inshikoku comments

Posted in: Modern air travel has become increasingly unpleasant as airlines continue to shrink seat sizes to fit more passengers on board, especially in economy class. What do you do to make your flight more bea See in context

Make sure I have an unlimited supply of Adult beverages coming my way to get through the flight.

And an aisle seat.

Flights themselves are one thing, but the security checks at international airports are invasive, time-consuming, expensive, frequently over-officious and generally unpleasant. Once on stop-over in Manila going to Australia, all the Australia-bound passengers were told to line up and were told that in partnership with the Australian government we all had to do a body security check, including a wedgie. I was going to Sydney but the flight stopped in Melbourne where we had to get off for an hour and straight off the plane (at about 6 in the morning) was another body security check including a wedgie. Then they pushed us through the airport duty-free emporium which was fully open (!!!) down a couple of corridors to another body search and another wedgie. (If you don't know, a 'wedgie' is if you straighten your hand flat and then shove it straight up another person's you-know-what). Yes, at that time any pleasantness of my flight to Australia was interrupted by sexual assault by a Philippino proxy of the Australian government.

So, a couple of drinks, an aisle seat and a set of movies to watch, hopefully not on a short-haul Boeing 737 with the seats all squashed and slanted such as to make standing to get out impossible, and it is possible to bear a wedgie-free flight.

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Posted in: British teen nets super role as Spider-Man See in context

So, three Spidermans (!) in a decade with a Dutch Spiderman (!!) also on its way.

Did any of the people involved in these projects fail to notice something?

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Posted in: The gun control debate: Do you support the right of citizens to own and bear firearms? See in context

The days British North American colony-born insurgents and militia needing their single shot muzzle loaded non-rifled barrel fire-arms are over, baby.

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Posted in: Which sports, when they are played well, do you find the most exciting to watch, and which sports do you find so boring that you can't understand how anyone could find them interesting? See in context

Good to watch: 20-20 cricket & Rugby League Bad: Rugby Union & American football (too many stoppages), baseball (ongoing stoppage)

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Posted in: Can Islamic State be eradicated by military means? See in context

I voted Yes, because even ISIS is concerned about territory possession or occupation.

However I believe that it shall not be military action by nation states primarily that can cause their defeat or demise. Rather it would be non-nation-affiliated militia and the like (Kurds the interesting exception). In a sense it becomes like a gangland war.

The world-internet aspect is another theater and needs to be considered differently - for instance there are no Toyota Hilux utes with 50 cals mounted on the back and ISIS banners waving driving around New York, Paris, Melbourne or even Kuala Lumpur. Even for ISIS-inspired terrorism events outside of its occupied zones, online responses, public policy and law, clandestine infiltration or at most para-military responses by states is how they would be dealt with.

Responses by US and coalition, Saudi Arabia and (who knows) maybe even Iran, are limited by orthodox war-related treaties and international law, not so much because they abide by the law as much as other nation-states would always use international law and treaties as excuses for what they subsequently would say or do.

No, rather it is organizations, institutions or parties who do not see themselves bound by established nation-state organization structure of the world, which are going to make a difference with ISIS. Nation states can make a lot of noise, and blow up a lot of things from a distance but little else directly besides covertly supply 'clients'. These clients then are the ones to engage in direct military confrontation with ISIS.

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Posted in: What do you think of those long black gloves and dark visors that some women in Japan wear during summer? See in context

Just the visors irk me - when the women (I have seen men with them once or twice) ride bicycles or drive cars with them on, it isn't possible to see which direction they are looking, if they have seen me walking, riding or driving.

So, for me it is simply this safety issue.

Otherwise, whatever!

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Posted in: In Japan, women are usually kept in hospital for up to a week after giving birth, while in the West, if there are no complications, mothers usually go home the next day, or even less, as was the case See in context

I actually asked about that in the hospital when my son was born. They explained that lots of mothers have no idea about changing nappies/daipers, breast feeding and breast milk, not to mention new routine of 3 hours sleep at a time if they are lucky, and so on. Lots of mothers do know but lots of mothers don't, it seems. They said they were just, sort of covering the child-welfare bottom line. Incidentally my son's mum was in hospital for 6 days.

Rorting health insurance by hospitals might be one negative motive or effect, but possibly there are positive effects as well.

By the way, my mother in the 1960s in Sydney was in hospital for a week or more for each of her 6 children ( was oldest and yes I remember 5 of them. But I suppose it is getting closer to the 2060s now, so my memory may not matter any more.

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Posted in: Cameron Crowe apologizes for casting Emma Stone in part-Asian role See in context

Excuses/explanations aside, not quite in the same league as casting John Wayne as Ghengis Khan in the 1950s

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Posted in: Tough match See in context

Oh well!

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Posted in: Solar Impulse 2 over Sea of Japan See in context

The plane's wings are covered in solar panels, just like vehicles in solar car races.

I wonder when they will get around to putting solar panels on hybrid and electric cars - these days it seems like a no-brainer.

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Posted in: Japanese man completes tattoo homage to ’80s and ’90s Shonen Jump anime See in context

Better gawk at the this picture as we're never going to see him in the onsen.

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Posted in: Do you think Japan should do away with the one-yen coin? See in context

Remember in the good old days of 5% consumption tax and 1 yen coins were hardly apparent. Just like before consumption tax started at 3% - that is when the head ache started.

One yen - yes, be gone! Rounding off does not incur too much loss. Also, the alloy production cost is greater than the value of the monetary unit.

Five yen - not yet - wait until consumption tax hits 10%. Also rorting of 4 yen a pop instead of just 2 yen. Hmm - just a bit too much at this time.

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Posted in: KFC Japan adds more breast to their chicken with ‘sexy’ new LINE character See in context

Looks like a bit more 'fukuppy'.

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Posted in: Man admits flushing ashes of wife down supermarket toilet See in context

It is a rather gruesome activity as the staff member explains which specific bones they are

Yeah, I had to do it last week. The staunch silence in black attire after the cremation incineration while the guy explains how to break bones if they are too big to fit in the urn (think of intact pelvis into a large coffeepot). So, as I duly followed his instructions and got roundly abused afterwards for angering my sister-in-law by breaking her collarbone and skull.

Yeah, Matt, not the way I want to go nor send anyone, if I had a choice

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Posted in: Does it bother you when people talk on smartphones on buses, trains or in restaurants? See in context

Bothers me when they talk in a loud voice, increasingly so when it goes on and on, like with obahans on the bus back to Shikoku from Osaka.

Otherwise just generally with smartphones, people become so switched off nowadays, looking and listening to them with headphones. The only bright thing about it is school kids riding bikes at night in winter wearing black school uniforms and no lights on except their faces lit up by the glows of their screens. There is usually one like that in a group of six or more, so I can see them, a bit, so it is all right!

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Posted in: Hollywood is bombarding us this summer with lots of sequels and remakes, such as “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Terminator: Genisys,” “Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation," "Jurass See in context

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/johnny-depp-abandons-pirates-ship-to-save-marriage-to-amber-heard/story-e6frg6n6-1227362398880

Here is a link to an ongoing story about the making of the 5th installment of a Disney franchise, known for comedy and action. There is something here for satire of movie making, not original I must admit.

However mixing egos, politician's use of vernacular when they want somebody to 'bugger off', cute dogs and other animals threatened with untimely demise, long-suffering movie crews, apologetic publicity people, fed up directors, beautiful new young wife and wayward main actor husband's jealousy in between hangovers, lesbian competition, and a movie franchise that offers most of this in its past plot-lines, ...

I think there is something in this scenario of skewed reality. If anyone wants an original idea for a movie, ...

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Posted in: How women can manipulate clueless men See in context

Did a chick or a bloke write this?

Anyway,

Think of your man’s brain as a musical instrument and learn to play it. Fortunately, it’s an uncommonly simple instrument. A little practice will turn you into a maestro.

They got that wrong - brain has nothing to do with it. Something else I'd reckon.

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Posted in: WWII kamikaze base to seek UNESCO recognition for pilots' documents See in context

Among the Kamikaze pilots (there were suicide boats and lots of soldiers ran at machine guns brandishing just swords or bamboo spears too) there were undoubtedly brave people, and suckers. There was also a nasty bit of stick for people who refused or couldn't do it.

Essentially in the Pacific and East Asian war, Japan lost well over 10% of its population, collateral which self-centered myopic militaristic idealogue leaders were divorced from and hardly concerned about - and I have not even begun to catalogue all the collateral damage in the Pacific and East Asian region that the Chinese government and others bang on about. Among Japanese combatants, more were lost to disease, maltreatment and deprivation than to actual combat. And that is all just sad, with very little that is noble about it. Then there was that stupid enduring rivalry between Imperial Army and Imperial Navy.

UNESCO heritage listing for one ex-base hypothetically would require recognition of a heap of others in Kyushu, Okinawa and in present-day Taiwan. Even the present Abe regime would not want to go down that road. It is in the same ballpark as making Auschwitz a heritage site memorializing Nazi ex-SS war criminals but probably not as sick nor extreme as that would be.

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Posted in: Cast, old and new, unite at 'Mad Max: Fury Road' premiere See in context

In the trailers, the people using tall flexible poles as means to board vehicles at high speed seems a new one (though George Miller was never afraid to just speed up a chase done at 30 or 40 kph).

Road Warrior was just a reflection of the popular view of life in the western suburbs of Sydney: a cultural and infrastructural wasteland full of petrolheads and the normal people just trying to escape them and go for a long drive on bad roads for a holiday on the Gold Coast. Not a complicated movie which makes it one of the best constructed ones I have ever seen. It had some great lines though: 'Remember lingerie!'; 'I'll speak with this Humungus. He seems like a reasonable man'.

I wonder if there will be anything like that in the new one.

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Posted in: Tom Hanks returns as symbologist Robert Langdon in 'Inferno' See in context

Interesting themes, but not the strongest character and actually not the strongest films.

However crowd scenes in 'Angels and Demons' were well constructed and edited. But in St peter's Square, it is normal for people to gather from time to time. However Florence is just crowded. I shall probably see Inferno, but I get the impression that 'Hannibal''s Renaissance baroque degradation might stay more attractive than any salvation in a walk around an 'Inferno'

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Posted in: The art of giving and receiving change in Japan See in context

The cashier will hold out the notes with these portraits facing you and the notes will be parallel to a wall as opposed to the floor. - See more at: http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-art-of-giving-and-receiving-change-in-japan#sthash.9tC7guRb.dpuf

This was new to me. Me, well, I am from Australia and coins are usually placed in hand under receipt, which can be grasped by fingers when closing palm (or receipt is just put in the bag with purchased items). Getting coins as change here causes a moment of stress as I try to stop them sliding and flying into the air from on top of the receipt as the receipt is grasped.

Then again, in places around Europe and even here too, change is placed in a tray on the counter and the issue and point of the article have no significance.

Also,

choiwaruoyajiMAY. 06, 2015 - 02:12PM JST I love it in Japan when a female cashier places her hand under yours and literally holds your hand while placing the change in it.

See more at: http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-art-of-giving-and-receiving-change-in-japan#sthash.9tC7guRb.dpuf this reminds me of AKB member meeting events where all the ossans and their ilk can have contact, thereby reminding us what a wonderful Lolikom Paradise Japan can be.

But please never stop your comments, choiwaruoyaji - they always make my day.

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Posted in: Extreme surfers chill with Arctic waves See in context

No sharks, but probably orcas, certainly hypothermia, and unusual African connections.

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Posted in: What's your impression of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife, Akie? See in context

Apparently no kids. Oh well - end of this dynasty.

She seems nice, quirky, life of her own and I wonder the extent to which she keeps 'Mr Akie' on a leash.

I'd like to meet her one day.

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Posted in: University students in Gifu can earn credits while working at Aeon shopping mall See in context

I think that they have hardly begun to hear the last of this in Gifu - and today May Day and all!

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Posted in: NASA spacecraft crashes on Mercury after 11-year mission See in context

All astrophysics things considered, getting a probe to Mercury would be at or close to the ultimate in target practice. Not a bad effort, people!

And rapaciousness and spoiling of this planet continues, even without any help from astrophysics beyond the ionosphere. A pity that.

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Posted in: Microsoft opens Windows 10 to Apple, Android apps See in context

Here we go again!!!

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Posted in: Message from Australia - Come on down, be yourself and relax See in context

Oh well, he seems to know what he is doing.

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Posted in: Russell Crowe finds his roots with 'The Water Diviner' See in context

“It won’t come as any surprise to you, but I’m completely comfortable when all the creative decisions are mine,” says Crowe.

My sister-in-law said Crowe was particularly strict - she was his production manager on this film.

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Posted in: Clint Eastwood reflects on career, 'American Sniper' See in context

Interestingly, he is a talented jazz musician and has written musical scores for some of his movies (eg Million Dollar Baby). He also sang 'Gold Fever' in Paint Your Wagon and directed Jersey Boys. This musical aspect rarely gets attention.

Politics, sometimes not on the same track as everyone else, but he did hold political office in California, as Mayor of Carmel.

He has also had frightfully messy times with female partners.

Clint comes from California originally and I have always wondered which he is quintessentially, Californian, USA-ian or North American. Or each of them.

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Posted in: 9 tips for surviving Japan’s crowded trains See in context

Before I went to Tokyo in 1986, an Irishman in Tokushima from Tokyo advise 'The one thing worse than taking trains in Tokyo is getting used to it.'

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