RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X0X2eF6yJpI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X0X2eF6yJpI

sigh...there went the nice low prices to Japan...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X0X2eF6yJpI

sigh...there went the nice low prices to Japan...

Most of the nice low prices were for during Chuseok, I think a lot of the flights being cancelled start a week after chuseok.
There are still other cheap airlines that go to and from Japan too :p

All South Korean airlines – both full-service and budget carriers – now have cut back their flights to Japan amid escalating trade tensions between the two neighboring countries after Air Seoul Inc., Korea’s fledgling low-cost carrier with hefty reliance on Japanese destinations, has decided to suspend and reduce its operations to Japan.

https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2019&no=627126

Following Korean carriers’ decision to roll back flights to Japan, each company has cut more than 180,000 seats monthly heading to Japan so far, which totals to about 2 million seats a year. Carriers rolling back flights to Japan plan to instead expand services to China and Southeast Asia to make up for their losses from rolling back their flights to Japan.

62.8 percent said they were participating in the anti-Japanese boycott
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190725000414
Only 12 percent said they have a favorable view of Japan
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/07/120_272185.html

Better do a piece on Fukushima to get people's minds back on Japan!

https://japantoday.com/category/national/s.-korea-calls-in-japanese-diplomat-over-plans-for-fukushima-water

All South Korean airlines – both full-service and budget carriers – now have cut back their flights to Japan amid escalating trade tensions between the two neighboring countries after Air Seoul Inc., Korea’s fledgling low-cost carrier with hefty reliance on Japanese destinations, has decided to suspend and reduce its operations to Japan.

https://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?year=2019&no=627126

Following Korean carriers’ decision to roll back flights to Japan, each company has cut more than 180,000 seats monthly heading to Japan so far, which totals to about 2 million seats a year. Carriers rolling back flights to Japan plan to instead expand services to China and Southeast Asia to make up for their losses from rolling back their flights to Japan.

A lot of those budget carriers went to some really neat but smaller destinations within Japan. You'll always be able to go to Tokyo or Osaka, but interesting locations like Kumamoto have been cut. This really sucks for those of us that really love Japan. They are upping their flights to China, but who wants to go to China in this political climate? You might get detained there. 

Just got back yesterday from a much-needed extended R&R break in Sri Lanka... Glad to see that, while it is quite warm here, the humidity seems at least manageable...

 Anyhow, with regard to the Japan travel theme, here's some grist for the mill...

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwK5rJTxLdE&feature=youtu.be

and another:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUX0pcUQOMs

  The bits on the Tennis courts, Baseball, and the Rowing venues were particularly disturbing...!

   There are actually quite a few articles/ videos on this subject if you look online (You Tube has some good ones...); they can't all be wrong!!

I was planning to head over for some RWC action, but will be cancelling next week; this video is a prime example of the lies, manipulation, complete lack of conscience, and the duplicity and amorality of Japan's government and corporate (esp. the Nuclear power industry...) sectors!

I need to get my last bit of ranting in before I go:

There are no stakes here, and there are no rules. And the rules that are established are just immediately broken and ignored.

My biggest problem though is that there's no purpose to anything here. No purpose that really matters anyways. I think the thing that makes me so disappointed is that I see so much more potential in Korea. Not to mention the luck of the draw with some of these schools. I'd gladly stay if things were only slightly different.

Prediction: More people visiting the Olympics will die of heat stroke OR transportation accidents OR "misadventure" than anything to do with Fukushima radiation.

Prediction: More people visiting the Olympics will die of heat stroke OR transportation accidents OR "misadventure" than anything to do with Fukushima radiation.

I agree.

I came back to Korea and am treated to a few banners in my small city with 'Don't go to Japan, Don't buy anything Japanese'.  So did some reading up and realised it was just another childish thing that the Koreans and Japanese have, but this time started by the Japanese.  It doesn't take much.

2018

Oct. 30 -- South Korea's Supreme Court orders a Japanese company, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., to compensate South Korean victims for forced labor and unpaid work during World War II.

Nov. 29 -- South Korea's top court orders a Japanese company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., to compensate South Korean wartime forced labor victims.

2019

Jan. 9 -- Japan requests that Seoul and Tokyo begin government talks over the wartime forced labor issue.

May 20 -- Japan requests formation of an arbitration panel involving a third-country to address the wartime forced labor issue.

June 19 -- South Korea proposes to Japan that companies from both countries create a joint fund to compensate the wartime forced labor victims. Japan turns down the offer.

Korea wanted more compensation money from Japan. But they already paid. Many times.

Can European countries say to Germany and Italy, "Hey, you owe us money because of World War 2."? And expect to get it? For the rest of eternity?

The government officials who called the shots back then are all dead. It's long ago in the past. Long before the Koreans boycotting now were alive.

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiVY5W2WEs8

To general surprise, South Korea announced late Thursday (Aug 22) that it would not renew a pact with Japan to share military intelligence, called the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).

Under the pact, originally signed in 2016, the two US allies directly share military secrets, particularly over North Korea's nuclear and missile capacity.

Seoul said it was no longer in its national interest to continue sharing confidential information with its neighbour during a sharp deterioration in ties. Tokyo said it would "strongly" protest the move and urged South Korea to reconsider.

Japan's Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya said the pact was vital for regional security, pointing in particular to the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea.

"During the series of North Korean missile launches, there was a thorough and careful exchange of information between both sides," Iwaya told reporters on Friday.

Scrapping the pact would only make bilateral defence cooperation harder, he said.

Without the agreement, both militaries may find it more difficult to track missile launches from the regime in Pyongyang, said Tobias Harris, an analyst at the Teneo consultancy.

Harris noted that Seoul's move came "just as North Korea has ramped up tests of short-range ballistic missiles."

So, you're just copy pasta-ing random 'news' articles? 
What for?  /end rant

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

   While it's true that Germany pays a livable pension for its veterans (unlike, say, the USA), Germany has also paid over 60 Billion dollars to its war crime victims. Not too many other countries have done anything even remotely similar.
For some context: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/10/world/germany-defends-pensions-for-ss-veterans.html

Also, while the video is a bit disturbing, I feel like that lady looks as though she might be a sandwich short of a picnic. 

There are some students who're begging to be skinned.

Don't state facts about Germany and their payments if you did not do your research properly!
They have been paying a monthly pension to any of their proud Belgian, German, Austrian and Polish Nazi SS-soldiers still alive for instance. 75 years x 1000 eurosx12= 900.000 per Nazi- granddad/grandma.

   While it's true that Germany pays a livable pension for its veterans (unlike, say, the USA), Germany has also paid over 60 Billion dollars to its war crime victims. Not too many other countries have done anything even remotely similar.
For some context: https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/10/world/germany-defends-pensions-for-ss-veterans.html

Also, while the video is a bit disturbing, I feel like that lady looks as though she might be a sandwich short of a picnic. 

Most of these soldiers were young conscripts.
 
I think Germany is the gold standard for national contrition.

Paying pensions doesn’t put any tarnish on that.

Among international marriages between Korean men and foreign women, brides from Vietnam accounted for 73 percent, and it took an average 3.9 days from the couple’s first meeting to the walk down the aisle.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190218000459

Marriage to someone you don't know? (And most likely can't communicate with.) That seems so strange.

Korean TV is utter sh*te.

I spent three lovely weeks back home in England and I couldn't get over how good the TV is there.  Is there anything like the BBC here?  Does that exist? 

As an example, I remember watching a TV program called "The Octopus in my House" about a professor of marine biology who lives at home with an octopus in his living room with a view to learning more about the animal and how it can react to humans.  It was stunning TV.  Beautifully shot, informative, funny, everything you want in a TV program.  It got me thinking that that sort of show doesn't exist here (does it?)

What do we have here?  Epilepsy inducing, eardrum bursting nonsense from what I've seen.  Incidentally I showed my brother a clip of Korean TV and he said something quite interesting.  He said Korean TV seems like what you would end up with if you asked a Westerner to come up with the most stereotypical, annoying and maybe racist depiction of what you think Asian TV is like.  It would be pretty close to reality!

Been here too long and very grouchy now I'm back after my summer holiday