We remain absolutely baffled as to how it has taken Lufthansa this long, with this much trouble, to secure certification of FICE/Allegris/Swiss — a seat that is neither: • innovative • novel • dense • complicated • on a new aircraft • from a startup seatmaker

Once again, this puts the UK anti-trans lobby further to the right than ENID BLYTON.

tag yourself, I’m “gay clouds meet the rising, glorious sun”

Hilary Cass here arguing for children to be prevented from being known by a preferred name or getting a haircut in case it encourages them to continue later in life to transition. Hilary Cass acts like gender variant children should have the transness hazed out of them.

Allow me to remind you all that a trip to Matsushima starts NINETY MINUTES FROM TOKYO STATION BY SHINKANSEN #JohnDoesJapan

Them: jApAneSe hOtEL rOomS aRe aLL sMaLL Me: okay so there is this set of accor mercure/grand mercures that transitioned branding from daiwa roynet in late 2023

Genuinely, as someone who has never studied Japanese, every time this happens it brings me such absolute joy. #JohnDoesJapan

I’m not a rail fan, I’m a

if you are feeling sad today, ORANGE FRIEND is here for you

Me watching the @highrollersdnd.bsky.social campaign book thunder past €300k of its €29k goal — just so delighted for @sherlockhulmes.bsky.social and the gang. www.kickstarter.com/projects/rol...

FICE/Allegris/Swiss Senses reading list, Part 4: how these seats — and the others that Lufthansa is taking — fit into the wider strategy Lufthansa is pursuing. theupfront.media/a-coda-for-a...

If you are (reasonably!) befuddled by what on earth Lufthansa is doing with FICE, its Future InterContinental Experience — which is frankly only "future" if you are in 2015 — dba Lufthansa Allegris and Swiss Senses, I have you covered.

Here's where the "the three seats in the second row" element of the Allegris 787 stops making sense. theupfront.media/update-33-ai...

Lufthansa can now seat passengers 25 out of 28 seats in its Allegris business class cabins on its 787s — up from just 4 — now that all but three in the second row are FINALLY certified by the FAA.

#JohnDoesJapan 7-day first-timer itinerary, DAY 4 Kakunodate preserved samurai house street: start at 0900. Ishiguro-ke, thenAoyagi-ke ("Kakunodate Historical Village" on Google Maps). Fascinating history, old gardens, lovingly preserved — with English-speaking guides who descend from the samurai.

English-language guides to hiking Japan’s many mountains can be scarce, but one Filipina resident has taken it upon herself to map out the country’s many trails.

Love a Japanese workshop like this — there’s a real culture of taking lessons and trying out crafts there! Search “craft workshop (city name)” or email the local visitor office.

Thread addendum on intergenerational travel with parents and kids. Short version: do it! Japan's a great place for it. Plan to base yourself in places rather than hotel-hopping, and note that hotels are usually very strict about check-in times — but you can drop bags. bsky.app/profile/rebe...

I'm in full #JohnDoesJapan trip planning mode — I'm off for about six weeks from the end of this month. Today I'm going to talk about places to see and things to do in #Japan that aren't on the usual lists, and I absolutely recommend doing at least one in any trip to Japan.

This is absolutely true! But if time I say it there’s usually someone who makes some snotty comment about “I didn’t come to Japan to go up the city building”, and like, your loss dude (for it is usually a dude), it’s one of the best views in Tokyo

7 days in Japan for a first-timer? Oh, do I have you sorted. #JohnDoesJapan DAY 1 Do: 320km/h Shinkansen to Sendai, then train to Matsushima Bay, Zuigan-ji, Entsu-in (30 min east) Stay: Hotel Metropolitan Sendai East Learn: history of Date Masamune (read/listen to @riversidewings.bsky.social)

#JohnDoesJapan top tip: bring a wallet with a change pocket — you will want and need ¥500, 100, 50 and 10 coins. (Donate any ¥5/¥1 coins.) It does not need to be the Central Japan Railway Company commemmorative 60th Anniversary Tokaido Shinkansen wallet. I am just saying that it could be.

Do not bring a big bag on the Shinkansen unless you prebook the luggage space! Especially DO NOT be like these assholes who spent 10 minutes yelling at the train staff, after they took someone else's luggage space — then spent another 5 minutes hefting their bags precariously up onto the racks.

Expert Japan luggage trick: you'll want souvenirs, so buy a new checked suitcase there (the MUJI ones are great) — crucially, at your last stop. You can mail or takkyubin courier items to your final night hotel during your trip, either from another hotel or even from many shops across Japan!

Yes — mega-tip for Japan travel is to never travel on a train with a full-sized suitcase. Travel with an overnight backpack or Euro-sized roller bag, and use the takkyubin luggage shipping (¥2000-2500/€11-14, usually 1-2 days) to send your big case between hotels — ask at reception for help!

Sure! • teamaking in Kyoto, especially Uji — also a great temple and museum, Byodo-in • live artisan kabazaiku cherry-bark ornamental work in Kakunodate — also stunning cherry blossoms, autumn leaves and samurai houses • knifemaking in Sakai, south of Osaka • not your guy for climbing, sorry!

@sensibleish.bsky.social If you want to narrow down interests ("my son is really into sushi, my wife loves baseball, I'm a big quilter and my daughter loves steam trains") I can totally make some more specific recommendations than "active things" :)

Oh, please do not listen to anyone who says to rely on buying walkup tickets between Tokyo and Osaka! Book as far in advance as you can for the widest choice of train, especially in busy periods, but a few days should be OK. Changes are free — use the JR Central smartEX site and/or app.

OK: if you like biking, that time of year: take the B.B.BASE "Joyful Train" out east of Tokyo one weekend day. There are several routes and I hear it's well organised. Stop off in Chiba on the way back for the dangling monorail, it's a hoot. Most anything you eat in Japan will be interesting!

Gardens: you'll want to check by season, but Koraku-en in Okayama, Kenroku-en in Kanazawa and Kairaku-en in Mito are all famous for a reason. I also love Yuushi-en near Matsue and Tokugawa-en in Nagoya. And of course Kyoto is chock-full of gardens: try Enko-ji, Shisen-do, Ginkaku-ji, Tenju-an.

Okay, so Kyoto for temples. Max 3 nights or your brain will blend them all together. Castles: there are 12 original ones left. Himeji: super-famous, swamped in peak and shoulder season. Hikone: near Kyoto and very handy. Matsue: reached by lovely trains. Matsuyama: out of the way, stunning!

For anyone else: Shoden-ji is a gorgeous small Kyoto temple with an unusual garden (using azalea instead of rocks!) with incredible borrowed landscape* and bloody handprint ceiling*. It was Bowie's favourite, and every time I go it's empty and silent. Taxi from the nearest station. *look those up!

I have LOADS of day trips from Tokyo and Nagoya — what time of year, and what are you interested in? From Tokyo, strong rec for the capybara onsen with the yuzu, it's GREAT and the capybara are hilarious horndogs in their weird fruity sex pond. bsky.app/profile/that...

I've been to Sapporo in spring (its location means it's ideal for late cherry blossoms!), autumn (ditto for early autumn leaves) and winter (chilly and snowy) and always had a great time. I hear great things about the ice festival, and it's a super-friendly city. Great base for the area too!

I first went to Japan about 15 years ago with ZERO Japanese. If you can navigate a major city like New York or London, you can navigate Japan. But do try to learn some before you go — even some basic tourist Japanese will help. I hear JP baseball is a real hoot (go Yakult Swallows, the ex-JR team)!

Love Hokkaido! Start in Sapporo and stay around the station area! Mount Moiwa for sunset, then find some local ramen. Get a 5-day Hokkaido Rail Pass (or take the 7-day JR Pass if you want to get back to Honshu) and do a Hokkaido loop: Sapporo-Asahikawa-Abashiri-Kushiro-Sapporo.

#JohnDoesJapan open questions thread! Ask me anything: how to plan, great places to go, sample itineraries, the lowdown on railway museums, the best Japanese gardens, the 12 remaining original castles, train set cafés and bars… (Drop hints about what you like, are interested in, or want to do!)

‘As with Section 28, young people are presented with a choice between state-mandated abuse, or staying in the closet. The overall aim is to stop trans children from existing altogether’

To give you an idea of how deranged the UK has become about gender stuff, here's Enid Blyton - the absolute avatar of classic English conservatism and a huge fan of racist "gollywogs" - casually describing a gender non-conforming kid in the 1940s and having their friends be totally cool with it.

Better a pig than a fascist. —Porco Rosso

I have a friend who said, of Starfleet Academy, that this took them out of it - that seeing a person in a wheelchair in the 32nd century seemed unrealistic, since medicine in Star Trek "should be able to cure whatever was wrong with them." That's not the case, for any number of possible reasons.

Just saw a Japanese travel YouTuber starting a video with "so Japan's not a budget travel destination", and… what?! As a person earning in any Western currency, Japan is *incredibly* inexpensive if you want and need it to be. Tokyo is the cheapest international city I visit regularly.

Genuinely impressed by so much of this Philippine Airlines A350 cabin — the smart customisations of the seats, the evolutionary design approach, the way the visuals cut off the looooooong front cabin of the A350, and the MANY moodlighting scenarios.

This is genuinely insane, I clicked to see the years expecting the low part to be 70s or maybe 90s but its 2015!!!!! The entire anti trans panic is a decade old

For me, it's not just the churnalism, although I'm obviously no great fan. It's that nobody seems to be asking questions, like "what have you done to ensure that this new livery and interior fits the red-white-and-blue GBR brand when CrossCountry is taken back into public ownership NEXT YEAR?"

yeah but do they still reek of Voyager

This — and the video above it in the thread — are genuinely horrific from an aviation safety standpoint, not least since so much of the world has relied on the FAA as a trustworthy regulator, operating in good faith. From what Chair Homendy is saying, that is no longer the case.

In 2026, 57 of 62 ICE Air flights through MSP went to or from El Paso.

The perfect example of this is that the UK Ambassador to France from 2021–2025 could barely speak French. LIke, "bongjore gee swee" level of fluency. It was just so embarrassing, and so very typically British.

Breaking news: one third of travellers absolute muppets.