Because, Japan.

[Murph]

 

It has been many, many years since I lived in Japan but I recall my brother and other kids collecting different erasers, and they all had a unique smell to them. Is that still done? This was in the mid 1970's. Also I recall the dried squid, and the seaweed flavored crackers we would get from the store just outside of the fence.

Buying erasers of the smell they like, yeah, that's going on. I don't think its done much as a collecting endeavor though. Maybe a little more with the girls for nice pretty feeling smells. Boys tend to go collecting trading cards like Pokemon, Yugioh, duel masters, and so on.

 

When I was there, the card thing had not yet hit. My brother was young at the time. Kamen Rider was the hot show for us to watch at the time, plus Sumo. We loved Sumo.

[JasonJ]

 

 

 

When I was there, the card thing had not yet hit. My brother was young at the time. Kamen Rider was the hot show for us to watch at the time, plus Sumo. We loved Sumo.

 

 

 

Kamen Rider is still doing well.

 

Sumo is funny to see. The wife is 100% uninterested in it. These days, non-Japanese do well in Sumo, there's been a couple of Mongolian champions and one from Georgia. There's been some scandal with some Sumo trainer or something, I didn't follow it very closely, but it was around the summer and autumn, and that sumo story was on the TV news so much, way more air time than deserved to be frank. There was another sumo related thing about a woman getting into the ring but because its supposed to be traditional, no women supposed to be allowed in the ring. And then some politician got into it for some bit, probably trying to catch some political points in that little spat. All a bunch of conjured up silly drama possibly. But after getting passed all that, I watch it once in a while, boxing is a little more interesting to watch though. Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Tenshin Nasukawa was um something to say the least

[Murph]

Tokyo back in the 70's was a great place to be a kid, especially riding the trains, and building models. $3.50 a kit (1,000 yen), and I could afford a kit, paint, etc on my allowance.

[Adam Peter]

But voter turnout was much less than the previous governor election of 63% turnout, just at 52% for this unbinding referendum.

I love how you downplay a successful simple majority wins election in the name of Democracy. Percentages, yes, but not heads:

 

 

The prefectural government said the number of “no” votes stood at 434,273 or 72.2 percent of the total voters, and surpassed 396,632, the figure Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki garnered in last September’s gubernatorial election when he campaigned on a platform of blocking the relocation plan.

 

396,632 vs. 385,121 on the TN post you have linked, late voters were against him - effect of exit poll data published?

[JasonJ]

 

But voter turnout was much less than the previous governor election of 63% turnout, just at 52% for this unbinding referendum.

 

I love how you downplay a successful simple majority wins election in the name of Democracy. Percentages, yes, but not heads:

 

 

The prefectural government said the number of no votes stood at 434,273 or 72.2 percent of the total voters, and surpassed 396,632, the figure Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki garnered in last Septembers gubernatorial election when he campaigned on a platform of blocking the relocation plan.

 

396,632 vs. 385,121 on the TN post you have linked, late voters were against him - effect of exit poll data published?

On the first part, the anti-base campaign got a lot of votes, enough to file a complaint. But it is still legally nonbinding.

 

If one wanted to get a sense of the mood in totality towards the base:

434,273 against base

114,933 support base

52,682 neither

605,394 didn't participate

 

So I really don't find anti-base sentiment to be all that high, contrary to how headlines make it sound. But they got enough to file a complaint.

 

 

For the head count part, I was waiting for 100% to counted up but it was getting late in the night, so I posted as it was at 97% since it was clear who won by then. I'll be sure to wait until the next day or whenever it is 100% counted up before posting next time from now on.

Edited February 25, 2019 by JasonJ

[Nobu]

The basing situation is extremely personal in various ways for Governor Denny Tamaki, who was raised with what I suspect is hatred from his Okinawan mother toward his American father considering she destroyed nearly every trace of his memory when he was a boy.

 

This will not end well, I suspect.

[toysoldier]

Literally daddy issues. Ok that's an honest motivation as politics go nowadays.

[Nobu]

If his motivation is such, the downside is that he is going to be a problem for Tokyo and Abe. The upside is that the singleminded determination behind it is worthy of respect as a Japanese.

[Nobu]

It is now being reported that Governor Denny Tamaki is calling for 3-Party talks between Tokyo, Washington, and Okinawa on the subject of the Henoko airbase relocation project outside of the framework of bilateral state-to-state talks between Japan and the United States.

 

The mandate he is using for such talks is the vote last week that unfortunately showed 72 percent of of Okinawans oppose the plan for the Marine air base being built on a landfill in coastal Henoko.

 

The singleminded determination of this Tamaki must not be underestimated.

[JasonJ]

He tries putting a lot of emphasis on democracy, that the referendum has to be respected because its democracy, that Japan should take the leading role in the world as a democratic nation and follow through on the referendum, democracy democracy. He's a tricky one.

[JasonJ]

September 22, 2018 Kiev, Ukraine, Art Plant Platform. festival of modern pop culture COMIC CON Ukraine fans of animation, cinema, games and literature! .The girl in the costume of an animated character.

https://www.dreamstime.com/festival-modern-pop-culture-comic-con-ukraine-september-kiev-ukraine-september-kiev-ukraine-art-plant-platform-festival-image127069032

 

Thought I recognized her.

[Roman Alymov]

[Murph]

Cosplay has taken over the world.

[JasonJ]

There was a cosplay event in Osaka out in the streets just last week.

 

JSDF got itself a corner at the event.

[bojan]

Cosplay has taken over the world.

Basically a combo of the ren fair and 1:1 modeling hobby, and if you do original character (which most people unfortunately don't, making just carbon copies) there are no vitriolic "it is not historical" moments

And you don't have to base characters on anime, but again majority of people do, through video games are giving them a run for a money.

Edited March 18, 2019 by bojan

[DB]

Seeing a big push on fortnite along those lines, though of course anything on an epic scale attracts certain types. Skyrim, for example. Women seem to love rabbit fur or leather bikinis.

[MiloMorai]

Actually Guam.

​

https://youtu.be/kSuzQA4CZb4

 

[Murph]

There was a cosplay event in Osaka out in the streets just last week.

 

JSDF got itself a corner at the event.

Ok, the pink gun is cute, my daughter wants one.

[Murph]

Actually Guam.

​

https://youtu.be/kSuzQA4CZb4

 

I had to send that to my daughter.

[JasonJ]

[Murph]

Jason, I pass on all these to my daughter and she loves them.

[JasonJ]

 

 

Jason, I pass on all these to my daughter and she loves them.

Now I need to try and post something that I'm sure she will not like :)

[Panzermann]

Japanese governement went out and counted their hikikomori:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/03/29/national/613000-japan-aged-40-64-recluses-says-first-government-survey-hikikomori/

About 613,000 people aged 40 to 64 are believed to fall into the category of recluses, who hide themselves away in their homes without working, the government’s first survey on the age group showed Friday.

The estimated number of recluses, known as hikikomori, in that age group is higher than those age 15 to 39. There are an estimated 541,000 recluses that fall into the younger age bracket, a Cabinet Office survey in 2015 showed.
(...)

more than a million

[Nobu]

The fear is that it could be more, hidden away in both darkness and shame.

[Corinthian]

That's the brain after ingesting Japanese-speaking meth.