Maria comments

Post-pandemic, for tourists coming from abroad the airfare has been cheap and the yen is so weak that much of Japan has been inundated with tourists.Do offer us the residents of Japan suffering from the weak yen lower airfares! The extortionate airfares the Japanese airlines are demanding has driven up prices across the board.

They will be accompanied by the Imperial Household Agency handlers, chamberlain, butlers, and ladies in waiting, orchestrating every move.

They offer their imperial highnesses a selection of appropriate clothing options to choose from. They have no freedom.

In Japan lonely senior citizens are prohibited from adopting cats and dogs at the shelter. Can they rent these cats?

WAIT. Most Japanese expat salarymen leave their wives and children in Japan. WHY? Japanese trading companies and major banks refuse to pay exorbitant tuitions for international/american/British schools for the kids even if the posting is in a non anglophone country. Companies will only pay peanuts for the Japanese government funded full time Japanese schools located in most foreign countries. Japanese schools end at junior high as high school education is not considered compulsory. So high school kids have no where to go but Japan if they want to continue their Japanese high school education.

Expat Japansee moms were excited to have their kids gain admission to elite private schools and universities through the returnee kikokushijo route have realized the schools prefer returnee kids who had studied at the Japanese schools, living in Japanese communities. There’s less incentive for Japanese parents to school their kids at local or international schools. Japanese salarymen work long hours and rarely vacation. They spend evenings at Japanese embassy or Japanese chamber of commerce events. Their weekends playing company golf. English and French employees get 4-5 weeks of annual leave each year while they get a week, maybe two. The Japanese salarymen abroad get fewer public holidays than they would in Japan so they’re worked harder. Housing allowances are lower than your average American/European expat so they still hesitate to invite non Japanese friends to their tiny apartments in the Japanese ghettos. HOME LEAVE is every 2.5 years for major European countries like England and France. Imagine that a major corporation allows you visits home to see your aging parents only once every 2.5 years! You pay and treat your employees like crap of course they’re unhappy.

A friend’s Japanese MIL was hospitalized on Mothers Day and as she’s elderly and lives alone it took multiple calls by the ambulance drivers to find a hospital who’d take her. She said her two brothers had their kids babysat by MIL for years yet they did not even bother picking up when she phoned and texted them for help. What is wrong with these people?

It can’t be the stagnantly low Japanese salaries directing this move.

CANE PEDOPHILES! In Singapore “involving a child in producing child abuse material, imprisonment up to 10 years, accompanied by a fine or caning.” If the suspect gets off scot-free due to his diplomatic immunity the victim will suffer more from the injustice.

Infuriating that the world’s gold standard, Paxlovid which has been proven to decrease long COVID has been impossible to have prescribed at most clinics and hospitals in Tokyo. For family and friends who are elderly or immunocompromised I’ve called countless clinics, if they prescribe it and 99% don’t. I called pharmacies to see which physicians are prescribing it and there aren’t any. One international clinic in Minato did and only one nearby pharmacy had it.

In the U.S. and Europe physicians prescribe medications after discussing the options and side effects with patients. Patients then fill prescription at a pharmacy and the pharmacy will order the medication if they’re out. In Japan Paxlovid has never been an option here. Japan pushed Lagevrio which in other countries is given to those who can’t take Paxlovid. A friend’s Japanese MIL collapsed yesterday The ambulance driver called a well known university hospital and was rejected. the second hospital took her but its Google reviews are horrible. She has COVID. She’s is a healthy, two time cancer survivor. . She is currently not on any medications but Paxlovid was not an option. What a travesty.

What astounds me is how toilets at new malls and train stations continue to have one stall fitted with a squat toilet that nobody wants to use. Even the elderly refuse it as squatting hurts their arthritic knees. Why are there public toilets with washlets that nobody uses because they consider the water unclean? I do appreciate the warm seats!

Canon would do well to produce hearing aids for the elderly gentlemen complaining about their hearing here.

Why would you want the bungling 60 year old Digital Minister or is it Minister Digital(?) to continue bungling? Choose someone young enough who actually can propose new digital shortcuts!!

Reconstruction Minister Shinako Tsuchiya what was she doing the previous 71 years?

Sports Minister is also geriatric! Seiko Hashimoto wasn’t that old.

Tokyo was one of the first world capitals to suffer from the heat island effect. Removing what little greenery we have in order to add a thousand more air conditioners will make the outdoor humidity and temperatures unbearable. Tokyo Mayor Koike, Meiji Shrine, let’s protect our parks.

Details? What do you wipe all over your body? Is it a wet wipe for your neck? ? Are they reusable? How do they rate compared to the rings?

The UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, etc guarantee 5-6 weeks of annual vacation by law!

Lifetime employment is no longer so it’s time for Japanese salarymen and women to shed their lifetime junior-high mentality. Dare to refuse after work a golf invitations from colleagues, take time off monthly, avoid meaningless meetings and focus on productivity.

9:30AM waiting for my train at dimly lit Roppongi Station, without warning an angry sounding man touched, then patted my shoulder and neck from behind. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up! Do I run?! I turned around and found a station employee scolding me for standing on and not behind the yellow line on the barrier protected platform! He returned to his spot completely ignoring the men standing on the yellow line so I took their photo. Incensed I went up to him and said you scared me. I said there are barriers, the train wasn’t pulling in, he had time to approach me from the front and he should not have touched me. I pointed to the men standing on the yellow he had ignored and asked why did you only target me? He apologized.

On my way home I told the Roppongi manager to train his staff not to touch women and especially not from behind. I told him to look at the video footage for evidence but the angle was off and didn’t show contact. How convenient!

Would like to see Godiva Cafes open at 8am in residential areas of Minato and Shibuya!

Where is Hanoi’s Obama Banchan?! Definitely rates a star for its marinated grilled pork noodles on a silky bed of rice noodles.

Pilot spent hours dumping most of the fuel in the tanks over the Pacific Ocean before the plane could safely land.

We were very puzzled seeing 50 Chinese Mandarin speaking tourists at this Kamakura area Enoden train crossing on a weekday. Security guards on bullhorns requested people not block automobiles but in Japanese. I’m not looking forward to a further influx of mainland Chinese tour groups.

Throughout the pandemic we learned Japan’s masking up is meaningless as the locals eat in restaurants with different people everyday. They spend hours inside Starbucks, Dotour cafes unmasked.

Why was it originally rejected by the FDA? How much does it cost? Japan currently relies on Lagevrio (not Paxlovid) which have been shown to create new variants.

Whale meat is no longer being consumed. Why are the Japanese government & Kyodo Senpaku wasting 6 billion yen ($46 million) on a new whaling ship?

Yet masked-up Japan experienced its largest COVID wave this past summer with new cases exceeding 200,000 a day, making Japan the world #1 COVID hot spot for weeks.

450,000 yen in economy class on Japan Airlines to Paris!

What’s the point of wearing masks all day if you eat inside packed, unventilated restaurants? Long Covid patients have packed the waiting rooms at major hospitals and there’s no cure in sight.

Another giveaway is the nasty mildew smell from the dishcloth used to wipe down your menu and table. Check recent photos on IG and see how much business they get. If there are just a few customers during peak dining hours, stay away.

No masks to protect the child and athlete on the day Japan records the highest number of covid ?

What merit is there for passengers departing from Haneda and Kuala Lumpur to drop off their baggage five hours before departure? Compared to JAL’s First lounge in Haneda, the Malaysian Airlines First Lounge in KL is claustrophobically tiny and the roti canai sauce seemed defrosted by microwave.

Yet why can’t my kids in university in the US and UK come home to see us in Tokyo?! Outrageous.

Crossing my legs is my way of maintaining social distance on the subway! Don’t want people breathing down on me through their gaping nylon masks.