Mookoo comments

The spin in the online New Zealand news is somewhat different.

Seriously?! What an over-reaction!! The odds are overwhelmingly in favor of a maintenance worker dropping or forgetting it. Until that can be ruled out, why the big fuss in the news? Gotta keep people scared so they will submit to the b.s. screening procedures without complaint.

I do agree with many that a woman should have curves. Miss Japan can't fill out her padded bikini top. Cocaine thin went out in the '80s.

If you go into the wrong type of bar, the Japanese will attack without provocation. In fact, they'll provoke you then attack whether you react or just try to leave. They could have walked unknowingly into a Yak bar, and got a beatdown as a result.

I also like that on the Japanese side the star is of major calibre, unlike we usually see. Mickey-san, you rock!!

"This neighborhood is a world away from the resort hotels >and white sand beaches of holiday brochures, but it’s >indistinguishable from the backstreets of Naha or Nago."

No kidding! Naha is just as paved-over and a concrete jungle as any city elsewhere in Japan. Most of the traditional homes and trees and parks destroyed. The single beach in town is man-made and has a view of a highway overpass and port construction. The water there a constant murky green-brown, and not far from where the sewage is pumped into the sea. If you're going to Okinawa, stick to the resorts!!

He can make more money and get more attention in Japan doing oddball "professional eating" stunts on cheesey variety and game shows.

SJP looks like Michael Boulton in drag.

Hillside, although the report says police suspect one driver crossed the center line, in my experience they use the term center line to both mean the painted line, and also the center point of the road. On many riverside roads, there are places with a center line painted, and other places without. In either case, if a driver was over the center point of the road and caused an accident, the police report would indicate they crossed the center line. What I mean is it may or may not refer to an actual painted line.

Those riverside roads are a bit dicey. One the one hand, you have long stretches of road without traffic lights. You can bypass a lot of the traffic congestion in the city if you are trying to get to the other side of town or the next town without waiting in traffic for hours. On the other hand, they have no safety lane on the side, and very sharp shoulders that generally drop several meters. A lot of drivers want the convenience of the road, but are afraid of the big sharp drop to the side, and hog the center. Other drivers want to drive fast, and can't handle the curves. There is generally a lot of tailgating, overtaking on curves, and other dangerous behavior. Sadly it comes to tragedy sometimes.

This guy has an M.B.A. from an American university, and apparently spent some of his high school days in Hawaii working on his English/tan. The translator thing is a piece of stagecraft, and should not be allowed to be overused. It just makes the already obscure answers even slower to come and even more muddy.

Suicide, big problem in Japan. Half the population has roughly the same total number of suicides as the US annually. Gun violence - hardly a pimple worth commenting on here. He would have gassed himself or jumped off a building if he had no gun handy. At least this way no one else had to go with him. Better than jumping in front of a rush-hour Tokyo train and inconveniencing a couple million people.

Good to see she leads by example. No lights on in that head!

Baldwin has been doing comedy off-and-on for a long time. His appearances on SNL 10 or 15 years ago were hilarious. Along Came Polly. Bloody funny. And now 30 Rock. He's got comedy chops. It seems like the academy is playing to different audiences by hiring two hosts. Like a radio station that plays all genres of music, and sucks balls. Trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one.

RickS - are you sure you're in the right thread? Some of the dolphins culled in Taiji are captured and sold to aquariums, but the whaling fleet harpoons and kills the whale before bringing it on board to slice & dice. Kind tough sell, don't you think? Psst, hey, wanna buy a chunk of whale meat? Really brings in the tourist!

We can be almost certain the assailant is Japanese. The police tend to mention it when there is even the slightest possibility a foreigner is the suspect.

Ah, can't have an article about HIV without mentioning foreigners...

The lamest bit of all is reporting it as "news"...

I think we are going to see more and more of this sort of thing in the future. It's a very Japanese way of dealing with things that bother them. Few will speak directly to someone that is bothering them, and few will stop to think how their noise impacts others. Scooters aren't subject to any safety inspections, so often are poorly tuned, spewing clouds of smelly exhaust out of their loud, worn out mufflers. They are the favorite vehicle of early morning newspaper delivery people, and the sound echoes in the concrete valley of homes along each street. I think one recent case was blamed on a fictitious group of foreigners, but this style of anonymous outburst is clearly the preferred method of most Japanese.

That's odd, Japan played the game just fine to get Nagano, and even took the records into the mountains and burned them all when investigations into bribery prompted by the Salt Lake fiasco came looking for the Japanese game plan...

Minors can be tried as adults in cases of serious crime in Japan. Some minors have been sentenced as adults in cases of murder, for example.

If you are getting all your Japan information from JT, you're going to miss out on a lot. Gujo Hachiman is in most any guidebook. It and the Bon dance are well known to most Japanese people. Get out and talk to some Japanese...you might have more fun.

Australia has made it's position clear in allowing Sea Shepherd to use one of it's ports in Tasmania, and allowing safe harbor and passage to the crew. Australian citizens, former members of parliament, and most of the rest of the world that matters (tiny nations bought off by Japanese "development money" don't count) are against it. This is how the Japanese assert some sort of independence, as opposed to taking care of their own defense or economic troubles. A distraction...

Australia is in a catch-22. One the one hand, it's their own whale sanctuary that is being plundered, but on the other Japan is a huge economic trading partner with all the clout that brings.

Odd conundrum, huh! The drink driving rules in Japan are such that basically if you have a single drink you could be in violation of the law, yet a bartender is supposed to know "the safe cutoff point" for drinks served to a customer intending to drive home. I think if you intend to drive, and you order a drink, you're the criminal, not the bartender. You're the one who planned to both drink and drive. There are so many options, with taxis and daiko unten, business hotels and plain old waiting for the first trains or buses at 05:30. Hang her high!

I personally don't care for the law requiring alcohol vendors to cut customers off. People's reactions to alcohol vary so widely taking into consideration drinking experience, mood, body size, full or empty stomach, rest, and genetic make-up. Only a very experienced bartender who knows the customer well over time would be able to make an accurate call. Sure, sometimes it's an easy call, but many times it's not. Personal responsibility is the only way it is really going to make a difference. Personal responsibility is not big in Asia, and especially weak in Japan. I foresee more and more shit being thrown at the bars, and more and more individuals being let off the hook for their actions.

Check out Taiji on Wikipedia. They just spent millions on a big new dolphin slaughterhouse. I doubt they'll be turning to tourism any time soon!

Kokorocloud...yes, I'd agree with you in principle. Being so busy and highly stressed, most people turn to the quick fix of alcohol, rather than the safer, healthier solutions that might take some time.

Part of the problem is that alcohol is one of the few legal ways to relieve stress in Japan. So, it naturally gets abused, as stress is generally quite high. And, alcohol tends to increase aggression in many people. Like mary jane? You may as well be a heroin addict, because the penalties are strong. E? Again, the risk-to-benefit ratio just isn't worth it. And since the ecomomic depression is causing a population with depression, alcohol use is likely to increase. People will by as much of the third category beer-like beverages, and the cheapest wine, whiskey, and shochu they can find. These cheap booze have plenty of other additives to compensate for the poor quality that it tends to give a bad alcohol buzz, and a bad hangover. More bad news to come...

Factory farming is incredibly cruel, but profitable. Go to YouTube, and watch the video titled "Meet Your Meat". Narrated by Alec Baldwin.