Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

MagnusGarstin's past comments

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MagnusGarstinNov. 17, 2009 - 02:41PM JST

so when do they start beating a confession out of him?

They won't. He's too high profile and, if he appears in court or on TV with even one tiny bruise, there'll be all hell to pay with the J-cops being criticised all over again - this time for police brutality.

Posted in: Ichihashi's lawyers say he doesn't want any contact with his parents
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MagnusGarstinNov. 17, 2009 - 02:30PM JST

Well said! "thedeath"

Posted in: Obama's bow to emperor causes outrage in Washington
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MagnusGarstinNov. 17, 2009 - 02:17PM JST

He looks a bit like Michael Jackson in that photo.

Posted in: Ichihashi transferred
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MagnusGarstinNov. 17, 2009 - 01:31PM JST

eigonosensei (the "no sensei" part is right at least) said:

So, believing everyone in the World is born equal is bad?

Which country are you talking about exactly?

Can't be America where 10% of the population owns 71% of the nation's wealth, the top 1% controls 38% and the bottom 40% owns less than 1%.

Posted in: Obama's bow to emperor causes outrage in Washington
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MagnusGarstinNov. 17, 2009 - 08:27AM JST

He was simply being polite for goodness sake - or is that so very out of fashion in the States nowadays?

I'm pretty sure he'd also bow if he met the Queen of England - it's just protocol.

Posted in: Obama's bow to emperor causes outrage in Washington
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MagnusGarstinNov. 16, 2009 - 12:49PM JST

On a more personal note, I am always bemused by the fact that, although being a fairly-respectable, besuited, middle-aged English businessman, I can nearly always expect the myriad Japanese passengers on any train in which I travel to categorically avoid the empty seat next to me - no matter how painfully crowded the train may be.

However, despite my constantly being treated like a plague-carrying social pariah by my Japanese peers, it is invariably only I who, time after time, gets up and offers my seat to their elderly, disabled or heavily-pregnant citizens.

Indeed, whenever a 99 year old Nihonjin gentleman who can barely stand stumbles onto my carriage, I always appear to be the only passenger who does not instantly fall into an obviously fake coma (some of these people should get an Oscar!) or who suddenly finds their book/mobile/PSP/iPod so totally engrossing that they cannot even bring themselves to raise their eyes and risk acknowledging the old chap and his alarming state of infirmity (especially if they happen to be occupying one of the -ha ha - "courtesy" seats).

Do you think that it is my uncivilized, uncouth and barbaric gaijin concept of politeness which sometimes causes Japanese commuters to avoid sitting near me?

Perhaps they feel that, if an extremely elderly couple board the train together, anyone sitting next to me will be humiliated and forced to give up their own seat to the husband if I have the scandalously inappropriate and alien manners to get up for the wife?

I can assure them that this is definitely NOT the case - I fully appreciate that perusing the latest issue of "Big-Breasted Manga Maids in Bondage" is obviously far more pressing than giving up a seat to someone who desperately needs one!

Posted in: Is chivalry dead on Tokyo trains?
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MagnusGarstinNov. 16, 2009 - 12:07PM JST

As others have pointed out, chivalry on Tokyo trains isn't dead - it has never existed.

I own a fascinating book called "Japan, Aspects and Destinies" written by an English gentleman named W. Petrie Watson which is 105 years old - having been published in 1904.

Among the many wonderful observations made by Watson about a Meiji-Period Japan in mid-transition from feudal society to western facade is the following:

“Enter a second-class car on a Japanese railway after night has fallen and you find the Japanese race unmasked. From a race of pleasant, polite, depreciating folk they are changed to unmitigated boors.”

Amazing how nothing really changes, eh?

Posted in: Is chivalry dead on Tokyo trains?
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MagnusGarstinNov. 11, 2009 - 02:37AM JST

Lindsey - please rest in peace.

Posted in: ICHIHASHI ARRESTED BY POLICE IN OSAKA
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MagnusGarstinNov. 07, 2009 - 02:12AM JST

An officer noticed a foul smell

Probably just the sergeant dropping his guts in the koban and, too ashamed to admit that he'd cut the cheese, he blamed it on some guy dropping off his undrinkable green tea.

Posted in: Man wanted for putting poison bottle outside police box
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MagnusGarstinJul. 02, 2009 - 01:24PM JST

oh come on there are a lot of other wackos who believe that too. it's not just those two

Bravo, spoken like a (presumably) true republican.

I would rather believe such "wackos" than the truly incredible vegetable that is George W. Bush.

And surely it's far better for the American people to accept the conspiracy theories of said "wackos" than to have to admit that they actually voted such a pathetic cretin into office?

Posted in: Obama scoffs at Ahmadinejad's demand for apology
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MagnusGarstinJul. 01, 2009 - 07:21PM JST

America doesn't rig its votes

Yeah right - tell that to Al Gore or Michael Moore.

Posted in: Obama scoffs at Ahmadinejad's demand for apology
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MagnusGarstinJul. 01, 2009 - 07:13PM JST

Well, this is based on the 1967 spoof horror movie "Dance of the Vampires" - written by, and starring alleged kiddie-fiddler Roman Polanski along with his wife Sharon Tate (shortly before she was butchered, whilst pregnant, by Charles Manson and his psycho "family").

So - it should have everything your average Japanese sadist or sociopath would ever want from a musical, eh?

BTW: The wiki page describing this musical's broadway run says:

Dance of the Vampires is one of the biggest financial flops in Broadway history, losing roughly $12 million, easily eclipsing the infamous musical Carrie

Hardly a glowing recommendation to bother going and seeing it sung in Japanese.

Posted in: Chihiro Otsuka and Rina Chinen to star in 'Dance of the Vampires'
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MagnusGarstinJul. 01, 2009 - 01:33AM JST

I think nasty anti-US rants would be a sad fact of life even if all US forces left

And I wonder why that is - anything to do with American arrogance in general?

(I was going to write "American culture" but then that would be an oxymoron)

Posted in: North Korea threatens to shoot down Japanese spy planes
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MagnusGarstinJun. 30, 2009 - 01:08PM JST

Lindsay Ann Hawker didn't throw any bicycles as far as I'm aware - but she still ended up tortured, murdered and buried in a bath full of sand. Japan's safer than the US or UK I agree, but it's certainly no Shangri-La.

Posted in: Japanese urged to take pride in their safe society
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MagnusGarstinJun. 30, 2009 - 01:34AM JST

Damn those illegal Asian immigrants! They'll do anything to get into Japan - even float themselves over in construction kit form! (Don't laugh - there's probably a Japanese government department being set up to investigate this possibility even as I type.)

Posted in: Body parts found floating in Tokyo Bay
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MagnusGarstinJun. 29, 2009 - 12:11AM JST

Hamiltontruther asked:

your lawyer friend wouldn't happen to be a member of the japanese communist party now would he/she?

Nope - your grandfather wouldn't happen to be Senator Joseph McCarthy would he?

(Any time anyone makes an anti-American comment, let's blame it on those pesky commies, eh? Sure makes it a lot easier than facing up to the fact that many Japanese and Europeans just don't like the dear old US of A and trust it about as much as they'd trust George W. Bush to pass a first grade spelling test).

Posted in: North Korea threatens to shoot down Japanese spy planes
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MagnusGarstinJun. 28, 2009 - 07:09PM JST

A Japanese attorney I know claims that the US is actually funding North Korea to act up so that Japan, who is growing increasingly independent of it's long-term American masters, will revert to type and start pleading "Please keep your essential armed forces on our islands Uncle Sam - you're the only country who can save us from the evil Kim Jong Il!!!" Fact or fiction?

Posted in: North Korea threatens to shoot down Japanese spy planes
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MagnusGarstinJun. 16, 2009 - 10:46AM JST

"Gang-rape incident a by-product of Kyoto's *lenient academic culture"?* Utter rot - it's nothing whatsoever to do with a lenient academic culture - it's their society as a whole. Go into the adult section of any DVD rental store or look at the openly accessable shelves of any BookOff and you'll see countless examples of the seemingly national obsession with gang-rape, train molestation and incest. In a culture where most expressions of extreme emotion are taboo, they seem to find some sick release in deviant fantasies and behavior. No wonder these jocks thought gang-rape was OK - it's as natural to them as "Playboy" was to my culture and generation.

Posted in: Gang-rape incident a by-product of Kyoto's lenient academic culture
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MagnusGarstinMay. 21, 2009 - 01:32PM JST

Hi Ivan, most of the foul characters I've been unfortunate enough to witness plumbing the depths of their nasal cavities on a train have at least had the decency to eat it after rolling it around for a while. In this way, I suppose that they are actively stopping the spread of germs by bravely ingesting their own grey and khaki "flubber-lumps". I offered one a tissue once but he got most offended as I had obviously negated his supreme goodwill gesture toward world hygiene. Stupid me.

Posted in: 1st new-flu case in Tokyo confirmed; infections number 263 in Japan
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MagnusGarstinMay. 20, 2009 - 11:21PM JST

r all the critics just jealous??? hmm yes I think so.

Mmmmm - jealous of something so far down the evolutionary scale that he probably counts as "The Missing Link's Missing Link" leering at a so-so young Japanese woman? Nah - don't really think so.

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