sushilover comments

Seeing the place on TV, and all them poor country folk living in squalour, it reminded me of that old song "duelling shamisens", y'all.

Nuclear power is safety and convenience. What's a bit of steam? No ginger! (Geddit?)

Point of order, your honour: if those people had been unable to hold the train up while she was being pulled up, it would have rolled back and she would have been crushed. Would it not have been wiser to tell her to stay put in the crawl space under the platform while the train very slowly pulled out of the way..? Then pull her up?

It's half-time, as I write. The highlights of the first half have been the camera shots, every 30 secs, of Kagawa sitting on the subs' bench. We've seen him scratching his head, looking up at the sky, looking down at the ground, picking his nose, inspecting his bogeys, rubbing his eyes, getting really animated and clapping his hands twice when Man Utd scored, yawning (really), and basically trying to stay awake. A Nihonjin on the world stage. Japan's total obsession. Oh hang on something really exciting is happening: the adverts! Man Utd players are gulping down fruit juice. Kagawa has the best gulp, of course. God help us if he actually gets to come on the pitch and play football, which I predict he will,for the last 15 mins. And if he scores a goal... God help us.

It was the same last weekend. Judging by Japanese TV coverage, you'd think Matsuyama won the Open Golf tournament. Barely a fleeting glimpse of that unknown, irrelevant (non Japanese) Open CHAMPION, Phil Wossisname!

Ethnocentricity rules ok?

Can't believe I'm seeing this in Japan. Bravo! Usually the Japanese ignore, do nothing, pretend not to see, walk on by.. I saw an old fella fall on the tracks at Hadano last week. Everyone just stood and stared- those that weren't glued to their iphones. I pressed the red button. The station staff came running with their red flags just in time to stop an approaching train.

They should stuff a couple of inflatables down the front; could double as life preservers. Two birds, one stone?

Japan is a country of rules, routines, and rituals. Politeness implies a feeling of kindness, wanting to be nice, helpful, considerate to other humans beings. The three 'R's do not require such feelings. A few examples: holding a door open for the person coming after, or saying "after you"; saying 'thank you" to the person holding the elevator doors open while everyone gets out; looking a shop cashier in the eye, smiling and saying "thank you"; saying "excuse me" when you get off a train, rather than just pushing someone in the back; giving up your seat to a needy person on a train.... and so on. None of these are part of Japan's 3 'R's; all of them require feelings of niceness and appreciation for other human beings. Or, at the very least they require you to notice the existence of other human beings.So they just do not happen. They do not fall within the required rules, routines and rituals. But "We Japanese" are still the most polite people in the world, according to their limited, blinkered and erroneous definition of the word "politeness".

Politeness in Japan is one of the many self-generated myths here. Japanese people are polite when social norms dictate that they have to be polite. Otherwise, other human beings are simply not on the radar.

The most annoying, and illogical, thing is the CONSTANT announcements about not using mobile phones. A million more times annoying (and LOUDER) than the rare individual who uses a mobile phone. And, lets face it someimes you HAVE TO use a mobile phone, in an emergency, if a very important client calls you etc. It's not a sin, it's not a crime. Get over it! But, on the other hand, all those dirty looks.... just priceless.

Tomorrow's headline: "Dad kills son" or will it be "son kills dad in self defence". Pelted to death with tubs of haagen dazs.

Man demands divorce after his wife throws out his anime collection

Would've been more interesting if she had thrown him in the garbage!

perhaps hoping to appeal to local voters

What an astute politician!

WOW! Amazing!

Nightmareliner, I'd say.

BTW, do passengers have a right to know what "equipment" they are getting on when they buy a ticket, and before they board? And do they have the right to say " No way am I getting on that death trap! Give me my money back"?

A Realist, ditto?!

Chasm grows between Japan, neighbors

A techtonic shift, one might say.

People sunbathe on benches at a park in Tokyo. Temperatures soared past 35 degrees in the metropolitan area on Thursday.

They looked like they've been zapped by aliens.

(Irony alert!!...) Well done, JT. Good to know you are reinforcing all the advice about avoiding heatstroke.

A sight to terrify all would-be ne'erdowells: a cop armed with a garden hose and a scrubbing brush. That'll get rid of those noisy bosozokus!

The kid's dad should go to the school, punch the child abuser in the mouth (if he hasn't already- I know I would've), then tape up his mouth to stop his broken teeth falling out on his cancelled teacher's license.

She has a huge opportunity now to turn this scenario to her advantage. Start a new company "Happy Cute Bunny". No publicity is bad publicity. Go girl, go!

A good few years back, just before I stopped working at a High School in western Tokyo, I heard that a parent complained that teachers got too much summer holiday. Whereupon, teachers' summer holiday was cancelled, and they had to go in and to work all thru the hols. Can anyone clarify this? Was/is this true?

There's a player named Hulk?

He's incredible! Guffaw. I love my jokes.

I think poor Mr. Fuji should be left alone, and viewed from afar. Show some respect.

make 'im walk the plank, me hearties.

Just kill yourself first

then kill the others...

Now that it's got its World Heritage gong, it has grown in stature; it is now 100 metres higher! Seriously, who gives a monkeys about its WH status, apart from the Japanese? They seem to think people from all around the world are going to flock to see this mountain. Why? Its still the same lump of rock, very beautiful to look at in the winter, but ironically at its worst during the climbing season. Can anyone in Japan name any other sites around the world that were given WH status recently in Phnom Penh? So why should we care about this one? fyi: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/10138460/New-UNESCO-World-Heritage-Sites-for-2013.html#?frame=2598306

Get Real, Thats classic! Its only rock'n roll, but, hey.. no sympathy for the devil.

Old rockers never die, they just lose their plectrums...

Keep on rockin, boys!

It would be pretty easy to climb over a barrier if you wanted to. Barriers prevent accidents, not suicides.

Should've slapped him with a wet fish, a la Monty Python. Much more lethal than a rubber hammer..