Maruko desu comments

I am a woman and pro-choice. There are many reasons why women have abortions but it's their own personal decision. I have supported friends by accompanying them to an abortion clinic and driving them home afterwards. It's ironic that most of the pro-life comments I read are from men who cannot bear children and who come off as telling a woman what she can do with her body. So I say to you "Mind your own business. It's not your decision."

I grew up during the 60's and early 70's when abortions were illegal in most states in the U. S. I had a friend in high school who resorted to a back alley abortion out of desperation and nearly died. Women will continue to have abortions even when there are laws banning them. Women with financial means can easily travel to places where abortions are legal whereas those without will seek out unsafe abortion practices. So don't think making abortions illegal will stop women from having them. Having a safe abortion is far more preferable than having an unsafe one.

A friend of mine is faculty at a university in South Korea. She recently attended an academic conference in Washington D.C. where most people are not wearing masks. She wore hers. After her 15-hr flight back to Incheon, she tested positive for COVID. She suspects she contracted it while riding on the Metro where no one was wearing a mask. She managed to endure two years of the pandemic in South Korea without contracting COVID but contracts it while riding on a train. Even if you wear a mask, your risk of contracting COVID is higher when the people around you are not wearing masks. Fortunately she is fully vaccinated so she only experienced a loss in smell and has since recovered after quarantining at home. According to the KCDC, she was patient 0 of the BA.2 variant of Omicron.

Elon Musk blocks Twitter users who criticize him. Read a tweet from someone this morning who was just blocked by Musk. His idea of "free speech" is basically an echo chamber of what he wants to hear.

https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-censors-employees-critics-2022-3

Floriduh. I'm a Floridian living in Japan. DeSantis, aka "DeathSantis', is making a play for the presidency and hopes to win more conservative voters over to his side nationally by trying to back controversial legislation.

In true tanuki fashion, Okinishi cryptically confessed to some crimes, telling police: “I have stolen tanuki figures, but I don’t know if they’re the ones I’m being arrested for.”

At 74 years old, I hope the ojiichan doesn't have the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Kawaisou ne.

@jeancolmar Japanese Americans living on the east coast who weren't incarcerated in internment camps still had their land seized by the US government for eminent domain.

http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/uploads/file/Yamato%20Colony.pdf

I have several friends who are sansei and lived in the internment camps as young children.

Just a side note, one of my aunts married a former Prussian POW who was incarcerated at the German POW camp in Orlando, FL. He eventually contracted and died of TB which was prevalent in Florida after WW2.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2004-05-09-0405080092-story.html

@Yrral

Lots of Asian change their first name to. an western name, which is not their birth name, that show somekind of insecurity on their part

No true. My Japanese mother had to come up with a western name living in America because Americans could not (more like would not) pronounce her Japanese name correctly. The same was true for most of her Japanese friends at the time.

As soon I as read the headline, I knew what happened without reading the story. I cared for my mother for two years before transferring her into a nursing home in the U.S. My mother had two strokes and developed dementia as a result of the strokes. She also had an osteoarthritic knee that prevented her from walking so she was confined to a wheelchair. Caring for an elderly parent with dementia is comparable to caring for an adult child whose mental and physical capacities continue to decline. My mother thought she could walk so she would step out of the wheelchair and immediately fall. It was exhausting having to pick her up off the floor and make the many trips to the emergency room. That along with the regularly scheduled doctor's visits (4 doctors each with a different specialty), picking up her medications, feeding her 3x a day, changing and washing wet bed sheets, changing her diaper, etc. I barely slept as I had to sleep on the couch near her bedroom just in case she got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom in her wheelchair where she would fall along the way. It got to a point that I realized I couldn't do this on my own anymore and had to transfer her into a nursing home. She hated going into a nursing home but I had no choice. As much as I loved my mother, caring for her was literally killing me. She lived for 6 years in the nursing home before passing in her sleep at the age of 91 yrs old.

Omicron is causing a massive disruption worldwide with staff shortages and problems with supply chains.

Is omicron doing that, or is it caused by the government responses?

> Omicron is causing a massive disruption worldwide with staff shortages and problems with supply chains.

Mandates are causing these issues.

Neither of the people who posted these comments apparently haven't ordered materials from the U.S. I ordered a mattress and box springs from the U.S. and it took months for the beds to arrive because of COVID outbreaks in the factories. The same was true for meat packing plants where people are working close together in confined spaces. The same is true for materials from the U.S. for construction projects. The delays added additional costs to our projects due to these unforeseen delays. Mandates have nothing to do with the delays. Sick employees do.

I had a look at the explanation of osechi ryori - that looks like an enormous amount of work. Would that all be prepared at home, or is it something that’s bought from specialty shops?

If you decide to make osechi ryori, it does take a lot of work. Many people order osechi ryori well in advance (in November). Unless you have a favorite shop that you order from, you can order osechi ryori online and even from Japanese conbini's such as 7-Eleven.

We do not have Krispy Kreme here in Okinawa. Even with my Krispy Kreme’s hot glazed donuts experience in the US, they still would be hard pressed to beat Misdo.

That is why I would prefer if the US army would pack their things and go back to America. They just cause problems here.

What does the US Army have to do with this? This was a Marine who was drunk as well as the other Marine who got a DUI recently.

And let the kids, at least, get out without masks. Masking them when the risk is so low is a crime against their healthy development.

Can you cite any studies where the development of a child is harmed from wearing masks? There's plenty of research subjects available in Japan and in other Asian countries. I've noticed it's Westerners who complain about this. I've never heard anyone who's Japanese make these comments. The Japanese children I've seen wearing masks appear to be indifferent.

The spike is coming especially as people continue to travel throughout Japan. Our cases jumped up in Okinawa these past few days. Recommend getting your booster as soon as it becomes available. Be prepared for the next wave.

Thank God for Trump's Operation Warp Speed that saved countless American lives!

Pfizer did not participate in Trump's Operation Warp Speed.

Why didn't Trump encourage wearing masks? He actually had his staff and practically everyone around him remove their masks in his presence including during a Joint Chief of Staff meeting where several of the Generals had to quarantine afterwards. He contracted COVID and exposed his staff and tried to expose Biden during one of the debates where he showed up infected with his family.

Trump also mentioned he wasn't taking a booster vaccination.

So, yeah, Trump's a great role model.

Every single news report has said this variant is weak. It’s like a 24 hour virus and people are over it in a day with no after effects.

Per NHK news this morning that there is a death in the UK attributed to the Omicron variant.

I will not get my booster if it is Moderna. Don’t need another kick in the nuts.

I received my Moderna booster in Japan a couple of months ago thank to my employer (the U.S. government). The Moderna booster is just half a dose of the vaccine. My arm was literally only half as sore for half a day. However one of my colleagues had a fever and aches for a couple of days after his. Everyone has a unique reaction to the vaccines so I wouldn't let this prevent you from getting one. I hope the Japanese government will allow you to mix and match your booster vaccines with your previous vaccines if you like. I just stayed with Moderna for all three vaccinations.

Well, seeing how the “new variant” seems to be solely in folks who received the shot, perhaps another dose isn’t such a good thing. Bio N tech CEO said 3 more doses would be needed for this new variant. 6 in total, my arm is already hurting just thinking about it

According to the BBC News, the number of COVID cases with the Omicron variant is rapidly increasing. From 6 days ago, "Some 11,500 new Covid infections were registered in the latest daily figures. That is a sharp rise on the 8,500 cases confirmed the previous day. By contrast, daily infections were averaging between 200 and 300 in mid-November, a top South African scientist told the BBC." Only 25% of the South African population is fully vaccinated. With this low vaccination rate, you can assume there are quite a few people who are not vaccinated and infected with the Omicron variant.

Japan just tries to follow the US. Doesn't matter if it's something that makes sense or not.

"It sounds like you're living in the 19th century. I am not gay but I support the rights, including marriage, for the LGBT community"

Ok? What do you want? A candy?

No. What does gay marriage have to do with the U. S.? Other countries recognize gay marriage. IMO gay marriages are not senseless. Why is their personal decision to get married an issue? Your reaction is similar to how people felt about interracial marriage during the 50's and 60's.

Japan just tries to follow the US. Doesn't matter if it's something that makes sense or not.

It sounds like you're living in the 19th century. I am not gay but I support the rights, including marriage, for the LGBT community.

A man with a history of travel to Italy was found to be infected with the heavily mutated variant 

It is a scientific fact that mutations are always weaker than the original.

Except that wasn't true with the Delta variant...

Never understood why Okinawa doesn't do this. If the prefecture had set aside areas where they could plant sea grass, we might have more dugongs.

His impersonation of Trump was one of the best I have seen and I like Alec Baldwin's impersonation too. A tweet by Preet Bharara where he said this was the best impersonation ever drew my attention to the SNL opening skit.

SNL has it's hits and misses with it's skits and crews. I have been watching the show on and off since it first aired during the 70's. I thought Pete Davidson's "Chad" skit with Miley Cyrus and Elon Musk where he was trying to save Space X's Mars habitat was hilarious. There are skits that have fallen flat but I will continue to watch the show whenever I can with the assistance of a VPN.

The white Dr. Yueh in David Lynch's "Dune"! I will always remember Dean Stockwell in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" and from "Battlestar Galactica", one of my favorite sci-fi series. Haven't seen "Paris, Texas" but will make an effort to watch it this weekend. RIP Mr. Stockwell. You will be missed.

@FizzBit

"The joker wore an orangish red suit. This is purple. Maybe Yoshikage Kira?"

I believe you're right. My coworker pointed out that this was Yoshikage Kira's outfit in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. JoJo's and the stabber's patterned ties and jacket resemble one another.

Not enough experience to detect the nuances between the languages but there are striking similarities with Okinawan and Taiwanese architecture (clay tile roofs and ohakas) along with ancient Chinese clothing. I could see the common elements between Okinawa and Taiwan from my trips to Taiwan from Okinawa.

I loved the eiga dorobou and keisatsu!

I still have mine along with an extra mask left over from the former tenant whose apartment I moved into.

Buh bye! Portugal has transitioned from the pandemic stage to the endemic stage because 100% of adults over 50 are vaccinated. The US will never reach the endemic stage if people continue to place politics and half-baked conspiracies over science. Everyone in my office is fully vaccinated. We were all vaccinated as soon as the vaccine was made available.

"Close to 100% of people over the age of 50 have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Portuguese government. For those between the ages of 25 and 49 it is 95% and from 12 to 17 it is 88%. Some 89% of Portugal’s entire population of 10 million has had at least one vaccine dose, not far behind the rate in the world-leading United Arab Emirates, compared with 65% in the U.S. and 73% in the U.K., according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/endemic-covid-19-has-arrived-in-portugal-this-is-what-it-looks-like-11635073461

"Seems like a reasonable method. Slightly surprised that Japan isn't included with most of that population vaccinated now."

I was wondering the same since Japan's fully vaccinated rate (67.70%) is higher than the U.S. (56.28%), Britain (66.53%), France (67.23%), and the Netherlands (67.58%). There are quite a few Japanese companies based in Singapore as well.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations