Sean comments

The math is correct. There are 289,100 serving police in Japan. 12 DUI cases.

To calculate the percentage, you would divide 12 by 289,100 and then multiply the result by 100.

12 / 289,100 ≈ 0.0000415

0.0000415 * 100 ≈ 0.00415%

Therefore, 12 out of 289,100 is approximately 0.00415%.

My father used to beat me with a fishing rod. Either that or a leather belt. He was an abusive drunk. I can never recall the reasons why I received a beating, it just used to happen. If my wife asks me to remove a moth from the house, I'll catch it in tissue paper and release it outside. I've never harboured any violent tendencies, I guess that was beaten out of me at a young age. I don't have any answers. Just wish it never happened.

I live in the Australian tropics and through choice always visit Japan in its winter to enjoy the colder weather. We always trip around the country side from north to south, east to west. Apart from one skinny dip in Lake Kawaguchiko in the depth of winter (on a dare), I've never even thought about people going to the beach in Japan. I really enjoyed the article.

I have been coming and going to Japan for over thirty years now (my wife is Japanese) and we always enjoy eating out at a beautiful Japanese sashimi restaurant near Asakusa where my wife's uncle is the owner manager. It's a large restaurant and he is a master chef, dedicating his whole life to the beautiful art of sashimi presentation. Due to border closures it was no longer viable to remain open, (a large percentage of the customers being foreign tourists) and as Antiquesaving says above, closure was the only financial option. He has now retired early, and the restaurant will never reopen. The border closures are an irritation to tourists, but a business death blow for local proprietors.

I can't believe I've never had one. Now living in Australia, that poses a slight problem (I can't find them in any of the Japanese grocery stores here). But, they sound delicious and I have organised family in Japan to post me an entire carton to Australia. Itadekimasu!!!

I don't even have a TV in my house. Can you imagine how peaceful that is? Just the sounds of the birds chirping outside all day long. As I sit here now enjoying a very peaceful sunset, just the sound of some frogs croaking. That'll do me.

In Brisbane Australia where we now live our local cinema plays 'Spirited Away' about once every six months or so. It's great to watch on a tv screen, but amazing to watch on the big screen. By far my favourite, what an amazing production. Some day, hopefully, we can get to see the stage play.

At least the black bears end up on the table (delicious, had it a few times now in Hokkaido)! Emu aren't so bad either. I was once searched at Narita (incoming from Brisbane) after failing to declare anything. All they found were a few packets of Emu jerky. Apparently a prohibited item in Japan (at least to bring through the airport, looks like you can have a full farm of them though!). I had to sign a prosecution waivure and the officer informed me it was all destined for the bin. I pleaded with him to share it with his mates at lunchtime, you can't throw away good jerky like that!!