timeon comments

On paper none, and I do have foreign colleagues who don't speak any Japanese. But if you plan for a long-term career in Japan, speaking at least some basic Japanese will help immensely. And as Laguna said, not only the language by itself, but all the cultural aspects and customs that come with it.

What the hell has that to do with anything?

Osaka's skills are still there, but she needs to shake off that rust, too many unforced errors, which especially on clay is a recipe for disaster. No way she can have any chance against Iga unless she improves her focus and reduces errors.

Mochizuki lost, but he put up a hell of a fight against a top 10 player, if he stays healthy I think he can easily go top 50. And I like his aggressive style, going often to the net and putting pressure on his opponents, despite not being that physically imposing, and not a big serve.

And welcome back Nishikori!

JRO, my Japanese friends told me to keep it within +20 km/h. That's within 120 on the highway, and usually within 70 on normal roads. Usually the cops will let it slide, unless there is some special check point. And remember that if you speed over +20, both the fine and the points deducted will be substantially higher. In 25 years, I got just one speed ticket, late at night on the rainbow bridge (on the descending part, where the limit is 40), I overtook a truck and the police (fukumen) were right behind me. I was doing about 70, but they were nice and used the minimum recorded speed (58, that's +18), I paid 20,000 jpy and lost 2 points.

Tomlives, if there is no sign, then it is 100 km/h in the expressway. But in many places is limited to 80. Recently, a few segments raised it to 120 km/h.

I had the same experience with Mr. Kipling. And not only the points, they kept me there 2 hours, checking ID, residence card, etc. After that, combini only for me.

All the times cops stopped me in Japan, they were very polite, and some of them quite friendly. A few times they let me go with a warning, but mostly they did fine me, it seems they have a norma to fill.

Haneda has a quite nice observation deck, by the way.

Personally, I prefer Narita for international travel. Yes, it is farther, but the Skyliner is fast and comfortable, and the airport is larger and less crowded, making a far better experience.

Age and injuries, unfortunately. Especially grinders like Murray and Nadal, they took their bodies to the extreme. It may be time for ATP to recalibrate court and balls speed and make the game a bit faster to shorten the rallies, and also adjust the schedule. They tried to insert more rest days for masters, but the response from players was mostly negative.

The Tokyo metropolitan police are currently investigating six suspects in their 20s and 30s, most of them without connections to one another, who are believed to have been hired on social media to kill, transport and burn the bodies of an older couple at a riverbank of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture．

This is false, it's been on the news almost every morning. Most of the guys knew each other, but they did not have a strong connection, nor were members of a gang. And for sure there were not hired on social media.

Anybody knows how to watch the match this weekend? It seems wowow does not show it.

MilesTeg, excellent post. Unfortunately, such rational approach to complex problems is becoming scarce the era of 2 minutes-learn-all on the net, followed by strong opinions in black or white, expressed as loudly as possible

in other words, top players struggle to adapt to clay conditions: slow courts, slow balls, strong winds and sun. Even if many of them (especially the Europeans) grew up on clay.

I just watched a part of Dimitrov-Fritz battle, it was pure entertainment.

My bet is on Zverev, after the horrible accident on clay which derailed his career (together with his personal problems), he came back very strong and he deserves some titles

Great story! Recently Spring Valley popped up everywhere, a bit more expensive but very nice, I love especially the silk ale one. I didn't know the story behind the name

Let's hope it is just a bad day. Djokovic had these issues with poor coordination before, you can finds lots of videos with him playing weird, "drunk" tennis.

it may be a problem with translation, but hugging and stroking her hair for 15 minutes sounds weird (and he claims just touching the hair part). Unless he restrained her somehow, 15 minutes is a very long time to touch hair

My worst nightmare. Japanese news said they finally found the snake upon a thorough inspection, hiding under the seats.

The obvious question is how did it slither inside the train, during cleaning and maintenance, or a lost pet?

Welcome to the idiosyncrasies of the Japanese law, where the concept of self defense is almost nonexistent

There are mainly two reasons:

1) In US, most of Europe, even China, PhD students receive a salary. In Japan, only a low percent of the graduate students receive some form of financial support, while they also have to pay tuition.

2) Japanese companies don't give incentives for PhD degrees, so also taking 1) into consideration, it is more economically sound to search for a with a bachelor or masters' degree. Not to talk about humanities, where there are few jobs for a PhD.

Things are (slowly) changing though, the number of fellowships and RA opportunities for PhD students is increasing, and Japanese companies have also started rewarding more a PhD degree.

I went skiing last week. Today I played tennis in shorts and T-shirt. Weird

Dimitrov played out of this world. I'm happy for him, he plays wonderful attacking tennis and is a very nice guy, and he struggled a lot in his career despite his huge potential. If he continues like this, this year he may return to top 5 (top 10 is almost guaranteed).

This was Dimitrov's first victory over a top-five player since he beat then-No. 3 Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the 2019 U.S. Open.

You may want to double check that statement. Last year he defeated Alcaraz in Shanghai, and Medvedev in Paris.

The famous Irish 7 dishes course: 6 pints and a potato

yes, because people marry for looks only, right?

in my opinion, a professional athlete has a better chance of support, mutual understanding, and mutual values with another (former) athlete, as compared with a glamorous model/announcer/talento/influencer or such, who mostly operates on looks.

Fair game, Japan should compensate them according to the damage estimated by IAEA. But then China should compensate for the economic damage caused by unleashing the covid pandemic

Murray came back for more than one year, but age and the surgery affects him, especially footwork, speed and endurance, some of his biggest weapons. I never liked his tennis style (the ultimate pusher), but I admired his grit and fighting spirit, and foul mouth during play.

Nishikori tried to come back last year, played a few tournaments, then got injured again. He is training and hopes to play this season.

I admire these two, at this age and with all their money and achievements, they could easily retire and continue coaching, commentary, endorsements, etc. living a comfortable life. Instead, they go through grueling rehabilitation and training, and come back to play more tournaments.

big congratulations to Hibino, she id my favorite female Japanese player, always positive, always smiling

It is not clear to me how Apple "prevents access to information about rivals". I am an Apple music subscriber, but I just typed Spotify in the browser of my iPhone, and it popped up with a big icon "Install".

Jonathan, then you must wither go during week days, or on the large slopes of Tohoku etc. Not Niigata or Nagano in weekend, long lines for the lift.

Didou, I don't know about living there, but about 15 years ago I took my parents for a trip in winter, because I heard it is foreigner friendly. And I was very surprised, small ramen places had ENglish menu, all the souvernir shops had some English translations, it was more bilingual than Tokyo. Again, that was 15 years ago. But I do realize that living and travel are two different things.

And speaking of ski instructors, the Japanese ones I met were all quite old, obviously having families. Indeed, what are they doing outside of the ski season, which in Kanto is quite short?

I bought a present, a fountain pen from Pilot for 10,000 jpy in December. Now the same pen, from the same vendor, is 13,500 jpy...

Nice way to spend the season, and Nozawa is a nice resort that has been foreigner-friendly for a long time, even before the tourist boom. Recently, I've noticed that most of the ski schools at various resorts have classes in English and Chinese, and I saw many people signing up. Ski in Japan is a great experience, not only the slopes, but the onsen, nabe, hot sake, etc.

Redemption, yes, I've seen quite a number of foreigners working at the lifts, at the info counters, etc.

I think in Japan "extramarital affair" means having a lover, excluding prostitution and other forms of paid services. I do wonder where papa katsu is included though, it is a bit on the borderline.

In other words, mental fatigue is directly correlated with how boring is the task, and we all know from getting crazy with boring tasks at the office vs something we are interested in and excited to do. Ask the kids about the excitement of doing their kanji homework...