Why are those dust masks so commonly affiliated with Japan?

ezoe

The pollen allergy, that's the biggest reason. In 20 century, Japan decided to plant a lot of 杉 for then expensive wood material, now the situation changed and it's cheaper to import the wood rather than grow it and harvest in Japan. A lot of 杉s at that time was still left. The pollen of 杉 is spreading most of the Japanese region.

I don't have a pollen allergy so I can't describe how bad its symptom is from my experience, but one of my colleague ended up using gas mask, saying surgical mask is useless for him(He is a very weird man who try to achieve the best outcome no matter what)

Even if you have pollen allergies, you don't realize you have it until you are exposed a lot of pollen.

The second reason is we are taught from the childhood that when we catch a cold or prepare food wear surgical mask to prevent the spreading of pathogen you may have. So when we caught a cold, we wear one.

Some people using surgical mask to hide their faces, but that trend was arose fairly recently. recently in this context means less than 50 years. Now that we have surveillance camera everywhere, practical face recognition software and everyone has a camera which also comes with a feature to live stream to the world, I think that's the least we can do to protect the privacy.

ezoe

So, according to the Japanese news source, he leaved Japan by private jet, enter Lebanon with fake name.

Lebanon is his grandfather's nationality, so Ghosn has Lebanon nationality too.

Ghosn let Nissan purchased this private real estate(worth 6 billion JPY) in Lebanon, also, he let Nissan to donate the money to three university at Lebanon without following proper procedure in the company.

The news article quote the full-text of Ghosn's statement in Lebanon which is short but he claimed Japanese justice system is rigged.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20191231/k10012232821000.html

My thought is, Why didn't he go to the France or Brazil where he is also suspected and get the fair justice system?

ezoe

Yeah, the graphics were definitely great for 2018, it still is for 2019, and it probably still hard to defeat in 2020. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay was so boring.

ezoe

So, the foreigners finally noticed the yuzawa? I've noticed more than usual presence of foreigners in kagura this season. The snow is extremely bad in this season though.

ezoe

I bet that was the hardest part to build.

ezoe

I had no motivation to improve my ski skill from wedge turn and beyond. Why do I have to? I enjoy it as a casual leisure for less than 20 days per season. The wedge turn is fun enough for me. I'm not a very skilled person and that's okay.

Move to the snowboard, It's true I can side sliding most of the on-piste, but I find it quite boring. So I had a motivation to learn the proper turn. After taking lessons, I improved my skill to the point of carving turn.

Now I know the feeling of carving turn, I think I can do that in ski too. But, I really like the soft boots. Maybe I can use very short ski with non-release binding that support soft boots, But even the shortest ski still has the risk of injuries if the bindings does not have release mechanism.

I value the safety over the convenience, so I wear helmet and all the protectors available. I like the fact that snowboard wears are designed for the presence of protectors.

Some may think I am a boring snowborder but I'm fine with the status quo. I'm not a pro, not a gifted athlete, not young anymore.

ezoe

Still not much snow in Japan. Only a handful of Honshu ski areas were opened and they are not the typical ski areas. They are either located at very high altitude, or massive use of snowfactory.

The foreigner's favorite ski resorts located at Hokkaido are not the exceptions. They are barely opened. You can't expect the fresh powder.

This season is a nightmare.

ezoe

I agree, huge map with copy-pasted objects aren't that fun. I'm talking about Just Cause 3/4.

ezoe

Unless you're staying near ski area, the real costs of ski in Japan are train and hotel. If you're going to stay at Tokyo, I have some advice.

First, purchase Japan Rail Pass. This free pass allows you to unlimited access of JR train including Shinkansen. As a foreigner, you have a privilege to purchase it(I don't)

https://japanrailpass.net/en/

If you're staying at Tokyo, you can day trip Tokyo-Echigo Yuzawa in 80 minutes. There are handful of ski areas at Echigo Yuzawa. Since you have a JR free pass, the only cost remaining is a Lift ticket(about 5k JPY) and renting a coin locker(500-1k JPY).

ezoe

I have exactly same issue. My thought is, slowing down is bad for the knee.

I found out that if I don't bother to slow down with carving on easy on-piste course(less than 23 degree for my case), it doesn't stress my knee and muscle that much and I can do it all day. If this is the case, I have to improve my skill so I can carve even on these difficult high degree off-piste.

I tried various stance width, stance angles, and the knee braces, my thought was, although it does more or less affect the feeling and easiness of snowboarding, it doesn't completely prevent the knee pain.

I felt wide stance width is bad for muscle and the knee, but narrowing it doesn't completely solve the problem. For the stance angles, it doesn't matter unless you are using extremely wide duck stance.

I tried expensive knee braces, i felt it does somehow improve the endurance, but again, it doesn't solve the problem.

Some people recommend the painkiller. I don't recommend it. It just hide the pain. It is said the anti-inflammatory painkillers speed up the heal and in fact, I'm taking prescribed drugs for that. But I recommend you to ask the doctor for that.

Some people also recommend marijuana, probably for its painkiller effect. It's illegal in my country and really, I don't want to decrease my lung performance by smoking.

ezoe

No. You won't notice the difference. If you can't stand even that level of minor scratch, you can mount your board on the wall and stare it instead of shredding but we both know that's not the option.

ezoe

For that, we already have Atomic Bomb Dome. It costs expensive maintenance and reinforcement effort, reserve enough nearby land for safety zone to ensure even if it collapsed, it won't affect the nearby building. It's just a giant monument. No practical usage other than sight seeing and remind the current and future generation that the nuclear weapon is the inhumane weapon.

Since these buildings are for practical usage and not that famous for the monument, it's just better to scrap and rebuild. Given a enough money(it's awfully lot), we can disassemble and reassemble at different location but that's unrealistic.

ezoe

There are tree ways to express ellipsis in Japanaese

・・・ :3 'KATAKANA MIDDLE DOT' (U+30FB))

…: 'HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS' (U+2026)

⋯: 'MIDLINE HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS' (U+22EF)

Traditional book typesetting usually use 6 dots.

ezoe

It's ま。and in this case, it means nothing but a vague term for the quality or expression. Literally, it can be interpreted like some kind of time lapse effect but it doesn't mean something specific here.

ezoe

Literally, "for that reasons so".

ezoe

No. No. and No, don't use Japanese period symbol for the ellipsis.

ezoe

Bindings. You can't trust 20 years old plastic. What about the boots? You can't trust 20 years old boots too.

ezoe

Great performance... But if he call himself the artist, he should have practiced for the better calligraphy.

ezoe

This season is still horrible in Japan for the lack of snow. The ski areas that has been opened already are either located at very high altitude or using expensive snowfactory. I've heard even the Hokkaido's condition is worse than average.

ezoe

So when the Square Enix start selling their PC port of Dragon Quest XI in Japan? It's region-banned in Japan. As we call it おま国(short for おまえの国籍が気に入らない。 meaning, "I don't like your nationality.")

ezoe

This season is generally horrible in Japan. Many ski areas delayed their opening for the lack of snow.

ezoe

Yes. You can ski/snowboard there. But don't expect the quality service of usual ski resorts.

It's official name is Asahidake ski course. There is a 100 person ride ropeway. There is a very narrow one-vehicle-wide of on-piste course and nothing else. Everything else is natural off-piste. No safety rope. No patrol at all. You are on your own.

Also, No rental nearby, so you have to carry your own gears.

If you love powder and don't mind very difficult natural terrain, it would be a fantastic place.

If, on the other hand, you like rich hotels, bars, restaurants, friendly foreign language speaking staff, safe well-maintained on-pistes etc, go to other famous ski resorts.

ezoe

No. It sounds good though.

ezoe

That's interesting. My current board is a rather long for my height. The shop staff recommended it for I was heavier(83kg) at time I purchased the board.

I'll adjust width next time and see the difference.

ezoe

I will consider it.

ezoe