Russ Schaeffler comments

Moving into the future Forever21 will be dropshipping through Aliexpress.

I will reward myself with fried chicken during my workout... 一石二鳥

I think there is a fear in Japan of the school contacting parents or of even parents contacting parents. What steps are organizations like the PTA taking to solve the conflicts of bullying?

Wow, big surprise there! The U.S. setup the LDP in the first place, so of course they are still keeping tabs on what is going on.

If you want co-workers to not expect or accept "giri" chocolate, then make "onigiri chcolate" it is just the same as normal onigiri with umeboshi except you dip the umeboshi in melted chocolate before wrapping the sticky rice and nori around it. I made it a few years ago and since then coworkers keep their distance on Valentine's day.

“honki” chocolate is white chocolate right?

I have also witnessed how some schools will not take any action on bullying in Japan out of fear of the PTA, which has become very strong and has made many schools reluctant to upset parents. My son was having problems with some other students in his class kicking and calling him names, because although born in Japan, he spent most of his life in Canada before returning to Japan to start grade 2.

My son told us the names of the students he was having problems with and we went to the school and talked to the principal, my wife also said that I was going to contact the parents directly if it continued. They did not like that at all and told my wife to not let me contact the other students parents, because that would cause big problems. So, apparently the school talked to the students and parents about the bullying issue and there hasn't been a problem since. Except, for in the morning on my son's walk to school another boy was starting to hit him, so I would watch them in the morning and shouted to them to stop, which worked, but I still have to ask my son each day if there were any problems.

Even though it is not the Japanese way of doing things, parents need to listen and take bullying seriously, even confront the school and bullies if necessary, watch your children on the way to school, ask if you can visit during lunch, pick them up after school if you can or have a family member do it. And if you see your child being bullied ask the bully's name and talk with not just the school locate the the bully's family knock on their door or send them a letter stating what you saw happening. Don't just expect for it to go away, do something about it.

I wonder if people should have the option of going "Home", like in the movie Soylent Green? I see your favorite color is orange.

Awesome good job!

sugary drinks that is most detrimental to health.

Wow.. Hanami in a bottle!

Why just release the woman and inject her with tracking chips anywhere she would go could be traced and reveal information on these groups.

By all means they should swap the prisoners. But, I'm sure the woman can be injected with tracking chips that could lead to useful information on her location and who she meets with following release.

I was unlucky enough not to step on any deer poo in Nara Park at the lantern festival.

These are one the biggest things I miss about living in Japan, especially the wasabi kit kats.... I now live in Toronto and have visited the Nestle factory and they only make the milk and dark chocolate ones.