Japan, Caroline Kennedy

The United States is disappointed that Japan's leadership has taken an action that will exacerbate tensions with Japan's neighbors.

- Caroline Kennedy (1957- ), a statement posted on the website of the U.S. embassy in Tokyo (Dec 26, 2013)

Mr. Abe's provocative move prompted the U.S. government to issue a statement expressing its disapproval.

Japan, Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝)

Japan must bear the consequences arising from this. The visit, the first by an incumbent Japanese prime minister since 2006, causes great harm to the feelings of the Asian people and creates a significant new political obstacle to bilateral relations.

- Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝), a director-general of the ministry's department of Asian affairs, in a statement posted on a verified ministry microblog (Dec 26, 2013)

Japan, Koichi Nakano

Bilateral summits will now be even more of a long shot. It will likely also hurt Tokyo's ties with Washington, considering how the U.S. has been pushing for Japan to improve ties with its Asian neighbors. The visit seems to make it obvious that Mr. Abe's economic polices were a guise to hide his nationalistic intent.

- Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo (Dec 26, 2013)

Beauty, Spanish Proverb

The more a woman admires her face, the more she ruins her house.

- Spanish Proverb

Japan, Qin Gang (秦剛)

The essence of Japanese leaders' visits to the Yasukuni shrine is to beautify Japan's history of militaristic aggression and colonial rule. It is an attempt to overturn international society's just ruling on Japan's militarism and to challenge the results of World War II and the post-war international order.

- Qin Gang (秦剛), Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, immediately after Abe's visit to the shrine (
Dec 26, 2013)

Japan, Qin Gang (秦剛)

We strongly protest and seriously condemn the Japanese leader's acts.

- Qin Gang (秦剛), Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, immediately after Abe's visit to the shrine

Advice, Chinese Proverb

Not been on the Great Wall, not a great man.

- Chinese Proverb

Beauty, Western Proverb

Casting pearls before swine.

- Western Proverb

Fact, Chinese Proverb

事实胜于雄辩[shìshíshèngyúxióngbiàn]。

- 中國俗談

Facts are stronger than rhetoric.

- Chinese Proverb

Facts are more eloquent than words.

Parting, Western Proverb

Rats desert sinking ship.

- Western Proverb

Okbong Cathedral in Jinju, Korea

Okbong Cathedral in Jinju, Korea

Description	한국어: 진주 옥봉성당, 등록문화재 제154호. 1933년 건립 English: Okbong Cathedral in Jinju, Registered Cultural Heritage No. 154. Built in 1933
Date	8 December 2013, 12:48:45
Source	Own work
Author	Grampus
Licensing	This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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From Wikimedia Commons

Advice, Chinese Proverb

吠犬不咬人。

- 中國俗談

A barking dog doesn't bite!

- Chinese Proverb

Failure, Irish Proverb

The girl who can't dance says the band can't play.

- Irish Proverb

Showcase Mall on the Las Vegas Strip

Showcase Mall on the Las Vegas Strip

Description	English: Outback Steakhouse, Coca-Cola Store, M&M's World, Marshall's, etc. at the Showcase Mall on the Las Vegas Strip, across from New York-New York Hotel and Casino.
Date	23 November 2013
Source	Wikimedia Commons
Author	Nandaro
Camera location	.
Permission	CC-BY-SA-3.0
Licensing	The copyright holder of this work has published it under the following licenses: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

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From Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Journey, Mark

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.

+ Gospel of Mark 6,8-9

http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/6