inkochi comments

Hmm - give some of the GOT Youtubers a bit more speculative life.

So, do we all need new drivers licences like last time?

Personally I think shiritori should be the system for choosing new era names.

Heisei - sei...

If so, I had thought 'ri' could have been an inventive final component after some of the inventive economic policy of the incumbent regime.

Good luck to 'Reiwa Tenno-sama'

I just remember lower-down and some higher-up officials deciding my middle name was my family name (ie. gaijin therefore English therefore English order therefore final part deemed family name even though it was presented in katakana in the usual myouji - shitanamae form) - even afer seeing my gaijin card.

For me it was just a time to be empathetic towards all those patient people with names from funny places who have to spell them out incessantly.

And I come from a country where its perfectly normal for nobody at work to know the family names of other people there anyway.

Mr Kono is on to something I think.

While completely removing corruption is a pipe dream, but that does not mean efforts are not made to have proper checks and balances in place

Even international bodies need to be registered somewhere - local jursdiction applies.

In principle this works if in practice it may not.

For instance the IOC and FIFA are based in Switzerland - what are the checks and balances there like?

Besides all the above, generally the experience from reaching one airport to departing the final airport.

Security checking.

Personally I find being in the plane cathartic: there is nothing I can do about anything. From there relative discomfort kick in, felt worst on low-cost carriers.

Or, am I just past the firt-time flying thrill of youth?

Had one of these features 12 to 18 months ago on JT.

Same trend.

Time to get older and richer while losing some hair over it, guys! If that (and the J-chick to go with it is what you want. Got mine though still have my hair and less money that before to boot).

When so many people in public eye, from Trump to an AKB-affiliate member use social media as a preferred medium, and news media people lack the skill or patience to look beyond, the answer is pretty clear.

With social media, the amount of discourse has expanded expotentially too. Therefore, sorting through the trash for fact or truth has become harder than ever: from Trump saying fake news media are blaming him for the Christchurch masacre to the perpetrator putting his deeds on Facebook to Chinese firewallers reportedly delaying taking the posts down for 48 hours for their governments own ends - it is distraction as well as witchhunting getting in the way of any balance or clarity.

Japan is not immune.

Difficult to argue against the moral high ground.

Yet ...

Good luck anyone choosing a rational argument on this emotive issue.

城時

Joji, or Shirotoki

Just thought that it in this time Japan as an entity is fortifying itself, in various ways, some circuitous.

Can't grasp the point, when the target market demographic's atention would gravitate to the Japanese text in the first instnace.

The novelty o taking the selfie is could be a selling point. a novelty that may where off.

Whatever makes the company the advertisers and the girls happy though ...

Yes and no.

Depends on the store,where and timing with the 'just-in-time' delivery of fresh and good stuff.

Still a lot of unappetising stuff if you get the above wrong.

Pristine.

A challenge for sumi-e artists, this image is.

Trauma not withstanding, it seems someone has been blurring their revengeful fictional roles with reality too much.

God example of simple technology (set to be) the optimum technology.

Not entirely clear but it seems to be using inkjet to spray stuff onto a panel. If so, simple- I suppose.

Interesting it is being tried out now in Nagasaki - I am sure some local companies have an interest so as not to miss out on any patent windfalls.

Went once in 1994, August. Missed chances to go since. Nice to see this pic though.

Certain pizza- and curry-man, in this season.

People expect leaders to fix these problems. But that is not the point: things change and people need to adapt and change - as always they did, eventually - at local, national and now international levels.

It juts sucks that leaders like Trump and his ilk do what they can to thwart adaptation. Like the Liberal-national coalition in Australia bringing back coal power when everyone locally is getting solar. Solar powered airconditioning is, like, a no-brainer on a sun-baked day, with a battery to take it into the sultry night. If Aussies as a nation want to stay hot and pay for it, be my guest. Or do something about it.

No sympathy for such when they get thrown out or just knocked on the head, just grandstanding in the way as they do.

Last time I went swimming in Kochi, dived in, straight into a 'Portuguese Man-o-war'. Tentacles all over shoulder and torso. Stung. Hurt a lot. Drove home. Used up my wife's apple vinegar (a bit over-rated and sticky). Never went in again.

And this was in early August, which I knew was the tail end of the swimming season.

No beach patrols in Kochi, and I could empathise with people there choosing to swim in rivers.

It is funny how governments come up with new and extra ways to make people hate them.

Just as I thought that I would not need to deal with a security search before a train ride any more after my last trip to Europe, ... The rationale for the measure is more telling there, but luckily I don't live there any more.

Now here?

Seems obvious - put walls up at airports!

Keep all those criminal drug-dealing, terrorist foreigners out and keep the freedom-and-justice-for-all lovers safe inside the home of the brave.

Might need a couple more billion though, Trump.

Niche audiences

Once the system is in, wait till this nice little earner gets ramped up.

Not sure that 'the Olympics' and 'facial recognition gates' as excuses for the charge are going to discourage cynicism.

Best taxes are the one nobody notices (like the extrortionate 'departure taxes' in Australia renamed so long ago and now just part of one-price ticketing). Best, because nobody complains about them till, for instance, some people are bored after a cancelled Jetstar flight and start reading the fine print of their receipts to see how to make a claim about it.

As long as there is no queuing up like about 20-25 years ago to get stamps from machines. But nothing would surprise me about overseas travel from Japan, even now.

Probably one of many to follow (ie. to 'come after', not 'be interested in')

Interesting, modest.

“You can tell a lot about a person from his shoes”.

Except shoe makers perhaps.

And if the quote is taken literally, except also women perhaps.

“The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

— U.S. Constitution, Article II, section 4 (https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Impeachment/)

Sorry - you might have to be patient and wait for Mueller to do his work.

'Danger to the republic' seems common sense grounds, but since when was common sense something to prevail at high levels of government in Washington DC when political point-scoring takes far less effort?

What ever Trump is or does, he just has to say or threaten something.

Closing the border - seems like somebody has blinked first.

Thought she already was, well, 'political'.

Would be a good test of the perceived tough exterior anyway.

Photo caught the bright red bow on the blue curtain behind him well. If only he would have noticed and swapped his extra-long red one for a real necktie(!)? That would have been a good tweet ...

Wandering backstreets among the older and also the newer, always something interesting to see.

Until now all the whale meat had been in freezers often for years. Those minke nabe packs always seemed dry and unappetising and whale yakinuku was never as nice as karubi. Also, different parts of the whale as the noren (hanging thing with whale on it) shows - but far more complex than that I would imagine.

I suppose there is always a market, but I am not in it.

At least going openly for commercial whaling brings Japanese voices back from the extended hypocrisy up to now.