Jay Que comments

I have been to, and have said prayers at, Yasukuni, several times over the years. My Dad was in the U.S. Army, WWII, thankfully remained stateside.

Time to move okaasan おかあさん to that special room in the attic.

Kamakura is one of my favorite places in Japan, beyond my time living a while in beautiful Kyoto. With the help of a loved one, we conducted a 49 day memorial ceremony for my beloved deceased fiance there in September 2010. https://youtu.be/rabCs2YL9LQ

anytime i read about crime (back here in NYC, a former JP temp transplant) I look for two things: time & location.

here, its: 6:30am & Roppongi

often its substituted with Saitama & anytime.

I cast my absentee ballot from Kyoto for DJT and remain glad I did. Pleased with the shutdown of non essential Federal employees, it should be permanent. Have a great day.

My condolences to Officer Seino’s family and loved ones... surely anyone entering a koban with a knife and dummy gun have more on their minds than the ruse of “returning found cash”... the seargent did the right thing and probably saved his own life. Surely there will be corroborating evidence from video. The perpetrator was on a one way mission to do harm, a deranged act. What a terrible thing for all. All life has value but...

To avoid being overly sententious, "I respectfully disagree with you."

Someone will find her and give her the Love she needs... I hope and pray.

You can no longer be surprised by these things. this is how the island of japan was formed and this will be its state - constant flux - pretty much always. I remember looking at the rock formations on the very top of the mountain where Gifu Castle is located and was amazed that the striations in the rock were jutting upwards in an almost crazy angle, when normally such linear furrows would appear to be flat, horizontal and level, one upon another year after year. Instead, at the top of this mountain I saw that crazy angle within the rock formations, telling me the entire mountain was pushed up from perhaps the sea, eons ago, and surely those fault shifts are on going. We are mere tiny fruit flies in terms of tectonic shifts and earthquakes. Except in Japan, the fault shifts are in hyper active mode. And it will continue to be so, well past our own times. We must learn to live with it. My love affair with Japan continues despite its shakiness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striation_(geology)

I have learned that what people fear the most, is the unknown. But take a trip to Nagano to the main temple, and there you can walk deep down, under the main altar area into and through a dark corridor that twists and turns until there is absolutely no light at all and you are supposed to just keep walking ahead into the completely pitch black abyss. Some people (like me) cheat a little and use their cellphone to shed a little light, but that misses the whole point of the short journey into that dark world. When you eventually find your way out, and start to detect light again, and manage to walk back up and out, if you take the time to find out what its all about, and ask a monk or priest there, they will tell you the lesson, which is this: place your trust in Buddha. You'll make it through. Surely people of other faiths can insert their own version of a deity or higher spiritual power, that can guide you even in the darkest moments. Maybe there will be help, even for people who like a frightened child, may cheat even a tiny bit. Trust but verify? I don't know. Same thing with radiation in rice, in the yellow dust from China, cesium in the seaweed and milk. Yes, it may seem really frightening. But, so what. We all will walk down that corridor. "Be not afraid."

Well, today would have been my Mom's 93rd birthday. And in speaking moments ago by phone, Yoko-chan tells me a lot of people who's birthday is (also) today (05/22) went to Sky Tree's opening day to co-celebrate. So. On one hand I mark an ending and yet today there is a new beginning. This is the way of the world. Now every year I can celebrate the new life of a great new structure in one of my most favorite cities in the whole world. Congratulations and enjoy! I can't wait to visit the place myself when its not so crowded.

Its a very serious wake up call that crosses all borders. I realize its a hard subject to look at; an averted gaze is preferred by many who have not been touched by this tragedy. I have had to face its consequences and survive. Ain't easy, let me tell you. Whatever we can do to avert such losses is a direct person responsibility for every one of us, not just "the Government".

As women, will they be allowed to drive and have a bank account, as they could have in progressive Pakistan?

Politically correct asses.

Seems a deceptive title to this article. Obama's no moderate. Sycophantic acolytes seeking to give Obama the keys to the family car have paved the way for a more and more rude command-oriented economy that has made me ashamed to be a US cistizen. Tin-eared to our free enterprise system, this so called moderate has never worked hard in the the real world, never run a business that employed people. He knows nothing about the economy and his key advisor Valerie Jarrett plays the quiet Yoda whispering in his ear and keeps pushing us further left and over the cliff. The borrowed wasted stimulus money was not a free market funding of jobs, theres been no natural and organic uptick in the economy based on free enterprise principles, it was yet another socialist fantasy and robin hood lame brained scheme. The longer Obama is POTUS President the longer I and many other Americans will suffer. He is a lingering danger and is not the trustworthy competent soul we mostly hoped and believed he could be. I hope for a change.

I need a pair for business purr-poses. Certainly a justifiable deduction.

This harsh scapegoating of Tepco's suffering employees is truely reprehensible and those piling on should be ashamed but alas its so easy to hurl stones and epithets when instead it was an Earthquake that caused all this my friends, dont be so willfully self deceptive as you are causing more pain and harm and doing nothing to help. For shame!

whats's missing here is the fact that with over 30,000 suicides, the number of "survivors" - the people who loved the lost one - is many times more, and let me tell you, for those of us who are the survivors, its very very tough.

Since I wake up every morning with the name of my loved one on my lips and wish she had not taken her own life, and since it was Japan that I went to to find peace and consolation over my unending loss of the girl I loved, I can only say that even the smallest attempt to address this problem is a positive step, be it in the form of a poster, or a posting to this article on this web site. The memory of my loved one never leaves me, and the fact of suicide continues every new day. In honor of my Alexandra, more needs to be done to prevent the loss of another beautiful life.

Recovery is a marathon... http://youtu.be/V6JIZBPhono Even of on the sidelines, those in the race need our encouragement and support. Gambatte. http://prayforjapan.org My prayers are with the survivors and all those lost. Thank you to all who care.

No question in my mind, Japan is "Way Cool!"

(Just wish they would reopen that Maritime Museum in Odaiba...)

Look at the smooth style and design at Haneda airport, the cleanliness, the layout, the simplicity melded with beauty (no joke, I really like the place - clean seats, no ugly gum on the floors, super clean trains...); like the temples all around this great nation; Kinkaku-ji, the Japanese Alps, super advanced sciences (Super-K deep underground in Gifu), the high literacy, as near zero crime as one could expect, the sweet smiling old ladies, the gorgeous kimono clad 20-year olds, pretty stylish girls everywhere by the bucket-load! whoa.

If this is not cool, I never will know cool.

About suicide - those joking about it clearly have no clue nor personal experience with it. Coming to Japan has helped me overcome great sadness on many occasions. Right after 9-11 when I lost several close friends (including John William Perry, NYPD) at the WCT - was one of those times. Another was August 2010+ just after the suicide of my loved one, Alie Roberts; I had impulsively proposed to her early that year and, she said yes. She left us in July 2010. Her family is non-religious and so they never held a wake or funeral. Instead I fled to Japan with my one closest friend left, who is Japanese, and we held a private 2 person 49 day ceremony at Koto-kuin temple, then again with a short series of 3 prayer-chants along the shore, at Kamakura, on Sept 4th 2010. I have preserved memories from that day and that ceremony... at www.thebest-of.info/jq/alie.htm It is there to try to help others overcome similar loss. I found a group that gave me some peace, at www.samaritansnyc.org They have an affiliate here in Japan. People think they are alone and lose hope, and they are not alone. Japans society internalizes so much. I worry very much for the survivors of 3-11 who may be on the same path. People need to continue to reach out to them, to stem the tide. Suicide destroys not one life but hurts all their loved ones even when they think there are no loved ones left. There are. They just haven't found then yet.

of course it was too good to be true...

As I am based in NYC I donated 250 bucks right after 3/11 to the japan society earthquake relief fund as I was so upset...

and yet to throw away money so foreigners can come here? not while so many people are suffering with economic hardship, no way!

I arrived here to Japan last week and paid the full airfare out of my own pocket and it was not at all cheap, plus $275 extra for heavy weight (ripoff) to the airline... I would have felt like an idiot taking a free flight, in such circumstances. I am glad someone with a sense of reality put a stop to that give away. Now, Japan just needs to cut its handouts to the UN after being a patsy for so long and getting nothing in return. Japan is the 2nd largest donor to the UN and for what? Operation Tomodachi was a great American response that I can be proud of, but lets all do our part now to be true allies and friends to Japan.

Come here by all means! You can do a lot and still not go broke even if you have to eat noddles from a street vendor or beef bowls from Yoshinoya instead of fois gras hamburgers topped with caviar at Wendys in Omotosando. .

I love Japan but we can't be freeloaders on Japans natural generosity.

http://www.thebest-of.info/burns/robertburnsmourn.htm

Man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands mourn.

I agree. RESPECT! and Honor. God Bless U. JQ

He's always supported our troops. Comments otherwise are bitter Bush-haters. Get over it!

While I applaud Mr. Roman for his entrepreneurial effort to fill a niche, I am just wondering "how come" he apparently didn't have to apply for an OTI overseas transportation intermediary license? Seems that anyone giving "expert advise to exporters" and handles any cargo moving via sea, apparently needs to get such a license or risk being shut down by zealous regulators. Simply re-mailing packages via USPS or UPS may not be regulated but if they offer anything to be shipped via sea, they run the risk of being shut down until they get a special license. (I tried posting a more expansive comment but was unable to do so.)

How absurd and heartless to say, "legalize suicide". Perhaps you propose a fine be imposed? Have it government regulated? No. If anything, Government action should be to reach out to the weak to remind them they are loved. By someone. Perhaps not by those who say, "well just make it legal". Wrong signal. Its a mistake. Life is not just some inconvenience. To those who have lost a loved one to suicide, me included, compassion is needed.

My God. How absolutely awful. This writer seems to blame the United States for suicides in Japan? How trivializing and wrongheaded and... what else to say about this? I have had to recently deal with the suicide death of one of my closest loved-ones, a girl whom I fell in love with, only 28 years old, beautiful, smart, delightful yet deeply affected by a sadness that seemed to permeate her life. Her name was Alie and she died - took her own life - mid July this year. To deal with the grief - there was no wake there was no funeral, she was just cremated... I visited my beloved Japan from the USA, and with my one other closest friend in the world, a Japanese lady who is my only dearest friend left, we held a two person 49 day ceremony for Alie along the seaside of Kamakura, facing Mt Fuji which was visible from the shoreline on that early evening, after visiting the Daibutsu. We chanted 3 times, said prayers for her soul to go to heaven. Her Mom and Dad, back in the USA, were and still are so grief strcken and heart broken. She was their only child. From that time, I have thought, how can I do something to address this problem which is so prevalent in Japan and strikes at so many yound people in the US as well? It is something that, over time, I will dedicate myself to. Those without hope, for that terrible moment, need to know that there are people out there that do and will love them. Death is not the answer and it brings terrible sadness to those who actually love them. But, to read this article, blaming "too much katakana??" Well,its just too much. Its so dishonorable to say such a thing, casting linguistic and pychological blame at "colonial America", so to the author I say, shame on you, grow up, and do something to help alleviate the hopelessness of potential suicide victims - those who die and those who love them. Blame America and American words? Jeez. Words can't describe my reaction to that, not hiragana, not katakana, not kanji, nor English. Please, do something positive. Not what you have done.

"Q: what do the NYPD offficers guardng the UN General Assembly next week have to be careful of not stepping in?" ......... If you answered "A: steaming pile of chavez " you are correct.