YeahRight comments

More wasted time and money.

All anyone has to do to see how backward mask wearing is, is to look at news and videos from all over the world. Only Japan and certain other Asian countries continue wearing the confounded things.

Though technically there has never been a mask mandate in Japan, effectively, there is. I have yet to see a store or other public place that doesn't have a sign on their doors asking that you wear a mask. I have only had one place tell me they no longer wanted my business because I wasn't wearing a mask. So, I took my business elsewhere. Their loss, because I went there every day. But not since.

Can you tell I despise masks?

￥1＝＄1

Then I can return back to the US a rich man.

Seeing more and more touch screens at restaurants, conbinis, and other places. I like the trend. Order at your table without having to call a waiter over.

Better than nothing, but much more needs to be done. My wife is a daycare teacher. I teach at a high school that starts the training for kindergarten and daycare teachers. I also teach at the affiliated kindergarten. I have a lot of respect for those good teachers. They do a lot of hard work. Get rid of the scum that somehow gets around the system.

Getting a job simply for being born is not a good idea. After all, that is the only qualification Charles, Naruhito, and others needed to become king, emperor, whatever.

But, didn't Biden announce that the US had 0% inflation just a couple of weeks ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfA4i-Oy5ak

Idiot.

I heard on the TV there was speculation she was actually targeting someone else, but got the wrong car.

No.

Sounds to me that it's good for corporate Japan, but lousy for the average Taro looking at higher prices everywhere.

Bring it on.

I am just thankful they didn't add the usual, "suspended for 5 years."

Does this mean we won't have to reload the National page at 4:45 every day to check out the numbers in Tokyo? LOL.

What? No masks? Oh, that's in America where people have learned to live with Covid instead of being afraid of it.

I guess that we'll see President Biden resign sometime around January 21, 2023, so that Kamala Harris can have two years before running. He will probably cite family troubles (Hunter) as the reason. However, I doubt Harris will win. The only Democrat I see that has a real chance is California Governor Gavin Newsom. Others are way too progressive. Not that he isn't, but I think he has the best chance. On the right, I don't see Trump running again. He talks the talk now, but I don't think he'll do it. My guess for Republicans is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. We shall see. However it works out, I am tired of having septuagenarians run the White House.

I have a daughter who got married last year, and I desperately want to be called "Grandpa," but there is no way I would encourage her to have children. (Nor would I discourage her. It's completely her and her husband's decision. But that is not my point.) We live in one of those Tohoku rural towns and the closest obstetrician is at least a 30-minute drive, and that would be booking it. More like 45 minutes to an hour. Why? Because neither the prefectural nor municipal (so-called) general hospitals that are in our city offer obstetrics. (I'm not sure about gynecology, but I know they don't offer obstetrics. And don't even get me started about how they have the gall to call themselves "general hospitals" when they can't offer the most basic of services.) The only private doctor still left in our city retired as of March this year. (He was my wife's doctor for 2 out of our three children. I don't know how old he was, but he'd been working for at least 30 years, so he well deserves retirement.) I know several city council people and offered them a piece of my mind about how they are doing nothing to help people build families while complaining about the population decline. Well, my ranting didn't do too much good. (I knew it wouldn't.) Instead, they started saying that they can't attract obstetricians to the area because the pay is so low. So if paying obstetricians more than other doctors is the answer, that's what they should be doing. But for some silly reason, all new doctors get paid the same, regardless of discipline. Who wants to have to be available 24 hours a day for the same pay as a dermatologist working 9 to 5?

Hopefully, someday I will be called Grandpa, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do not like Speaker Pelosi one bit, but this one she got right. Glad to see she went.

She certainly Lived Long and Prospered. She will be sorely missed.

Indigo, I don't know where you live, but I am an American and a 防災士 (disaster relief specialist) after taking a course here in Japan. I am working with our local government to help foreigners in case of disaster. They would not turn away someone just because they are foreign.

Thank god I'm atheist and can eat and drink whatever I want without worrying about some ancient books that have not been properly translated.

Being from Georgia, and living in Otani's hometown (Oshu, Iwate), I hope Atlanta can get him. That would be wonderful.

I was surprised at the number of masks on in America, and then realized it was California. A whole different kind of crazy.

The only real surprise is that the first sentence didn't read as follows:

The Saitama District Court has handed a 20-year prison sentence, suspended for five years.

For some reason courts often like to suspend sentences,

Wish it was someone other than communists. Sorry, but not sorry. I don't trust any communist. If the CPJ got into power, they would be just as corrupt as the CCP, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. I agree they talk a better talk, and I even agree with some of what they say. But I would never vote for a communist.

So many people wondering why it takes so long. You have to remember this is the Land of the Rising Bureaucracy. Everything has to be faxed and hankoed by everyone at all the relevant stopovers.

@N. Knight

You are correct. From Wikipedia:

The 2025 World Athletics Championships will be the twentieth edition of the World Athletics Championships, are scheduled to be held from Summer 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.

Joker.

Took a real close look at myself.

Bach said the high level of coordination between stakeholders in Japan was integral to successfully hosting the games.

Because there is no need to let the little peasants who have to pay for it have a say.

Want a free trip to California? Just get pregnant.

As a long-term resident of Iwate, I was absolutely devastated when I heard Tokyo was going to host the Olympics. I knew from the beginning that absolutely nothing would happen to help the Tohoku region, and I was right. The pandemic certainly didn't help things, either.