JohnBecker comments

Yeah, the low ceiling height is bothersome, but you have to keep in mind that it's a very old station, and there's stuff just above that ceiling (pipes, cables, the tracks when you cross under them, lots of other underground stuff). Raising the ceilings (and everything behind them) is an easy way to turn a $200 million project into a $400 million project.

When you live on the big stage, your indiscretions become a big deal. It goes with the territory.

Maybe if it were 2.5 million yen.

What do you call a political-economic system where the government and 'private' industries are so closely linked?

It's called "business as usual"

It looks like an interesting place to visit!

I'm glad to see they're making the responsible decision.

Well.... no one get get into the country (at least, not without the requested 14-day "self quarantine"), and everything's closed. So yeah, Asakusa (and pretty much everywhere else) is closed. It's going to be a lean couple of months.

This is one of those occasions when you can guess that maybe they were more interested in press than making something that people will like. This sounds kinda disgusting.

They'll have to resort to throwing zabuton.

The emperor’s trousers are a bit dodgy as well.

He's wearing a morning suit. They come with striped trousers.

Ship impounded? Captain and crew detained? Ship owner's assets frozen? Anything?

Twice her age. Whatever.

This is a great visit from Osaka or Kyoto, but the only elevated place for viewing is the Sakai City Hall Observation Deck. Even from that vantage point, you'll have a hard time seeing the keyhole shape of the burial mounds. You'll just see large green areas that stand out from the surrounding buildings.

It's not clear what law has been broken here.

The article says that the data was sold under a contract that prohibits its sale to a third party. So if he accepted money for transferring the data to the Chinese, he's guilty of breach of contract (at the very least).

Felt it slightly where I live.

Telling us where you live would make this comment a lot more worthwhile.

I'm going to just shut up - my first comment was correct. No mention of free wifi at Spacee.

Oops. My bad - mentioned in the first paragraph that there's free wifi.

Ok, you get a place to sit down and plug in your chargers. No mention if there's wifi available.

It's mind boggling that they can plan and carry out a mission with such precision. Well done to the team!

To get at those crucial materials, in April an "impactor" was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid's surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

Asteroids don't have an atmosphere. The only thing these materials will not have been exposed to is solar wind and the odd speck of dust.

Kyodo could have done a much better job of telling us where and when to see them. They mention an island, a mountain, and 4 prefectures, then say a "local group" will host tours..... somewhere. No link, no nothing. Not even the name of the group.

The story states that it's the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit, and then it says it flew for 10 minutes. I think someone at Associated Press needs to google "orbit".

You don't spend 500,000 yen for two mangoes, you spend it to get mentioned in numerous media outlets. It's big advertising at a pretty low price. Except..... they didn't mention the name of the "local produce wholesale company" that bought them.

The US Marines have wanted a large, fast troop carrier with VTOL capability for decades. The V-22 is the best thing they've come up with so far, but it's a fundamentally flawed concept. Anyone who has ever played with a gyroscope knows that pivoting two engines/props turning at high speed is causing very high stresses on all the parts involved. Many billions of dollars thrown away by the US on the development/deployment of an aircraft that doesn't provide much better payoff than the existing large troop helicopters.

That entire facility should be decertified immediately. If I was in control of either Boeing or Airbus - the two largest passenger aircraft manufacturers in the world, with their reputations at stake - I would demand it.

I agree about decertifying the facility, if not the whole company. But neither Boeing nor Airbus has a stake in this - they don't make engines, and they don't dictate what maintenance facility the airlines should use to maintain them. Engines are specified by the airline that originally ordered the airplane, and they can select from one of several manufacturers (General Electric, Pratt & Whitney or Rolls-Royce for large planes).

Are those outlets between the seats? Handy if they are...

to increase advertising revenue from Japanese companies and institutions

There's everything you need to know about the editor's reasoning. Follow the money.

That's a damn shame. My heart goes out to him.

I wish they had mentioned the models and years. Otherwise, this news is pretty worthless.

The high court said that opening the gates at this time will "heavily affect" the lives of the people who have engaged in farming for more than 20 years on the reclaimed land.

I'd be willing to bet constructing the dike and closing the flood gates "heavily affected" the lives of the fishermen whose fishing grounds were destroyed.

Museum? Vinyl?

Sets for staging selfies. I looked it up - 5 minute walk from Harajuku Station, 1,500 yen for 45 minutes. I guess I'm too old to get it.