morrison comments

Posted in: Do you think Japan is the sort of tourism destination that most people would only come to once, or is it a repeat destination? See in context

I would have said "repeat" but I got stopped in Ikebukuro by the Police and asked for my ID card, which was fine, but then stopped again 3 minutes later by a different group of Police for the ID card and got searched.

As of now, I've been stopped more times in Japan than I ever have in my own country..which is a like a 10:1 ratio...

If you want people to come back...probably try and co-ordinate stops and searches...it's not rocket science..

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: From Japan, the joy of minimalism at home See in context

//I can't remember the last time I saw the floor in here.

I got smart, now I take a photo of the floor when I move in, then later, when I can't remember what colour the flooring is..I can just look at the photo. Saves all that tidying up.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Man fires shots into ex-wife's apartment in Yokohama See in context

^ Ditto to what you said

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Praying for big win See in context

//who's the guy in the white robes buying lottery tickets?

That's a KKK guy on an overseas exchange program, didn't anyone tell you?

Anyway I won.......800 Yen, and not complaining..

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Little known deluxe bus services promise long-distance trips in comfort See in context

Did a overnighter Tokyo to Osaka, the bus was a little claustrophobic as difficult to open the curtains..,my biggest problem was getting my excessively large amount of luggage to and from the bus departure points, long way from the train station, lots of steps to lug stuff up. If you've got lots of luggage send it on to the final destination. Bus was ok, and plentiful fag breaks at service stations on the expressway..oh happy times...(coughs repeatedly, takes blast of oxygen from mask)

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: What do you think are some of the main differences in the way Japanese and U.S. media report the news? See in context

Well, Yahoo US, Yahoo Japan and Yahoo UK give completely different horoscopes...

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Abe adviser calls for stimulus after 'shocking' GDP See in context

//stop paying for US bases 300 billion yen

Nice idea, but then someone, somewhere in the US would be fractionally poorer, and put off buying that new Japanese car for another year...international economics is mostly counter-intuitive.

Japan's economy is not too good, one idea might be to shorten the working day, and cut out all this unpaid overtime crap. People just hanging around the office until 10pm every night just waiting for the boss to go home aren't out there shopping, or doing something more useful in their own time, like starting a small business online or in the real world.

And some way around the paradox of thrift...Japanese people just save too much money. Person A at Sony decides to make their own bento, to save money, so the person B in the bento factory gets less cash, which means s/he doesn't go buy that music produced by Sony...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Hanky-panky in kobans leave police blushing See in context

Well, surely the answer is to merge two functions and have a Love Koban?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Okinawa vote a blow to Japan-U.S. ties, say analysts See in context

That's interesting and it seems a tangled mess of everything being paid for by a taxpayer somewhere else, mainland Japan or the US.

Being notoriously difficult to get rich people's hands off the handle of a money pump, I'd guess absolutely nothing is going to happen with the bases, as otherwise the rich wouldn't have chipped in towards his election campaign costs.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Okinawa vote a blow to Japan-U.S. ties, say analysts See in context

Did a quick double check with a local person....this is how it works, the US personnel get to rent properties outside the base if they wish to. Most of the rent gets paid by the (mainland) Japanese tax-payers. The local landlords charge 3 to 5 times the real market rate, and so it's champagne all round for them, and maybe trickle down, when the landlords aren't buying Benz's.

So, if the bases go, they lose all that easy money...let's see how far the governor gets...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Woman held for murder after dropping 3-year-old daughter from bridge into river See in context

Two lives wrecked in an instant. In a place with such a low birth rate, it would seem a good idea to have more social services support, and people learning it's ok to ask for help. Abe, get on with that, try earning your salary.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Posted in: Parents attending job seminars on behalf of their children See in context

//Please excuse my son/daughter for invading your country

Been kind of done elsewhere "Gomen nasai, I am sorry my rifle is so noisy" in a reworking of the Battle of Singapore.

Actually I think this is kind of sneaky, want to know what the kid is really like, look at the parents...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Google tests replacing web ads with contributions See in context

What are these online "adverts" you speak of? Adblock plus user for 3 years and counting.

We talked about this on halfbakery recently, and it was 50/50 whether it's worth visiting sites that rely on adverts, like BBC news content overseas, as they get to tithe virtually everyone in the UK, so they already have an income.

There are subscription websites already, if they have something worth selling, they will survive, if not, then not.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: 'Black widow' with seven dead partners arrested See in context

The basic problem here is a lack of information. Did her last partner died with 0.001% of 1 gram of cyanide in him, or more like half a kilo? Until that information is released, then not much point in arguing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 4-year-old girl survives fall from 9th floor in Oita See in context

Is there some kind of competition going on here? This does happen very often...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Microsoft surpasses Exxon as 2nd most valuable co. See in context

as we use these instruments of doom to voice opinion...

I've been using Linux only since 2007, I have a non-Apple laptop, the server holding these comments is presumably Linux, I don't have a car...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Okinawans vote for governor with Futenma base as focal point See in context

//soldiers are enjoying a life of luxury on Okinawa

Okinawa is pretty boring (but that's just my opinion), and then there's the curfews, and base typhoon lockdowns etc....on the other hand you can buy brown bread and cans of pork and beans in the supermarkets. The oddest bit is the online list of places service people are not allowed to go to, which has the wrong addresses.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Okinawans vote for governor with Futenma base as focal point See in context

Perhaps they could replace the "roaring engines meters from their backyards" with quieter meters?

Looking out of the window (I'm in Okinawa) I see lots of empty properties and closed businesses. The Okinawa economy does not work, if the Americans go, there is nothing to replace that income. Basically, it's small island economics, most people will end up fleeing to the mainland to work.

//Okinawa is the first place that the Chinese or the Russians will bomb into kingdom

Probably not, it's an island, once the source of jet fuel runs out then all those bases are not a threat to anyone.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Microsoft surpasses Exxon as 2nd most valuable co. See in context

Hmm, you can see that communism had some points in its favour. We have Apple, a company that managed to copyright "square things with rounded corners", a company that never did external peer review of its code and a company that's helping to get more C02 into the atmosphere.

0 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Man arrested for breaking into woman’s hotel room, spanking her with shoehorn See in context

//"I had to pay good money to get spanked with a shoehorn in a hotel room."

Actually you get something remarkably similar in South Korea, it's their tradition for the nurse to a) give a vitamin injection in the butt and b) to distract the patient by light slapping near the area...I got this on the school medical insurance. In my own defence, the second time I ended up in the same clinic, I declined the injection and just asked for some vitamin tablets instead.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan's smartphone 'zombies' wreak havoc on the streets See in context

Many, many QR code blocks painted on crossings, in-between the lines, pattern recognition in the smartphone fires up an app that blanks the screen. Royalties in gold or cash, no cheques please.

NB this now prior art.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan's dated, smoky cafes unfazed by Starbucks success See in context

Hmm, I think coffee shops in Japan are in a different market to the west, due to the lack of public benches. Mostly they seem to be a place where you can sit down for 290 Yen-ish, with a cup of coffee thrown in. Starbucks coffee in Japan is pretty mediocre, and it just seems to be a place where people go to commune with their smartphones.

//a cup of coffee without the stench of tobacco and second hand smoke

(in the voice of Rorschach in Watchmen) Give me back my smoke!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan is still way behind in terms of anti-smoking policies, especially measures against secondhand smoke. You can still smoke in a lot of public places in Japan such as office buildings, coffee shops See in context

//Smoking was allowed on JR platforms until then.

Oh happy days :-)

//no longer do I leave places stinking of smoke.

Hey, give us back our smoke, do you know how much tobacco costs..dammit. I'm all for compulsory hoovering of the lungs of non-smokers...they can get their own smoke.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Posted in: NHK’s U.S. election banner amuses Internet users See in context

//street fighter politicians!

(Douglas Adams) There's a planet where people vote for lizards, because if they don't vote, the wrong lizard might get in. (/Douglas Adams)

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan is still way behind in terms of anti-smoking policies, especially measures against secondhand smoke. You can still smoke in a lot of public places in Japan such as office buildings, coffee shops See in context

// I can't think of a similar habit which so encroaches on other people.

But...even as a smoker, I find it strange I could just light up inside a building with no obvious barriers, and Chiyoda-ku is just weird. I can smoke inside a building, but not outside...

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Drugmakers look to push the boundaries of old age See in context

Good on Google. There's the story of the UK queen going on tour in the 1950's in the Pacific, and the welcoming committee pointed out the tortoise Captain Cook had given them on his visit. As for lobsters, they have no ageing mechanism like ours, and it's depressing to be be out-lived by something in a seafood salad.

But, very few large fast-moving organisms live forever, a few of the small ones basically never die, in one case switching gender, which could get a bit awkward.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: 49 manhole covers blown into the air in Tokyo's Shinagawa See in context

One more time. Yes gas/petrol vapour can be extremely explosive. One extreme example is Buncefield, UK, 2005 one refinery tank of fuel overflowed, creating a big cloud of petrol vapour. Quotes from the time include " blast wave woke people 150 kilometres (93 mi) away", "smoke cloud approaching France". So, lifting 49 covers is kind of plausible.

There's a saying that if gas/petrol was discovered today, you'd need a special licence to buy it, being flammable (and so explosive), toxic and.carcinogenic.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Nestle 'hiring' 1,000 robots to sell espresso machines See in context

Expect to see it with tie around its head, lying face down outside an izekaya around Bonenkai time...

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: 5 tips for staying healthy while traveling in Japan this winter See in context

Probably don't do what I did, I mistakenly used the "toilet seat cleaning" dispenser in the conbini toilet, instead of the hand wash. Stings a lot, but my hands may never need cleaning again.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Bringing Britain to life for Japanese visitors See in context

Stealing an old Russian joke "Britain is the world's largest museum"...the complete absence of shinkansen does not help and it's the same old pitch every time, Stonehenge, not Avebury (which is more impressive) London, not Bristol or Bath which are a lot more walkable...not promoting London walks like the ones around the City of London area...London hotels are amazingly poor value for money, most of them need steam-cleaning.

For an example of poor promotion, there's a part of a Roman bathhouse under one London university, there's no sign-post pointing to the viewing window, the window is very low and not cleaned very often...anywhere else in the world it would be promoted heavily, but not in the UK...

2 ( +6 / -4 )

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