Michael Brian Yamazaki-Fleisher comments

Hanyu tripled his quad toeloop and didn’t perform the second jump in his tripe-triple combination. The 19-year-old Japanese star hadn’t competed since the worlds in March — and it showed.

Did I just read that right? And where did you mention the fact that Hanyu and Yan collided on the ice prior to Hanyu's incredible, albeit disoriented, performance? I didn't see where you mentioned that Hanyu was a bloody mess after his performance, as he sat awaiting his scores, blood dripping from his face, or how Yan collapsed after colliding with Hanyu on the ice. Pretty cold analysis you gave of this, it showed that you didn't really watch the competition at all.

No, @shonanbb, it's on your Apple iDevice whether you plug into iTunes or not, like it or not. You have no option in the matter - you downloaded it automatically - you had no say in the matter.

@ClippetyClop, 100% spot-on!

The number 1 problem I see in English "education" in Japan is just that - Japanese arrogance. When a teacher asks their ALT for further information about something they're teaching (sometimes they do, often times you're a statue), they really don't care about what you have to tell them. You can't speak Japanese in class so you speak in English - they mistranslate what you say to conform to the test they're taking, 100% of the time - making you look like a bumbling idiot who can't speak Japanese and shouldn't be teaching.

I had a JTE who kept mistranslating everything I said. One student asked me in a jr. high, 2nd grade class, "Where do you live?" I answered, "I'm from New York but I live in [nantoka]Machi, not too far from here." The JTE translated that as (into English), "He says he's from a small town in New York, outside of the city." I let that one go at first, thinking that maybe the JTE is just an unqualified quack. Then, another student asked me, in English, "Are you married? Do you have a family?" I answered, "Yes - my wife and I live here in Japan." The teacher translated it as, "He says he has a girlfriend back home in America."

I stopped immediately after that and asked him if he's having problems understanding my English. He shook his head and said, "not at all." I told him that I did not say half of the things he said to the kids. One kid asked me a question that warranted a yes-no answer, I believe it was simple as, "Do you speak Japanese?" I answered "Yes I do, but not here." The JTE translated, "全然喋れない!" ("Zen-zen shaberenai" - "I can't speak a single word of Japanese"). I know that we aren't supposed to use Japanese in class but that was the last straw in a long line of purposeful mistranslations.

It's about stubbornness and pride - the Japanese have an overabundance of both. This article was spot on and many of your comments are as well - but this article is talking to us, those of us who are in the trenches and see this every single day. I have a student at my juku eikaiwa who was making forward progress in my English class only to have that progress snarled to a crawl after continuing with his English education in Jr High School.

The system is more than broken and as long as stubbornly prideful Japanese continue to insist on moving forward with this same system, when put in a room with a Chinese and Korean person, the Japanese will look like someone who suffered brain damage when someone asks them, "How are you?"

Pathetic.

This does NOT surprise me. With the way people drive in this country (the WORST I've ever seen), this was bound to happen! And I'm from New York and have NEVER had a rough time driving until I started driving here in Japan! Common sense goes out the window during commutes, and driving is no exception. Don't know who started what - wouldn't be surprised if the motorcyclist, who in this country are the RUDEST drivers on the road, cut off the old man in the car and started a beatdown.... or the old man started to play with the motorcyclist and the guy dragged the old man out of the car and started a beatdown. Either way, both scenarios are possible - I reserve no judgement in this matter.

You'll find out in a few years when it gets dubbed

No. This remark is exactly the same as it always has been, repeated by various US officials. It is not part of the trade agreement.

Actually Obama made it VERY clear that in exchange for security assurances, he demanded that trade restrictions be eased. This is all about the TPP, nothing more nothing less. Obama will sell out Japan to the Chinese unless Japan enters the TPP, which is VERY unpopular in this country. He wants nothing less than that. And even if Japan does enter the TPP, there's no guarantee that Obama will commit those forces to help Japan deal with the Chinese.

Obama WILL go to China. He WILL tell them one of two things - either assure that he won't get the US involved, or he'll politically back China, just to appease them. Chinese appeasement has kept him, Clinton when this whole thing began and now Kerry, and Kennedy from doing ANYTHING even remotely close to honoring the security agreement.

With the Olympics coming in 2020, international terrorism on the rise like never before, the Chinese knocking on Japan's doorstep and the US doing almost nothing about it, a tyranical South Korean "president" and North Korea keeping up their usual hijynks, it's reasonable to assume that the Japanese people need to be able to protect themselves. International conquest is way beyond the scope of the Japanese government large. I finally moved here in 2011 after yerars of planning and debating, and I love Japan. As things stand now, this nation has enemies that want nothing more than to massacure its population and take the land cultivated by the Japanese people for thousands of years. My wife included, I hate to see people chant "peace, Japan will go to war with no one" even when Chinese war ships are breaching Japanese territorial waters and President Park is talking of retaliation against Japan for WWII, neither letting Japan 70 year-old incidents that this country already paid for, dearly, in blood and radioactive fallout (twice).

I love this country and her people, but eyes need to be openned. This is the 21st century, we're not coming off of a massive world war that killed hundreds of millions worldwide. Asia-Pacific is the last stable economy left on Earth with Japan and China running neck-and-neck for top dog (inspite of what the critics are saying about Abenomics, it's working and the Yen is still the strongest currency in the world as of right now). Japan has a lot to defend. No one is singing Kombaya around a campfire anymore - people are pointing guns at us out here and our ally sworn to defend us won't... Abe should be commended for not wanting his beloved country to roll over and die when China and South Korea demand it.

Sorry to Chinese and South Koreans but this is the political truth.