Two quick things to add...


Congratulations to Brian and Setsuko after the birth of baby number two at 4am last night. Maisie Lillian Smith has entered the world hale and hearty by all accounts, good luck to all concerned.

Here’s a weird one that could, if I had any more examples, be filed under molly-codling-Japanese-state-that-refuses-to-allow-you-responsibility-for
-your-own-life (assuming I had a big enough tab on the file. If you have to have an operation in Japan, especially if you are a Japanese national, you need to get the signatures of three people for it to go ahead. So say you are in hospital for appendicitis, you sign the board, your spouse signs the board and then you need to get a relative as the third signatory. Does that seem weird to you? Seems mighty strange to me, I mean, what if your family has all gone rocker-off and joined a cult that says no to modern medical procedures? Be a bit fucked, I reckon...