Julian Onyali comments

In addition to Fuji TV, the Statue of Liberty, and the Rainbow Bridge itself (though the above pic doesn't show it) were also lit up in pink. Tokyo Tower was too. I happened to be in the area on Saturday night and the impact of it was pretty strong.

Also sounds like her Chinese friend undersestimated the amount of work maintaining a BnB would be. It's not just 'let people stay and get money'.

Anyway, I'm all for AirBNB, just wished I lived in a place where I could take advantage of it.

Should be 'COMMEMORATIVE COIN' I think, 'ANNIVERSARY COIN' doesn't make much sense in this context.

Doraemons are in Roppongi.

No, there were 5 people. All 5 broke the South Korean quarantine, but 4 of those 5 have since completed the monitoring period in Japan (i.e. they were apparently not infected and thus have not brought the disease to Japan).

This is troubling for me as I always use Virgin when travelling home but the route was rarely 'full'. In fact, the last flight I was on was less than 50% full in economy.

As a passenger it was great to have such space but I can't imagine the airline was as happy about it.

It's really a shame. Their service was quite good most of the time, with a good mix of British/Japanese CAs. BA on the other hand just seemed to have a bunch of Londoners on the one flight I took with them.

I quite like the way that dramas are constructed here. The focus on short seasons and relatively low proportion of continuations means that stories are told in a nice, self-contained kind of way. I do like American dramas too, but they waste a lot of time on years-long mysteries that just end up disappointing (Lost being the best example of this).

I think it's more 'pathetic' on the part of tourists whining about free wi-fi access as if it's something they have a right to. I can understand Yokohama is just trying to meet their needs but people should be able to do without internet whilst 'out and about' on their holidays.

I would have to kn ow the guy to judge but my first thought is definitely 'just another conceited gaijin/musician'.

The Christians from the south-east (the Igbos) already tried that back in the 60s but the British helped prevent it.

Really, Nigeria shouldn't even be 'one' country. It only is because of European colonialism.

I don't really think that 'hasn't hosted it before' should give a city the edge over 'has the capability to put on the best show'. If that's Istanbul then fine but that's what it should come down to.

You know, the other reason 'per capita' arguments are stupid is because of the breakdown of medals/sports. I mean, in football for instance, a country needs a squad of 18 players to get a shot at the 1 gold that's available in the whole sport.

Contrast that with Judo, where 1 competitor means 1 potential gold medal or stuff like swimming, gymnastics, athletics, archery, tennis, shooting, etc. where 1 person can win multiple gold medals.

Unless you adjust for that, 'per capita' comparisons are meaningless.

Kids from a young age are actively encouraged to participate in all sorts of sports, yes mainly baseball, soccer, and volleyball, but a host of others as well.

Well baseball's not in the Olympics but the Japanese women got medals in both football and volleyball whilst the men came close to winning something in the football.

Maria: I don't know how serious your post is but the quotation shouldn't be taken literally. It's a set phrase/expression in Japanese.

http://i.imgur.com/sfkEN.png

The bank will know exactly who 'benefited' from this. If they are actual Lloyd's customers, retrieving the money probably won't be that difficult.

It's very 'London' in a bad way. Trying to hard to be 'modern' when something more classical would have been nicer.

...something like the logo for the bidding process but more interesting/lively.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_bid_for_the_2012_Summer_Olympics

Hats off to hatsoff, great post. (assuming I'm right in thinking it's sarcastic of course)

People on this site always go on about the Japanese and cell phones as if it's a phenomenon unique to Japanese people. Try opening your eyes in any other major city, you will see people doing the same thing.

The other thing is that unless those kids do grow up hating Japan, and I mean completely detesting the country and its people, they will be resentful of the way their parents chose to bring them up.

From my point of view, denying children a language is almost as bad as crippling them physically.

From personal experience and in talking to other people with similar backgrounds, I strongly agree with this sentiment. Children with mixed (or immigrant) heritage have the opportunity to form a strong bond from birth with two often distinct cultures. It's an opportunity that shouldn't be wasted.

Newsman, not that I’m defending JT (I’ve had post removed far more than anyone here) however, this is the “Photo of The Day” and nothing more. It’s not there as news, but as displayed “Photo of the Day.”

But it's from December! Though I suppose these pictures don't have to be recent.

This will finally get me to go to a KFC over here. This is something I couldn't even get in the UK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L1Fhbb8Av0

It's fair for people to comment on the news that is released. It's the cops who should keep quiet until they have something concrete. They don't have a good reputation amongst Japanese people and seemingly crazy stuff like this won't help them build respect.

Where was the revenue from? Ads? Or was it a pay site?

Both. The 'basic', free service was ad-supported but you could pay for a 'premium' membership to get faster speeds and bigger file size limits.

I just came back from England the other day and watching how people use credit cards was crazy.Even in the one pound shop,it was the choice of payment.I still am not a fan of them.The fastest way back into financial slavery.

Can you be sure those were 'credit' cards. 'Debit' cards are also quite popular in the UK as they offer the cashless convenience of credit cards but don't let you spend more than you actually have.

Nessie: It's unfortunate but even if the trains themselves are fine, sometimes the people who use them can be inconsiderate. Designated 'priority' seating and woman-only carriages wouldn't be needed if people conducted themselves appropriately.

That's not a uniquely Japanese thing of course. 'Priority seating', 'baby on board' badges and no-phone carriages are all present in the UK too, for much the same reasons.

But as for negative points, I'd like to see the following improved or changed: Have subways run 24 hours a day.

Do any cities have 24 hour subway systems? I think Japanese cities just need 24 hour buses (like London) and night-time transport would probably be fine.

The shoes in places like Don Quixote and ABC Mart are very reasonable/cheap. I can't speak for the quality since I haven't bought any but they weren't that costly.

Anyway, something I like about the Japan's living costs is the lack of penalty charges on the transport system.

I accidentally travelled outside of my Teiki zone without charging my Pasmo the other day. In London, such a small mistake could've cost me the equivalent of 2,500 yen. Here, I could just pay what I needed to at my destination.

I too am massively surprised by this turn of events.

One other thing to remember (at least for Brits, some Europeans and Americans) and is that the relative value of the currency has drastically changed over the past 4 years. When I first came to Japan on holiday, I thought everything was cheap (or 'reasonable' at worst) in comparison to the UK. Now, although many prices actually seem to be the same now as they were before, the fact that the pound is worth so much less means things are 'reasonable' at best.

That still doesn't excuse some the business practices discussed already but we shouldn't ignore the impact of the trends in currency exchange.

The thing that gets me is the 'registration' and 'administration' fees they have on certain services over here. I mean stuff like: Key money (and other additional moving in costs). 10,000yen 'signing up' fees for martial arts classes (in addition to monthly fees and annual membership charges) 'Joining fees' for language schools. In fact, private tuition at my previous school in Central London was cheaper even than some group lessons here (and it was expensive in London).

For food, and supermarket food in particular, the 'big issue' is the lack of deals and promotions. In the UK, even where base prices were fairly high, you could usually save money by taking advantage of half-price deals and 2 for 1s and the like. In Tokyo, these don't seem to exist so grocery shopping tends to be much more expensive here for me.