Richard_the_First comments

GW will be hell. The tolls are outrageous though, and the discount is welcome.

Comparing boiled rice is like comparing the 'taste' of mineral water in my opinion. Both tasteless.

They can't sing well enough to make a dent.

My advice is to drive in Tokyo during GW. It's empty!

Love the use of rope. Maybe they use carrier pigeons to send messages too.

Selfish no doubt, but just imagine the mother's pain for a moment. For what ever reason, she decided to go ahead with a murder suicide, but killed her daughter without successfully killing herself. A mistake that will live with her for the rest of her life, and she may not get a chance to off herself from now on. Poor husband, too.

Just go to Hibiya park any night of the week. A real eye opener.

It's pathetic how some posters try to claim that a small amount of rubbish somehow negates Japan's unique connection with and love for nature.

Unless you are being sarcastic, would you explain what is unique?

Blue bags to compliment the infamous blue sheets that they use for hanami.

We may never know again whether some ramen is oishii or not; the implications of which must be sending shivers of fear down the spines of all high minded and culturally aware people in Japan.

But we already know that its oishii..............ha,ha.ha

I wish just for once, a talent would be honest and say that some dish is okay but not their favourite. But no, it is always umai or oishii, or even kawaii. Possibly sugoi, too. Ehhhhhhh

I think its partly a case that Japan wants prove that it is still relevant in E.Asia. In reality, America, China and Russia call the shots when dealing with N.K. For the N.Koreans, sidelining Japan is part of the game.

Last night we were treated to a gem in the form of one long advert for 'Gasuto'. That would be of the family restaurant variety. Anyway, the prog consisted of comedians trying to guess the top ten most popular menu items offered by said family restaurant, by seemingly trying them all.

So we had comedy mixed with food. The main stay of JTV so you can't get any better or less creative than that. Unsurprisingly, considering that it was an advert disguised as entertainment, every dish was accompanied by the mandatory, price plus steaming close up and wails of 'Umai' or 'Oishii' by the fools brought out to entertain us. I honestly have never seen such a pointless exercise in TV programming in my five years here. The result could be summed up as; Food = delicious and Gasuto's food is thus delicious.

They even ordered rice from the menu and, unsurprisingly, it too was delicious. Genius TV execs!!!

You would think that with the low budgets and high CM revenue, TV companies would be floating in cash, so what went wrong?

Yes, the number of distributors defies belief at times. I recall a an electric soldering tools salesman telling me that the chain from manufacturer to retail outlet required something like 5 or 6 steps, as each time, some middle man got cut along the line, forcing up the final price for consumers.

I wish the Japanese would follow the same mind set at the beach though. Pocari Sweat cans and empty cup noodles don't make beaches pretty.

The poor woman will be mentally scarred for life too. May never use trains again.

And being Japan, will come in a rather tiny bottle yet will be quite expensive.

I saw her on show with Tokio last night. She came across well, and was nothing like the typical J bimbos that usually populate such shows. Not a hint of 'Kawaii' or 'Sugio' in every utterance. Tokio spoiled it a bit by asking her if she could eat miso soup, so rolled out one of the usual Japanese asinine questions directed at 'foreigners', even though her name is Hasegawa and she speaks fluent Japanese. Rolls eyes.

That could be 5 mill just for his TBS show, let alone other things like commercials.

The general level is shocking really. Look at the Oscars as an example. You would think that they might have made more effort, considering the nominations but the 'Sankyu, Sankyu was the best that particular winner could come up with, and older director was hardly any better. I am sure he pronounced 'the' as 'ji', in good old Katakana Engrish style.....

F1 is the tip of the spear, at the leading edge of engineering in the auto industry, which it is part of. It's not merely a sport but an R&D tests bed for the industry as a whole. Long may it continue....

If death is the end, nothing more, just blackness, like pulling the power cord from a PC, then how do you know that you haven't already died?

jbro888,

I think the point is not that they shorten the word, but the fact that they use such a term in the first place. It's similar to half caste, which is word that belong is the 20th century, and is frowned upon in my country, and would certainly never be heard on TV, but the use of haafu is acceptable here it seems. Then again, to the locals, this country is made up of only one race, so the very idea of ethnicity/racism is lost on most.

The very term is obnoxious in my opinion. As it instantly creates borders, separating 'them' from 'us' as obviously foreign blood is somehow different. The locals here can't get over the fact that being Japanese is not about where your parents were born but were you were born and raised. Nurture, not nature. That is how it should be, but I accept that it will never change, at least not in our lifetimes.

It's because it's all ratings related. If they continue showing the olympic event/sport without Japanese athletes, people will switch channels. It's part of the reason why they use popular boy bands to front these things as 'special supporters'.

This is screwing the economy, as the auto industry is a pot of gold for Japan, Inc.

It possibly the fact that this country is useless at sport, overall. For the size of the population and economy, Japan fares rather badly in terms of global success. They will use the 'yappari, foreigners are bigger, stronger ' line on most occasions to explain why, but Kitajima seemed to do okay at the olympics, winning gold for Japan in swimming. Of course when the say foreigners they mean western, basically non asian.

Of course an average golfer can remain in Japan and live the high life as he is a god in his country, so why humiliate yourself by going overseas (there be dragons) to be trounced, when you can stay in Japan and make a fortune being sports celeb, with NHK and the rest fawning over your every move.

As a result the locals seem to support anybody along as he or she is Japanese. I love F1 and I always chuckle when locals say they support Honda or Toyota. I often wonder why as if the only reason is because of nationality, they have chosen the wrong sport as F1 is on the whole British and run by Brits.

For example, Ai chan may well be the number one Table Tennis player in Japan, or maybe not in term of rankings, but she is certainly the ONLY player in Japan in terms of public awareness. Imagine if you were the number one ranked player in Japan and you trained hard to achieve success and results, yet find that little miss cry baby gets all the attention, the personal sponsor's money, the CM deals, etc. I would make you crazy. I can imagine that Ishikwawa's peer group may feel the same.

in Japan, a white coat equals doctor or scientists for some reason. The trouble with asking locals celebs is, how can the press ask questions about the film? They can but the person won't have any idea as they have NOTHING to do with it apart from being hired as PR. The result is love life questions aplenty.

Reminds me of when Arakawa won gold at the winter olympics. The TV station actually showed her winning performance first, revelled in her gold with the normal JTV back slapping as though the presenters themselves had won or played some part in it, and THEN showed the rest of the competition in the order that it played out. Like announcing who has won a game of football and showing highlights before the match starts.

Japan is obsessed with itself, or at least what other think about it. Part of the reason is the cuture of idolising celebrities. They pick up person and he or she turns in to the face of that sport, as seen with Ai chan or Hanikami Oji. Or when a foreign footie team plays in Japan, they focus on one player to the exclusion of all others. C.Ronaldo has been treated like this along with Beckham and others. I love (hate) the way they zoom in on that person ignoring all others. They do the same at opening cermonies too. Seeing the gooning face of Japanese athletes is wonderful but please show us something else, like possibly another countries team.

Why are the Japanese obsessed with the success or failure of Japanese films?

They now know the answer. R.I.P.