MeAndroo comments

I work in Hyogo and this came up at our morning meeting. It's really scary to think that any one of the kids I see running around could be gone at any moment. Truly a tragedy.

I can't speak for every school, but one of the first things kids have drummed into their heads is that they only have one life, and that they have to do what they can to protect it. Punishment in elementary school that I've seen tends to basically involve a scolding and commands to reflect on their actions. I regularly have to pull kids down off of things that they shouldn't be climbing on.

It isn't just schools either. I often see a lackadasical attitude towards safety taken by parents as well. Mothers talking obliviously while their 4 year olds jump off 4 foot planters, letting kids STAND on the front seat of the car while driving. All kinds of stuff...Americans may be paranoid, but some of these Japanese are absolutely careless.

I want to see both Sherlock and Robin Hood, but it's hard to getting to movies out here in the Japanese countryside. Heck, I'm finally seeing Alice in Wonderland next week.

Also, thanks for the spoiler about the ending in Sherlock Holmes. Appreciate it.

I saw Gu-tan last night too and since I didn't know who she was before, imagine my surprise to hear normal English come out of her mouth. Even if it's not a big deal for them, anyone who's bilingual gets points from me.

Looks like Kuwabata is starting to get back a little of her pudge. The transformation she made was remarkable, but you can't backslide!

Anybody hear about Mickey D's paying folks to stand in line, claiming it was "quality monitoring?" Some of the early posters were right it looks like.

Yeah, the Mega Mac is probably larger than the QP. The difference is supposedly in the size of the individual patty. Hell, they have a double McRib in my town.

That said, it's Japan. Of course they lined up for it. Japanese people love standing in line.

BTW, they queued up for Kripy Kreme in southern California when that opened as well.

Around forty is gairaigo-ed into araundo footi...abbreviate that and you get arafo. There's been the subsequent use of the term arasa (around thirty) as well.

According to the news this morning, Hoshino was actually IN a show that they did...don't think they mentioned Kojima doing the same thing. If you've ever seen Blue Man Group, it's the part where they're eating at the table with a guest from the audience.

And yes, Kojima is boring and Hoshino is nothing but eye candy...They should trade clothes, that'd make things a lot more interesting.

Gu is indeed a bastardization of the word good. Apparently Edo's English teacher used to say good after every phrase, including the thumbs up. She took it to it's logical Japanese conclusion.