Moving to Japan? Beware of the Culture Shock! Oh, and the Tentacles!

I have a friend whose son is moving to Japan. We've been having some correspondence and I really want to help my friend's son get acclimated and become successful in the Land of the Rising Sun (Gee, does that mean I have to immediately take him out every night getting so drunk we can barely walk home and have him start smoking two packs of cigarettes everyday within the first two days? No! That can wait at least a week or two!)

Seriously, I want to help any way I can so I thought I should bring up a nasty subject and that is about Culture Shock.

Here's what I wrote to my friend:

Culture shock can really screw people up. Years ago, I was the liasion between foreigners and the Japanese management for a big company in Tokyo. We had about 480 foreign staff. From that experience, I've seen people just totally and completely fall apart. Really.

It really hits people when they become ill with the flu or something. It happened to me!

I got the flu one time and was sick as a dog... All I wanted was to have for breakfast two eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice... That's not asking a lot, is it? Well, in Japan, it was... 

I got the two eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice, but it's not the same in Japan as it is in the United States. I know that this is difficult to understand, but trust me, there is no restaurant or person in this country that can make bacon and eggs like mom can... For one, mom isn't here in Japan and for two, even the bacon and the eggs, toast and juice are different.

Really. They are. You have a very hard time finding a restaurant in Japan (that's not inside a major hotel) that  makes bacon and eggs like you get in the states (even inside a major hotel, I think you have trouble...) In Japan, they don't know how to cook an egg over-easy or over-medium; In Japan, the toast is sliced massively thick (or too thin) and they often cut the crusts off (Sure, Wonder Bread sucks, but when you're sick and longing for home style food, it sounds "Wonder-ful" (Sorry for the pun!)); and the bacon? Nope. No way. There is no such thing as a slice of crispy bacon in all of Japan... I know. I checked...

Hell, the bacon is different so it's even hard to make bacon at your Japanese apartment that is like the bacon mom makes! 

And juice? You kiddin' me? My episode was in the late 1970s so it is much better now. Back in the late 1970s there was no such thing as what Americans call "juice" - meaning something like 100% fresh squeezed or even concentrate - back then "juice", in Japan, meant something like Fanta Orange Juice.

Really. All I WANTED WAS A SIMPLE GLASS OF JUICE AND THEY BROUGHT ME SOMETHING LIKE FANTA ORANGE! THAT'S NOT JUICE!  I wanted to scream! :-@ #$!!@| :-@ !!!!Z>?}! How hard could it be to get a simple glass of juice?

Well, in 1979 Japan, impossible!

"You're sick and want eggs and bacon just like mom made for breakfast? You poor baby... Well, we don't have that, but how about some nice tentacles, instead?"

That seemingly benign episode of the flu with no eggs and bacon like mom makes set me off on a deep Culture Shock experience too! 

When living in Japan if Culture Shock sets in - then if the person doesn't come out of it relatively quickly - I've seen them fall into serious clinical depression. If that happens, they are finished.... I've seen that happen more times than I can count...

One time, there was a guy who came here from Iowa (or was it Illinois?) and within 3 weeks, he was in serious depression and we had to send him back to the USA. Why? When he got here, he thought he was going to see a Japan that had Samurai and geisha running around (no joke) and so, when he arrived, and saw a big city and business people in suits, it freaked him out.

You can't make this stuff up. I remember seeing my face in his one morning when he was bursting at the seems and complaining about not being able to get a decent steak and eggs breakfast in Tokyo and insisting that I take him to a McDonald's (there were only a few in 1984) so that he could at least get some pancakes. he said he wanted a "Home cooked meal!" I wondered what kind of home he was from if McDonald's pancakes were his idea of "home-cooked"!

Your son won't be that bad, of course (I trust). But I HIGHLY recommend that he familiarize himself with Culture Shock, what it is and its symptoms, so he can expect it and know what's happening when it comes and be more able to deal with it. I knew about it so I think that helped me from not becoming more of a psychotic than I already am.

Heck, I have a friend whose younger brother came here and he lived with Japanese people all his life... He even had a Japanese mom! And he had seriously bad culture shock for at least three months.... And I know he was so incapacitated and depressed that he missed work for several weeks. I don't know what happened to him.

You son (and dear reader) will be better off if he understands that he will have Culture Shock like everyone else does.... In fact, if he understands it and expects it, it might bounce off him like rain on a duck!

And that was basically the letter. 

I hope my friend's son come to Japan and does well. I love this place and have never regretted moving here. 

If you decide to come to Japan to live please do yourself a favor and at least get a cursory understanding of Culture Shock and be ready for it when it comes. That way, you'll understand what is happening and it will just be another part of the experience.

For a humorous article on the same subject, may I recommend this? Five Things They Never Tell You About Living in Japan

Dinner is served!

Dedicated to my friends, Mark Davis and Shea Davis

Measles Vaccinations? A "Professional" Speaks Out!

"Adolf Hitler wasn't vaccinated against Measles, either!" - Mike Rogers

"See? I told you Ebola was mutating! It has now mutated into a measles epidemic on the nightly news!" - That's by me too!

This measles vaccination nonsense is absurd.

It's not a question of public health. This is a question of property rights; do you own your own body?

At my house, we do not give our child a flu shot every year: we gathered information and made a judgement on cost and effectiveness vs. risk performance. We got him flu shots before, but these last 4 or 5 years, we opted out.

Unfortunately, our kid came down with the flu this year (his second time in eleven years). 

The children of my best friend, Taro, also got the flu this year. The difference? We didn't get a flu shot for our son. My friend Taro had all his kids get the flu shot. Twice. They all did; and they had both flu immunizations; yet they still got the flu.

My son got the flu this year. He didn't get an immunization. My friend's kids all did. They all got the flu also... And my friend was out several hundred bucks for a flu vaccine that didn't work.

If we allow the government to force people to take immunizations, then no one can complain when the government deems that you are too fat and then they can decide ridiculous things like you are no longer allowed to buy large Cokes. Or that your medical condition is so bad (in their judgement) that you need to be put into an institution against your will. Or that your folks (you included) are too old and inept to take care of yourselves so you need to be put into an old folk's hospital or strapped to a bed 24/7. Or that your smoking or drinking habit is too dangerous for other people so you must stop... Or you need to wear seat belts...

There's no end to it, folks.

Most of you folks reading this are mostly probably too young to remember, but for those of us born in the 50s, there was no fear of the measles or the mumps or chicken pox.

Nope. It was something that we all got. No big deal.

I lived in a family with three brothers and when one got it, the others soon followed. I don't remember Chicken Pox being anything but very itchy, the measles were absolutely nothing, but the mumps hurt a little bit.

Still, no big deal.

In fact, I looked forward to getting sick and missing a few days of school: JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER KIDS DID!

Today's media makes these formerly common childhood ailments sound like Small Pox or Polio or the Bubonic Plague...

Seriously. I remember clearly the Measles, mumps and Chicken Pox because we all three got it roughly the same time. No worry. Just stay in bed.

Watch this video to see what people used to think about Measles, before those days when Big Pharma started marketing vaccines. (Thanks to Lew Rockwell! www.lewrockwell.com)

The Brady Bunch (Ugh!) is the best.... Really. They even say that getting those three diseases is the best way to skip out of school....

Forced immunizations are not about controlling diseases, but about controlling you.

NOTE: Oh, the title of this article: "Measles Vaccinations? A Professional Speaks Out!" Before someone complains about who the professional is, it's me. I've worked in the mass media for over 30 years; this mass media sensationalism? I am a professional and an expert at mass media sensationalism; oh, and I am a "professional" with a big mouth.

ADDENDUM: Great article over at Zerohedge today: Guest Post: How Vaccine Hysteria Could Spark A Totalitarian Nightmare

Snippet:

1. The voices shrieking to forcibly vaccinate people are the same voices shrieking to support a woman’s right to choose abortion under Roe v. Wade. If a woman’s body is sacrosanct, if she has the right to choose to deliver a child or not, if she has total authority over her body, how can she not have the right to accept or refuse a vaccination?

2. Medical ethics are clear: No one should be forced to undergo a medical treatment without informed consent and without their agreement to the treatment. We condemn the forced sterilization of the ’20s and ’30s, the Tuskegee medical experiments infecting black inmates and the Nazi medicine that included involuntary “Euthanasia,” experimentation and sterilization. How can we force vaccination without consent? Vaccination is a medical treatment with risks including death. It is totally antithetical to all ethics in medicine to mandate that risk to others.

3. Science is never “concluded.” Mr. Obama and other ideologues may think the truth is finalized (“The science is indisputable”), but the reality is our understanding of disease and treatment are constantly being updated. Just like Newton’s mechanical paradigm of the universe was supplanted by Einsteinian physics, and physicists today modify that view, medical “truth” is not the truth for long. In an attempt to quantify change in medicine, years ago a cardiology journal discussed “The Half-life of Truth.” cardiologists looked back in their journal at 20-year-old articles to see how much of what was believed then was still believed to be true. The answer? 50 percent. So in cardiology, at least – and in all of medicine to greater or lesser degree – only half of what we believe now will still be true in 20 or so years. The last word on vaccination is not in. It hasn’t even begun to be written.

4. If you believe absolutely in the benefit and protective value of vaccination, why does it matter what others do? Or don’t do? If you believe you need vaccination to be healthy and protected, then by all means vaccinate your child and yourself. Why should you even be concerned what your neighbor chooses to do for his child – if vaccination works? The idea of herd immunity is still based on the idea that in individual cases vaccines actually are protective.

5. If you think the government has the right to forcibly vaccinate people – for the good of society – what is to prevent them from forcibly sterilizing people, or forcibly euthanizing people, or forcibly implanting a tracking device – for the good of society? You make think those examples are extreme (although two-thirds have happened), but the principle is the same. You are allowing government to have ultimate authority over your body.

Read more at: How Vaccine Hysteria Could Spark A Totalitarian Nightmare

I Have the Flu. "Deadly" Hong Kong Type A. Booga Booga Panic!

The flu is out in Japan and the mass media and big pharma are doing their best to scare us all about this horrible new scourge! Oh my god! Some people have even died this time! Whatever shall we do? In fact, I now have the flu. My lips are bleeding and I have been coughing up blood....

Nah. Not really. But if I were that would make a great movie, eh? I just came back from the doctor and when I told them that I think I have the flu, they all stood at attention and put me in a different room from the other patients!


Wow! I didn't know I was so bad. I just thought I was tired and probably catching something. Didn't have a fever or anything either.


On Saturday I started feeling very tired. I took a few naps that lasted for 3 hours. That's quite unusual for me. I haven't been drinking any alcohol and been on the Raw Food Diet since Jan. 6. I plan on losing weight this year and getting down to the same weight I was when I was 25. I figure that I can do that in six months, no problem. I've done it before!


It's actually quite easy to do, really. With the Raw Food Diet, you don't eat any cooked foods so of course it eliminates breads, pastas and rice... Oh and fermented grains like booze. Of course booz is a no-no. 


The Raw Food Diet is a great diet that I recommend to anyone because you don't have to suffer; you can eat all you want! Just as long as it fresh fruits and veggies that you are munching on.


I've done this diet before and, when I did, even though everyone around me got sick or the flu, I didn't.  But, darn it, looks like this time I did. I don't feel so bad, just a cough sometimes and a fever. I just came back from the doctor and he ordered me not to go outside and spread the flu to others. He said that I have to stay indoors for five days!? Can you believe that? Five days! 


At first, when I heard this, I wanted to go on a vacation somewhere or use the extra time to finish my blog stories about drug rehab, but darned if I'm just not exhausted all the time. I get up and do some work and 15 minutes later I feel like I'm about to pass out and I go back to sleep!


I'm sure that, had I not been on raw food, I'd have felt much worse; As eating cooked food tires your body out and your body needs energy to fight off colds. But, if this keeps up, I won't be doing anything but short posts like this.


Damn you flu virus!


The Daily Yomiuri reports: 


The number of flu-stricken patients reached about 1.11 million in the week ending last Friday, an increase of about 400,000 from the previous week, according to figures compiled by the health ministry. In the week starting Jan. 16, the number of patients suffering from influenza reported to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry from about 5,000 medical institutions was about triple that of a week earlier. The number of patients per medical institution during that period was 22.73 persons, up from 7.33 persons the week before, according to the ministry. 


Even so, this year I have a mild cases of the influenza, folks do not get flu shots for your babies and small children. They are not safe. This having a headache for a few days and not feeling well is a hell of a lot better than having a child with Autism.

People this age are the only people who should have flu shots

Here, below, the mass media tries to scare people because two ninety some year old folks died from complications associated with the flu. Why is this news?

It used to be that catching the flu, while a serious sickness, did call for patients to be quarantined. I was. Chuckle!


If I can live to be 90-years-old and then get offed by the flu virus, I'd consider that a pretty good deal.

"Who are you to make such claims?" Complaints Bloggers (I) Receive

Sometimes in posts on this blog, I want to warn people with small children about dangerous diseases and illnesses that can be prevented easily. But sometimes people will write thing like, "Who are you to make such claims?" Or like in yesterday's post, a comment like this, "You seriously are comparing the worst nuclear disaster ever, to flu shots. (sic) You are a sick individual." 

I get lots of hate mail especially when I compare the risks of everyday occurrences with a media sensationalized story like Fukushima.

Challenges. Those are comments that I often get... Along with invective and personal insults. I try not to insult these people back. I like to think that the big electrode, God, Buddha, Zig Zag, what-have-you, in the sky put these people on the earth to teach me patience and how to be a better person.

Kindness to people works wonders!

My third daughter Wendy.  Some say she is handicapped. 
I say she is "just perfect!"

The most recent attacks I have received are because I have warned parents about serious problems, diseases and illnesses that can affect their children and I use Fukushima sensationalism as a comparison. People will grossly overreact to Fukushima, over a hundred miles away, but when serious causes of diseases (that get little media attention) are right under their noses, they are oblivious. 

To pat myself on the back (once again) as a mass media professional for over thirty years, I know what kind of BS goes on with news reporting and sensationalism as I have seen it from the inside. And, with four kids, I hope I know a bit about raising children. In fact, because of 4 kids, and one of them defeating a rare, deadly childhood disease - yet remaining handicapped for the rest of her life - I know more than most parents would ever want to know about raising kids and diseases like childhood cancer.

Many times I have pointed out that we cannot believe what we hear on the TV news and even so-called alternative media. The sensationalism sells advertising. That's the point and, in this day and age, it astounds me that most people today say they know that, but when it comes to something like Swine Flu or Fukushima, they seem to forget it. I am beginning to think that this selective response is due to some childhood phobias. Please refer to: Japan Nuclear Disaster Update & Strong Criticism of Western Media Sensationalism:

Actually, it astounds me that people do accept what what the media says as gospel truth. Don't forget that this is the very same media that told us 3 years ago that Swine Flu was going to kill more than 50 million people worldwide. This was the same media that told us that the USA had to invade Iraq because of Saddam's nooklar weapons. This was the same media that told us that SARS also was a killer virus that was going to wipe out entire populations. This was the same media that told us that Bird Flu was going to do the same.

As of today, worldwide  deaths from Swine Flu: 82. No nuclear weapons for Saddam (if he had any, do you really think we would have invaded Iraq?). Worldwide deaths from SARS: 100. Worldwide deaths from Bird Flu: 80. Don't even get me started on Man Made Global Warming!

Fact of the matter is that this is the same media who constantly exaggerates stories in order to sell advertising space to an extremely gullible public. When will people ever learn? If history is any example then the answer is: Never. They'll never learn.

Just wait a year or three for the next killer disease and we can start all over again.  

So, I write posts like the above pointing out problems with the media. Then I write articles alerting people to serious cancer and disease causing problems that, while not trendy, nor spectacularly newsworthy, are actually much more dangerous to our children than Fukushima will ever be. For one example of that, please refer to: 

Benzene in Cars! This Will Kill More People Than Fukushima Will 

Do not turn on A/C immediately as soon as you enter the car! Please open the windows after you enter your car and do not turn on the air-conditioning immediately.

According to research done, the car dashboard, sofa, air freshener emits Benzene, a cancer causing toxin (carcinogen - take note of the heated plastic smell in your car). In addition to causing cancer, it poisons your bones, causes anemia, and reduces white blood cells. Prolonged exposure will cause Leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer. may also cause miscarriage.

Acceptable Benzene levels indoors is 50 mg per sq. ft.. A car parked with windows closed will contain 400 - 800 mg of Benzene. If parked outdoors, under the sun, at temperature above 60 degrees F (15.5 C), the Benzene level goes up to 2000 - 4000 mg, 40 times the acceptable level... And the people inside the car will inevitably inhale an excess amount of the toxins.

It is recommended that you open the windows and doors to give time for the interior to air out before you enter. Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver, and it is very difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.

Or even my most recent post: 

Massive Cover-up! Worse Than Fukushima? Japan (and the World Over) Danger Levels at More Than 250 X Safe Limit!

Here are the facts: 300 death claims from flu vaccine. And Flu vaccines and neurological problems (caused Guillian Barre Syndrome in over 500 people). These two links show over 800 deaths and nerve damage vaccine related illnesses from, you guessed it, flu shots in one year alone! So far deaths or illness from Fukushima: Zero. 

Because of these posts, though, I will get attacked by people who ask me what right or authority I have to mention anything about diseases like this or children's cancer. Perhaps I am confused, but here is where I think my authority lies. My authority lies in my dearest third daughter whom I love deeply and will spend the rest of my life caring for and trying to help other parents (and their children) to prevent a similar struggle. 

So let me give my qualifications. First, my darling daughter, Wendy. One day, when she was age 1 1/2, she suddenly could not walk anymore. It was very strange. One day she was running around, the next day she couldn't stand. Soon after, she was diagnosed with 4th stage of a rare form of children's cancer called Rhabdomysarcoma. The doctors said it was incurable and her diagnosis was poor. She, like all children diagnosed with this horrible disease, was only expected to live for 2 ~ 6 months. 

As some may know, 4th stage cancer is the worst and final stages. The doctors at Setagaya Children's Hospital told me that she had virtually no chance. But I fought back. We fought back. 

I fired those doctors and hired the #1 expert in Japan (and top doctor in the world for this type of cancer - Dr. Mugishima at Nichidai hospital in Itabashi Tokyo) to handle my daughter. I fired the first group of doctors because they said, "Virtually zero chance." Dr. Mugishima gave us a 7% chance. Good enough. Better than zero. If your doctor doesn't think you have a chance, then that's not good. Fire them.

As part of the new doctor's regime, my then wife had to move into the hospital with my daughter 24/7 and that left me at home with two small girls to care for by myself and to try to hold down a job too! In spite of that, I took care of those two girls, and visited my daughter and wife in the hospital everyday religiously for nearly two years. 

The hospital cost me an impossible amount to pay. It was well over $5,000 a month every month for those 2 years (insurance doesn't pay for private hospitals and choices) and yet I paid it out of my pocket with no loans (Heck, I was a foreigner in Japan, my wife was in the hospital with my daughter, I had no assets, who's going to give me a loan? No one.) Yet, even with all this, I held down my job, paid for everything, cooked and cleaned and we came out victorious in a war with a deadly disease. 

When my daughters cancer was declared in full remission she was released from the hospital with one big caveat: Because of the treatment, her immune system was so damaged that she was not allowed to live with other children for six years because she would be catching all sorts of illness (from her sisters who played with other children at school who caught colds all the time). And those illnesses might kill her. 

After two years apart in the hospital and then another six years apart (at least) for the future, and me with a 11-year-old and a 9-year-old from a previous marriage, my wife and I decided it was best to get a divorce. In over 80% of all cases where a child in Japan gets cancer in Japan, the parents wind up in divorce. The pressure and stress are too great.

My daughter is now a high school student and looking forward to college. She is wheelchair bound for life but one of the happiest and most positive people you could ever hope to meet. I wish my other daughters were so happy!

Japan has a population of about 130 million people. Only about two or three children per year get this rare form of cancer. Nearly all of them do not survive. My daughter was only the second one in history of Japan, since it started cancer study with Germany and the USA in 1971, to do so.

These are my qualifications. I don't think they are so bad. 

UPDATE: People need to get their priorities straight. For example, did you know that: In the U.S., the odds of being killed by conventional medicine are almost 20 times (2,000%) greater than being killed in an automobile accident and almost 30 times (3,000%) greater than being killed by a gun. - From Confessions of a Drug Industry Insider.

*If any parents have such a challenge to deal with, please write to me and perhaps I can give some advice that may be helpful... I will try.

Massive Cover-up! Worse Than Fukushima? Japan (and the World Over) Danger Levels at More Than 250 X Safe Limit!

This will ruin more lives this year than the Fukushima nuclear accident will. The government and industry is lying. They've been lying and they always will lie to us. It is our duty to protect ourselves and our children especially when the government that we elect fails to do so.


Of course, you all know I am not talking about Fukushima, I'm talking about something much worse. I'm talking about Flu Shots. Especially the kind of flu shots that contain Mercury (Thimerasol) that have been banned in some countries because there seems to be a link to Autism.


The Health Freedom Alliance reports:

Thimerosal is a widely used vaccine preservative that is present in the majority of flu shots and other vaccines. Thimerosal is 49% mercury by volume, an extremely toxic chemical element that wreaks havoc on the nervous system, neurological function, and overall biological function [1]. Each dose of flu vaccine contains around 25 micrograms of thimerosal, over 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit of exposure.

Mercury, a neurotoxin, is especially damaging to undeveloped brains. Considering that 25 micrograms of mercury is considered unsafe by the EPA for any human under 550 pounds, the devastating health effects of mercury on a developing fetus are truly concerning.

Though thimerasol is not entirely mercury, the mercury content is still extremely high, making it very toxic to the human body. Despite highly exceeding the EPA safety standards for mercury content by over 250 times, flu shots are still recommended for children over 6 months and pregnant women.

It seems that the age groups that are urged to receive the flu shot are actually most affected by mercury exposure. Young children, pregnant women, and elderly are the ‘targeted’ demographic of flu shot manufacturers, and these individuals also happen to have the least defense against the elemental neurotoxin mercury.

When my son was just two years old we took him to the doctor who recommended flu shots. My wife wanted them, I was quite skeptical but I relented. Just before administering the shots I asked the doctor if these shots had Thimerasol in them and that Thimerasol had been banned in California. I had printed out an article that stated as such. As I was handing the article to the doctor he got angry and said, "Of course! That's obvious!" 


I said to the doctor, "If it is obvious, then why do you have both shots with Thimerasol and those without? And why is it that you give the vaccinations without Thimerasol only upon request? If it is so obvious, then why do you even have vaccinations with Thimerasol on hand?"


I tell you why. The vaccinations with Thimerasol are cheaper and the doctor makes more money from them and the government subsidises them.

Healthy baby gets the flu? Sick for a few days. Gets autism because 

of flu shots? A families dreams ruined. Don't do this to your kids.

The flu season is upon us. The flu is a dangerous disease and should be handled with care. Generally speaking, though, the flu only kills the old and very weak and sick. The risk of receiving Mercury filled vaccinations and a lifetime of medical problems or autism do not justify the vaccination.


Don't do this to your kids.


UPDATE: Dear readers, I knew someone would write in who was low on facts and big on fears (see comments below). Before anyone else writes in to complain, let me explain. Fukushima is a big problem but here are the facts. Towns near Fukushima have been evacuated, and that's a problem, but no one has died or gotten sick (maybe locals have gotten depression). Fukushima radiation as a dangerous and a cause of cancer is a localized problem (High levels of dangerous radiation found within 50 mile radius). 


But, even if you live 5000 miles away, the flu vaccine problem is a worldwide phenomenon and problem, not a small localized problem. Here are the facts: 300 death claims from flu vaccine. And Flu vaccines and neurological problems (caused Guillian Barre Syndrome in over 500 people). These two links show over 800 deaths and nerve damage vaccine related illnesses from, you guessed it, flu shots in one year alone! So far deaths or illness from Fukushima: Zero. 


Sensationalism is one thing. It sells magazine and ad space. The facts are another. Dear readers, I invite you to do the math.


Read more at: http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/10/10/flu-shots-have-more-than-250x-epa-mercury-safety-limit/


Also more about this scandalous affair: http://www.ukraineplague.blogspot.com/

Get Ready for More Flu Season Nonsense

It's just past Christmas here and that means it's time to crank up the booga-booga and scare people into thinking that flu is going to kill us all so that the pharmaceutical industry can sell us vaccinations we don't need and the mass media can do something to try to hang on to their ever dwindling audience.

I wrote before how I was a part of the propaganda machine for many years and realized what a farce it all is long ago here.

Sure, the flu is serious business but common sense and living right will take care of it for most people. The only people who might consider flu shots are unhealthy people or the aged. Wash your hands often. Eat right. Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fresh water. That's the best cold & flu prevention you can do.

But, that doesn't make for good ratings nor does it sell product... For that, we need our annual flu scare!

Kyodo News reports:

The influenza season is in full force in Japan with the number of patients reported totaling 6,758 at about 5,000 designated medical facilities across the nation last week, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Friday. The figure for the Dec. 13-19 period showed that the equivalent of 1.41 patients were reported at each facility, topping the barometer for nationwide epidemics of the equivalent of one patient at each facility, the institute said.

Now, let me point out how ridiculous this is. At 5,000 facilities, over the period of seven days, they only had 1.41 patients? They call this newsworthy? They call that. "The influenza season is in full force?" Gimme a break!

I can go to my local doctor at anytime and see his waiting room just full of people trying to get in to see him. I'd say it is an easy guess to figure that even at a small private practice like his, he sees at least 50 people per day... The government run hospitals have hundreds, if not thousands of patients a day.

1.41 patients over the span of one week is nothing.

Once again, we will be subjected to this constant bombardment of the dangers of some new flu and that everyone will need a vaccination.... Oh please!

Two years ago we were told that H1N1 flu was deadly... The total number of people in Japan who died from that? One.

Like I said, wash your hands often, eat right, sleep and get plenty of rest and drink lots of fresh water.