Michael O’ Dereiter comments

What time were you riding? First train? Mid-day? Certainly not during rush hour. The seats are packed, as well as the rest of the train.

Approximately 5.30. Marunouchi line from Akasaka-Mitsuke to Shinjuku.

Then again, people on this board literally only believe what it suits them to, so I really couldn't care less if nobody takes my word for it.

What they won't blame is the 7 million cramming on to trains everyday. I have no idea why this logic continues to prevail.

I understand that you'd rather blame the Japanese for the situation rather than those super-fit and hunky foreigners, and that's your right. But I was on a train today, a trip of about six stations. The trains were fairly full.

Every single passenger was masked.

Nobody spoke. Not a word.

People distanced as far as it was possible. People sat two seats apart when they could.

The local people here are actually pretty disciplined. The numbers would be horrendous if they were not.

I've gotten on great with almost every Aussie I've met in Japan, yet at the same time this news is about as surprising as tomorrow's weather forecast saying "it's going to be hot".

I honestly think the authorities could just use a random number generator for what difference it will make. Just get a computer to generate a four digit number 1000 and 9999. Everyone will spin it one way or the other, nobody will believe it's remotely close to painting a true picture of what's going on, and the young folk will continue to go out and get infected.

We are investigating the situation and based on the result we are to take appropriate action,” Muto said.

Translated:

"We are going to find out the nationality of the athletes involved and base our response on how subservient we are to the country or countries in question".

Really courting the votes of the not inconsiderable number of people who are actually in the country and can't even get a reservation for the first shot, aren't they?

Strikes me as contemptuous behaviour towards the people who elected you, but then what do I know.

Down by exactly a thousand.

OK, even I have to applaud that level of manipulative excellence.

I doubt Suga can speak any language other than Japanese, but he must surely be thinking "après moi, le déluge" right now.

Why the authorities around the world think that lying to the public is the way to deal with it is a scandal.

You know the story of the frog and the scorpion, right?

Authorities - i.e. governments - lie. It's what they do. It's what they exist for.

If he had thought before speaking, he would have realised that he's doomed either way.

If he blames the spike in infections on the Olympics: "then why did you bend the knee to the IOC and not make at least a token gesture of resistance?"

If he states that the spike in infections is not related to the Olympics, he's admitting that it's related to his own incompetent leadership.

Luckily he leads a country where people can't be bothered with outrage because it's mendokusai.

@Michael O’ Dereiter

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the meetings

My adult beverage is now spewed all over my computer screen. Best post of the day!

I can't take credit for that, I was quoting the original poster ("Some Dude").

It is pretty witty though.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the meetings.

Koike: "What can we do? The numbers are going crazy, and yet people are still going out, and acting like it's OUR fault!"

Suga: "Have we won any golds in the last couple of hours?"

Kono: "Nope. The Chinese are starting to overtake us in the medal table"

Suga: "Hmm. Can we, like, arrange a flash flood somewhere?"

Koike: "I don't think that's scientifically feasible"

Mori: "Be quiet, woman"

Koike: "Sorry"

Mori: "Anyway, look. Tell them that recent scientific research has discovered that Japanese people get over Covid faster than anyone else because their DNA is special"

Suga: "Is it?!"

Mori: "Course not. But they'll buy it for a few days until we can work out our next move".

Kono: "You're brilliant, Mori-san. Please be our Supreme Honorary Adviser"

Mori: "Ten million a day and you got a deal"

(All bow. Meeting adjourned).

I don't know how long this will stay up, but you get a tip of the hat from me. Unusually creative for a JT post.

Our ancestors would be ashamed at the lack of virility of the masses today.

Our ancestors presumably survived the bubonic plague which swept Europe and Asia in the 14th century killing between - according to Wikipedia - 30 to 60 per cent of the population of Europe.

I'd like to think we've gotten a little smarter since then, but looking around I have my doubts.

 just walked out of the house to get some groceries.

The local Temple is having a Matsuri complete with street closure and police presence.

Tokyo SOE!???

I'm sure the various deities will protect them. Bet they're doing a roaring trade in amulets.

(straight face, straight face).

Well said Michael. Sums it up very well.

Don't misunderstand me, it's not really optimism. It's nearer to making the best of a bad situation!

I find that while righteous indignation at the responsible parties has its place, you know that nothing's going to change, so you just buckle down and do what you can...

In another breaking news on Yahoo Japan - our dynamic leader Suga has said that he is considering extending emergency for Tokyo and Okinawa beyond 22 Aug

Well he can go and for unlawful carnal knowledge himself. I've taken that week off and I'm planning on heading out to the inaka to get away from the insanity for a while.

If he reimposes the, what is it now, sixth? seventh? SOE, I'll just ignore it completely.

I could care less of numbers at this stage. carry on living as responsibly as possible.

To be honest, I think you might be right, at least in a sense.

Focusing on the numbers from here on in is just going to be depressing.

We should instead use them as a reminder to be vigilant.

I remember learning the Japanese expression 危機管理能力 : crisis management ability.

Japan and Tokyo are currently heading for a spectacular flunk of that one.

I have to say that my disgust is now such that I've started to think that Tokyo, or more specifically the local government in collaboration with the IOC, has brought this on itself. And I live here.

While I'm sure our regular cadre will be along to tell us that it's fine to go out and drink until 4am, I'm going to continue with my general policy of avoiding people as much as possible.

I can't even imagine what the figures are going to be up to in a few weeks from now.

Cries of "we never thought this would happen" were heard echoing around the Kasumigaseki area, quickly followed by cries of "be quiet, the reporters will hear you".

While I have no particular interest in gymnastics, men's or women's, I noticed something interesting on Twitter this morning.

America, which is so often about coming first, winning, competing, being the best, second place is first loser, etc., has suddenly turned into Therapy Central as far as this particular athlete is concerned. Literally dozens of tweets saying things like "she is so brave to pull out for her mental health", "she's a trailblazer", "she doesn't owe you anything", ad nauseam, and any post daring to suggest otherwise gets ripped apart by the baying mob.

Fascinating stuff from a sociological and anthropological perspective.

She’s been told by email she won’t be needed and asked not to sell the uniforms but keep them as a momento.

Given the nature of these games, a memento mori seems to be the appropriate phrase.

Kono: "Hey, trendy young people! Get down with it! The vaccine, it's safe, you dig?"

Young people: "OK, we're convinced. Where's the vaccine?"

Kono: "Um. Yeah. About that...."

It’s not even that hot. They should be glad they’re not playing in Kyoto.

Or Nagoya. Summer there is nasty.

Don't worry, Koike-san. I'm sure the young people will announce next week that they are considering the possibility of taking the vaccine.

This would be a great way to troll the government, both national and Tokyo's.

Have a large group of youngsters draw up a letter and all sign it.

"Dear Governess Koike and Prime Minister Suga

Regarding your message to the young people of Japan to get the vaccination, we have convened to elect a committee to investigate this. We are currently in the process of electing the head of the committee, after which we will have one election a week until everyone has an important-sounding title. At this juncture we will accept ideas from members of the committee, in order of seniority, and we will reflect deeply upon their ideas. Once we've done that, we will, assuming we can remember what we were originally doing all this for, agree to your proposal and request our vouchers, which we assume you have all lined up and ready for us. Yours sincerely..."

Michael O'Doreiter:

You forgot one question. For the tax-payers in Japan?

I did, and all.

How about "an expensive mistake"?

The IOC only cares about one thing: money. Oh, and maybe making Japanese people sick.

If someone could convince them that softball can make them rich, they'd reverse their decision in an instant.

With what? They’ll be middle aged at this rate.

That got a LOL from me.

I was just out for a stroll (even now it's warm, but at least you can take a 15-20 minute walk without melting), and I passed by a bunch of what looked like college age students. Late teens to early 20s at a guess. They were perched on a railing at the side of the road and were taking pictures of each other. There were seven or eight of them. One was wearing a mask. They were huddling together looking at the back of the camera, shrieking and laughing, all but one of them without any form of protection whatsoever.

Ms. Koike might want to take a trip out of her ivory tower and see things like this before making completely unrealistic propositions.

Hopefully that means that as soon as the farce of a Games is over, we also get to see some real action to tackle them.

Unlikely. Japan's already won enough golds to all but guarantee an LDP victory in the next election, and the elderly, who are the LDP's core base, are already mostly double vaxxed, so the rest of the population can swivel and die as far as they're concerned.

My second shot is coming very soon!

Good for you (really, no snark). Watch out for the side effects. Friend of mine, through work, got the second Moderna shot, and he said the next day he was like a zombie. Fever, aches and pains...of course that means the vaccine's working.