Livvie comments

I wonder how many of these "prank" phone calls are actually smartphone misdials? Even if you lock your iPhone you can bypass the lock to call 110. I've almost pressed that button more than once, and I just saw something on the Canadian news about this same issue a few days ago. Perhaps it's best to disable this function if it is causing so much trouble.

Hmm...not a very comprehensive list, so I chose "Other" thanks.

At first when I saw this I thought - why would he kill his whole family instead of just killing himself? Then I realized that in Japan that if the the father or mother in a family cannot pay off their debts it is inherited by the spouse and then the offspring. I suppose in his crazed and desperate state he thought he was doing the right thing by saving his family from being poor for the rest of their lives due to his mistakes. So barbaric though.

The same can be said about the industry here. Most of the foreign models hired in the Japanese fashion scene are almost always blond-haired and blue eyed. The argument is the same I suppose, that models from India and other cultures are too curvaceous to wear the average haute couture designers' clothes. I for one am looking forward to the day when I'll see a more realistic representation of all shapes colors and sizes on the runway and in fashion magazines. Why should one have to purchase Indian Vogue or Japanese Elle, or Essence, etc. to see models from their own culture? It's a big beautiful colorful world people!!!

The poor spouses. I feel for the salarymen who are slaving away while their wives play. Perhaps if they are so bored they could... work??

Forgive me if I stray off topic to reply to your post tmarie...but the salarymen are also playing while they slave away. Why do you think there are so many massage parlors and soaplands in this country? Even when they're not paying to play they're playing around with their coworkers, etc. NOT every salaryman of course, but a lot of them. I'm speaking from experience as I have met quite a few Japanese men that were hoping that Super Foreign Girl would come to their rescue and save them from their sexless marriage. No thanks.

It is my assumption that these establishments are becoming popular, particularly for the women mentioned in this article, because there are no sexual outlets for women. People marry for the wrong reasons, or feel sexually unfulfilled. The salary men have their hostess clubs, soaplands etc. and the women have....what?

Having said that, there is an alarming number of people in this country who feel they are immune to STDs, and so using protection would be an absolute must. Otherwise, if the people involved in this kind of activity are emotionally mature enough to deal with it, I can't say anything else about the issue.

Wait, yes I can - If you're married and having marital problems, how's about solving those problems with your partners before you start wandering into dark clubs looking for a good time?

I myself have chased after (unsuccessfully) heat-crazed salary men who decided to use a packed Inokashira Line train to brazenly fondle my chest on their way out the door. I really do think the summer heat, and the fact that women wear less clothing on hotter days, drives men to do stupid things here. The few incidents I've had have all been during the summer. Not like it matters though - gropers are not welcome ANY time of year in my book.

So...have they started checking the milk and cheese, and butter as well? You know that's next right? After that will probably be rice. And what are the chickens being fed? Scratch poultry and eggs off the list as well. The government needs to start putting serious measures in place to check all food being shipped from the affected areas. INCLUDING the repackaged goods! No more "well we thought it was Shizuoka tea but they threw some Fukushima tea leaves in it and forgot to write it down".

In some rural areas, the only light visible at night is the glow coming from the vending machines. Turning them completely off would create a safety hazard Plus shutting them all off would hurt a lot of blue collar workers. The economy is already in bad shape. If the pachinko paroles could switch off those blazing casino lights AND LED displays AND fake fireworks, I'm sure it would make a difference.

So the moral of the story is, "Don't have a 'questionable' background if you are planning on accusing a powerful man of rape". It always comes to this. I can hear the lawyers pleading their case now. " How could he rape this woman? She sells drugs! She launders money! She's from Guinea!". Why do they even need to tell us where she is from? How is it pertinent to this case?

The thing is that if a woman's husband cheats on her she's regarded as a victim. If a man's wife cheats on him he's regarded as too weak/too poor a lover/etc to keep his wife.

Just as a man with many sexual partners is called a playboy while a woman with the same habits is called easy or promiscuous, or one other word that sums it up nicely but I'll keep to myself. The playing field will probably never be even. Having said that, I do believe that "sexting" done by married/involed people is most definitely non gender specific and most definitely related to lack of satisfaction (with sex, work, life, partner, whatever!)

"MTV viewers “want more from us,” said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music/Films/Logo Group. “They expect more from us.”

You know what I'd like and expect from a channel with the word MUSIC in it's name? How about some more MUSIC related content? How about that? Or are you just going to make another ten spin off channels to make up for it? At least MTV Japan still plays videos.

I don't really care for idols and their ilk, but for some reason I liked this girl, her suicide was such a shock. I was really rooting for her to succeed, and it seemed like she was just starting to get regular appearances on television here and there before she killed herself. Her whole reason for working was so that she could save up enough money to build a brand new, barrier free house for her mom and dad to live the rest of their days in in Kagoshima. So so sad.

Both Twitter and Facebook were the ONLY ways I could communicate with my friends and family in Japan and abroad when the earthquake hit. Phones and email servers were jammed. With Twitter I was able to let people know which park I had evacuated to and when I got safely home. So it's not totally useless. It's also an excellent networking/marketing tool for the self employed (the reason why I opened an account in the first place).

Ridiculous. What they need to do is publish "Oxford English Dictionary: The Slang and Semi-Useful Abbreviations Edition" and be done with it.

I've been ripped off a few times, ignored when trying to flag a cabbie down, taken where I didn't want to go and then dropped off in the middle of nowhere (in the pouring rain no less!) but even still I've had more positive experiences than negative ones. If the author knew the address was wrong he should have told the driver the correct one! No brainer.

This article was about Claudia's musical career, so unless she is singing Selena tribute songs or performing in a Mariachi band, if she or the writer of this article feels no need to add Mexican- to her American then it is perfectly okay to do so. Has nothing to do with her performance.

I understand that it is a guideline and a courtesy, but it isn't a hard rule. Even if the person is conversing unnecessarily, assaulting someone for talking on the phone is taking it too far. Once I had to translate for some friends who were in trouble and couldn't get on their shinkansen, I couldn't get off the train to help because I would have missed my own express train. I followed the other unspoken rule and stood in the corner of the doors to the train, cupped my hands over my mouth, spoke really quietly. I was speaking to the JR stationmaster at Shinagawa station and I still got berated by an old salaryman who wanted to make an example of me. I ended up hanging up the phone because he started to get violent, banging on the wall next to my head. I wasn't even on the phone for five minutes before I hung up on the stationmaster out of fear for my safety.

I don't know about Namie Amuro, but AI is as real as they come in this country.

Kevin Smith's Twitter and podcast tell the whole story. Twitter is here: http://twitter.com/thatkevinsmith

Apparently the flight he was on had no first class either.

Clerks director Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight Saturday night after a flight attendant essentially deemed him too fat to fly. The airline has a policy about not allowing passengers on who can't put both armrests down which they used as a benchmark for their decision. The incident turned into a PR nightmare shortly afterward when they allowed Kevin to catch another flight which proved he wasn't a flight risk and they basically embarrassed him in front of plane full of passengers for no reason.

From another news blog.

Love Kanazawa. Kenroku-en is one of my favorite parks.

The only reason this chick is famous is because of her parents. She is so bland.

Ditto. I've been trying to watch her interviews, check out some of her modeling work, and every time I see her or hear her speak I think 'Why?'. She only looks good when she is heavily made up, and she really doesn't have anything interesting to say. I must admit though, this is the best picture of her I've seen.

Come on now: out of her arrested- and defamed sons room. No note? No need. The reason seems pretty obvious to most. But keep believing alcohol is hallucinogenic, people. The mental health of society will seem to be doing just fine.

A few of the people they interviewed said that the biggest worry on her mind, something that she was always talking about, was her son and what was going to happen to him once he got released from prison

This article is a little too brief. The story was on television and on other English news sites from early this morning. Whoever wrote this failed to mention that as Tokiko 'chatted briefly' to Maki and her older sister, she was drunk and mentioned wanting to kill herself as she went upstairs to the third floor. Less than thirty minutes later Maki and her sister heard a thud and found their mother on the street. She later passed away in the hospital. They were going around and interviewing people in the neighbourhood. and everyone said that she was always so cheerful and pleasant and not the type of person to commit suicide. Whether she fell or committed suicide, is still unknown but this is such a sad story.

My mom has no interest in computers whatsoever, so I got her a Skype phone. She still prefers the good old landline though. Maybe if I lured her with the promise of seeing my face every time I called she would be tempted to try this out!

How often has a non-Japanese artist performed on Kohaku?

Yabits, I'm not sure but I believe Enya performed via satellite last year.

"Smap members get together to advertise advertisement" Now I'm waiting for "Smap members get together to advertise advertisement of new advertisement"

You read my mind! How can you do PR for a commercial??? Can you say, redundant??

Yes! Now this is what I'm talking about! I've always loved this man! JT, come on, stop being so one-sided and put up some more male eye candy for your female readers!

I wish all these lovely ladies the best of luck and look forward to when Japan Today puts up a picture of the men's competition!!

I really don't enjoy getting hugged by people I don't know well. And I feel extremely uncomfortable if I get hugged in Japan by younger people who think they should be automatically doing it around "Western" people.

Hugging doesn't make ME uncomfortable. It's when my Japanese counterpart stiffens up like a corpse that makes both of us look silly.

I agree with both comments. If somebody I barely know comes up to hug me I am usually taken aback, but if someone I've known for years tries to hug me and is as stiff as a board, I feel just as uncomfortable. Still, I understand it's not really part of the culture here and it does make some people uncomfortable, so I dispense my hugs wisely!

I do feel that people, especially in Tokyo, need some form of physical contact from time to time in order to stay sane (no, getting squished in between people on the train doesn't count).