Tora comments

And pigs fly. Come on, do they think we are stupid?

So far this morning I have counted six Japanese people with no masks and another seven using them as chin warmers. I haven’t seen any foreigners without masks yet.

So far counted 300 Japanese with masks and zero foreigners with or without them because there are none on this train.

 I disagree about walking around with millions of Yen in cash. I did that before City Bank went away to pay off a Japanese loan at Mizuho in cash. About ¥25,000,000 in crisp bills

CLEO:

Let me rephrase my previous statement.

No one these days with any sense walks around with millions of yen in cash.

cleo: I guess you don't live or have lived in japan. It's perfectly normal here. I also has to take a bad of cash to pay off my loan. The bank demanded it. I also know of plenty of others that had do to carry bags of cash to settle transactions. The banks here often DEMAND it.

No choice. Ridiculous, I know.

DEGGREToday 

Are you kidding me?? International students can't enter japan, even with a 14-days quarantine and doble negative PCR tests, while an Olympic athlet with symtoms can enter and live oin an hotel paid by government? Japan, I am sorry but your leaders are completely crazy.

Add to this, even if international students have been vaccinated!!! Just absolutely unbelievable.

"The brink of a state of emergency"

"Quasi state of emergency"

"State of emergency"

"Medical state of emergency"

ETC

All meaningless.

Why do they need to make things so complicated. No wonder people have given up.

To the Japanese government: After the Olympics, please fix this mess! I suspect it will be too late though.

So that's how they chose to translate まん延防止等重点措置 into English!

On a Sunday news show one commentator suggested Governor Yoshimura felt ashamed when lifted the old state of emergency too early and so when things got out of hand, came up with new emergency measure under a new name, but essentially more of the same, in order to save face. I tend to agree. It's all bordering on Double Speak. As others here have said, it's meaningless.

At least Himeno a good sport. Bet he proraly teases kiwis about their accents too! Give and take, aye bro.

This intire thing is leally not light. BB very much aglee.

Japanese escalators move at precisely the right speed. We're not all spright young things, ya know?

Toasted, misunderstood? Faster or slower has nothing do with being sprightly or not. Unless you talking about the moment when you hop on/off? And "precisely the right speed" means what? They're snail pace here man, and that's why people walk them.

Jusf gof off the train and walked up the "slow" escalator as normal. Wondered why people were all politely lined up on the left side.

No wonder got a lot more stares than normal. Guess I will will join the herd, if I remember!

Is there a word or phase called "semi-emergency" in English or Japanese? I can read kanji so to me "半緊急" does not make any sense.

Yeah: 中途半端緊急事態宣言

;)

Tokyo: safest city in the world.

Ah, the years of 1612, 1409 and 1236. Kyoto today is a concrete jungle. Nothing like the Kyoto of old. Like comparing apples with grapes.

Cool the 4th wave is over. What about the 5th?

Toasted:

Yeah but what about those around him? I for one wouldn't want my pic (especially as part of an unrelated group to the subject as in the above photo) pasted all over the show without my permission.

So somebody is walking around Tokyo taking random pics of people?

No privacy issues here?

Or alternatively, just don't test at all.

This will ensure the end of the pandemic. Bring on the Olympics, re-start Go To Trouble, etc, etc.

End it.

Well how about working to get the Trans-Tasman one buddle to where it is reciprocal first? But nah, mate.

Yes, the walls are paper thin. Likely snapped. Lived in one of these for 5 years. Drove me mad. Could hear upstairs guy snoring, his alarm at 430, microwave.... I knew his entire routine. Likewise for lady next door!

Part of the issue is substandard housing in japan. There is an entire underclass living in these establishments and it's only growing. I know it doesn't excuse murdering your neighbour, but remember many of these folk (who are often mentally ill) are just a little bad luck away from being on the streets. Sad.

This is not an SOE.

Sorry, Desert TortoiseToday I should have been clearer.

Of course, I know a car will last for 30-40 years, or even longer, if you take care of it. What I meant was that we are encouraged to get rid of them by 5 in Japan, through trade-in incentives, higher taxes, etc. Toyota or any other manufacturer for that matter, certainly doesn't want you holding onto your car. The industry is run like a fine oiled.... errrr, I will leave it there.

The life span of a car is 30-40 years? Try Five. After that you're strongly encouraged to get rid of it and buy another. Got to keep Japan Inc ticking over. And they talk about sustainability. Now if it actually was 30-40 years......

I blame my hair loss on the joys of dealing with Japanese banks. From having to prepare the deposit for my house in CASH (I took it into the bank in a satchel) and them actually counting it in front of me, before then depositing into their own ATM, to the craziness of katakana/romaji when dealing with transactions (or being locked out for having a middle name). And 440 yen to make a transaction online, or limit of 100,000 yen per transfer, or the bloody security card system they force us to use..... And they seem to be getting even more paranoid, especially regarding online transfers of money within japan, even modest amounts.

It is just insane! Could write a book on dealings with Japanese banks.

For international transactions, I joined transferwise (now Wise) in 2016 and haven't looked back.

I am waiting for the equivalent of M-Pesa to come here. Then I'll be wishing the banks Sayonara.

/endless rant for good reason

Tell that to the brazilian variant, Bach.

Line up in an orderly fashion to accept your bread. The circus is on.

Noooooooooooo

 Naofumi Masumoto, a visiting professor of Olympic studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University and Musashino University...

A full professor of Olympic Studies? Sounds like something right out of the Onion. Even the profs analysis of the situation. Early April Fool's?

Richard Gallagher, perhaps you fell for it?

"ice cream" - literally.

Yep. But this is how things roll here. The only surprising thing is the amount of wining and dining and other scandals that are being reported recently.

It's as if somebody is wanting to taint this government as much as possible to get rid of Suga. The question is why?

there will be no olympics in Tokyo this year

Yes there will. You watch. It's been decided. They'll hold them no matter what the consequences. It's about saving face and satisfying their dentsu masters.

However, globally, most people distinguish males and females as ‘bucks and does”.

American?? That is not "global".