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The only BOOK OFF store I know that carries english books is in shirokanedai
Posted in: My favorite English bookstores in Tokyo
They made most of these up just for this article.
Posted in: From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
and people wonder why Japanese food is not popular around the world!
Posted in: Try some dessert oden
Why can't people just be themselves? Having to choose from such a limited set of lifestyles…
Posted in: From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
It is not true that being Asian in a small town in America is like being…
Posted in: Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
2
Himajin
Hee, hee, my theme for pics last summer was scarecrows and those 'kodomo tobidashi ni chui' signs. Each district has different scarecrow styles, I had only seen this type in one location in Hyogo-ken, in Mikusa. Rows and rows of barbershop practice heads on stakes. Too funny, looked like a battle had taken place.
They exist somewhere else! I think they're a riot. Most other places here will make a wood or wire frame and put old clothes on them.
Posted in: Discover 'Little Hawaii' just an hour from Tokyo
1
Himajin
Where? (you've got me curious now....)
I don't know about locals doing the food....what knowledge do the neighbors have about safe food prep at festivals? There has to be a better alternative.
Posted in: Police urge citizens to decline offers of help from yakuza at festivals
0
Himajin
Patrick, it was a typhoon when out over the ocean. They continue to call it by it's original name, but they say each time that it's been downgraded.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
0
Himajin
STILL pouring in Kita-ku, Kobe. I cleaned the house and baked bread yesterday, going to work on a video project today. It's awful out, I'm not budging!
I hope they find the people caught in last night's landslide.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
3
Himajin
I loved the oatmeal comic....I've long said that the more I prepare, the further away the typhoon veers!
I'm at the top of a mountain, opposite Suzurandai, it's windy here just because we're this high, I'd suppose. The cast iron chairs on the front porch were rolling around, I forgot to take them in, and the trellis supporting my climbing roses has fallen over.
Yesterday at 9:30 when I went to the dentist in Kato-shi, it was pouring up here, but no rain after passing through Yokawa. By the time I was done and was heading home, it was raining a lot in Kato, but not so much in Kobe.
Right now it's absolutely p*ssing down rain and the wind is making the rain spray up when it hits the roofs. Kind of typhoon-y...oh well it will all be over soon enough. I hope the areas below us, and Minatogawa, don't flood.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
0
Himajin
NHK says it's still moving into the Seto inland sea. How confusing.
I just got a message from DoCoMo that a new oame kouzui keihou has been issued for Hyogo Ken and the whole Hanshin area.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
0
Himajin
We're in the red boufu zone now, but the center isn't to the Seto Naikai yet.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
0
Himajin
It hasn't 'got here' yet....I can't believe how slow this one is. It's supposed to be directly over this area (Kinki) at 6 pm tonight, if it doesn't speed up. I'm in Kita-ku, it's been raining for about 10 hours now, sometimes coming down in sheets.
Posted in: 2 dead, 5 missing as typhoon slams into western Japan
1
Himajin
Since when is 800 millimeters 'a little rain'?
A people are missing, could it be some of our 'go out and enjoy it' posters? ;-P
The freakin' thing hasn't moved but a few kilometers since I went to bed at 3...it was supposed to pass over us at 3, then 6am, now they're saying 6pm tonight. Have my fingers crossed for no landslides.
Posted in: Japan braces for strong typhoon
5
Himajin
Tell that to all those people two years ago in Sayo in Hyogo ken who died , or those in Nishiwaki whose houses were underwater 5 years ago....in '91, Typhoon number 19 blew our fully loaded shed into a neighbors' yard...
Posted in: Japan braces for strong typhoon
1
Himajin
There is no one politician any better than the others. As soon as the dust settled and the waves receded, talk of "post-Kan" began. I was extremely angered at the media circus in the Diet day after day, politicians all arguing while people in Tohoku were (and are) suffering terribly. They're all vultures.
Posted in: Kan resigns; says he did all he could, given difficulties he faced
2
Himajin
Search for food pics on Flickr. You'll see how popular it is, and who's doing it.
Posted in: Why do so many Japanese women take photos of their food at restaurants and post it on Facebook or their blogs?
4
Himajin
Well we are talking about Gusto here, you may as well say that some roadside diner somewhere represents the state of American cuisine....
Posted in: 120 Gusto restaurants closed over dysentery outbreak
0
Himajin
I did, and more than one article said-
I don't think it has much to do with blood cancers.
Posted in: Ecstasy could treat cancer: researchers
0
Himajin
Ha,ha,ha!
Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble
0
Himajin
Good heavens...
Posted in: Was I a date, a friend or just a potential English teacher?
0
Himajin
Good! And that's not snark! My mother is quite weakened now, and being widowed not all that long ago, can be very emotional and react before she thinks. MIL has dementia and in the early stages people bilked her out of money and possessions. Some elderly can be quite flighty! If yours aren't count your blessings, and I mean that in all kindness.
Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble
0
Himajin
There's one in Osaka? I heard one would open up this September, didn't know it was already open. I like Burger King much better than McDonald's, have to make a trip to Osaka.
I do love the Chik-Fil-A cows, that's a brilliant ad campaign.
Posted in: Burger King retires mascot "The King"
0
Himajin
ambrosia, as most of these victims are at least in their 60s, I would tend to chalk it up to naivete rather than dishonesty. An older person with bad hearing, not out in the working world much, may very well fall for this type of scam.
Some of the scams are quite complicated, for one version of the traffic accident scam, where your loved one supposedly hit another car and injured a pregnant woman, one person plays a police officer, another the victim's husband, or a hospital employee. They play recordings of traffic sounds etc. I don't know about this woman, but sometimes when you hear how they did it, you think it's no wonder they got scammed, panic overtakes any kind of rational thought.
I got a call one day from an 'officer' in the Hyogo Prefectural Police Department telling me that my husband had just been in an accident, and he had hurt someone. It was 10:30 AM, so I knew it was impossible, I said 'Do you have the right person? My husband is already at work over an hour and a half'. I think he was hoping to get someone whose husband was in an eigyou department, and out in a car all day. He started to change his story , "No , the accident was at 8:30" so I said angrily, "And you're only informing me NOW??" He hung up. Afterwards I kicked myself, I should have played him along until he gave me the bank account number, I could have had it closed down. He was so bad at it though! When he first told me, and it took me a second to realize what time is was etc he said "You don't seem upset" and I thought "You faker!"
Posted in: Elderly woman transfers Y29 million to man posing as son in trouble
1
Himajin
Yes, probably the 'how many kanji can you read' p*ssing contests guys sometimes get into, bless their hearts! I don't think it continues for too long. After a while speaking Japanese just becomes the norm. You don't think about it anymore.
I haven't met many people who want to be friends just to learn English, luckily. It must be a pain if it keeps happening. In this case, from what is written in the article, it seems that it was one spontaneous email, not a request for tutoring. It would not have taken her 2 years to broach the subject if that was her main goal in the friendship.
Posted in: Was I a date, a friend or just a potential English teacher?