WhatJapanThinks comments

Come on people, if you went to a foreign country could you tell the difference between a real and a fake badge? Wouldn't you also think there may be a chance that they could steal your passports?

Their point 5) especially is most valid; even just a card in a few languages explaining who they were would be much better.

With apologies to Monty Python...

Fukuda Morning, gentlemen.

Doctor Morning!

Obstetrician Morning, Mr. Fukuda.

Doctor Morning, Mr. Fukuda.

Fukuda Oh, very impressive. Very impressive. And what are you doing this morning?

Obstetrician It's a birth.

Fukuda Aahh. What sort of thing is that?

Doctor Well, that's when we take a new baby out of a lady's tummy.

Fukuda Wonderful what we can do nowadays.

[ping]

Aah! I see you have the machine that goes 'ping'. This is my favourite. You see, we lease this back from the company we sold it to, and that way, it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.

[applause]

Thank you. Thank you. We try to do our best. Well, do carry on.

I forgot to add - there's an ad on telly for half-fat mayonnaise, with the selling point being that you can use twice as much of it...

tokyoalex: excellent point - if I were Coke or Pepsi I'd get my lawyers to write JT a strongly-worded letter!

So what are we to do?

How about just reading the nutritional label that is on all these products? Seems a remarkably simple solution to me.

Hero? All he did was force its jaws open and get it off her hand, according to that story. If he'd wrestled it, or got it off her head, I could see the label being appropriate, but...

posting a threatening message on the online discussion board through a mock-up mobile phone at a mobile phone shop

That's a good trick, using these non-functional devices to connect to the internet! Presumably they meant a demonstration model, although all the shops I've been in have had the SIM card removed or been otherwise disabled.

<strong>Moderator: The story has been corrected. </strong>

Scrote - hehehe! I was trying to work out how to get syrup into my comment, so well done!

Himajin: wifey always describes male-pattern baldness as kappa-joutai.

Altria, a bald move to be sure, but Steel Partners have the kappa-bilities to pull this off; they just need to slap heads together.

That Wikipedia article is pretty crap (and wrong in a number of places). Takarazuka is just the Japanese equivalent of Mills & Boon/Harlequin Romance, although most Western observers read far too much into it, and I say this as both a fan and as someone with inside information.

GW, no, they continue with normal studies too (including English), although at a reduced level to accommodate the theatre-related lessons.

And it is an ongoing business - there's five troupes, each usually working on a cycle of a 4-6 week show at Takarazuka, 4-6 weeks of the same show at Tokyo, 4-6 weeks of a different show at a smaller hall at Takarazuka, and 8-12 weeks rehearsing, etc.

Ahh, finally see them - my other PC has Flash disabled, so I didn't get them

keech2: do you get them in the top left between the title and the comments? All I ever see there is an image ad for a Kyoto Ryokan.

keech2: what Scientology ads? I don't see any, but I've got some of the ads blocked. Are they Google ads? Are you in the USA, not Japan?

northlondon, you are mistaken. From the time he was born until he made the choice (just like all dual nationality children in Japan have to make the choice between the ages of 20 to 22), he was both Japanese and Iranian. Once he becomes an adult, because Japan does not recognise dual nationality, according to the law he has to choose one or the other.

Oh, and here's a note from the British Embassy in Iran's web site:

Iran does not recognise dual nationality. On marriage to an Iranian man a woman automatically becomes an Iranian national and is regarded as a mono-national in the eyes of the Iranian government. She can choose to renounce this citizenship after a divorce or the death of her Iranian spouse, but any children born of her Iranian husband will automatically be Iranian citizens and their citizenship is irrevocable.

Does that make Iran even more right-wing than Japan?

9 out of 10 for capturing the scene. 1 out of 10 for picture quality.

redacted - Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth over four years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3299277.stm

sarcasm123 - that's the point, the writer here pulled the 700 number out of the air - his timeline is all mucked up too, as the other "local" family was in Hyogo, not Chiba.

Here's health officials backtracking from over 2,000 to 10:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080215a1.html

Does Sarah Jessica Parker actually wear fur? I can find a statement from her on the PETA site saying she doesn't, but another site saying that she does.

Anyway, ecological fur means plastic-backed real fur? Only in Japan, to use a cliche!

timeon - therewas a recent post on Japan Probe about this:

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4171

It's the new charcoal briquettes, perhaps.

DarkWolfMage, read again. It sounds more like the father did his son in, then topped himself.

area drugstores

What on earth is an area drugstore?

As for declining rates, hot tubs have long been a staple of Japan, so it's hardly a new phenomenon.

I just don't know how to respond to this - that's a classic of Japanese management techniques.

One would imagine anyone with dietary requirements would have a hard time getting a job there, and I suppose those who go down with food poisoning are weeded out too for being too weak.

In the west it would be the people who refused to eat and complained who would get hired, I would bet.

About two years ago Hankyu made all seats priority seats, but last Autumn they changed back to designated zones. In the rush hour I must admit that I usually fake sleeping unless it's someone heavily pregnant or rather doddery. Just having silver hair isn't enough to get the silver seat out of me!

However, I almost never sit in the priority seating zone.

Why is Gal Sone pulling such a face? Has the buffet tray just been delivered?

Anyway, how come the caption writer is only interested in giving the young women names? Between Gal and Nobita is that guy from TOKIO, I think, and he has a look of someone with an inappropriately-positioned hand.

And what on earth is Sumiko Nishioka holding?

It's funny how both politcs and show biz are controlled by the old boy network and factions, so it's more than appropriate that a SMAPster is playing the lead role.

How come I never get to see things like this - maybe I should move to Saitama?

Mind you, most J-pr0n is rather unpleasant, so I suppose should be glad I don't see this sort of thing.

It seems to be excreta, but as you say, there seems to be little use of the word in English.

Yet another bug - click on someone's name in the comments, then select one of their old posts that is no longer in the last 15 for a story.

I saw yongfook mentioning on his blog that page views were up and bounce rate down, but I would claim that is because the design is worse, not better, as there is no longer a nice scannable "latest comments" list, for instance. I'm close to giving up on here.

What is the point of posting this jerk's quote here?

Page views. Given that the new design makes news difficult to follow, the pic of the day and the quote of the day are cheap and easily accessible (if you have JavaScript active) ways of pulling in punters.

The carry-on after the death of Diana was one of the reasons I chose to come to Japan.