There seems to be a gaping hole in their budget already.

Tell everyone you know nothing about Japan without saying you know nothing about Japan.

Mate, I've been living here for 11 years and this is the only place on the planet that looks like an average person can get ahead at all. My partner and I have bought our very comfortably sized flat for around 200k USD, our interest rate is about 0.8% and that's because there is no way to invest in property here. Every year we live here the price depreciates, and so we didn't buy an investment property, we bought a home.

Assuming a full time minimum wage in my city, you could easily afford to live with rents as low as $400USD per month for a place I consider a full home (one's own bathroom/kitchen, etc).

It's wild you're modded funny when you're entirely correct. I've been in Osaka for coming up 11 years and in that time have wanted to use a car maybe a half dozen times?

It is the most convenient place I could imagine, and outside of the major motorways during big holidays, never seen a traffic jam. 10 minute cycle to work for me, my partner walks 6 minutes to the train station and takes that to their work.

Rather lovely.

We all know it's because 'The Man' refused to entertain the idea of the Laser Kiwi flag. We all know it would have won cleanly and clearly but those in power shot it down! The fools! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Heya, I've lived in Japan for a while now so I want to be clear that Japan is only seeing decent numbers because tests are only generally available if you've already been sick for 3-5 days (fever over 37.5c and coughing). Recently the PM made some testing free for all, but I went ot the one place near me in down town Osaka yesterday and the queue was horribly long and not distanced at all though fair they were all masked.

As to the other point, I believe most adults in Japan are double shot vaccinated (we aren't allowed boosters until maybe Feb, but currently maybe Apr for my age range (30s)), that coupled with basically everyone has worn masks non-stop is probably a good reason why we've been doing ok. Problem is no one trusts any of the numbers because testing is so abhorrently low.

While not my city, it's the go to, Tokyo testing only 13,723 people on the 12th with 2,198 positives. A roughly 16% positive rate. It's also bad data because it's only symptomatic folk getting tested.

Sorry this has been a bit rambly but gods I am so frustrated and want to get tested... I own/operate a bar/cafe, were it my choice I'd be testing me and my staff weekly.

This has always baffled me, surely the homeopathy types would be up for a vaccine as it's basically reinforcing their beliefs, and because they believe potency is inversely related to the amount of active ingredient, then vaccines are super weak homeopathic medicines, no?

A major pain in the arse though is now the Japanese government (unsurprisingly) has disregarded that finding. In my shop if I don't have plastic barriers up everywhere, a CO2 sensor and conform to a list 43 points long, I don't get to reopen.

I'm in an insanely fortunate position where the government is supporting my shop though, so there is that.

I mean... Kinda?

Take a look at what we've all had to put up with during the Covid-19 crisis. We are not trying to convince the people who're already convinced and want to take action, one has to shape the argument to get the remaining selfish assholes on board if that means appealing to their incomprehensibly selfish side, then so be it?

I can say for sure that in Japan the majority of folk are wearing masks. On my way to work I can count on one hand how many people aren't, and they're usually old folk who should probably wearing them the most, or smokers (that annoys me the most).

From about March Japanese people started taking this seriously and after the initial mask shortage subsided masks have been plentiful, and almost ubiquitously used. This is hopefully to be reflected when our excess death numbers have been studied in the future, as we're not testing anywhere near enough to have a real picture, or to honestly trust that miniscule number of deaths due to covid-19 figures we're getting.

Talk about formative, it's literally why I exist!

Ah Hitchhiker's Guide, nice spin!

The issue is that there IS no environment

I hadn't read User Friendly in years and completely forgot about it. Goodbye work week.

The main issue with Kobe beef is that... well... it is all marketing. I live in Japan and I import meat from Australia, I know the industry well. The cultural difference between here and Australia in regards to agriculture is mind blowing. In Japan, tradition is king. If you do not do what your region/your family tells you, then the price of your cow will plummet, I've been to the cattle auctions here and they really are an interesting artifact.

As per the wiki article, the Tajima cow is the only cow considered for this meat, what it fails to mention is that the Tajima is just an Angus, and indeed an Angus that is brought up in conditions I do not agree with. They are brought up in a very small area, not allowed to exercise so as to get that delicious marbling. After visiting these farms I feel much better about how my cows are brought up in Australia, with one cow having an average of 2 acres as opposed to 20 square feet.

Anyway, rant aside Kobe beef just isn't all that good in comparison to the other meats available in Japan as they're all the same damned breed being brought up exactly the same, Japanese tradition just dictates that it's more expensive and 'better'.