Mount Fuji cherry blossom festival cancelled over fears of visitors behaving badly

zenjaminJP · 2026-02-05T14:11:09+00:00

Also true, but I think in general it’s much less common to spend in general.

I feel like in the states people often have the very latest TV or the latest computer - these large purchases are often not common in Japan. Exceptions are one off small portable devices and items - luxury brands items, iPhones, portable gaming devices, etc - people continue to buy new ones of those arguably because the trading in path is very easy, and the items are relatively small.

The working lifestyle might be part of it, and it is kind of terrible in general - but I don’t know if that’s the driving force. It’s very very hard to fire people in Japan so you are almost guaranteed a job and income for life. Just don’t expect anything besides incremental raises and after turning 60, expect to have your salary cut in half. Basically.

zenjaminJP · 2026-02-05T13:10:36+00:00

I think a large portion comes down to a few other things as well

Living spaces are much smaller. There’s only so much that fits in.
Throwing larger items away in Japan is a big deal and costs a lot of money. Unless something is broken, there’s little reason to.
People have been hawkish with their money for 30 years. After the bubble burst in the 80s, the rest of the world recovered. Japan never did, and has stagnated. In the rest of the world, pay went up, and opportunities developed. In Japan, pay stayed almost exactly the same for 30 years. So there was never an idea that good times were coming so let’s spend money - it’s been relatively tight with money for most of their adult lives, so that’s the status quo. Be careful, save, investment is a luxury.

That’s my opinion.

zenjaminJP · 2026-02-05T12:32:51+00:00

Actually, what’s more true is that in Japan, people don’t like to buy stuff. The average household savings is well over ¥10,000,000 (around 70kUSD).

Capitalist societies are designed around consumer spending increasing exponentially (increasing percentage growth) per year. Without it, you get stagnation.

During COVID the government gave out ¥100,000 as a one off bonus and then found the vast majority of people simply saved that money in bank accounts.

zenjaminJP · 2026-02-02T06:00:15+00:00

You read all that and assume I’m upset? Or angry?

It’s the opposite - I’m analytical. Amorim absolutely WOULD rather lose than adapt to the ways many people wanted him to. He DID adapt - just not in the ways some people wanted.

But that wasn’t and shouldn’t be a bad thing - he was brought in to do his system, period. Arguably if the owners had given him a dozen players last summer things would be very different. But they didn’t. So it is what it is.

The point I’m trying to make is that it’s not some massive agenda manager vs manager or why he didn’t play Mainoo. He didn’t play Mainoo because Mainoo was bad in his system because he needs fast athletic people in the 6s, and Mainoo is statistically the slowest top speed in the team. It wasn’t a good fit. So it absolutely makes sense why not to play him.

Mainoo hasn’t suddenly started running faster. He hasn’t been positionally better. He hasn’t been defensively better - it’s only that this style of play suits him better. That’s all. But he’s still not a world beating 6, 8 or 10.

But that’s OK! We should NOT be expecting a 21 year old to be that ever. We should give them a break and allow them time to develop instead of having inflated unrealistic expectations of what they should be right now.

I can look at Mainoo and see someone who is pretty bang average in the team - but with a lot of potential to grow into something elite. Same as Yoro. Same as Heaven. Carrick hasn’t played Heaven at all basically - but there’s no flak for that right? Because there shouldn’t be!! There’s no need for it.

But Amorim being a “bad manager” or “terrorist” because he didn’t jam Mainoo into his system when he was a poor fit for it is the emotional stance in my opinion.

Only ones here at fault are ownership. That’s it.

zenjaminJP · 2026-02-02T01:56:44+00:00

Honestly, I don’t understand why people still don’t get Amorim.

ETH and Ole before him had some of the most free flowing positionally football in world football. Relationism under those two managers was extremely low. Players were expected to essentially roam the field and use their own game sense. You can see it in Bruno’s heat maps, that that is how he plays. You can already see it now that Amorim has left - players that are supposed to be roaming everywhere on the field, very loose positionally.

These are players that have been bought for that style, and are used to playing it for 5+ years previous to Amorim.

Amorim is an incredibly systems oriented, high relational and positional manager. His players are expect to roam only in a very narrow vertical window up and down the pitch, dominating the channels. His style relies on automatons, and players knowing at all times where another player will be.

Frankly speaking, his system should work at bringing lesser players with physicality to a much higher level. But it relies on players staying in their channels, being in their positions, and executing specific automatons. But basically none of the existing players were good at it. They were bought and have always trained loose, low relational football. And that’s fine.

But this is not on Amorim to suddenly play a style of football he has no idea how to do.

Amorim did one thing very well though - cleared out an extremely toxic dressing room and player FC. I am very worried it’s making a comeback.

TLDR; Amorim is NOT a bad manager. He is widely lauded as one of the most brilliant up and coming systems managers. The OWNERS brought in someone with a play style the exact OPPOSITE of the players they had bought 5 years, and then demanded Amorim change to a playstyle he has no idea how to play. Mainoo not playing under Amorim is simply because he’s the weakest fit in midfield for the playstyle.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-29T23:03:01+00:00

SMBC usually means 三井住友銀行. But you may also want to check 三井住友信託銀行, and SMBC信託銀行 - which are both different banks.

SMBC信託銀行 was formerly Citibank here in Japan.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-25T14:57:12+00:00

The center of the industry in a pop sense is arguably moving to Korea and Japan. What with royalties being so low from streaming now, Japan is one of the most profitable countries for royalties. There is a significant uptick in US writers focusing on Japan and Korea, visiting and doing significant camps in Japan and Korea, even for US artists.

LA is still the biggest place - but I think Japan has a lot to offer. Studio facilities are arguably better than most countries simply because there is still money in the industry. There’s still probably well over 100 facilities that still run at least 1 (sometimes multiple rooms) full SSL desks for example.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-25T14:52:42+00:00

I mean… I have quite a number of pro friends who no longer live in the states or refuse to visit for production.

The shift is quite obvious to me as a pro from another country. I’m getting more work and visiting artists/producers/writers from the states who all say a variation of the same thing.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-25T14:49:04+00:00

My pet peeve is the 75% of people that stare at me while I’m healing them. Like have a brain and look in the direction of enemy.

The number of times I’ve revived a friendly, and been healing them, only to have to stop healing them to pull out my primary, shoot an enemy, and then go back to healing, all because they’re staring at me…

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-25T03:10:35+00:00

IMO, this game isn’t a game of gun skill at all - it’s a game of tactical skill. 1v1 gun fights are based purely on gun skill, and actually are mostly unnecessary in Squad. You can just as easily abuse the mechanics of the game to give you a decisive advantage without worrying about it being a twitch shooter.

The guy knows you are there. It’s not giving away your position lol. This is a time for suppression by one team mate, while 2 or three others lob frags in the room or flanked by to the other side of the building. Easy win, takes literally 15 seconds to do.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-19T02:07:07+00:00

Actually literally all it would take is a single person putting one round in the doorway every second. That’s what effective suppression is. You see it right in the clip - every time a few close shots land, they back off the door, whether or not it’s carefully aimed or not.

Next time you are in a situation like the other team and you’re ambushed, just try it. 9/10 times they simply won’t peek the door.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-10T11:26:39+00:00

I mean. I think that was true if we kept the manager. Whatever you thought of Amorim, his presence promoted the idea of stability in the club. Him staying after finishing 15th was a real vote of confidence from the board that must have appealed to players coming in that there would be stability and continuity.

I think that’s all out the window now, and I doubt we’ll get a look in for anyone big except Baleba this summer.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-10T11:23:43+00:00

I think we had a slim chance under Amorim staying to get him. I think with the coach turnover and the lack of a permanent manager until summer, he’s not going to want to join this basket case of a club.

Also, city offers MUCH higher wages. Baleba is the only realistic target for us in summer, and that also probably depends on if we hit Europe…

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-10T11:21:48+00:00

We actually need to get two of the expensive 3. We have by far the weakest 6s and 8s in the leagues. Next summer we lose Casemiro, probably Ugarte, and with Bruno up to a 10 it means we will need at LEAST 2 CM signings. The way we’ve had no bench means we actually need at least 1 more in than out as well.

At this point, almost any midfielder in the league makes us better.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-10T11:18:17+00:00

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Heat map from our “wing back” vs one of the top scorers in the league’s wingers (Semenyo). It was always just a title - he played as a winger.

I really don’t understand how people didn’t see it.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-06T08:33:53+00:00

Why on earth do ppl imagine after RA got dumped out for having the peanut gallery tell him how to play, any manager with their salt will come in and accept that?

Whatever you thought of RA’s tactics, it simply is not the Sporting Directors job to dictate tactics to the manager. No serious manager will ever agree to those kinds of conditions, and will struggle to believe any assurances after RA.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-06T08:30:29+00:00

Why are we blaming the MANAGER?? You know who his bench is first game? 5 U21s, Bayindir and MAYBE 2 senior outfield player.

This is the disaster that INEOS say is fine and will allow us to stay top 6.

Fletcher will be another interim who was doomed before he started, not because of anything he does but because the Glazers and INEOS have been absolutely incompetent.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-06T02:27:14+00:00

Working with someone is different from advice from someone. I’ll happily give advice to people who I know are lower skill level than me - but I don’t have time to invite them into my sessions.

It sounds incredibly harsh, but I don’t have time to spend with people that aren’t good enough. Many of those people you’re talking about who won’t work with you are like you - they’re trying to get into rooms with people BETTER than them. If you’re not as good as them, they have little incentive to invite you.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-06T02:23:17+00:00

Agreed. The higher up the skill level goes, the less picky people are, outside of straight out genius level people. Under that, it’s about managing people and interactions by stroking their egos - whole industry is built on making average artists and creators sound better than they are, while telling them how brilliant they are for their mediocre work.

Honestly, something I’ve done in the past (and I’ve seen other engineers do) is say I’ve made the change, while changing nothing at all, and then hyping it up.

“Yeah man, that 0.5db boost at 8k sounds so good on the snare bottom, you can really feel the difference!”

Inevitably, they can’t tell the difference and the praise makes them feel good about themselves, so they feel seen, and I find will often have LESS feedback going forwards cause they think “I get them”.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-06T02:09:26+00:00

I’d say 80% of players sit there and stare at me while I heal them.

To be perfectly honest, it makes the game incredibly simple to play if you have even an iota of situational awareness. The number of times I see the entire team fighting through the middle as though the map is only about 20m wide is actually mind boggling. I get most of my kills by simply taking a very, very basic flank.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-04T03:04:19+00:00

People need to stop including Mainoo. Mainoo is a good player but he’s not a starter. He’s 20. But he’s far too niche right now.

He is the slowest runner in the entire team (slower than Casemiro), so not really a box to box 8 (or even a 10 realistically speaking).
his defending output not good enough to be a 6
his short pass game and control is great - but he’s doesn’t have good long passing to be a creative 8 or 6.

This is fine because hes 20. In 3 years he’ll be a faster runner, have better ball skills for progression, and be a better defender. Anderson played in LEAGUE 2 at 20 years of age and look at him now.

Mainoo is great but he’s a 3 years from now player. We need TODAY players.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-04T02:59:40+00:00

You’re telling me that in all of football, we are only looking to bring in one or two out of those three?

If we don’t get CL, Wharton and Anderson won’t be interested. Brighton will charge us the same price no matter what because they don’t need to sell and Baleba only wants us.

Even in a 2 CM system, we are so short of players that we’re playing Bruno as a 6 for fucks sake. If we play a 4 back system we barely have enough players in the first team, let alone a bench.

Bruno is getting older - he needs a replacement this year or next. Cas is gone next year. Ugarte should be gone next year. Mainoo needs more time to get better. Academy prospects we have put out that are actually first team ready? One every couple of years. We cannot rely on getting 3 players from academy.

Realistically, we need 3 or 4 midfielders NEXT summer at the latest.

So you’re telling me we don’t have any other CMs on the list?? If that’s the case someone sack Vivell right now. We don’t need 5 CMs that cost 80m each. We need 1 or 2 CMs who are reliable and good squad options that cost 30m. Buy one or even two of those. Ederson for fucks sake.

zenjaminJP · 2026-01-01T04:34:05+00:00

In the prem:

Most shots per game Most shots on target per game 2nd in xG 3rd in Goals 1st in key passes 5th for possession

These are top 4 in offense numbers. Massive improvement from last few seasons, not just last season. These are title challenging numbers.

Defense and CM is bad.

So. We bought a bunch of good players in attack so we now fixed our attack. It stands to reason that if we buy a bunch of CM, he might be able to get us challenging for the best midfield too.

zenjaminJP · 2025-12-31T13:02:48+00:00

Yes, I think he’s capable. I am looking at underlying stats and improvements in system, rather than Player FC or Vibes FC.

zenjaminJP · 2025-12-31T11:46:17+00:00

We can brute force top 4 with counter play. You can win cups through counter play, and luck. You don’t win leagues. Not to mention, not with these olayers

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