Sapira comments

You know it's B.C. when a random photo of the scene can't help but capture the last letters of our leafy friend "nabis" in the corner.

I think it's interesting that this talk of liberalization of gambling regulation comes without much mention of pachinko. Would this entry fee for residents also be applied to pachinko parlours? Is the worry around gambling addiction extended to pachinko parlours? If anyone knows about it, I'd love to hear a more informed opinion on this topic.

Of course the conductor couldn't do a quick verbal check and say "Hey, please step away from the door, sir!" to which the visually impaired man could say "I'm stuck." That would have taken all of 15 seconds, which would have interfered with the schedule, which would be unforgivable.

Just goes to show that the impeccable timeliness of Japanese trains is not without its cost. i.e. the Amagasaki derailment. Perhaps trains that don't arrive +/- 10 seconds, but rather +/- 3 minutes would be a cost worth the benefit of greater safety.

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But hey, in my hometown trains are all automatic. No conductor at all, so I suppose this incident would have occured there too. Maybe the solution is for passengers to be more aware, and hit the emergency stop button, or force the door open and let the man in. Either way, I feel super bad for the poor guy.

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I think I just secretly want the trains to be a little more loose, because I feel it would make the culture as a whole a little more loose, and everyone could relax a little more.

Interesting, my school actually tasked me with teaching an eSports English course, because I played competitive Halo back in the day. I've been a little worried that I'm doing it wrong, because I don't have any framework to lean on, but I'm more or less doing what's described in this article. I teach them the names of power weapons and various locations on the maps. Then I teach them other relevant callouts. I haven't gotten to the stage of teaching them set-ups or objective specific callouts yet, but that'll be the next step. This can be a really good opportunity to open these kids up to the broader world of competitive gaming, as Japan seems to be relatively isolated and uncompetitive in many titles at the moment.