purple_depressed_bacon comments

Police said they are questioning Sakurazawa and his wife about whether the child was regularly abused.

Why bother? The man will vehemently deny it and the woman will probably cow under his wuthering gaze. At least she called the police so that they now have it on record that he physically assaulted the poor kid. Slap the cuffs on him and haul his despicable, vile carcass off to a dark, dank cell. Then throw away the key.

Talk about trying to reinvent the wheel...almost anything fried goes well with booze. No need to tweak a tried and tested formula.

People become shockingly bold when they hide behind their keyboards and screens. One of the many drawbacks of the internet is the easy ability to spread misinformation, hatred, and nonsense. It's also getting harder to discern what's "news" anymore.

I try to sneak in a power nap after lunch if possible. It doesn't erase the sleep debt I've accumulated but it does refresh me enough to get through the evening until I go to bed at hopefully, a sensible hour.

Medicine is not free. I don't think this would be free in any nation. I hope the trial is successful and it becomes widely available.

Certain brands of the morning after pill are free in the UK as part of the NHS emergency contraception scheme. The NHS is far from a perfect healthcare system but at least they aren't trying to make you go skint.

They're starting over-the-counter sales of the morning after pill?? No wonder there's so many stories of women with unwanted pregnancies resorting to heinous and desperate measures to get rid of the baby. And Japan, being Japan, they can't make it this an easy and simple transaction - it's absurd that women have to take the pill in front of the pharmacist; and even more absurd that you have to pay for it.

I thought they were going to scrap this "program" aka. modern slavery, not try the "lipstick on a pig" approach because we all know the chances of them enforcing any of these "rights" and "protections" is slimmer than seeing a unicorn prance down the street.

Well, considering what I've heard about how teachers treat students in Japan, I'm not surprised the kids skived off. Kids are in school to get an education and foster their socialisation skills, not to be terrorised and have their every move and appearance dictated by a bunch of out-of-date and out-of-touch teachers drunk on power.

This is such a disturbing trend in Japan. Why is that so many people's go-to solution instead of heading to the hospital? Matter of fact, why aren't they calling an ambulance the second the woman goes into labour? Is it really that easy to hide a pregnancy in Japan? The whole thing is so confounding.

Denny's in Japan is an absolute travesty. I went in thinking I could get a nice greasy spoon breakfast and ended up being so disappointed.

a) the test is how long?!?!

b) is this test really worth grinding everything to a halt? Seems a bit dramatic and honestly abusive, given how it's linked with teenage depression and suicide in South Korea.

Bit cliche but America's Star Spangled Banner comes to mind. It's such a rousing anthem and various artists have done great renditions of it. Also, not their national anthem? but Singapore wrote a song for their National Day called We Are Singapore; and the song, especially its second chorus is quite moving. Lastly, as others have mentioned here, Russia's national anthem really makes you sit up straight and pay attention. I remember hearing it played at the Olympics and was like "wow!".

Some English dubbing for Ghibli films were okay; others not. I didn't mind the English dub for Spirited Away and Ponyo for example. I'll give this one a shot because the English voice cast is pretty stellar.

Depends on the sport but yeah, some sports fans are quite intense, especially the football ones.

They could save themselves a lot of grief if they actually planned an official event somewhere, like in a park with proper security measures in palce. "Imploring people to stay away" instead of implementing and enforcing an actual law does nothing.

He doesn't need a lesson on culture; he needs a lesson on what constitutes a crime. All of his actions, which he stupidly and foolishly recorded on camera are illegal in any country.

Less than 50 bucks to track and hunt an apex predator? Yeah...hard pass. I doubt you could even buy ammo with that stingy amount.

They do know that tourists are prevalent and present on weekdays too, right? They just stinks of a money grab and they're affecting the locals more than the non-locals since many Japanese people only have time to go on holiday during said weekends or holidays. What silly reasoning.

Yes! Another sure to be fun album to add to my Christmas playlist.

Those spicy Calbee chips are nice. Pocky and the Panda cookies are fun too. Oh and all the mad Kit Kat flavors they put out are interesting to try.

The Great Escaper was absolutely brilliant. If that's to be Michael Caine's swansong then he's leaving on a high note.

Seems a bit suss to be honest. At 10 months, the baby is crawling about, sure; but climbing up a shelf, onto a window and then falling out of it? Quite a feat for one who is just learning to move about.

Eh, the man wanted to commune with nature. Leave him be.

Do they need permission to go to the loo as well? Companies and organizations in Japan really have this obsessive need to control every little thing their employees can and can't do. How more of them haven't snapped under this is a mystery.

Who listens to TS?

I have never hears one of her songs or seen her perform anywhere online or TV etc.

Then you are either from another planet or you live under a rock.

Her current Eras tour and the hype around it is something I haven't seen before. An article on the Grammys website called it "the tour of her generation" and there's truth to that. She's making history with this tour and people want to be part of that experience.

Thinking it to be a gift, the tourist thanked the monk, who then insisted they needed to pay for it, with the price being 10,000 yen.

If you actually fall for this, you deserve to be scammed. A little common sense goes a long way.

Someday Japan will clue into the fact that "wishing", "urging", "encouraging" etc. people to do this and that is...useless.

Japan shooting themselves in the foot again. They already have an aging and dwindling population. Not allowing dual citizenship when so many marriages are international nowadays is just silly and counterproductive for a country so desperately trying to up its birth rates. Ah well, ya snooze, ya lose.

How the agency didn't get shut down for good is mind boggling. Who'd want to do business with these scum? Changing their name (Smile Up is an absurd name btw but very par for the course in Japan) isn't going to change the fact that their reputation is mud.

The hospital said it plans to implement projects, including “confidential childbirth” that allows pregnant women to only reveal their names and contact information to medical staff

I don't think the hospital quite understands the meaning of the word "confidential". Or anonymous for that matter.

Also, the fact that it has taken 16 years to provide a second baby hatch in all of Japan is absurd. There should be such a service in every city and every ward.