Um, duh, girls are just smarter than boys.

There are games where they give you a "Game Over" if you shoot an unarmed civilian.

Japan didn't lift its ban on importing American rice, it lifted its ban on importing any foreign rice. They didn't specifically target American rice, they just didn't allow rice imports because they wanted to protect rice farmers by keeping the price of rice artificially high.

@Slatz_Grobnik: tu furcifer est!

@potches: I live in Japan. It's a wonder I'd even recognize Spiderman or Superman.

I'm not familiar with that particular comic book, but it REALLY looks like something creepy is going on there.

Nara!

@VicViper: I would assume that they're including all in-game music in the definition of "sound designers." And it is just an average salary.

I'm sorry, but I have to object to your referring to this as a "Yomiuri piece."

@The Forgetful Brain: Allow me to clarify: it's one thing to like Star Trek an watch Star Trek, but it's another thing entirely to have posters up in your room. I think that's what's the turn off for Japanese women. You have to be more than a casual fan to have posters.

@The Forgetful Brain: To translate into American cultural terminology: replace "anime posters" with "Star Trek posters." There you go.

Siblings in Japan are just closer than they are in America. By which I mean, they don't particularly hate each other and are usually on good speaking terms well into adulthood.

I've been called worse things than that on mixi.

@Nihilexistentialist: No, things like "yappari ne" or "oretachi" would not come out of a machine-based translation. Also, even though there are a few grammatical errors in there, it's a lot better than any machine translation I've ever seen.

@RedThree: I'm not sure what you mean by emo in this context, but I can see how somebody without a very good attention span would consider it boring. Try reading a book once a while, though.

Am I the only person who's actually seen The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford?

The Japanese schoolgirl may appear cute and docile on the outside, but you must be extremely careful when you encounter them—especially if they're traveling in packs. If you should happen, even by accident, to make eye contact with one of the pack leaders, you'll be ripped to shreds in minutes.

None of those "schoolgirls" is under the age of 20.

@Lee7Sauce: That's Seoul. I've been there before. I don't remember the name of the place. Japanese high schools often have class trips to Korea.

I'm sorry, but I feel the need to ask: was the Army offering to buy these at retail price? I mean, if the Army wanted to buy at a reduced, bulk rate, then I could see why they would turn that down.