miyakojimadan comments

@ JeffLee How do you use your credit card to pay pension contributions? I'd like to do that!

Be careful of mileage programs where miles have an expiry date. JAL Mileage Bank is one of those shifty programs. I had their card for years but was never able to use even 1 mile because the miles would expire before I could use them.

This may be the one and only reason why I would ever go to Saitama. I'd love to watch those games.

I think the reason they keep harping on the possibility of earthquakes is because they want to keep the possibility of another "big one" in everyone's conscience. People in this country (including me), in my experience, tend to be quite complacent when it comes to these things. They wait and wait to make preparations because they don't have a sense of immediate danger. After the earthquake last year here in Osaka, suddenly everyone was buying up all the gas canisters, water etc in the city. It seemed like a great many people did not do anything to prepare after 3/11.

If you haven't made any earthquake preparations, do it now. You may never need them, but you will be kicking yourself if you don't prepare and you do need them.

I read a really good article on Ichiro a while ago, and it is kind of a sad story. All he has done all his life is train for, and play baseball. He can't quit playing because it would leave him feeling helpless and useless apparently. At least that's what the article said. The man has never done anything else and can't imagine a life without playing the game. I hope he finds the peace he needs to enjoy retirement someday.

Speed: Saitama should get its own crime section on this site.

I agree. I asked my Japanese wife about the seemingly disproportionate crime levels in Saitama, expecting her to say there was nothing strange going on there, but she said that Saitama is famous for having a lot of crime and a lot of it is violent or sexual in nature. I'm not sure if this is true but she sure seems to think so.

calls for tougher penalties have been growing particularly after a fatal accident in 2016 that saw a 9-year-old boy die after being hit by a truck whose driver was playing the popular smartphone game Pokemon Go.

Probably the only good thing that ever came out of Pokemon Go.

aaaaahhh.... maybe because "dope" has medicinal purposes and vaping doesn't?

Japan, welcome to the 21st century of criminal justice proceedings. It certainly took you long enough!

I will never understand why people still fool around with drugs in Indonesia. That country is notorious for it's harsh penalties but people continue to test their luck. SMH

And the inside hatchet job continues....

My, my, my....what a fall from grace for a once great airline. Over the years their level of service has fallen, the seats have gotten smaller and many more delayed flights than in the past. Now their pilots are drunk. Lesson for today: don't fly JAL.

Social media, especially Facebook is the cancer of our age. I quit Facebook in August and I haven't missed it one little bit. I hope to live to see the end of FB. It'll be a great day for humanity and one's personal privacy.

There is nothing dangerous about eating a low-carb diet. I've been doing for years and I am in perfect health with medical checkups to prove it. Having said that, I just wouldn't recommend filling up on foods high in cholesterol. That's a part of the Atkins diet I don't believe in.

I've run into wild boars while hiking and they are no joke. Always try to back away slowly if you come in contact with one.

Trump is like the arsonist who calls the fire department to put out his own fire.

Wow. You have to wonder how these people slept well at night knowing that they were potentially putting people's lives at risk. It's unthinkable to me.

I'm very sorry this happened to the child. The man is sick and should be imprisoned. Now, the next question in my mind is... how as a parent, does your child wander away without you knowing it? If the boy told his mother later in the day, it means the child wandered away, was molested, and then came back without the mother/father knowing?

What zurcronim said ^^^^

The women have already won the World Cup. That's pretty big.

@papigulio: If you don't mind me asking, what do you have in your pack?

Let this be a wake up call to all those (me included) who have procrastinated getting an earthquake preparation kit together. I would recommend everyone buy a cassette gas burner and at least 10 cassette gas bottles. Also you want to have at least 12 X 2L bottles of drinking water, and some non-perishable foods such as canned vegetables, tuna, instant ramen etc. I went and bought these things today. I recommend everyone does the same.

It's always better to be overprepared than underprepared.

Is there anything he doesn't try to take credit for?

I have a friend who owns a game bar in Osaka, but he doesn't charge people to play the games. He just sells them drinks. I wonder what the law says about that?

Lebron is the GOAT.

@Goodlucktoyou. I totally agree with you that you can't blame Air BnB. It's not their fault but having lived in Japan as long as I have I know this is going to feed into the anti-minpaku narrative that many Japanese people have and so I fear the government is going to lay the blame or somehow use this in it's aggressive regulation of Air BnB amd other minpaku sites. That's all I'm saying. I'm certainly not putting the blame on anyone but that psychopath.

The news is not clear but I'm assuming it was an Air BnB apartment. However, the news did say that the property was not registered with the city as is required by law. I have a feeling that the many many places that are renting out rooms "under the radar" are soon going to be getting serious pressure from authorities.

This is more about the lack of safety that dating apps provide but I think it's Air BnB, and those who rent rooms out on it, that are going to take heat.

Often, it seems that it takes something like this to happen before action is taken in Japan.

Glad to know I will be on a quality airline.

I'm sorry, but as a Canadian who has flown with Air Canada many times, I can't help but laugh at your comment. They are not a "quality airline" in any way.

You will be lucky if they don't oversell the seats and try to force you to fly the next day. You will be lucky if they actually leave on time and/or the flight isn't cancelled. You will be lucky if your luggage is not lost. And MOST important... you will be lucky to find anyone at Air Canada who cares if anything goes wrong.

Good luck! :)

make them pay financially and with jail time as a deterrent to others.

Make them pay financially? Yes, of course.

Jail time? Jail time for what? For being incompetent ? If we gave everyone in Japan jail time for being incompetent there would be a lot of people in jail. They didn't do anything criminal; just didnt do their jobs. Thankfully for many people that is not a crime resulting in jailtime.

I know a Japanese guy in Osaka who has started a business building drones just like the one in this story. I think he is going make a lot of money.