JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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Very good point, tmarie, and one I often think of when I see media comments about schools in Okinawa "endangered" by flights from nearby bases.
I'm eager to see more details about this news story: the "at least six" sounds odd, and I find it a little hard to believe that so many large pieces could have fallen off an aircraft. The description sounds more like pieces of scaffolding than pieces of an aircraft (particularly if the aircraft continued to fly thereafter).
Posted in: U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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A lot depends on the restaurant, which basically means a lot depends on how well trained the staff is.
I find the *overly *friendly, chatty waiters/waitresses in the US less rather than more professional, and obtrusive sometimes to the point of being obnoxious, so I am pleased not to encounter the same behavior here. Tastes differ, I suppose.
I would certainly prefer it if more waiters/waitresses here knew enough about the menu to answer simple questions about it, however, rather than doing the typical "sorry, I'll go ask the chef" routine.
Posted in: What do you think of the quality of waiters in Japanese restaurants?
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You can be quite sure that pretty much anything that significantly raises corporate costs will be passed on in the form of higher prices to consumers.
Posted in: TEPCO to raise electricity bills for corporate users
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I once had a California Highway Patrol officer pull me over early in the morning near San Jose, an area of California that even then ('84) had lots of folks, many Japanese, driving with international licences. The patrolman very was ready to cite me for having an expired licence, because he took the issue date for the expiration date; at the time the caption was only in Japanese, although most of the rest of the licence was in English as well. I managed to persuade him, but I might not have done so well had I been a Japanese with limited English language skills. Perhaps something of the kind took place in this Alabama case.
Posted in: Honda employee cited for breaking Alabama immigration law
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Crazy Joe, I saw that story on the TV news, and was astounded that the drivers were not arrested. I've been driving here for 40 years, and that's the first time that I've seen a just, rational treatment of a traffic accident of its type, without the seemingly obligatory automatic arrest for "professional negligence".
Posted in: Man killed in hit-and-run incident found in drainage ditch days after death
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Let's hope that this time they find and enforce a way to prevent the rampant abuse the system experienced from commercial vehicles the last time.
Posted in: New expressway toll-free program for disaster-hit Tohoku to start Dec 1
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Whiskysour, some of them are just drunks, but some of them are just getting off work. Many of the folks--particularly middle-aged and above, and particularly those roughly dressed--have been working night/graveyard shifts as laborers at construction sites, as guards, and the like. Early morning is their equivalent of the day workers' early evening.
Posted in: Man slashed with knife after confronting thief at Tokyo Station
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TEPCO has apparently proposed to the government that it will raise electricity rates 10 - 15% for three years starting next April. If approved, the monopoly's customers will be paying for its mismanagement. If, as seems likely, the government provides subsidies as well, taxpayers across the nation will be contributing, and TEPCO customers will be contributing twice, in taxes *and *in power bills.
Posted in: TEPCO starts sending out claim forms for compensation
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It's reprehensible that parents would be so irresponsible, and they surely should be charged with neglect. I see far too many such stories. I can understand bicultural's wondering whether the kid isn't old enough to appreciate the consequences, too, but 5 years old may be a little young to keep the parents' teaching/warning--even charitably assuming that there was any--in mind when something else like curiosity or boredom sets in.
I saw a documentary a few years ago after an older child (she may have been 8 or 9) fell to her death after attempting to walk on the railing of a high-rise condominium's semi-open corridor; psychologists were saying that the combination of high-rise living and lack of experience in playground short jumps/falls has caused children to lose their fear of heights/falling.
I don't entirely buy that, although it might well be so. Even if true, it should be more, not less, motivation for parents to avoid putting their small kids in danger by leaving them unsupervised.
Posted in: 5-year-old boy falls from balcony of 9th-floor apartment
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I haven't seen the movie yet, but the *manga *and her books are quite good, both thought-provoking and entertaining. I hope the movie does them justice.
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I don't see that excluding words like "Christmas" does anything positive to include others' beliefs, and I think it's absurd to be offended by the expressions. If one wants more recognition of one's favorite holiday, one must find a way to publicize it more. To me that seems a waste of time and the entire issue a tempest in a teacup, but that's the PC reality, isn't it?
I like Roger Zelazny's take on prayer, myself...The Agnostic's Prayer: Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.
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It has been a while since I was in Osaka, but here in Tokyo there seem to be very few bicyclists who are aware that, with some exceptions, they are subject to the laws governing vehicles, not pedestrians. That includes signaling for turns (when's the last time you saw a bicyclist doing that?), and riding in the street except where sidewalks have dedicated cycle areas.
The problem, it seems to me, with cell phone use vs. smoking while riding is the degree of attention being paid to something other than what is in front of or around the cyclist.
Personally, I'm more concerned about the dramatically increased number of cyclists who seem to think that traffic signals don't apply to them. I'd love to see big fines imposed on the many cyclists who blithely ride through red lights...so many in the last couple of years that it has become remarkable when a cyclist actually stops at a red light.
One could say that the problem is self-correcting, and that such cyclists will eventually be picked off and suffer the fate they brought on themselves. Unfortunately, car or motorcycle drivers who hit bicyclists, even if they have run a red light, get the blame.
It's particularly irresponsible for people with kids on their bikes to be running red lights, but they're no more targets for enforcement of that here than they are for having two kids riding on the bike with their parent. That's against the law, but except for a brief campaign recently, I don't see any enforcement of that, either.
I'm not talking about exceptional or unusual behavior here, either: it is widespread.
Posted in: Cyclists using phones to be fined up to Y50,000
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tmarie, the TV news reports were saying that, judging from the marks on the road, the police believed that the driver was zig-zagging, presumably to try to rid him/herself of the body caught in the car's undercarriage.
The video clips of some of the marks that I saw this morning certainly did seem to indicate purposeful zig-zagging rather than, say, random drunken drifting.
Posted in: Man dies in Osaka hit-and-run after being dragged for 3 kms
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franknbeans,
"Freelance" in this case means that, unlike most announcers, MCs, anchorpeople, TV presenters, etc., who work as employees of the TV Stations or networks, she is one of the relatively few people who (usually because they become popular enough to believe that they can do so) decide to quit and work as independents. She used to work for TBS.
Usually but not always going freelance in that industry means joining a talent agency. Typically the pay is much better than it would be for a company employee announcer, plus they theoretically have more options for work--any and all TV stations/networks and multiple time slots--than they would have if they were working for a single employer.
Posted in: Freelance TV presenter Mari Watanabe announces marriage
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The article indicates that he said his wife's mental health was deteriorating, and he had no income. Apparently she was becoming senile, and he didn't think he could care for her any longer.
It's hard enough, with the extremely limited medical, counseling, and other resources available in Japan, to care for the mentally ill when one *has *money. I can't condone his action, but neither is it impossible for me to understand how he might have given in to desperation.
Posted in: Man arrested for strangling wife in Kawasaki
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Something very similar happened to me in Ueno Station last year. Fortunately, I'm a permanent resident and I speak Japanese. That didn't entirely prevent a very unpleasant few minutes with the plainclothes cops.
I was accosted by at first one fellow who asked "Do you come here often?", as his two colleagues moved in from the flanks. It seemed like a strange question to ask in a major train station, and seemed *extremely *suspicious, as did their movements. I thought at first that, amazingly, they intended to try to attack and/or rob me in Ueno Station at mid-morning. He then moved closer, showed me a badge and ID folder, and asked to see my passport.
I explained that I don't generally carry my passport, and showed *the main guy (of the three, one looked like a thug and another looked like a *chinpira/gangster wannabe...the guy apparently in charge was the only marginally respectable looking one among them) my "gaijin card" as requested. None of the trio liked my refusal to let the card out of my possession, as their glares and muttering indicated.
There have been several cases of criminals using fake police credentials for various nefarious purposes, so I required them to look at it while I held it. One of them took exception to this, so I explained my reasoning. That's the best that they were going to get without arresting me, for which they had no grounds at all, and both they and I knew it.
I very much doubt that most people, Japanese or foreign, would be able to distinguish between authentic and faked police badges/IDs, anyway.
After a few minutes and a couple more questions, they very courteously thanked me and wished me a good day. The thuggish cop seemed very pleased when I told him that he didn't look at all like a cop, but more like a criminal. Successful disguise, I suppose he thought.
I found the encounter mildly unpleasant but weirdly interesting in its way. For someone unable to speak/understand Japanese, it might have been quite frightening.
A complaint to the police would get you nowhere; a complaint to/through your embassy might (eventually) garner a reluctant apology. But I doubt it.
Posted in: Roughed up by the cops in Shinjuku
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I don't see what's new about these. Scissors like this have been widely available here in shops and through catalogue sales (Co-op/Seikyo, for example) for several years now. Several friends have been using them for two years at least.
Posted in: Shredder scissors
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I used to live in Tomigaya, close to Yoyogi Park, and had a lot of sympathy for the tuba player who regularly practiced there. I'd see/hear him when I'd ride through on my way to work, and assumed that he couldn't find, or maybe afford, any other place to practice. He wasn't particularly good (although its hard to tell with tuba practice), but he was certainly enthusiastic.
I like the sound of bagpipes played well, and I wish I still lived near there, so I could listen to this piper practicing.
Posted in: Bagpipe