Joseph Perry comments

I personally feel bad for the child. One night when I was 11, my father (ARMY at the time) was drunk and had the muzzle of a pistol pressed towards my mom's head. I guess they had been arguing all night. I had to creep downstairs to the phone and the call cops on my dad. Luckily, my little brother slept thought the whole ordeal, but I'll never forget it, by the evening of the following day my brother and I were flown from Texas to North Carolina to stay with my Mom's sister for 1.5 years. Could have been much worse....

umm the older guy is a lawyer. Obviously that lady was attracted to the money he had, c'mon... Happens a lot except for the cutting bit.

Because bangkok's govt. is too lazy and slow @ expanding. Japan gets things done, quick. They dont sit w/ their thumbs up their ass all day. I currently live in bkk and bear witness to incompetent thai govt. everyday.

dumb guy, the employee should have just taken a picture of his friend inside the freezer instead. Also, this must have been done at a late shift or before opening 'cause I've like never seen an empty Lawson store, I mean it is Japan, unless this Lawson was out in the 'sticks lol. anyways that picture is EPIC, my day has already started of amusing because of seeing this picture. ^___~

No need to laugh at this. The Higashine based JSDF Units put in long hours for over a year helping the survivors of the tsunami and searching for the bodies of the deceased.

Yeah they did what any modern country's national guard/ARMY reserves etc... would do, big deal. But after seeing that their pay is usually crummy, I do feel some emotion for them, though I have gaijin friends that went to help near Fukushima for 'FREE' so...

@Sensato

Anti-racism Strike Force. ^___~ That sounds like a new Japanese film. I can't wait to see the umbrella fighting scene. 笑　　hmmmm Special Privileges for Zainichi, okay what special privileges?!?! Isn't it true that Zainichi people can't even obtain a passport?!?! Even if they wanted to they can't leave Japan, that sucks, Japan is great and all but being stuck there seems like a punishment. Racism wherever it is, never ceases to amaze me, one of the most ridiculous things in life. Being of mixed blood myself, I'm no stranger to it. ~____~

adoption has a negative stigma in Japan, it's a cultural thing. one reason I heard is because of the myth that the child might have 'ainu' blood and therefore might become violent. >___< poor ainu people. I have not earthly idea about what can be done to solve Japan and other Asian countries' low fertility rate. But yeah India and Philippines man they pop out kids like it's nothing. I remember I had a filipina co-worker at the preschool I taught in Tokyo. Her husband was Japanese and she had 5 kids, not entirely sure if she had all kids with him though...

I remember that day. I was in Akiba the day before this happened. As I was eating a BBQ Pumpkin Burger somewhere in Kichijōji with my date, her phone received a news update about the attack, it was pretty unnerving.

yeah what would China say about moving 'its country' away, lol. I just love how they are so adamant about saying that country is there (oh yes everyday for the month I was in Beijing I was forced to hear this from the locals and their television 'programming' as well), but just about everyone I've ever met from Taiwan (usually very warm and kind people) say that they do not belong to China and feel as if their island is it's own country. Shame to hear about the earthquake, I was in Tokyo during 3/11. ~_____~

None the less, there still isn't much to do in Singapore. And I remember my heart always skipping a beat when I saw so many people jaywalking over there, I easily thought that would be illegal.

"Just like the old Korean ladies that dye their hair jet Black, cut it ear-length short and perm it curly, again, almost all Korean women do this." Aww yes you are referring to the ajumma look. ^o^ Yeah I've never really seen any other older (married) asian women do this, only Koreans, whether they are living in Korea or elsewhere...

no one deserves to be bombed, plain and simple, and it isn't funny to joke about the worst attack in human history, an attack which mostly killed innocents (women and children). Korea and China are such crybabies when it comes to WWII and the preceding era, they seriously need to fast forward their clocks to 2013, my god there will soon hardly be anyone that was alive during that long ago era...

Glad those Chinese netizens were ignored.

Not only Chinese netizens but Chinese citizens are always ignored, big govt. won't let them have a voice, ever!

Besides the apparent pollution( I mean the Beijing airport gave me flashbacks of Cloud City in Star Wars), quality of life is not great. I don't make too much money now (in Texas), but if someone offered me a $100,000+ year job in Beijing, I would still turn it down. A couple years back I went to Beijing to look up on some job interviews offered to me. I had a 60 day tourist VISA, but 30 days is all I could stand of Beijing, I was totally disappointed with the place. I was shocked, I've been able to stay/visit over 20 major cities in Asia and Beijing ranks up there as the worst, or actually it ties with Manila on my list. I can't speak for the rest of China, but I don't think it could possibly be much more liveable elsewhere over there. I can easily see why many Chinese college students I meet here in USA are reluctant to go back to PRC to live. I guess one good thing about being in Beijing is that you'll never worry about getting a sunburn, pollution is too thick lol.

P.S. In Beijing I did do a homestay with a nice Chinese family, that I still keep in contact with often. So I wasn't totally on my own there, but I can remember hearing, almost daily, my host family saying "Damn Chinese government."

Yeah guys no one is supposed to drink the tap water in China anyways, as with most developing countries. My homestay family in Beijing they bought their drinking water separately to use in their 5 gallon water dispenser. Anyways, 1/2 of the residences that lived on the same street didn't even have running water in their homes to begin with. So yeah, China, despite what anyone says, is still a 3rd world country. I wasn't living too far from the center of the city either, btw. I was in Beijing for a month, which was quite long enough for me. Will never go back. Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan will be as close as I ever get again.

they should be fluent in japanese by the time they get out .

That's a great one Richard. lol. ^^

Ya, noisy eating irritated the hell out of me in Beijing. It was the worst I'd ever seen throughout six countries in Asia. My homestay family was actually proud of it too. ~__~ They jeered me for eating so quietly and slowly, but I have to admit half of the fare I had no clue what it was, and eating a spare rib served cold?!?! Was quite shocked, to say the least. Japan eating habits and cuisine were far more easier to bear.

Yeah Money! I've seen countless old Sugar Daddies in Japan w/ women that looked 1/2 their age, I wonder why? They did not fit the Ikemen type at all. ^o^ Anyhows I had my share of dating Japanese women and many of the Ikemen traits I don't have, such as white skin and over the top hair. My clothes did usually smell like a dryer sheet, pure coincidence though.

Once you do PORN, no decent Japanese TV station, etc..will ever employ you.

Your wrong dude, what about Maria Ozawa. Not only has she been on few J-Dramas, but "real" movies also.

Awesome!!! I never checked out this part of Tokyo. I've been to S. Korea 3x though and did Koreatown in Los Angeles. ^o^

trinklets2 You are from the Philippines. Am I right?

thunderboxes, oh you mean outhouse. You Aussies have a lot of slang that we don't use in USA and probably never will. I had an Aussie teacher before and he would always call the trash can a 'rubbish bin.' We all got a nice chuckle out of that one. I wonder if you guys still thunderboxes over there. Only very rural locations use it in USA, like hillbillies use them.

I've been to Thailand a total of 5 times and even did an English teaching stint there. I only saw Chiang Mai and Bangkok, but I never had one bad incident. Compared with the Philippines or places that I went to in S. America, whoa Thailand is much safer and considerate of tourists. I think the best thing I did was when I visited Bangkok for the first time I stayed at a Thai family's house. I had found them through couchsurfing. Even though I stayed with them for only 3 days, it tremendously helped. One of the daughters taught me about haggling and how the transportation system worked. Before coming there I had only been to Japan and South Korea, which are far from being 3rd world/developing countries. I still think about Thailand and just about everyday, I am sure I will go there again. You get the most for your money there. Phuket though, heard many stories, I don't think I will ever go there. I'm not a beach guy anyhows.

Argentina is an unsafe place though, I remember in Buenos Aires practically all stores were barred and even McDonald's had an armed cop. I'm a guy, so I wasn't too concerned about being raped, just concerned with getting robbed. Having to wear my backpack in reverse was something I had never had to do before. I would never recommend any of my friends to visit a 'large' city in Argentina, especially a female. :(

Another lie from the Japanese government. Is anyone keeping tabs?! Well I was working in Tokyo during 3/11 and I noticed a lot of my co-workers (native Japanese) didn't trust their government, so how could I. I have no regret that I left for Okinawa five weeks after 3/11. It was safe and sound in Okinawa, not one tremor. Alas I am back home studying in Texas now. When I come back to work in Asia, it will not be in Japan.

I have not been to Mexico since 1999, and I was in Juarez. It was not so bad, but I lived in El Paso... More recently, like July of this year I was in Argentina. I visited three cities there and stayed 5 weeks altogether. It felt really unsafe there and I was almost robbed. I will definitely continue to visit Asia instead, I've never felt unsafe there, save for one city, Manila.

That is sooooo wrong. I have stayed in the Saitama area many many times. I must say though, seeing teenage school girls walking alone, even at 10pm on a freaking school night, is a common occurrence. This guy must be like one of the crazies in the Japanese films. My god, I hope somebody gets rid of this guy. He's probably done this before and will strike again, I someone stabs him with his own knife. What will this guy do next, start cutting teenage girl's hair?!?!?!?!

That was in response to troyinjapan by the way. Forgive my bad grammar above please. ~__^

It is the parents fault for not teaching the kids to stand up for themselves, but in "traditional" Japanese fashion the kids probably don't tell you parents what is happening. I remember even at a Catholic Private School getting bullied, but usually very lightly. There was one kid though, who wasn't even in any of my classes who bullied me, think it lasted for 2-3 weeks. He was two grades higher than me, taller, and must have been 50 pounds heavier. He was a crossing guard for the school bus and every morning I had no choice, but to see him after I got off the bus. My best friends had told me to just punch him in the stomach and eventually that is what I did, a half hour later I was pulled out of class into the principal's office. I think I had to shake hands with the kid or something and that was it, but the bullying stopped after that. This was in elementary school though....... high school bullies are a bit harder to deal with, but that is why you find a crowd to fit in with so as not to draw yourself out to be picked on. Ne?