? Even if it is in a safe place, would I be able to quickly access it in the event a burglar came into my house? If I carry it under my jacket, have I properly put the safety on so that it doesn't automatically go off? Is it really safe carrying it everywhere I go to keep me safe? Will someone notice me carrying it under my jacket and wrongfully assume I'm a crook (because I know I would be suspicious of anyone I notice who looks as if they are packing some heat)?

NHK couldn't even be bother mentioning this on their news last night

mrsynik: You should check out NHK News 7. You could also check out NHK World, as well as their website. It's on that as well.

You'll be able to see a lot of footage from the floods in Brazil as well as in Australia.

Really? Worked for me just fine. The fact that I'm alive and writing this proves that you're wrong.

Whitehawk: The fact that I've lived my whole life without ever owning a gun and never needing it proves your point about everyone needing a gun as wrong. In fact, none of my friends own a gun either and neither one of them has ever had to fear for their lives as well.

owning a gun in the home will more than likely discourage a would-be break in. in a carry situation, knowing a would-be victim might be carrying a gun will more than likely discourage a would be attacker.

So what you're saying is that as long as I carry a gun in my house and put a sign out front which says "BEWARE: I have a gun!" and tell everyone in my neighborhood that I have one, then I would be safe. Cool.

The institute monitors Japan very closely because of the anti-jewish sentiment.

american bengoshi: Nothing new since this institute has been monitoring so many other countries as much as it does Japan. There are a ton of countries I could name (the U.S., Britain, etc.) with a lot more hatred towards Jews that I'm sure this institute is monitoring heavily.

Yet another shooting at a university campus? And this happens less than a week after the shooting at Seton Hall in New Jersey. In that, one woman was killed and four others hospitalized.

Amazing this made the news since this shootings like this happen quite often in East L.A.

it's somewhere near the bottom of the list of nice beaches in Japan

Of course, it depends on what you're looking for. In terms of beautiful sand, of course, there are more beautiful beaches on the islands of Kyushu, or on the Izu penninsula. However, Enoshima does have a nice lively atmosphere which has a nice, reasonable spa (Enospa), quaint little shops (one of which sells the extremely ubiquitous "tako senbei"), and good sunset views from the tower. There are also a lot of great eating spots like Kua Aina Hamburger. Then there is the always nostalgic "Enoden train line".

Foreign teams were dominating the tournament through rules infractions including the massive use of over-aged players, out of district players, etc.

Branded: Stop throwing stones until you start looking in your own backyard first. How about them big kids for U.S. teams like Pearland, Texas? We all know that America has such lax rules for the age of players in little league organizations.

In baseball, there is a vast difference between suddle (cheating) stealing versus intentional (cheating) stealing of signs.

Good point, sfjp330. Then again, if we split hairs, many of the little league teams in this tournament could have a case made against them of some sort of cheating. Take overage players. I won't name the teams, but there were several with some big kids who looked a bit older than they should be. Just look up what happened in 2001 with a New York team that blatantly allowed an overage player (I think Danny Almont was his name). Till this day, it is not so difficult for young athletes to sneak on a team that they would be overaged and overskilled to be on. Recently there was a news report of a 21 year old posing as a middle school football player. But hey, let's not go there.

which is what this Japanese player did

It hasn't been proven yet, and is "alleged", just like the "alleged" overage players from Texas. We won't know until investigations are conducted, so let's not jump to hasty conclusions.

Damn, people do like conspiracy theories don't they? Especially when things don't go their way. Pathetic! Just suck it up and give kudos where they are due. Both teams from Tokyo and Waipahu played the game with effort and in the end the best team won. Just give congrats to both teams for playing hard and leave it at that. Sign-stealing? If you want to split hairs, there were other teams in the tournament where you could make a case of nasty shenanigans if you wanted to, but hey, let's not go there. Let's stop being like many strict, overbearing baseball parents who sometimes even get mad at their own son, or son's teammates for making mistakes on the field (believe me, it happens; even in soccer and pop warner football). Sometimes these parents, like some JT posters take this game too seriously.

Hey, the 9/11 hijackers didn't use guns. They used boxcutters.

manfromamerica: That's such a lame argument. How many planes are hijacked as opposed to the number of shootings, huh? More people are involved in shootings or are victims of shootings than being in a hijacking. And frankly, I'd rather take my chances facing a guy with a boxcutter than a gun. The bottom line is that a gun was made for one purpose, and one purpose only; to shoot a projectile at someone. In effect, it is a weapon and only a weapon (or a very dangerous paperweight).

Guns don't kill people, people do.

Gurukun: Yeah, but if you take the guns out of the hands of people then you take away the danger of killing people. I know many people without a gun who live normal, safe lives. I've also heard many incidents where people have accidentally hurt themselves or someone else with a gun they owned. Locking it is never foolproof since it is amazing how kids can get into anything.

Congratulations to Tokyo, Japan for playing good defense and fundamental play albeit an error that led to a Hawaii score (or as Branded would say, "gifted" by Japan).

Also good play on the part of the Waipahu, Hawaii team. You all must have been eating your Shiro's saimin. You boyz did your state and country proud. Maltezo battled well.

And Branded, why couple your tiny bit of obligatory congrats with a bunch of negativity? What's wrong with leaving it with "Congrats to both teams"? I don't hear any of the players or other people saying such immature rubbish. Auwe!

Finally, Texas is on the board. 13-2.

ZZZZZ ... this blowout is becoming a snoozefest. How much longer until the mercy rule is in effect? ZZZZZ .....

Ooh, 15 plays reviewed in this tournament, 7 overturned. ZZZZZ ....

Nice relay though by the Taipei outfielder. Too close to call ... High tag maybe?

Nice hit, but he tried to stretch it to third. ... Instant replay?