NCIS Reruns comments

It wasn't just Asashoryu: at least two other Mongolians, yokozuna Harumafuji and sekiwake Ichinojo, also had serious drinking problems. Given the walking wounded status of the current upper-ranked rikishi, I think Hoshoryu has great potential to rise to the top -- if he can avoid injury and stay sober.

Trump might want to relocate to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Russia while he still can.

Don't forget Paraguay.

Being a veteran magazine editor, Hanada must certainly be aware that there is scant public discussion about priority seating on trains and buses. So he deserves applause for bringing it up. It's interesting that he mentions the fact that foreign diplomats ride the Tokyo subways and chose to comment on them via Twitter. Kudos to the Georgian ambassador, Yukan Fuji, Hanada and Kuchikomi for bringing this topic to our attention!

I complained to Makdo HQ that obviously underaged students were smoking in on the premises of my local Makdo. (Japan was one of the world's first countries to outlaw public smoking by minors, having done so back in the Meiji Period.) The branch took immediate action, posting signs and patrolling the outdoor patio area, but I wonder why store management disregarded it until I made a formal complaint in writing to the company headquarters.

That's an excellent point @timeon. some of those apprentice sumoists are only 14 or 15 years old -- although in this country I suppose many have the experience of bathing with female siblings.

There is a miasma of misfortune around the Titanic's resting place, and to go there merely out of curiosity (and because one can afford it) may be tempting fate.

There used to be such a place in Kawasaki -

nukkuheddo@What do you mean "used to"? Horinouchi-cho is still going strong, although some of the ladies who sit in the windows are getting a bit long in the tooth. Just for the record, I went there are a news bureau's request to photograph samples of its Islamic architecture. :)

Japan is in the process of legalizing gambling casinos. It stands to reason that some compulsive gamblers will lose their shirts (along with their assets), but at least they won't be breaking the law. If Japan were to legalize prostitution and collect taxes from such service providers, surely this would contribute, albeit to a small degree, to reducing the government's deficit. Would that be such a bad thing?

If you go to the Ameya Yokocho (Ame-Yoko) street that runs along the JR tracks between Ueno and Okachimachi you can find tiny shops offering authentic Chinese light meals and snacks, like doujiang (hot soya milk) with youtiao (deep-fried crullers) that I haven't seen in Yokohama. And the prices are incredibly cheap. Actually the area around Ueno is full of Chinese restaurants. Likewise Nishi Kawaguchi, across the Arakawa River from Akabane on the Keijin Tohoku Line. Most of the eateries there -- it's a big ethnic community -- are in Northeast China style, offering local dishes like grilled strips of mutton on skewers. The portions are enormous. Clientele is probably 75% Chinese.

Just one example:

Japan Widow Loses Religious Rights Case 

BY KARL SCHOENBERGER 

JUNE 2, 1988 12 AM PT 

TOKYO —  In a major setback for advocates of stronger separation of religion and state in Japan, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday against a Christian woman who sued the government for violating her rights by enshrining her husband in a Shinto ceremony after he died on military duty.

The high court overturned two lower-court rulings that the “personal religious rights” of the widow, Yasuko Nakaya, 54, had been violated by Self-Defense Forces officials who helped in the enshrinement over her objections.

Full article here: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-02-mn-5840-story.html

Shinto is the largest religion in Japan, practiced by nearly 80% of the population.

I have seen figures to the effect that the total number of believers of all religions in Japan, as claimed by the religions themselves (including Shinto) adds up to slightly more than double the population, i.e., there's a considerable discrepancy between membership claimed by the respective denominations and the actual number.

Take Shinto, which essentially claims that all Japanese are automatically Shinto by birthright. But there was a lawsuit some years ago in which relatives of Japanese christians who had died while serving in the military in WW2 took the Yasukuni Shrine to court to demand that their consecration there be invalidated. (I don't recall what the court ruled; maybe the suit is ongoing.)

If I visit a Shinto shrine and toss a coin in the collection box, does that make me Shinto too? Anyway it's wise to take the claimed numbers with a grain of salt.

Over the years, I have been energetically proselytized by adherents of so-called new religions. In all cases (perhaps half a dozen) they were female. Without exception their efforts were for naught. I've become better at screening out such people, but feel the need to remain vigilant. I know of a few foreign males who wound up marrying such women but none that I know of ever converted.

I've read articles to the effect that even those covered by insurance will be charged higher fees if they don't have or use their My Number cards. If it's just a nominal penalty, like ¥300, I'll gladly pay it just to avoid having to go to the government office, by appointment only, to receive a card that I don't even want.

Teutonic bureaucracy wins again.

Flies spread disease. Keep yours zipped.

Magazine coverage of late seems to be constantly leaning toward managing health and personal finances in one's waning years. Nothing wrong with that, but I worry what magazines will write about, and who will read them, after the current generation passes on.

This is from Japan's Constitution:

*Article 20.** Freedom of religion is guaranteed to all. No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State, nor exercise any political authority.*

No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious act, celebration, rite or practice.

The State and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity.

Now would someone please tell me why the Komeito Party founded by Soka Gakkai is even allowed to exist, let alone function as the coalation partner in the Japanese government?

All I can say is, a movie about a man who cleans toilets -- with no explosions, car chase scenes or shootouts -- doesn't stand a chance at the US box office.

@piskian I lived at Noborito and Musashi Kosugi, two stations on the JR Nambu line in Kawasaki, in the early 1970s and can assure you that "gritty" was a perfect description of the poor air quality in those days. Tokyo was not that much better, but depending on distance from the factories there was a discernible difference. If you were not here 50 years ago to see for yourself, you're not in a position to call the writer Tokyo-centric.

The three Japanese words that come to mind re Narita airport: 遠い。高い。不便。（Toi, takai, fuben -- far away, expensive, inconvenient.)

In my book, the best movie about the Holocaust is "Escape from Sobibor," a 1987 made for TV movie starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer, based on the true story of the only successful uprising by death camp inmates against their guards in 1943.

The robbers all being minors, I assume their names will never appear in media reports. All that work, but no infamy to show for it.

Osaka's okonomiyaki is okay, and I even like natto and ika no shiokara, but this nightmarish dish is unpalatable.

Smartphones are a plague on humanity. I would be the last person on the planet to own one.

Non-electric scooters and motorbikes from China, Vietnam and India have been doing quite well in overseas markets, and have earned a good reputation for their toughness and reliability. In addition to running costs, safety, reliability, etc., selection of passenger car brands, however, tend to reflect their buyers desire for prestige, i.e., how they wish to be perceived by others. Korean manufacturers have worked very hard to make their cars more appealing, and have been doing very well. A doctor friend of mine in the US picked a KIA over a Subaru recently, and price differential was only one of a number of factors. So I will go out on a limb and predict that if Chinese makers can successfully emulate the Korean business model, it won't take them too long before they carve out a respectable share of the US and other foreign markets.

sorry, that should have been

One can probably conclude that "reepu" and "gokan" are only warranted when neither the perpetrator nor the victim are Japanese.

"Quasi-forcible indecent assault," -- 準強制わいせつ in Japanese -- is an awkward legal term that one is unlikely to see in the subtitles of US TV programs like Law & Order S.U.V.

Japanese does have a perfectly straightforward word for "rape" -- 強姦 (goukan) -- but in the vernacular media it finds far less use than the English reepu.

Recently NHK broadcast a documentary about the mistreatment meted out to German civilians by allied nations' soldiers and civilians at the end of WW2, and goukan was used repeatedly. But in NHK's reporting of domestic news the term is rarely used. One can probably conclude that "reepu" and "gokan" are only warranted when neither the perpetrator nor the victim are non-Japanese. This is yet another example of how separate terms are applied by the media here for what is essentially the same thing.

Maybe by 2070 I'll be able to board the Tokyo Sky Tree elevator without a 45 minute wait to buy a ticket.

Take him to Shinjuku 2-chome for dinner and drinks.

So? You start your phone's video recording, and put it in your shirt pocket facing the practice field. Simple.

Yeah, but if you get caught, your kid will be the one who gets punished (or kicked off the team.