magpie comments

A beauty on ice and poetry in motion when she skates.

People seem perpelxed as to why they like Ken Watanabe. My answer for hy I like him is simple. (a) he's a brilliant actor (b) He's a man who recovered from serious illness and came back stronger and more deidcated to his work (leaukemia I think it was). (c) Unlike other famour actors, he seems down to earth and doesn't seem to have been in the news for the wrong reasons.

Ahhh White Love...果てしない あの雲の彼方へ, 私をつれていって, その手を 離さないでね...

What a lot of memories....

Over exposure in the media always seems to be an issue for Japan, ie the pendulam swings too far. But hey, these guys earned their right to the over exposure. Well Done Blue Samurai!

What happened to Koki Mizuno?

daisan, a very good question. IMO, he is the future of Japanese football. He maynot have the skill of Hasebe or the steel of Honda, but boy is he quick and boy does he try. He actually puts a good end product as a winger (a good shot or a good cross). What happened to him, Tony Mowbray.

It was unfortunate that Celtic changed managers after the 2008/9 season when Strachan left. Mowbray just didn't like Koki and let him rot in reserves. Justice is served as Mowbray got fired. That said, I doubt Neil Lennon will keep him on the books. Celtic have no money as do all scottish clubs so will likely sell to raise fnds for further purchases...

rockbuster - Agree Tulio was a rock in defence as was nakazawa. Tulio is now 29 so he may one more chance to play in 2014. Nakazawa unfortunately will likely have played his last world cup at 32. I felt the back four all played well and Komano should feel no shame.

Hasebe and Honda will be the fulcrum for the midfield and up front Okazaki is still young. The future of Japanese football will hopefully continue to develop.

Okada san, otsukaresama deshita. I owe you an apology for constantly slagging you off before the world cup. No we didn't make the semi-finals, but you r team made us all proud. It was amster stroke to put in Kawashima instead of Narazaki, and topush Honda upfront. Your defenders repaid all the faith you had in them, by playing by playing close to 400 minutes of well orchestrated and solid defence. The midfields were often creative and the strikers got in 3 goals to get us to the round of 16.

My hats off to you sir!

The match was not the best played of matches, but that is through no fault of the Blue Samurai. Komano's shot was well struck and 9 out of 10 times he probably would have hit it spot on back of the net. It was a matter of inches over 12 yeards, which was unfortunate. Japan played a tournament to make us all proud and the back four defense were truly rock and foundation on which the tournament has been succesful. There is no shame at all in japan's performance. I take my hat off to you and bow in apology for all the doubt I had pre-tournament. Well done Japan!

When he first debuted people were asking when he'd go MLB and frankly at the time he wasn't interested. Many thought it was a lack of ambition, but the angle at the time was also his Iranian heritage. He's close to his dad, who will haev a hard time being with him or seeing him in the states.

You guys know how hard it is for an Iranian to go to the US? I don't know for sure, but a mate of mine is British through and through (even wears his kilt) but as his father was in the oil business he was born in Iran. On his British passport, it states place of both Tehran. he looks British through and through, but because of his place of birth, he has a damn hard time getting into the US (he can only enter the US through a restricted number of cities).

Yeah his dad states, but the degree of skepticism the US has with Iran has changed and tightened even more than when compared to when ihis dad was at school.

Would love to see him in the majors, but me thinks its highly unlikely mate. I'd rather much bet on Da Cubs winning the world series this year...

he went in with eyes wide open. If you ask me, anybody who was contemplating a relationship with Uno, deserves whatever grief that comes their way...

I would say that in practically all the countries I've been to where there is a BK and a McD's,BK wins easily in terms of product (taste quality etc). However they also coct quite a bit more than McD's...

Nothing that's been listed in this story really is embarassing to be honest. There have been far worse stories I can recollect from own expereinces and those I've heard from friends. Throwing up when drunk so what, spilling drinks whilst the head spins sure thing, saying something out of hand whilst talking under the inlfuence...wel it be more embarrassing if you said it sober.

How about waking up to find you're in bed with your professor naked after a night of drinks...or waking up in a jail cell in your boxer shorts only and having the home video recording of all teh misdemeanors you committed the night beofre played back in court...There are a lot of urban legends which put SERIOUS blushes on peoples face.

Tokyo can be a pretty wild town, as wild as any in the US or London or HK. Takarajima really needs to improvce the way it develops its interviewed sample.

Shows that win over Safina was a fluke,since she had hardly played due to her bad back

cracaphat, no point discredting her man.

i thnk she deserves all the credit for the win over Safina. The unfortnate reality is she was injured and as a result lost her next match...Could she havewon were she fit? Who knows, she only needs to be accountable to herself and I think she's done that.

‘‘The players gave it everything they had but we have lost twice in one year (to South Korea) and I feel very sorry about that,’’ said Okada

Then resign if you are sorry. My faith in Okada is such that I feel any coach even a last minute appointment can do better.

PeaceWarrior, I ask myself that same question. I only mnage to catch teh tail end of that boom, but it feeds me with enough memories to like you, have a smile on my face. Just recalling all that eurotrash music which was great...the bodycon boom, and the fact that everyone just wanted to have a good time.

Are we getting older yes for sure, but society has changed so much too. Forget about kabakura man, the days of Juliana were far better. The next best thing was ministry of sound and the hacienda which thankfully propelled things a bit more for me though the good times factor but far less in terms of the bodycon thing....

Lostinnagoya, my recollection of juliana's seem to suggestthat all five are overdressed and missing the whole "bodycon" theme of the happy go lucky Juliana days!

But wow Suzuki Kyoka looks great!

Moderator: The picture of the day doesn't have to be just news. It can be human interest, cultural or anything for that matter. This photo portrays a facet of Japanese night life.

Moderator, nice response....It can be of human interest....hope this applies to all facets of human interest going forward....

Thank you JapanToday for a nice pic to kick start my day. =)

Safe on the surface but messed up beneath in the undercurrent. Yeah I can walk my dog and listen to my iPod without fear of getting jacked. I can drive without fear of stopping at a redlight with my windows open...But I would worry adn fear for my kids given the perverts in the country, the bullying at school and also the whackos who go around looking for helpless targets to kill just to satisfy an urge to live out a video game.

There are places where on paper its more dangerous, but I would say that many of those places are more predictable. There si danger, but equally you can figure out how to avoid it.

Bottomline, would I move back to japan to live and raise my kids...no.

Guys that's okay. I still appreciate all three of trhese sistas!

All the best to him in this tournament. Genuinely hopes he does well.

perhaps it was a loved one the man lost and for mentally unstable reasons he could not let go of.

smithinjapan, thanks for the colour. My first thoughts were exactly as you said. The trauma of losing a loved one can cause people to do somecrazy things. If that were the case, i have sympathy for this man. As a father of four, I don't know what i would do if I lost any of my children. Bury them yes I would, but I don't know if could ever get over the loss.

I'm trying not to jump the gun here and scream child abuse. How did the baby die? Is the man mentally ok (no joke here). I mean if the baby was badly decomposed he must have been carrying the corpse for sometime. There must be some attachment to the baby otherwise why wouldn't he just throw the corpose a be rid of the problem?

he should burn in hell for carrying around like his lunch

Gurukun, yes agree that a guy who's carrying a corpse like his lunch should be punished, but let's see howthe news pans out, if he di it knowingly in good mind yes, but what if he's mentally unstable from grief and just didn't want to let go? Give the man the benefit of doubt until we see the whole news.

Japan in the eighties and nineties was a heaven. Growing up and spending time in japan, I remeber the ultra mini skirts of the bubble year eighties. I ws just old enough to enjoy the dying years of hthat decade as a teen growing up. Wow they were good times. I remember my brothers having a blast. The ninties were great times too. Living in HK and travelling around asia, it seems that the good time culture has moved on. HK and China are great, Singapore a fun place to enjoy the expat life. Jakarta is great and who can complain about Bangkok...if you're single or promiscuous, these are great places to be. If you're just promisuous, I'm sure there several places to have fun in Japan too though.

looks good to me mate! Much better than the san shoku don that I normally get in sapporro!

Bunch of guys who work together decide to form a sports team. How is this news?

Yokomoc, its in the sports section. Japan's obsession with baseball runs across professional, amateur/corproate, schools and universities. No harm in this piece being in the sports section.

Good luck to them. If corporates can have sports team, no reason why the civil servcie can't!

This is so typical of the american ignorance and arrogance that is the american trait.Ignorance that they cannot understand culture and respect and arrogance that they think their president and culture is above all others. It is for this reason (and also their lack understanding of geographies beyond their state) that Americans would forever be seen as stupid fools who flash the green bucks and never understand a thing. A wrong perceptuion yes, but one perpetuated by the minority of americans who are like that...

A true classic beauty.

Guys appreciate Arisa for waht she is. I'm too old for her to be the cougar, but would gladly be an otaku herbivore dude for aday if she would lone wolf me! ;)

Hong Kong has the advantage of being one of the world-famous 4 tigers and a superior English system, opening thousands of doors to foreign talents.

Gaijinochio....

HK has no distinctive advantage over any country (I'm living and woring here now so I can say that for sure) in the sense that this is a generational problem globally. You have a generation of kids coming into the workforce who have enjoyed the benefits of a scoiety becoming more affluent. They're the PSP / Nintendo DS generation. Kids who's parent bought them new in toys , went to school and came home to play computer games etc etc...they probably hardly played team sports like football, rugny, soccer or whatever and as such do not know how to co-operate and appreciate team work. Hell they've probably never played in a park and had a sandlot fight! We tend to call them the greenhouse flowers in that they've been brought up in a very protective environment.

In my line of work, the Greenwich Surveys mean a lot, client feedback about how we're doing. One of my colleagues got a shit load of ppor comments from her client and all she could do was bitch and moan about this and that. As her boss, I just wondered, is she thinking through about her feedback? Where there's smoke there's a fire right? Even if the house was burning down, a lot of these younger kids who started working just wouldn't care!

Moderator: Back on topic please.