Seawolf comments

Accidents happen, even in times of peace. But shouldn't an aircraft built for war be able to make at least a controlled descent with one engine still running?

Just saw in the news that Japan's GDP (GOP?) has been overtaken by Germany! Their population is 2/3 of Japan, they grapple with immigration, wars in the east, strong Euro....but still manage a higher output! Looks this country will become one huge amusement park for foreigners.

Saw this on the news. I've seen traps (on tv docs, not for real) made from wires where the leg gets caught, but this one was an old-fashioned spring iron trap like you would see in western movies or cartoons, that buries it spikes into the animal's leg. Damn painful and rightfully forbidden in many countries for cruelty. So this old guy got too close to the trapped bear who rightfully jumped on him and the guy bled to death from his wounds.

Watching in monkeys in parks, e.g. enclosures, is not their "Natural enviroment"! And it is also not natural for them to bathe in hot Onsens, otherwise a lot of Onsen on the countryside would'nt be able to offer outdoor baths for their human guests. My favourite one is the Kamoshika, Serow, for their cute looks, being usually alone in the wild, and their calm behaviour. They are related to cows, hence not running away until really neccessary.

It goes around it, not up it

I went to Swiss once and boy do they have cable cars and all that stuff..! One remote village's only access to the outside world below was a cable car, because even maintaining a railroad track costs way more than that. As such I would think the same about Mt Fuji: unless they are planning to use the road that runs up to the 5th station, it would be crazy to do bc of construction costs and maintaining. Not to mention cutting through the forrest.

...or you could get 2-3 sets of the LEGO flower series and be creative all year round ;-)

This was made to compete with the dog statue in Shibuya. It will become the next big meeting point in Tokyo.

My first thought as well, but upon closer look there is lots of greenery and shrubs around it as if to prevent any congestion or , god forbid, touching or stroking the Kawaii Penguin!

Kudos to the weekly magazines for reporting on yet another power/*sexual harassment by a person too big to touch. Also with a famous and powerful father he was probably brought up in a world where this was ok and didn't get the message that things have changed, even in Japan. And blaming it on his parents would be one reason why he would kill them before himself

Nice of them to offer short works for your spare time, I actually do that already, gig job without any social benefits, seasonal up and downs etc. It also pays about 10.000 Yen for 2hours, of which less than half is hard work. Can any hotel offer me similar plans?

I live in Karuizawa, once known for it's beautiful greenery (now mostly for its big Outlet shopping center). The former mayor who was finally ousted this year, encouraged the development of many 2-story condominium buildings, changing the forresty atmosphere and also the building of big hotels. One company is right now constructing 3 (!) hotels in different corners with the most cruel one right at the Ginza Shopping street, across the oldest surviving Ryokan, with the design of an ugly business hotel, maxed out spaces, hardly any parking for guests and of course no regards for the surroundings. I hope Kyoto doesn't slither down this path, it is like a Pandora's box, once opened it is difficult to control, bc concerend citizens are usually the last ones to know about ongoing projects and it becomes a huge task to stop anything. And that is even before thinking about how the high buildings might affect air circulation in summer which is already awful with the ongoing climate disaster.

If it's a store with a self egister, it would be very to easy to say for the clerk, bc they really don't handle any money anymore themselves, and they could even say they cannot open the automatic register, only the mananger can. So, it's not that surprising to see the robber give up that easily.

Nicd and good if Mt Fuji is following this thought up scenario. With lots of experience from other volcanic tremblors and eruptions and with lots of sensors around, there should be enough time before the main eruption hits. But I would imagine it taking too long time after the first warnings and everybody settles down again...A big questionmark is the weather: during strong rain, nobody wants to walk, plus mudflows would be much faster, but still deadly. And then there is the ash flow, tiny particles that get into every air conditioning unit and clogging up drains and water filters when mixed with rain...

38.000 runners, but only about 2 dozen wheel-chair athletes is rather pitiful for a World Marathon Majors event. And sadly not a single mention in this article ...

Last weekend was a deadly one. It does make me wonder, is it a lack of preperation, or more because backcountry is still seen as a fringe sport of "the young" with lack of accurate and easly accessible information and gear rental (beacon, air-bag, etc)? Japan has a tendency of blanket statements and closing their eyes to new, bothersome things...I tried just now to get weather info for 10 min to no avail, then tried Wistler, and the Ski hp had link to Backcountry, from there link to weather map with avalanche risk...

...not only flights, but trains have stopped, and highways are closed. Not bc of heavy snow, but more as a "precaution", but esp with the trains this is becoming more of a "not in my backyard" mentality I got the feeling. Meaning they don't want to deal with stress of delayments, short-notice changes etc, and just close up everything, no matter how much more inconvenient it gets for all regular users.

What about Okinawa

Has already started (mentioned by a friend on Jan 8th, who went there for some company golfing). Mentioning an event that happened in the past would look the comitee stupid because they are supposed to "predict" said event... :-)

"Why the masks?" was my first thought as well, but seeing the 2nd pic, I would see the reasoning, with older people around who have a fragile health and probably a weak immun system as well, and with whom you don't live together, not putting on a mask would be the wrong choice to show to the public. Still, a bit of a regretable situation, not being able to tell the people that at times not masking up is ok.

"Northwest Japan"??? When I think of anything northwest, I can only see a deep ocean...and maybe Korea!

Similar things happening in Karuizawa now, hotels going more and more for max number of rooms instead of good design. And the mayor here sees the town more like "the 24th ward of Tokyo" than a place full of green...

Here's hoping something will come out of this, but I'm afraid the managers at Dentsu started destroying everything as soon as that other company got in trouble, bc they knew what was coming...

Message of Ilusion?!

Meanwhile Chamonix has already seen 30cm of snowfall...

The people who are calling Lego as just "kids plastic toys" definitely haven't seen the big ones, mostly for (adult) star wars fans, but also for car fans etc. And they start at over 20.000 Yen per set for the smaller ones. Thank you but no thank you.

Only 112 for Toyotas supposed home market Japan? They really try hard to sell their image of "Green technology" hybrids here without agnowledging how far they have fallen behind on the global market!

50year old becomes faithful? Sure, happens all the time. Enjoy your Easter stories kiddos. Which are of course much older than 2000 years. And don't get me started on the 17-year age gap between them. But he is the older one, so it's ok right?!

Congrats to all the finishers. I'm sure a lot was done to ensure the participating runners' health. But much less so with the spectators, or were there none at all? Standing in the same spot close to other persons, shouting "Gambatte" etc with a loud voice...than walking in a crowd to ride a crowded train...that imho is where the spreading is being done!

Toyota promised an investigation into the case to prevent a recurrence

Since they didn't say external, I guess it will be a quiet "internal" investigation without any findings published to the public or even the bottom staff...

You cant lit a fire in a vacuum! It needs air, same as the Olympic Games need spectators, otherwise they are just some kind of World Cup.

Ugly front, yes. But I guess it looks nice in the dark with all those different lights shining bright! And there is nothing ”All-New" if it is still the same hybrid motor/engine combination!

They had about 25 min of this in the NHK evening news, interrupted by some Covid numbers. But not a single word about Climate change, climate crisis, that we might see more of this in the coming years! Not even much of how, much less why the weather front moved around Japan in a wider context! Yes, there has been heavy rain with mudslides etc before. But it usually during rainy season or bc of a taifun crossing the country, not in the middle of August, a few days after the taifun has passed. Denial and self-pitying, without any will to educate/inform about global facts.