Sandoval comments

Posted in: Record 3.4 million foreign residents living in Japan as work visas rise See in context

And at the same time review process duration for permanent resident visa went from 2 months in average to more than a year.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: Leap year glitch disrupts driver license issuance in parts of Japan See in context

Japan can manufacture a great piece of hardware. But when it comes to software it is completely different story.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Posted in: Marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum dies in car crash in Kenya See in context

Sad news for the sport :(

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Posted in: Mount Fuji climbers from Yamanashi side to be charged ¥2,000 as tourism rises See in context

Few points here:

2000¥ fee

Personally I don’t see the problem. I climbed Fuji during the season twice and out of season once. During the season I always paid 1000¥. If the 2000¥ is too much for someone, Shizuoka side is free and of season climbing is free although not for inexperienced.

bullet climbing

Japanese media is vilifying doing this kind of climbing. I agree that some inexperienced and unprepared people doing this can result in injury or worse, but for anyone else who is familiar with hiking there are no issues whatsoever IMHO.

“not interesting mountain”

Fuji is indeed not that interesting hike, but I still strongly believe it’s worth doing it. Especially if you’re tourist from abroad. It can be done without much fuss, while other mountains are not as accessible by public transportation.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: Godiva teams up with Mister Donut for new series of chocolate doughnuts in Japan See in context

Why would they do it? I think this would diminish Godiva's image more than it would raise Mister Donut's. Maybe that is why I am not in marketing.

And having Godiva branded products in konbinis is doing well for the brand?

Anyhow, I am looking forward to try them.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Police panel proposes up to ¥12,000 fine for cycling violations See in context

I am looking forward for this. As a pedestrian I had several close calls with cyclists who are driving on the sidewalk while texting on the phone or with those riding on the road and almost hitting me on the crosswalk while they had red light and me having a green light.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Posted in: Window washer falls to his death at business hotel in Osaka Prefecture See in context

Proper way how to do work from above aka rope access is to use two ropes at all time. Your descending device is on one and backup device which activates during certain speeds is on the another. Of course, wearing safety harness is a must. Piece of wood between two ropes is not remotely enough. Poor guy fell to his death before of the negligence.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Losing control See in context

I’ll be honest and say that I am probably spending too much time on my phone while in transit. However, after exiting the train and until the exiting the station I won’t look into my phone. Some people are looking into their phones like zombies. Lots of them are either playing games, watching series/anime etc. and they are making congestion. Why is such a problem to stop looking at your phone, exit the station and continue doing whatever you were doing before? I personally have 0 considerations for all of those phone zombies when trying to get out of the station.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Posted in: Rakuten's mobile misadventure: From ambitious plan to millstone See in context

Interestingly that no one mentioned a scandal where all Rakuten employees were supposed to sign up friends and family members to Rakuten Mobile. Basically engineers working at Rakuten HQ got a memo that whatever they were doing there was secondary, signing up new people to Rakuten Mobile was their primary task.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Suntory announces massive price spike for its whisky, some types more than double in price See in context

Increasing from 5,500 yen to 7,500 yen (36-percent increase): Hibiki Japanese Harmony

Increasing from 4,500 yen to 7,000 yen (56-percent increase): Yamazaki Hakushu

Increasing from 5,000 yen to 6,000 yen (36-percent increase): Suntory World Whisky Ao

Increasing from 4,000 yen to 6,000 yen (50-percent increase): Chita

Except for Ao and Chita good luck finding the others with those prices.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: WeWork seeks bankruptcy protection See in context

FailWork

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Security tight for Halloween in Shibuya See in context

When I was kid my father used to work overseas a lot and he was always telling me that he is guest overseas and that all people going overseas should respect customs and wishes of the natives. Let’s be honest, most of the people commenting here are non-Japanese. Our wishes do not matter here. It seems that locals don’t want Halloween on the streets of Shibuya. However, there are still lots of alternatives although in much smaller scale like clubs, bars etc. if one wants to participate in it. Some are even calling Shibuya mayor to resign. Well, if this is really huge mistake as some people in the comments want to point out, he should be outvoted in the next ward elections.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: Fukushima treated water released without technical concerns: IAEA See in context

Calling radioactive contaminated water "treated water" itself is also deceptive despite containing many kinds of radioactivity such as iodine129, strontium90, ruthenium106, technetium99, cesium137, plutonium239, carbon14 or cadmium113 even after filtering.

This is top level scientific illiteracy.

ALPS system can successfully remove everything except tritium. Use muddy water as example. Mud is dissolved in water and can be filtered out just like those isotopes. However tritium behavior is the same as hydrogen and it can form a water molecule and that is why it is so tricky to filter out.

I would also like to add that running nuclear power plants are releasing way more tritium than Daiichi one

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Takahama No. 2 nuclear reactor restarted after 12-year halt See in context

I would like to know how much investment and inferstuctre Japan has made into wind, and solar power, also methane gas generator from waste food and human waste, let's face it oil is running out and we all know the problems with nuclear stations.

Japan is in top 5 worldwide solar energy producers (easiest to check is Wikipedia). Speaking of nuclear energy the biggest problem is old technology and lack of investment into newer one. It is the same as if we judged cars being unsafe based on cars produced in 60s.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Hokkaido startup aims for the stars with high-altitude balloon trips See in context

We have helium in finite quantities on Earth and why should we waste it for stupid reasons like this?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Musk predicts Tesla self-driving cars 'later this year' See in context

He was predicting that self driving cars (Teslas) will be the thing “next year” since 2014 and we still don’t have any fully autonomous driving vehicles on the road in 2023. So I am calling this prediction BS.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: IAEA opens office at Fukushima nuclear plant before water release See in context

I am curious about one thing since I am definitely not nuclear scientist. Tritium half-life is 12.32 years which means that the amount of it should be halved by that time. Tritium is AFAIK the only contaminant in the water so by now lots of it has already decayed. I would just like to confirm that.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Japanese officials call for Mount Fuji crowd control See in context

I climbed Fuji on several occasions including during the summer season and winter ascents and by far the best time to climb it is late April, early May when there is still snow on the top and when strong winds calm down. Of course, this is a season for experienced mountaineers with proper gear, but there are no endless lines of people, no dust and it is just you and the nature because snow successfully hides the human marks on the mountain.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Posted in: Superstar singer Tina Turner dies at 83 See in context

She was simply the best.

RIP

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Posted in: Japanese mom’s don’t-touch-my-baby-stroller sign stirs up debate See in context

Personally, even when dog approaches me I always ask the owner may I pet it as a common courtesy. The least you could do is ask to touch baby.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Nearly 370 mil disposable cups used by coffee chains in Japan in 2020 See in context

In most cases I want to drink coffee inside the cafe. I don’t like paper cups because for me coffee tastes better from the ceramic mugs, but in lots of cases I will get it in a paper cup even if I ordered it for “in the store” which is far from ideal. Also, regarding bringing my own cup, I don’t always have a plan to go to cafe and having extra bag just for the cup is not an option, especially during the summer. Also, there is simply no incentive for consumers to do so. The only place that I saw doing that is my local bouldering gym where if you order coffee for your own cup or get it in a mug you get cheaper price and IMHO that should be the standard.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Woman falls to death while rock climbing in Hyogo Prefecture See in context

In rock climbing the most accidents happen during rappelling. I check my rappelling system multiple times before committing and although I have done it numerous times I am still taking every check as if it is my first time doing it. It seems that this poor lady didn’t tie rope properly through descent device nor used “third hand“ backup system which would stop the fall. Other thing that comes to my mind is cross check or lack of it (here in Japan people are rarely doing it) done between belayer and climber. Harness tie in knot was probably not tied properly and it came loose. Everything said is still a wild guess. Anyhow RIP lady.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Posted in: Gyms facing COVID mask dilemma amid summer heat concerns See in context

I am regular at climbing gym and even gym manager himself told us to remove bask whil climbing to prevent a heatstroke. Also if you are midway climbing and start to get sick because you can’t breathe properly it gets quite dangerous

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan nuclear regulator OKs details for Fukushima plant water release See in context

It would have been more intelligent to evaporate the water and reuse or bury the radioactive material.

That would actually be a terrible idea. First, the amount of energy to evaporate that amount of water would be colossal. Second, tritium is bonded with oxygen atoms to form a water molecules and that’s what it is difficult to filter it out. And by boiling that kind of water you would just make it into radioactive steam which would again settle into radioactive water.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Musk's hyperloop still captivates despite decade of setbacks See in context

"The transportation network has not had a new mode for over 100 years,"

and yet again he proposed a modernized version of an idea from 1799. which obviously never took off.

Also, Virgin Hyperloop, the only venture that did something worth of mentioning basically shelved the project so it just confirms it is vaporware.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Sex Pistols show shines light on 'violence of punk' See in context

I am always finding very interesting that Sid Vicious is the face of the band while he was unable to play his instrument- bass. Even late Lemmy told that he tried to teach him how to play, but that he was hopeless. The meaning of my comment is just to point an interesting phenom, not to discredit Sid.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Kishida plans reward points system to ease electricity bills See in context

Something that can be done NOW without huge financial burden to all parties and provide a lot of (green) energy is to restart nuclear power plants. Whether you are pro or anti nuclear that is the fact. Even if they start building solar or wind farms tomorrow, it is impossible to finish with the work in some reasonable period. Regarding alternative nuclear technologies, unfortunately everything else are experimental concepts at best. I would like to see thorium based power plants as well, but there are simply no viable reactors ready for the production. And finally geothermal is also a nice concept, however majorly of suitable places are occupied by onsen resorts and I don’t think that onsen business owners want geothermal power plants nearby. Not to mention that building such power plants require a lot of time.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: So long, Internet Explorer. The browser is finally retiring See in context

Japan will enter into another recession since majority of their “applications” run on IE only. I can predict panic when Windows Update deletes IE for good

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Posted in: Travel firms thrown into confusion over rules as Japan reopens to foreign tourists See in context

During the tour itself, the agencies will also keep records of the participants' movements, including places they visited and where they sat on public transportation.

So basically they will need guide while will, well, guide the group and they will also need another “guide” in disguise who will look at the tourist movement. Just like in the certain Asian democratic republic…

-3 ( +9 / -12 )

Posted in: Tight labor market leading to unsavory recruitment tactics in Japan See in context

The recruitment officer questioned her for nearly half an hour over whether she had "lied" in committing to the company and if she understood what the pledge meant.

She was probably being polite to the person which doesn’t deserve any of it. When I was changing my job I had a call with recruiter where I explained that I am going to reject their offer and they wished me a good luck, not BS like from that recruiter. Good for the girl, she dodged a bullet.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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