JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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Ah_so
She is clearly following in the footsteps of Nancy Reagan and Cherie Blair by joining the nutty wives club.
Posted in: Miyuki Hatoyama claims her soul traveled to Venus on UFO
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Ah_so
It would be just as bad, but people do not think things like, "think I will just pop into the supermarket for ten minutes" and then spend 3 hours there, lost in some weird alternative universe. However, this is how gamblers behave.
In fact, people never spend 3 hours in the supermarket and will probably take the children with them when they do.
Posted in: Baby boy dies in locked car while mother plays pachinko in Akita
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Ah_so
I am interested in the amount of people saying "yuck". Yuck in what sense? I can understand that it may not be erotic for many people, but the human form is beautiful and women are often at their most beautiful when pregnant, particularly in the later stages, when they bloom for some reason.
The "yuck" crowd to me are those who are most unable to deal with nature - the kind of people who object to breast-feeding in public and who feel that all hair on the female, except that on the head, is in someway repulsive, unnatural and should be removed.
Posted in: Pregnant pix
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Ah_so
A Nation of Millions is by far and away the best rap record I have ever heard - a landmark of the genre. It's a pity that so few of the Japanese fans can enjoy the lyrics.
Posted in: Chuck D Public Enemy’s only founding member to obtain visa for Japan
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Ah_so
Japan has 5 basic vowel sounds, English has at least 20. Which is richer?
Of course, this book has clearly been written for the Japanese people to massage their collective ego. The whole "Japanese think with the right-hand part to the brain" has been doing the rounds since the 80s, as have all the other half-baked pseudo-scientific theories mentioned above, such as,
All unscientific, unproven and usually wrong. There is also the matter of comparing themselves only to Westerners, rather than say Koreans, where the similarities might be rather more striking.
All a load of nonsense, and the author should be ashamed of himself.
Posted in: Why the Japanese Are a Superior People
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Ah_so
Adults, still playing at dressing up like a bunch of 6 year-olds.
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Ah_so
gogogo:
gogogo, type in "Swiss Toni" to Youtube and all will be revealed. I think that our SwissToni has been waiting patiently for years for the opportunity to write that selling cars is like making love to a beautiful woman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_E0ZF2uIKs
Posted in: Going, going, sold! - A glimpse into world of car auctions
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Ah_so
Bud? It is mainly made from rice, so is technically not a beer, but rather a beer-style drink, for people who don't like real beer.
I suppose this 100 yen stuff must fall into a similar category, not being a beer.
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Ah_so
But all good news for the cheap end retailers, like Uniqlo or Hard Off, where you can get good quality 2nd hand stuff at a huge discount.
Posted in: All bad news from the retailing front
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Ah_so
societymike - good luck with your twins. However, one of the ways that children learn is the interaction between others in the family. What is the language you and your wife speak with each other and what country are you in? If you are in Japan and you speak Japanese with the wife, it will just be you speaking English at the children. If you are working full-time, they would actually get relatively little time with the English language.
I would make English the language of the house in Japan and vice versa.
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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Ah_so
I suspect there is something in this. As every Japanese knows, the Japanese language is utterly unique and very complex, and so must require 100% of a child's brain and not share it with other languages.
I have argued with my wife over this - she was seriously concerned for a long time that our offspring would only be able to speak pidgin versions of English and Japanese.
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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Ah_so
There is a dangerous myth that circulates in Japan that bilingualism is dangerous at an early age and that children need to perfect Japanese before starting anything else. I have heard it from a number of different sources, so it is clearly widely held, but flies in the face of all the evidence to the contrary that shows that bilingualism is only a benefit.
Does anyone know where this myth comes from?
Posted in: Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
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Ah_so
Niigata can get pretty hot an humid at times, the winter temperature can vary. 38 to 40 is pretty unusual. I also remember one August the mercury fell to 25/26 for a couple of days, which was nice.
With keeping cool, the damp towel round the back of the neck works wonders, as does an old fashioned fan. Fighting the heat with cold baths etc rarely provides lasting relief. In the absence of aircon, it is a futile, unwinnable battle.
Ironically, a hot bath or a trip to the onsen provides a wonderful cool sensation. By increasing your own body temperature, the air around you feels quite cool. This contrasts with the awful sensation of stepping into a furnace the moment you step out of the air conditioned room.
Posted in: What do you do to stay cool in summer?
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Ah_so
Exactly my thoughts - I can think of no other punishment that would be appropriate for their crimes.
Posted in: 22-year-old couple arrested for burning 2-year-old son with hair dryer
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Ah_so
This is partly a survey on the actual cost of living, but also a survey of foreign exchange rates. It may help a US executive help decide whether to place an office in Hong Kong or Tokyo, but does not give a realistic cross comparison of costs to those living there, as the top place changes according to what has happened in the FX markets. This year the yen is strong.
Posted in: Tokyo becomes world's costliest city for expats: survey
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Ah_so
"a statue of Hachiko"? Does this mean there is more than one statue of Hachiko?
Also, why did hachiko never figure out that he basically was not coming back?
Posted in: Hachiko and Gere
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Ah_so
...so not actually a parent yourself then, are you?
Posted in: 11-month-old boy dies after falling from 4th floor window in Hokkaido
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Ah_so
How dare you not find the mother guilty based on a handful of reported facts? This is Japan Today, so get with the program!
...following on for your sensible thoughts, all of us who are parents follow similar checks on windows, hot pans etc, but there have probably been things out around at home that might have caused a child damage which you did not notice at the time and are still (thankfully) blissfully unaware of.
My daughter fell off a picnic bench and broke her collar bone (in toddlers they are not properly set anyway). I was sitting right next to her. I should have been more careful, but this sort of stuff can happen.
And for the record, and 11-month-old baby is easily capable of climbing out of a 30cm gap.
Posted in: 11-month-old boy dies after falling from 4th floor window in Hokkaido
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Ah_so
Old people look old shock. Hold the front page.
The lack of shadows also suggests that the sun is not even out. And how do you know they have not got sun lotion on? And why would they? Japanese people always look a good 5 years younger than caucasions anyway.
What is life without the sensation of the sun on your face?
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Ah_so
There is a legal presumption of innocence, but it still does not follow that a person found to be "not guilty" is found "innocent". The verdict of "not guilty" is an option, whereas "Innocent" is not an option, for the very fact that jurers are not asked to determine innocence, but rather if guilt can be demonstrated "beyond reasonable doubt". This is a significant distinction - see OJ Simpson, who was found not guilty of murder but was later held to be the cause of death in a civil case, where the burden of proof is less.
I do not know if Jacko was guilty in this case, but am fairly sure that his urges were not those shared by the vast majority of the adult population. Don't know if he even had any "urges" beyond the mild curiosity of a child.
Posted in: Michael Jackson dies of reported cardiac arrest at 50