madmel comments

Usagito Saru & Tmarie, You actually think their parents knew they where not home in bed??? Come on you cannot be that naive. My parents didn't know I was sneaking out at night ...usually! ; ) Well there are way more disobedient teens out there than you realize. Thomas hit the actual reason, biology....a teens brain has not developed to that stage to truly understand the impact of their actions without experiencing the results first hand.

Yea like it was bad parenting...lol NOT we are all extremely stupid when teens just most of us are lucky enough to survive our dumbness. RIP un-lucky ones.

I guess regulation isn't the key...education is. If they want the country to do something they just need to tell them the correct way and everyone will follow. I find self education or common sense just doesn't happen in Japan in so many ways.

Could never stand the stuff but I support anyone who wants to use marijuana. It has more tar than cigarettes but without all the heavy metals so ones body can get rid of it. A natural grown substance should not be regulated if it's not 100% toxic. Especially when alcohol is legal and in it's pure form is toxic. If this other crap is "synthetic" it is NOT a herb!

Sooo horrible a loss for a $50.00 smoke detector. When is Japan going to legislate installation of such a simple life saving device? It sets off a super annoying screech long before there is enough fire to thwart rescuing family members....or even getting the fire put out in time.

Yuri and a few others, you seem to think there always has to be a good spouse and a bad one that shouldn't see the child. That is not the NORM at all. I know of many divorces with joint custody or visitation at least...that is NORMAL not excluding one parent or the other and it works fine. The child has right to see both parents...this is supposed to be about the kids not who wins the prize.

Well my gay "female" friends like hooters and any establishment with attractive servers....sounds like for Japan the food is better than here. We don't go any more as the food is crap. To all the people that go on about the degrading to women stuff give me a break. If it wasn't for the ogling of women by the men of the species we would be extinct... If they opened an equivalent restaurant here with well built men in thongs and bow ties it would be even more successful than hooters. I don't think Japan has strip clubs but the ones that cater to women are absolute MAD houses unlike the ones I would go to where we just enjoy a beer and the view.

A box of "them" could go straight in the garbage...that is why it is a requirement in any residence here to have one per so many square feet, mounted permanently on the ceiling usually at the top of a stair case. I personally know of three families that got out of their homes safely before the fire destroyed most of the home. I am going to bring one for my in-laws to put in their house when I come to Japan again....this stuff always scares the crap out of me when I hear about it.

So many homes in Japan are wood frame and there is no legal requirement to have a smoke detector (alarm) like we have in Canada. I think this has been law here for 20 years now. Come on Japan catch up with some simple tech. Such a needless waste of life for a unit that costs less than $100.00!

Saru-au san we do pay for the police as it is a predictable expense for a municipality. I used to rally race and in most countries rally's are in you are responsible to provide emergency evacuation and extraction of the wreck (what is left of your race car/bike). It's all on you as you are taking the chance. In our country we have to pay for ambulance rides emergency or hospital transfers. If someone from the climbing industry wishes to sponsor the emergency costs that would be great and a good idea....just never have seen it. Banff national park and the other adjoining parks in this area are almost as big as Hokido...lots of expensive places for people to get rescued from.

The town I live in is at almost 2000 meters here Canada (near Banff). We never take anything for granted when we go for a stroll. The part I find mind boggling is that between the group of them they couldn't figure out a way to survive with the hiking experience they had. Or come to consensus and head back to the hut they stayed at the previous night when time allowed. It was only -2 or something...that is survivable for one night if they put their heads together. Those comments about suicide seem more likely.

I could give a damn how anyone eats anything...especially when it's being depicted from her ficticous home....and she isn;t Japanese so why should she remotely be obiligated to these twits to eat with Japanese manners.....hell I love the slurp because it drives my parents generation nuts as it's NOT acceptable to slurp your noodles in public (or at our family dinner table) in our country.

People get excited about this stuff but it's ok to read "Rape Man" manga in front of me on the train?? Or the real reasons there are women only train cars....and they are worried about a gay couple that happen to be popular in their scene??? Give me a break. As many before me in this thread said Japan has FAR more important issues to deal with...this is not an issue at all.

Well my Japanese wife of 8 years and I have had our challenges...one of the funny ones is that a heater heats the room and air conditioner cools the room ; ) Then she knew what I was talking about. Every other day it's a question about our English slang and idioms... some stuff might be stereotypical but some of that is true and funny.

Hey I have another theory...NK blew up the rocket themselves to avoid a confrontation with Japan or US....better to have an "accident" than lose face by doing what the UN wants....

They didn't care to pass it on to the civilians as someone in the know had their hand in the "accidental" explosion ; ) It almost seems like they knew it was going to bugger up so no need to inform the public until they confirmed their job was done....

The days of government etc. saving face over news items needs to stop....when the genetic damage occurs over the next few decades becomes obvious Japan will go..oh so sorry I guess we should have done more...after our babies babies have an extra arm for example....The incompetance of Tepco is only exaserbated by the same in the goverment

I didn't think NHK had it in them! Cool....sad they tucked tail and appologized.

Legal gun ownership is not an issue here as a nutter/criminal will get an illeagal gun anywhere if they try hard enough...however it's interesting how cowardly nut cases always pick on schools. Where the average teacher nor the students would be legally carrying a defence weapon. You never hear in the international news where crazed gunman enters school, vice principal of school pulls his 9mm pistol and puts three rounds in the ideots chest. Crisis no longer a crisis and this sort of incident happens way more often than this internationally publisized one. I don't nesesarily condone such proliferation of gun ownership as in the States but these sorts of cases could have used a legally owned and used self defence weapon and more people would have survived the incident.... I have not seen any pics of Zimmermans pulverised/lacerated head in the media so I doubt that claim...

The car driver doesn't need the self rightious law punishing him...the "accident" outcome is punnishmnet enough. I am from Canada and many of our sidewalks are as wide as streets here....I am a freakazoid about my 2 year old getting anywhere near a road here. I find it mind boggling there are no sidewalks in most places here? Just so many blind spots and overall visual business to catch everything when driving. THat is why I don't bother driving over here, it's just to risky and I drive bus profecionally back home. The mom doesn't need us bashing her neither...she will regret this for the rest of her life.

Most of the complaints about Japan are moot as it is that countries style or way. None of that bothered me at all...the only thing that really grossed me out was the backwoods attitude towards second hand smoke. The best food I have ever tasted has to be swallowed with a puff of someones stink stick hanging out of their mouth. Just outrageous for a first world nation.

Refreshing to get some information reported as to what is going on in regards to the on going contamination. I am not in Japan and I find it very hard to get information as to the safety of my family over there. Does any one have any links to sources for more info?

Anyone from Manhattan should be ashamed to put whaler inconvenience on the same level as thousands of people killed with grave intent. Terrorists main purpose it to impose terror and hurting/killing people is the goal. Aggressive environmentalists are trying to wake up the world to our ignorance. There purpose to to educate the world of the ecological tragedies we ignore and some have the balls to get in harms way to save said bear/whale. I don't always agree with their methods but they are in no way insiting terror....they are hoping to save the world we don't give a damn about. Misguided at times but noble intent all the same.

All the banter still does not define them as terrorists. I might be convinced they are vigilantes worst case but again that is not terrorism. All the nature haters here ever had a family member vaporized by IUD??? Ever have your child's school flattened by a suicide bomber??? Get a grip and put the word in right context. Just because you don't agree with their actions (and I don't really condone these actions neither) does not escalate them to the level of El Qaeda or the IRA. Rightly so the term should and does refer terrorism against ecology and the earth not the other way around.

NO! They are not terrorists...law breakers and trespassers yes. Anyone who says so has NEVER been a victim of terrorism and minimizes people and who have been making the parallel comparison.

No the stupid ones are the HUMANS!!! The rest of the species on this planet just carries on as they should and live within their boundaries....we are the virus that eats the planet up and leaves nothing for our descendants.

I think these three guys have accomplished exactly what they wanted to do. There probably wasn't any ulterior motive at all. They have brought this discussting slaughter of watched or endangered wildlife back into the spot light. Good for them.

Regardless the "junk" being made in Mexico would have a VW on the front....Japanese cars made over hear (Canada) have not had to much trouble over the Japanese built ones that I can recall and I am a 20 year journeyman mechanic.

Very sad for these kids regardless who is a fault...someone was stupid. A modern Bell (style) helmets are light, well vented and as comfortable as a ball cap....oh and they are very reasonably priced (the last government certified helmet I bough for my boy was $14.00), unlike those stupid looking buckets from WW2 I see a few kids and teens wearing in Japan. Another modernization that hasn't made it to Japan it seems. My Japanese wife said "oh well it's just a different culture" in regards to our western thoughts on bike safety...NO I said it's ignorance of very common statistics. In Canada I think death by head trauma in children is almost #1 for falling off a bike without a helmet and we have very well enforced laws in regards to kids wearing head protection.

VicMoSaka mentioned the very obvious point of why women leave...they need to leave if it's an abusive or dangerous relationship but that doesn't condone kidnapping the children and leaving the country. These women do have lives where they live, stay with friends etc. to sort it out legally as this is the country of the family. Here in Canada we have a really good support system for helping woman in such situations (I am sure there is even better in other countries) Very poor moral compass for the children that if you don't like the laws of the country you live in just leave and go to a country that is backwards enough to suit you. Both parents have the "human right" to have access to their children law or no law.

The child carries dual citizenship almost always and it seems to me that Japan thinks they are protecting a Japanese national by denying a western father (usually) due justice. I would like to know why airlines let the children on international flights without a letter of consent from the parent that is not in attendance and take the time to contact the parent to verify. I have heard of a few stories locally in Banff where this has happened to two very good fathers...it is so cruel to the child and parent.