NCIS Reruns comments

A savvy and experienced Japanese friend once told me, "Never give reasons for quitting beyond 'personal reasons.' If you start complaining about why you want to leave, they'll gang up on you and try to talk you out of it."

There's a simple and straightforward template to accomplish this. Isshinjo no tsugo ni yotte, gatsu (month) nichi (day) wo motte taishoku sasete itadakimasu. (For personal reasons I am hereby resigning effective (day) (month),)

I don't partake in social networks, which I find moronic to the extreme. I don't even critique books I've read from Amazon. Emails to friends are as far as I'm willing to go.

News out on Haaretz Israel deliberately slaughtered its own people to avoid them becoming hostages of the Palestinians! 

The IDF killed 5 Palestinian journalists last night while on their sleep.

These are both misinformation until you can provide links.

Right now Lebanon is ruled by an all-male "Party of God," equipped with 150,000 missiles, which contributes less than nothing to the country's economy or security.

When the next full-scale mideast war breaks out, petroleum prices will skyrocket. That's why Israel is believed to be waiting until after the US presidential elections in November.

Hezbollah at least targeting MILITARY installations with PRECISE attacks.

Now, compare that to Israel's war in Gaza.

Not true. It has been firing anti-tank missiles and other ordinance at Israel civilian towns and cities in the north from the get-go, forcing Israel to evacuate its citizens. (Granted, at least they have a place to evacuate, unlike Gazans.)

By this time next year, 700 gingko trees in Aoyama will have been felled, as Koike's supporters redevelop the area with new high rises.

A high percentage of the caregivers at such facilities are females above age 50, who gravitate to such jobs due to their own difficult economic circumstances. Based on the population curve, there will be fewer and fewer of such women in the years ahead. Who's going to do the work then?

 In any case, I am not sure this article gets to the bottom of the story.

Probably Japanese who read it will be able to tie the loose ends together. The words "scary person" and "yakuza" are pretty telling if you ask me.

After several Olympus film and digital models I decided that switching multiple lenses had become a burden, weight-wise and went with the lightweight Canon G-series, which as the article notes competes with the Fujifilm X100 series. Since 2022 I've been enjoying a Fujifilm model with four lenses, including two zoom lenses, plus a 16mm wide angle and tiny 27mm pancake model, and am again reminded how much fun digital photography can be. The color renditions are gorgeous: blue skies, natural reds and bright yellows. Since digital technology is constantly improving, six or seven years is about the longest you can expect to use any model, but fortunately the lenses are upward compatible. I'm very impressed with smartphone cameras too, but walking around Tokyo with a Japanese camera around my neck I sense I'm being accorded preferential treatment as a tourist. (It's almost like wearing a disguise.)

"Tsukiji" literally means reclaimed land. The district doesn't have a long history because the areas as far as the palace moat in Hibiya were under Tokyo Bay. So it's difficult to dwell on the area's non-history. (Edo's original fish market was at Nihombashi and didn't move to Tsukiji until the 1930s.

That said, the district is very flat, less than one meter above sea level and almost certainly susceptible to floods caused by storm surges or tsunami. I very much hope that the planners and designers will environmental concerns into account.

Not to worry, the Chinese justice system will work swift and he will off to the gallows very soon.

No gallows. Executions in China are typically done by a gunshot to the head.

There have been a number of incidents like this recently in China. Some have involved foreigners, including the stabbings of four American academics in Changchun, Jilin Province. I hope it's not a new trend.

It's nice to see this kind of human interest story, and especially the way weekly magazines put their own unique twist on it. Knowing the way the law works here, I don't think Inagaki will be imprisoned for a "victimless crime," as it seems to be a first offense.

The road conditions and climate in many parts of China can be a bit more demanding than Japan, and from what I've seen, vehicle construction there is quite robust. So I'll keep an open mind until I've read the reviews.

Netanyahu has destroyed Gaza and it will take decades to rebuild. 

When they do rebuild, it would be nice to see them give priority to aboveground infrastructure instead of 500km of tunnels.

In spring 1997 "Sakakibara Seito" (the killer's alias) rocked the nation for two months, after leaving an 11-year-old boy's severed head beside a middle school gate in Kobe's Suma Ward. I remember the shock and astonishment when the perp turned out to be a 14-year-old boy. I hope whoever's killing these animals gets help before he or she graduates to human victims.

No action taken! Well done authorities, you are waiting for more such incidents to be reported before you think about what to do years later.

The national or local governments first tend to issue a warning, called 指導 (shido), "instruction," and if the object of this instruction persists in violating the ordinance or law, it risks getting slapped with something stronger, such as 営業停止処分 (an order to suspend its business for a fixed period of time). One would be well advised to heed a shido.

Q. "Do you support Netanyahu's war on Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank?

Congratulations! You get 50 thumbs down by serving up what is known as a "loaded question."

https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3272/en

Hotel Business Law

Article 5

A hotelier must not deny a person lodging except in a case falling under one of the following items:

(i)it is evident that the person seeking lodging has an infectious disease;

(ii)it appears likely that the person seeking lodging would gamble or engage in other unlawful activities, or would take part in activities injurious to public morals;

(iii)a hotelier is not in a position to accommodate the person in its lodging facilities, or there are other grounds that the prefecture prescribes by ordinance.

Leila@What sort of morals allow Hamas to use the civilian population of Gaza as human shields? Its leader, Sinwar, has been quoted on record as saying he's indifferent to Palestinian casualties. After all, the end justifies the means, and the means in his case is that Israel, by responding to a homicidal attack, should be marked as a war criminal.

BTW, 20% of Israel's population are Arabs. Most don't serve in the defense forces, but some do. Others perform other kinds of national service. How would the hotel deal with them? Having to nit-pick between Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze Israelis presents a real challenge to the BDS crowd.

Would it be ok to discriminate against a South African in the apartheid era ?

Not according to Japan's hotel law. Which you benefit from too, by the way.

sakurasuki@you are praising a hotel for breaking Japanese law, which bans that kind of discrimation. Also, it's not the hotel that's "showing its stand," but only its young Brazilian manager. Who will probably find himself out of a job in the very near future.

Wag@I would say no, except for the recent flaps involving Kei Komuro, who kept failing his NY bar examination, leading the mags to fret that his ex-royal bride might need to take a job to support the family -- Manhattan rents being as high as they are.

At least the magazines aren't spreading wild rumors about their medical conditions.

Most don't even know the difference between winter and spring borscht,

Or summer borscht, which is served cold, in a glass, with a dollop of sour cream.

Russian food is really not that good, I know it’s subjective, but overall…naw…

Bass@, you might think otherwise after a meal at Rogovsky in Ginza. It's one of my favorite restaurants in Tokyo, both in terms of cuisine and ambiance.

A previous poster asserted that Himeji Castle is a replica. This is wrong. It's one of a very few original castles still standing in Japan, the others being -- if memory serves me right -- Matsumoto, Inuyama, Hikone and Kumamoto. The others were torn down in the early 17th century on the orders of the Tokugawa clan, in order to exert control and "pacify" the country by discouraging revolts by the local daimyo. Nagoya Castle was not demolished and lasted until it was destroyed by US bombing raids in 1945.

At many places in China it's the reverse. Six years ago when I visited the Summer Palace in Shenyang (formerly Mukden), I showed my passport and was admitted free as I'm over 60.

Yemen has banks? I always thought you needed a functioning government and treasury to have banks. Makes me wonder who there has any money to deposit.

In the battle, a number of Japanese soldiers also staged suicide attacks on U.S. forces.

Suicide literally means killing oneself. I know what the writer is trying to say here, but the type of attack --- called gyokusai by the Japanese military ---should not be described as a "suicide attack." It is generally rendered as "to die an honorable death (rather than surrender).' Americans also referred to it as a 'banzai charge.'