sidjtd comments

Hey guys, no reason not to believe the photo is authentic automatically, but this could also be easily achieved by simply asking the person "May I take your picture praying for the victims? It will be for a news website". The lady simply says "Sure" or "No thank you" and you go from there.

I know JapanToday commen section is always filled with cynical comments, but to pretend you know anything about rifleman ship when you don't is quite embarrassing.

Is this the most effective way to be extracted or inserted into an area? No. But if there is no landing zone for he helicopter or requires hasteful action to scoop up more than 1 person, is it effective? Yes.

A big open target? Uhhh, hello? You think they'll be easier targets than the GIGANTIC helicopter carrying them?

Shooting when you move is incredibly hard, but its called cover fire. Its also hard shooting at anything moving, let alone flying. Ballistics of rifles are designed to shoot parallel to the earth, so firing down at something and firing up at something requires a lot of extra modifications to how you shoot.

This doesnt factor in the whole, FLYING part. (Granted shooting down from up is generally much easier, but not always either)

For all the naysayers about Japanese landscape being sucked away by gigantic projects... you are missing the point. A whole country that prefers to build its future airports on top of the water or carved mountains just goes to show how fighting for land that is owned by civilians is incredibly difficult and painstaking.

kujiranikusuki, you must have not been around a lot of Chinese kids and Korean kids if you think they are 'good' at English. To be fair, a lot of Chinese kids are better at English most likely thanks to the grammar of English being near identical to Chinese.

Meanwhile, you'd THINK that Hangul being an alphabet would make Koreans better at English... the fact they can pronounce CONSONANTS at the end of words unlike Japanese people... but they really can't sometimes.

I'm not trying to disagree that Japanese people SUCK at English probably the MOST in the world. But trying to say they suck at English because they pronounce TEST as "Tesuto" is stupid. That's an English originated word, NOT ENGLISH.

Americans constantly are screwing up other peoples languages too, like all the 'Gringo's' that have god awful Spanish, Italian mispronounciations, nevermind Japanese speakers from the South with a terrible southern draw (although it is very funny)

Karati, Karaoke? How about Sake (Saki), Sushi, Tempura, Fujiyama, Tokyo, Osaka, Mr Inoue san, Ohayou Gozaimasy, Konnichiwa, Hashi, Bushido, Wasabi, "Kawaii", so on so forth.

In fact, Americans can't pronounce Japanese at all. Not that it matters really, but on the other hand you make it sound like a consonant less country not being able to pronounce consonants as a mortal crime.

The problem with Japanese isn't the FOREIGN words, it's the system of Katakana itself. Katakana completely obscurs the foreign words origins because of Japan's clumsy syllable system. Also, the word forever remains 'foreign' because it is in Kanji creating a psychological seperation between new and old words from overseas.

Oh, I forgot to include Chinese in the future language list.

Arabic culture in my opinion is a huge doozy but hey, they got a ton of resources and until it dries up they are going to party like no tomorrow. And with all the conflicts, Arabic is just a language that cannot be ignored at this time.

English, Spanish, French and Chinese. Japanese is not amongst the top useful languages of the world.

True and not true. Sure, those languages you mentioned are the top "important" languages, no doubt. Japanese can't beat them. (I wonder why you left out Russian?)

But knowing Japanese is still incredibly useful: It's still the 2nd largest economy in the world (becoming number 3 after China still makes it a per capita large economy) and the biggest perk is that there is not enough people in Japan that know a 2nd language. Japanese-descent expats also have lost a lot of their mother tongue.

On the other hand, French is not as useful as it used to be, unless you're on a random South Pacific island or in North Africa (and obviously France). Spanish is ok, since it covers a lot of ground and the dialects are not THAT different (they still are), but you're still dealing with poverty level people for the most part. (Trust me I know, I unfortunately understand Spanish)

Chinese is without a doubt the language of the future, Mandarin to be exact; but even right now knowing Chinese is just a business opportunity. Speaking Mandarin means you get by in Singapore and a few other outer-Asian areas, but a lot of expats of China speak 'dialects', unintelligible to each other like Cantonese and other smaller population dialects like Shanghainese, so on so forth.

The future languages are really: English, Arabic, and possibly a little Spanish (still a poor mans language). Japanese will always be quite useful as long as the Japanese don't get quite proficient at language learning.

This is unlike German, the 4th or 5th largest economy because Germans are great at English and learning a 2nd language.

Besides, the most important languages are where you live. China may be great for Chinese people, but it still doesn't allow foreigners any room to live in there and own property unless its Hongkong. In Japan, legally anyone can live there as long as you become a citizen.

Japan has a looooooooooooong way to go to improve; and economically and linguistically there is no doubt it has quite big chance it could really grow less significant in the next few decades. Maybe for our grandkids Japanese will be very unimportant, but for another 50 years, learning Japanese is not a complete waste.... still.

"Who says eating in a restaurant is a Right? Utterly ludicrous, inconsiderate, pathetic remark."

Eating in a restaurant IS a right. It is AGAINST your rights if you are discriminated entry based on racial features in the US, but you can't go in a restaurant naked (or even with just underpants to avoid indecent exposure laws)

You have the prevelege of entering a restaurant. You do not have God-endowed rights.

Secondly, while I AM a smoker and I KNOW its a nasty habit (I am not up to quitting right this moment because of reasons even non-smokers will empathize with... the country I work in is really dangerous!) but people should realize that car exhaustion and tire particles are far more dangerous than 2nd hand smoke.

Yeah, butts are nasty being thrown away and the cigarette ashes such. But I'm telling you, you're being a fool if you think even BANNING cigarettes will suddenly make humans all happier and better beings and the Earth magically cleaner. No sir.

comment cut off above.

Regardless, the jokes gotta stop.

Unless we can grow food under water, we gotta eat from the sea. Or start eating bugs, the most environmentally sound solution to getting protein. (gross, but true)

We can't all be vegetarians and asking people to change their food diet like with whales (which isnt even that popular in Japan) is to me just a cultural superiority complex.

If Japan ditches whales, someones gotta make the same sacrifice, whether it be another culture stop whaling or an equally important diet like beef.

HeilanClansman, it isn't irrelevant. If Japan is unable to get beef (as it has in the past) then it simply phases it out. It is not a traditional part of the diet for 99%, if not 100% of the population of Japan unlike Korea or China. Coastal Japanese however relied on sea food for their very sustenance.

Don't get me wrong. The Taiji method bothers me. And personally I think Mercury laden meat is not appetizing at all. But when will this pushing of cultures stop? YOUR culture isnt BETTER than THEIRS. Stop forcing it down their throat.

Remember, only combat troops come home. There'll be plenty that stay behind.

I personally don't understand why criminals deserve sympathy. I am not talking about this case specifically, but if someone clearly killed, and is especially not remorseful of it, is corporal punishment that does not leave marks or permanent damage essential if it would teach a lesson?

Remorse and regret is important, but so is fear of punishment or consequences if the potential criminals have 'no shame'. If you are not scared of being guilty you have nothing to fear.

I am not saying criminals or law-breakers should be mistreated in anyway shape or form, but they need to be accountable for their actions...

I agree. Aside from his "image" by the South Koreans and Chinese (Yasukuni...) he literally had no problems as a Prime Minister. I understand Korea and China can get worried, but they use history as a political weapon as well. It is shameful.

I believe in Japanese, pilot could signify the 'initial' episode. Note that in many TV series, the pilot episode just so happens to be the 1st episode, as well. (not always, due to the pilots low budget) But often its better than remaking the 1st episode all over again.

Why do you say that some14some? Can you elaborate your thoughts?

Pot has never been a part of Japan, and to think it will integrate well...well... it won't. I think a Japan without Pot is a better society. People who get caught with smoking it should get jailed and fined accordingly, longer than a week but a few weeks if possible.