mastertigurius comments

Sure, Tokyo's not perfect, there's an abundance of annoying details and all that - despite that, I love the place.

The friends I made, the places I saw, and not least meeting the woman I later turned out to marry are only a few of the many good things there. Sure, I'd worry about money, be annoyed about immigration procedures or facepalm whenever a police officer wanted to do a "routine check" on my bike, but guess what: To me, the good outweighed the bad.

Stop ripping on Japan...though it has flaws (like any place in the world), I love it nonetheless.

I live in the Philippines, and this is mildly unsettling to me. If there's one thing people here in Southeast Asia know, it's that China likes to treat the region as its' bitch.

China: "This is a holdup, give us Spratly Islands!"

Philippines: "No!"

China rattles its saber "How about now?"

Philippines: "Okay, take whatever you want, but please don't hurt us!"

@tokyokawasaki

A slight pinch of healthy skepticism is usually good, but what you are doing here is going too far. You make several claims about Buddhist monks overcharging and exploiting grieving family members while linking it to Miyabe, while at the same time offering absolutely nothing to support these claims...a personal attack if I ever saw one. Cynics should keep in mind that no matter where we are in the world, there are still good people around, who want to do good out of the kindness in their hearts, not to line their pockets.

Shame on you.

Though I don't mind that dirty little trafficker getting just punishment (if only to wipe that smirk off his face), we have to consider the financial impact of the crime vs. the financial impact of the punishment.

Let's assume a food budget of 30,000 rupiah per day...that should easily cover three meals. In one week, that will amount to 210,000 rupiah. After a year, the taxpayers have contributed 10,920,000 rupiah in food expenses to keep the man alive, but punished...which to me seems fair enough - I wouldn't mind giving my share of that to keep a drug dealer behind bars for a year. However, after 18 years, taxpayers are short of 196,560,000 rupiah. This is only to cover food and doesn't include security, healthcare, maintenance for the prison etc. etc.

Now let's consider that a 3BR house with 375 square meters floor space on a 500 square meter lot in Yogyakarta goes for about 2.5 million rupiah - imagine the vast amounts of money that went down the drain to keep this guy in prison...was it worth it? Who got the worst part of the punishment? Him or the taxpayers?

Terrible story. One thing that scares me is how isolated people in Japan can become. Wouldn't the neighbors wonder why they hadn't seen them outside the apartment in a while? Not saying anyone could've done anything to help them, but for them to lie there for months, forgotten and alone...that's just horrible.

By the way, when I say "corrupt officials", a big death-stare goes out to the entire Arroyo-administration.

Ninoy 1 & 2 are probably the hands-down worst international airport terminals in Asia

Actually amongst the worst in the world. Problem is that the government will earmark huge amounts of money for the upgrade projects, but half of it will disappear in the pockets of corrupt officials. No matter how many structural upgrades they make on terminal 3, it's not gonna make any difference.

The meeting area is a congested chaos, where people have to jump and squint in an attempt to find someone who's forced to stand on the other side of the road. Not to mention the whole area is a security nightmare...I even got into the terminal without any proper bag check....a terrorist could easily get in there and raise hell whenever he saw fit (and believe me; both the NPA and MILF enjoy doing that on a regular basis in these parts).

@Virtuoso

The case of the Iranian who blew his own leg off with a bomb yesterday on the street in Bangkok would seem to offer a pretty compelling argument in favor of Iran's involvement.

Iran is naturally involved if he's an Iranian citizen, but that does not automatically mean that the government is involved - it could have been an independent terrorist organization, or individuals wanting to prove a point. Unless Israel can prove that this was definitely an act perpetrated by the Iranian government, I do not see it as an argument for going to war against the entire country - a war that could potentially draw in most of the region, with catastrophic consequences.

I think they should focus on stabilizing both the Japanese economy and the government before considering the olympics...in its current state, Japan would probably say hello and goodbye to at least a handful of new cabinets before 2020.

I would like to see that they find definite evidence of the terrorists being on the Iranian government's payroll before Israel jumps the gun. The world really doesn't need another war based on assumption, wild guesses and plain lies. *Scowls at the Bush-administration

@sillygirl LOL....you're so silly!

Oden is probably my all-time favorite Japanese dish...especially when my friends and I were freezing our sorry butts off in the shabby Tokyo Uni dormitory. The dessert oden sounds brilliant, and I'd love to try making some when I get back to a colder climate.

Fast food is garbage

Tasty garbage. *takes another bite from my big mac

People keep worrying about whether they're eating 1500mg or 2000mg of sodium per day, whether their dinner has 300 or 400 calories, or if the food has polyunsaturated fat. What really matters is not what you eat, but you getting your big behind out of the office chair and running around every once in a while. Not even kids bother to go outside anymore, they'd rather chat with their friends on Facebook, so no wonder everyone's got health issues.

No need for movies about 9/11, because this entire past decade has been defined and saturated by it from start to end. In that respect, sure...it might be exactly the excuse I need to make a movie about it....however, I think people are tired of it, and just want to think about something else than 9/11 and the numerous wars it indirectly started. I need happy movies.

Japanese whalers have definitely gone too far on several occasions, and their bullshit "research"-excuse is getting old. However, make no mistake about it; Sea Shepherd deserves being labelled a terrorist organization - in fact; Paul Watson himself has referred to them as terrorists on several occasions.

We're not just talking about throwing stink bombs...there have been several attempts to sink ships, and Watson has made disturbing statements regarding his biocentric world-view, for example that the world population should be reduced to fewer than 1 billion, and those who deserve to be left alive should be those dedicated to biocentrism.

If there's gonna be a peaceful resolution to the whaling issue, both sides need to settle down considerably.

The thing is, whether it's bad for our brain, lungs, liver or any other part of our body, people still want stimuli, be it tobacco, alcohol, weed, coffee or Belgian chocolate. As everyone knows, this is nothing new....mankind has been puffing away and chewing magic mushrooms since the dawn of ages. We weren't really concerned about the health risks of any of it until very recently, so I believe people (especially those who use such substances) still need some time to let it sink in. Give it a couple more generations, and I think the mass denial will come to an end and smokers, drinkers etc. will realize how silly their habit really is.

He should have been the 'Unckle Argyle' in Braveheart (which I have seen 56 times now)

Well, that's sumthin' we'll have ta remedy, isn't it?

I'm in Manila, and I'm very excited! Seems like Japan is intent on bringing plenty of business here, like Familymart and Lawson too. Seems like a promising future for the Filipino work market. Thank you for being so awesome, Japan! :D

I'm excited about Windows 8. Win7 worked great on my computer, I think maybe I only had a single BSoD, and maybe less than a handful of crashes. Win8 will be the first one to make drastic progress in the user interface since Win95, which to me is a breath of fresh air. Of course, everyone'll be like "d00d, where's the start-menu" for the first couple of tries, but I think they're taking the interface in an innovative direction - especially when considering the possibilities when using touchscreen. I'd say it's best to try it first, and then give criticism where it's due.

Ah, you're referring to 撲殺天使ドクロちゃん (Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan). I would definitely say it falls in under the gurokawa genre, and fondly remember how I got my friends back home to go WTF in disbelief while they were watching it (and I was laughing my ass off at their reactions). Good times, good times! :)

@timtak I especially think the illusion of control you refer to is intriguing to the endless sea of entry-level office workers, who might feel that in most other aspects of their lives, they do not really have much control over anything.

Tatanka: don't think of Assad's action as a massacre -- its more like thinning the herd...

You're messed up dude....don't post crap like that on the internet.

I never thought I'd ever say this, but I agree with John McCain.

Yes, the Syrian conflict might not be as straight-cut as Libya, but there was a clear reason why NATO moved in; to stop Gaddhafi from committing genocide. They were successful in doing so, Gaddhafi is dead, and good riddance. If the world just stands by and watches this atrocity unfold, it will be no better than when the UN were sitting and twiddling their thumbs while watching Rwanda tear itself to pieces in 1994.

The Security Counsil hasn't proven anything to the world, other than them being at the mercy of the countries with the most cash and the most guns. Assad has already shown his intentions, which is to wipe out every single person he believes to be opposed to him. It's time for NATO to impose a no-fly zone, destroy Assad's forces, and hopefully at the end of it, we'll see Assad suffering the same fate as the other dictators.

I always felt quite safe when I lived in Mitaka - even when walking around in the middle of the night it would be very peaceful and quiet, and I definitely don't think I have the wrong impression of Japan...it's mostly safe, almost wherever you go. But why these explosions of violence? It seems once every month, you can read about an isolated incident so bizarre and horrifying that it goes beyond human understanding. Where is the preemptive psychiatric care? Doesn't the school notice that something's wrong with the kids? Are the kids isolating themselves so that they can expertly hide their illnesses from everyone, or are parents, neighbors and teachers simply turning a blind eye?

I don't think they were too concerned about whether there will be enough space for 86.7 million people...Japan has already handled the space problem pretty well (and before you even consider to retort that statement; look at Manila).

The problem is that with such a massive decline in the population, there will be an equal decline in the active workforce. If Japan is gonna be able to keep production levels on par with today, it will have to rely more heavily on skilled immigrants. The department of immigration is already working to improve and relax immigration laws, so I think we'll see some changes there within the next 10 years or so.

In other news, the UN is considering to draft an angry letter to Al-Assad, telling him they're very concerned about the situation in his country, and that he needs to be nice and say he's sorry...this is hardline politics right here. Assad might have run out of toilet paper in the confusion, so the resolution will probably come to good use to him in tough times.

I miss oden so bad! Could have some here in Manila, but with the constant heat, I would probably melt away.

@Nicky Washida

I'm not a physicist, but I would imagine that a bay narrowing in like that would work like a funnel or a bottleneck, increasing the energy of the water being pushed through there - that's what they told us about the fjord where I live in Norway (in the event of massive rock slides). However, it would depend whether it comes from the south or from the east. If it came from the south, there would be no obstruction, so that could put Tokyo at risk. If it came from the east, It would probably do damage to Chiba.

All this being said; we should try to avoid too many "what if"-questions and answers....they don't really contribute a lot, except making people scared. The most important rule is to take care of the people next to you, whether you know them or not, don't forget to take care of yourself, and never end a day on a bad note with your wife/family/friends. It can be a scary thought, but no one lives forever, so we should make sure to love those dear to us while we still can, and spend our time on earth doing good for our fellow citizens.

I'll add a baked apple pie for good measure

LOL! @japan_cynic ...not to mention less painful to your toes when viewed from a distance.

I'm pretty sure there's a pretty strong link between Japan's endless flow of applications to UNESCO and the fact that the previous Director-General of UNESCO is Japanese (Koïchiro Matsuura).

I think Kamakura definitely belongs in the list...loved the place! Got a nice shot of myself together with best buddy Buddha as well! :) Not sure about Mt. Fuji. As mentioned above, the place should be cleaned up and given more regular care first...and that overpriced vending machine at the top really needs to go.

I have to partially agree with NetNinja regarding the feeling of "belonging" in Japan. I love Japan, it's a great place, and it was wonderful to live there - but I would never be able to feel like I belonged there, simply because I'm "gaijin". When you think about it; have you ever met or even seen a person with non-Japanese background who can honestly call himself Japanese? I guess if you have Korean or Chinese ancestry, you might pull it off, but for a Westerner or someone from South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa or South America; no way. The term "Japanese" is very much reserved for an ethnic group, not just a legal status. I had a professor in university who was born and raised in New York (Italian ancestry, I believe). He had lived in Japan for more than 30 years, spoke Japanese better and more eloquently than most Japanese people do, and was even personally acquainted with the imperial family. If you ask me, no one would deserve the title of "Japanese" more than him. Would anyone refer to him as Japanese? I honestly don't think so.