Honen said...

Honen at 04:55 PM JST - 29th August

Fun commentary. Thanks.

(I'm taking it in the spirit in which it was intended.)

Posted in It’s time to get rid of a few Olympic 'sports' at 04:55 PM JST - 29th August
Honen at 10:34 AM JST - 27th August

Anybody else remember Sapporo Superstar?

That was my favorite beer back when it was available--I believe it was 7% alcohol.

This Kirin announcement got me stoked until I saw that it was a third-category beer. Blech.

Posted in Kirin to launch new beer with higher alcoholic content at 10:34 AM JST - 27th August
Honen at 05:12 PM JST - 25th August

Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact. The movie was pretty dumb, but Morgan Freeman really did seem to make a good president.

Posted in Which movie president do you wish the real-life U.S. president could be like? at 05:12 PM JST - 25th August
Honen at 05:28 PM JST - 4th August

Beelzebub,

Not exactly. Remember that Panasonic beat Ricoh to the game with the LX1, which incidentally had the same pop-up flash. Besides, the Ricoh has a fixed focal-length lens; the LX3 has a zoom. I'll concede that the Ricoh (and the Sigma DP-1) are probably what inspired Panny to add…

Posted in New Lumix digital cameras at 05:28 PM JST - 4th August
Honen at 09:49 AM JST - 4th August

The LX3 is looking pretty good to me. Besides the fact that they didn't get out of hand with the megapixels, it looks as if the larger sensor and improved processing algorithms mean better noise performance than previous Pannies. (I'm not just quoting the market-speak here; I actually downloaded some…

Posted in New Lumix digital cameras at 09:49 AM JST - 4th August
Honen at 04:33 PM JST - 30th June

RedMeatKoolAid,

You conveniently neglect to mention that the murder rate was back down to 35.4 by 2005. Gun laws aside, most cities experienced a crime wave in the 90s that has since receded.

Posted in Supreme Court says U.S. Constitution gives Americans right to own guns at 04:33 PM JST - 30th June
Honen at 06:47 PM JST - 12th June

Next: Opposition parties pass no confidence resolution to counter confidence resolution passed by lower house to counter censure motion.

Posted in Lower house passes confidence resolution to counter Fukuda censure motion at 06:47 PM JST - 12th June
Honen at 11:56 AM JST - 12th June

Taka and lipscombe are onto it, I think. The theory I've come up with recently is that Japanese politeness generally radiates forward in a 30-degree or 45-degree cone. Come within the cone and you will be treated very kindly; fall outside of it and you don't exist. This is why…

Posted in How would you compare people's manners in public in Tokyo with other cities around the world? at 11:56 AM JST - 12th June
Honen at 06:17 PM JST - 11th June

I'm so used to hearing superfluous vowels at the end of foreign loan words in Japanese that I thought the people on the news were saying "speed" instead of "Speedo". "LZR racer" also sounds suspiciously close to "leather racer", which would be a pretty amusing swimsuit, I imagine.

Posted in Japanese swimmers get green light to use Speedo LZR Racer at 06:17 PM JST - 11th June
Honen at 10:34 AM JST - 2nd May

Another thing: The "schoolmarm Japanese" extends all the way to how Japanese is tested. Anyone who thinks that translation should be a piece of cake after passing 1-kyuu really ought to read this book. For starters, real-world Japanese sentences are typically three times longer than any sentence in the 1-kyuu…

Posted in Read Real Japanese Essays at 10:34 AM JST - 2nd May