the_sheriff comments

Wait, didn't she star in "Earth Girls Are Easy"?!

According to my calendar, Oct. 14th this year is 赤口 -- not an auspicious day for weddings (except at noon, apparently).

Wait, didn't AKB appear in suicide prevention ads last year?

“You’re at the point right now where a studio would rather invest $250 million in one film for a real shot at the brass ring… than make a whole bunch of really interesting, deeply personal” films...

Imagine all the really interesting, deeply personal films we would've had if a studio hadn't blown all that money on Star Wars episodes I to III.

The quality is very low, especially due to the traditions they have in the industry about the amount of characters that can be displayed at a time and that they have to translate liberally, not literally.

But there are some gems out there. I remember in the movie "Wayne's World", when Wayne asked for the Cream of Sumyounguy, the translation was given as "miso za-men". ha ha

And how many times has this happened in the last decades, these shootings, as far as i know, has always been stopped by the police or the shooter killing himself.

Actually, this happened just a few months ago. A man with a gun went to a church and shot a parishoner. The gunman himself was then shot by another person in the parish.

Oh, yeah. That incident happened in a town called Aurora, Colorado.

The picture for adolescents is even more worrying, with four out of five 13- to 15-year-olds not moving enough, it said.

I walk over 10 km a day and go to the gym daily on top of that. That's now. Back when I was 13 to 15, I was part of the Nintendo generation and sat in front of the TV more hours than I care to admit. But I'm totally in shape now and I really feel like this article is fearmongering at its worst. To say physical inactivity KILLS 5 million a year sounds like some "experts" are simply craving attention.

Next time I go to the US, I'm definitely gonna ride a tour bus with Spongebob Squarepants painted on it.

There could have been so many trucks/vans out there.

I used to see a lot of food trucks in the Kasumigaseki area of Tokyo when I worked there almost 10 years ago. The lines were long and they even had a pretty tasty Mexican food truck.

I don't work in the middle of Tokyo anymore so I don't know how things are recently but when I'm in Tokyo on my days off, I sometimes see food trucks here and there.

I gotta say, Midtown holds absolutely no appeal for me. Events like this don't make me wanna go. What about better stores (ideally ones that aren't found easily in any number of shopping districts around the city)?

I've recently spent several months looking for a place to buy and I talked with about a dozen real estate agents. Here are some things to look out for.

Distance to the property. Over half of the agents I talked to told me the same thing -- the walking distance to the station is often false. For some properties, they compute the distance as the crow flies so it's impossible for a person to walk there in the stated time. The walking time also doesn't take into account hills, which can greatly change the time.

Age of the property. In June 1981, the standards used for construction changed (known as 新耐震) so as to make buildings more earthquake-resilient. Buildings built before that under the old standards (known as 旧耐震) are likely not as resilient. Since then, there have been other improvements to the standards but the 1981 one is probably the most major one.

Area of the property. When the floor plans state how many square meters a property is, it is generally calculated from inside the wall (壁心). Since you obviously can't use space inside a wall, the property's area is generally not is big as stated. If the area is calculated from the wall (登記), then all of the listed area is essentially usable.

47 Some supermarkets sell Geiger counters next to the register as impulse items.

48 Just about all girls named Akiko are total pervs.

49 The inability to get a decent pint of beer for a decent price.

the_sheriff, I would add as 3, the availability of clothing no matter how big you get.

Ha ha, agreed.

NOT!!! Its the people that chose to ingest it that are to blame! Lets let the blame lie where iot belongs, Please!

We're saying the same thing. I was mocking people who use those battle cries as an excuse. But the fact of the matter is that many seemingly innocuous foods contain "hidden" sugars and fats, which contribute to obesity. That's why I say that people need to educate themselves on their caloric requirements and how many calories are going in and out of their bodies.

There's so much misplaced finger pointing in the States when it comes to figuring out why the population is so obese.

Sugar is to blame!

Fatty foods are to blame!

High fructose corn syrup is to blame!

The list goes on and on. Although these may contribute to obesity to a lesser degree, I think there are two main reasons Americans are obese.

1) Lack of education.

For the most part, too many calories = you gain weight; too few calories = you lose weight. People don't know how many calories their bodies require nor do they know how many calories they gain through food and lose through exercise.

2) Lack of shame.

In Japan, it's pretty shameful to be fat (and this is the one example in which ijime helps society). In the States, there's the mistaken sentiment that people's bodies are beautiful regardless of size or shape. As such, you have people actually flaunting their overweight bodies. The more you see it, the more acceptable it becomes.

I come from Los Angeles so I've seen very few theaters here that compare to the audio and video capabilities.

But I can live with that. What I really miss here is freshly popped popcorn!!

There has been a resurgence of board games in the past 15 to 20 years, many with new and innovative designs. I personally don't like Game of Life and prefer a lot of these newer games. There's a huge database of them here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

That text came out a little funny so here's the link again.

http://rent.realestate.yahoo.co.jp/bin/rsearch?md=wd&lc=03&pf=14&p=%B9%F0%C3%CE%BB%F6%B9%E0

Many of these properties in which there was a murder or suicide on the premises are labeled as having "告知事項". You can do an Internet search for such properties or ask your real estate agent if they're holding on to any of these.

Here's a link to Yahoo 不動産 for such properties. http://rent.realestate.yahoo.co.jp/bin/rsearch?md=wd&lc=03&pf=14&p=%B9%F0%C3%CE%BB%F6%B9%E0

Just to continue my above post, there are plenty of cheap eats in town.

Udon/Soba

There are Sanuki udon chains as well as other noodle chains with meals under 500 yen. Examples include Hanamaru Udon, Komoro Soba, and Fuji Soba.

Bento lunch boxes

Bento Chains like Orijin Bento will sell you a bento and drink for about 500 yen. You can then hae lunch outside at a local park.

In addition, supermarkets also sell a lot of ready made lunch boxes and food items. You can also get a large can of Strong Chu-hi and have a good ol' itme.

Fast food chains

Many fast food chains, Japanese and Western, have sets that are close to the 500 yen mark. If you don't wanna come to Japan to eat McD's or KFC, there are always other options like Yoshinoya and Lotteria.

Italian food

The family restaurant chain Saizeriya has pasta and other food on the cheap.

And for those who have some understanding of Japanese, look for ワンコイン meals (meals around 500 yen). There are ワンコイン curry sets, Chinese food, tonkatsu, etc.

These CNN Go articles have an amateurishness to them that makes them a little tedious to read.

Also, this article can't seem to define boundaries well. First, what does he consider "budget"? While 390 yen ramen bowls are budget, 800+ yen teishoku from Ootoya aren't. Second, who's his target reader? He seems to target tourists but he's telling people to go to places that only residents would be able to navigate. (What tourists will go under office buildings?)

Their existence doesn't bother me. The existence of so many articles on JT devoted to them bothers me. If the powers that be at JT recognize that their readers are bothered by these articles, then why don't they make the editorial decision to cut down the number of these articles?

Still a long way to go before my stocks break even. :(

I love the word "CanCam". It actually stands for, I kid you not, "I can campus". ha ha Japan is so entertaining!!

Girls chipping in to get the guys at the workplace something is pretty standard -- but this year, the girls in my department were super...frugal. Instead of getting each guy a small box with 4 chocolates or something equivalent, the girls chipped in to give each guy a single chocolate! Well, 3x okaeshi will be a breeze for them this year!

I've seen pole dancing robots at 7th Heaven and Private Eyes in Roppongi. Made in Eastern Europe.

Yeah. That tends to happen when you go in with enough money just to pay for your own drinks. ;)

as well as some original flavors for Japan

I'm afraid to ask. I hope not something like Almond Krunch Berry 48.

As much as I love Ben & Jerry's, I'd rather have Chipotle open up shop here.

The revelation scenes in "Sixth Sense" and "The Usual Suspects" stayed with me a long time.

Many scenes from "Pulp Fiction" but the one that stands out the most is the hypodermic needle to the heart scene.

Many scenes from "Hotaru no Haka".

Dieting is so easy. A rough way to get results is this.

1 Calculate BMR.

2 Exercise daily for X calories.

3 Eat Y calories.

4 Make sure Y = BMR + X - 500

This will allow you to burn 500 calories a day, which comes out to a loss of almost 1 kg every two weeks -- a realistic goal that gives your body the ability to adjust to the weight. You never want to lose too much too quickly.

I lost 20 kg doing this. I don't know why obese people can't do the same.

An disaster survival kit is a must have but that particular one looks like it was mostly thrown together at a 100 yen shop. I don't even see a flashlight or radio in there.

And how much is "enough" toiletry supplies anyway?

With the obesity rate what it is in the United States, it sounds like a good time to buy stock in Vivus.