Stonecoldsoba comments

convert Y40 mil into USD ...

Why convert it???

$500,000 dollars.

No. As the article clearly states, it was 40 milliion yen. I expect little if any at all of any other currency was involved.

... an effort by Tokyo to heal the wounds of history.

Has Japan ever made similar efforts to heal the wounds of history in China, Korea, Malaya, ... ?

Good Dad: ...

Bad Dad: ...

Good Dad: Tried various approaches to help daughter break her drug habit since becoming aware of it xx months ago but without success. Call in the authorities and tell them it started only recently.

Plausible?

I think someone would notice a bit of noise if they are dragging something under their car.

Possibly not with all the noise from the snow chains. But I reckon the driver must have noticed the impact.

what are the highest malt content beers in Japan?

Of the mass-market beers, try Ichiban shibori, Malts and Ebisu. There may be one or two others but practically all the rest (including Kirin Lager and Sapporo Black Label) are made with rice and cornstarch. Check the ingredients list.

With a bread machine you can make real bread to your own recipe - wholewheat, rye, grains, seeds, whatever. Even without sugar! All you need to know is where to buy good flour.

But it beats me why anyone would want low calorie bread. It's a carbohydrate food, for f's sake, it's supposed to be full of calories! Low calorie bread makes no more sense than low fat butter substitute or low sodium salt. Just eat less of them!

That photo tells me there will be no Christmas cake; only クリスマスケーキ.

but the current 'shoot on site' alternative will destroy the wild bear population very quickly.

I think you're right. Better to make the bears go somewhere else before shooting them.

Come to think of it, seriously, chasing them elsewhere before opening fire might be better for the bears. They'd have a chance to go back up the mountain. Can't see it happening though 'cos it would be more risky and time-consuming for the humans involved.

And what does "'tried' to use a blowguns" mean?

Seems to imply that none of them knew how to use the blowgun and therefore they failed to tranquilise the bear. I suspect it's a sloppy translation and should read something like, "... attempted to tranquilise them using a blowgun."

... until she learns that she cannot flaunt society's conventions ...

She flaunts her wealth, not social conventions.

The only explanation I can think of is that they were an estranged family who hardly ever saw or spoke to each other and rarely had a meal together, despite living under the same roof.

I find this an entirely plausible explanation.

... police offered him the opportunity to give a voluntary statement.

Makes me wonder how the 'interview' was conducted.

Ban smoking and watch the Yakuza celebrate as the tobacco runners become rich.

Ban smoking outright but not nicotine: let the addicts get their fix in other ways that don't bother the majority. Hell, let them inject it for an even quicker hit.

"But I like the smoke!" they'll whine. Absolute bollocks! Smoke drug-free cigarettes for a year then tell me you still like the smoke and I might believe you.

I wonder how they survived the heat, it must have been so very hot.

Same as anyone else with any sense, I hope: by drinking plenty and sweating.

See this is a perfect example of what I mean. I told them that because on other times there WERE near misses! You are either Japanese or someone who will either one day get run down, or run somebody down. Wake up to yourself.

It's OK, that's not my attitude but an expression of the attitude so many people around here seem to have.

as the rule of thumb is: when crossing don't look just walk / drive; if you look the car driver will assume you'll stop.

I don't intend to test that on the road but it seems to be true when I walk among pedestrians. When I'm obviously attentive to where other people are walking, I always have to take evasive action; when I pretend to be just gazing straight ahead (but in reality keeping a lookout for silent, slow-moving hybrid cars) other people keep out of my way.

The amount of times I've had to tell a Japanese person "Just remember a car could be coming around the corner now", or "If a person were walking or riding a bike rounding that corner now, you would have hit them", is incredible.

But there never was any other car, bike or person coming round the corner, was there? You're worrying about something that doesn't happen.

Whiskeysour:

In my neighborhood we have an ice cream truck guy

One of these guys?

http://daigaku-do.co.jp/

I quite like their song, and I don't mind the yakiimo and saodake trucks, probably because theirs are sing-song jingles rather than spoken. Of the vendors and gomi trucks, the ones I dislike most are those with really dreadful sound quality. The politicians are irritating but they don't hang around long. Seems to me there's a limit of a few minutes for talking in one place - at least in residential areas.

But I thought this article was going to be about the black trucks pumping out pompous, chauvinistic songs at full blast. I suppose it's already understood that everyone hates those. And that F all will be done about them. (That is not a matter of free speech. They are indeed free to say what they want but that in no way implies freedom to annoy everyone.)

As for the filter in Japanese brains, I have to conclude that they simply do not hear the hideous squeal of bicycle brakes.

As seaforte03 intimates, many of these random attacks are done by frustrated women.

That's not how I understood it at all! To me it meant that women are at greater risk of falling victim to some kind of attack. (Clue: seaforte03 wrote, "women must be considerably more cautious".)

Namaman, kadenmaya, koriyamaboy (and anyone I missed) - maybe you could make some cards yourself.

Abandonment of a corpse? Two feet do not a corpse make! Depending on how the stumps (and the rest of the body) are treated, it's quite possible for the victim to continue living.

I suggest we all refer to it a 'Adidas Park' or 'Puma Park' or ...

Not much need for speculation about the size of the road. From the FNN report I reckon you can see exactly where the cars ended up: on Route 202 at the oblique T-junction in Yasuimachi, close to Yasui 3-4. On Google maps and streetview you can see quite clearly that there is plenty of space for two cars to pass and a yellow centre line. From what we can see of the aftermath in the news report, which of them crossed the line is anyone's guess.

I don't often need to go to the counter in the bank but when I do, the woman serving me (always a woman!) usually has to take all the paperwork to one of those middle-aged men in the background (always men!) for approval. Even for fairly simple routine stuff like an address change. Wouldn't it make sense to have counter staff who are sufficiently trained to take responsibility for processing transactions?

Something a bit alarming happened when I needed to replace my lost cash card. In addition to my pass book and my gaijin card to prove my identity, they asked for my 4-digit secret number. Not the PIN of the cash card but the one I gave when I opened the account but subsequently never used and therefore could not remember at all. She told me the first digit (!) in case it might help me to remember the rest of it. I still couldn't remember so after a long discussion the middle-aged man in the background decided they didn't really need me to tell them the secret number after all. She told me the number (!) so that I would know it for next time. (But I never use that number so I've forgotten it again.)

Another time when I was waiting for them to process my transaction (getting something done at the counter always seems to involve a lot of waiting) I happened to see another teller counting a wad of about fifty 10,000 yen notes for another customer. After straightening all the creased corners she put them through the counting machine. She turned them over and put them through the machine again and it gave the same number. Then she counted them by hand to check!

Negligent driver.

I suspect the kids were injured at the time the car hit them; not afterwards.

Someone please get these undie thieves some lives!

It'd be easier to get them some undies.

bdiego:

Frommers and Lonely Planet are absolutely awful. 0 out of 5 stars. TripAdvisor is in another league. I planned my honeymoon and subsequent trips and highly recommend the site.

Ah, but how can we trust your review of the reviewers?

... chatting on the phone which is akin to listening to the radio.

Hardly! A phone conversation requires much more attention than listening to the radio, more even than chating with someone beside you. Have you never seen anyone chatting on the phone and practically oblivious to what's going on around them?

If I remember rightly, part-way across the junction, he collided with another car crossing his path. His car then careered aross the junction and onto the sidewalk, which suggests he was moving quite fast. Did he speed up to sneak through just after the lights had changed to red? Very plausible and I reckon that should be considered dangerous driving. Was he really not aware of the red light against him? That too is plausible but implies that he simply wasn't paying anywhere near enough attention to driving. I reckon he must have been very close to the threshold of dangerous driving.