JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- 秘書及び業務サポート
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M / Year
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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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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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CoolCali
Excellent article... too bad the "insert expletive here" xenophobes that run the show are probably equally incapable of reading your article.
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CoolCali
Heard the movie really blows hot air. Had some friends see it in the states and their kids were bored... Really sad, considering all the money spent on this thing. Then again, M Night (what the hell does the M stand for???) wouldn't have been my first choice for directors.
Posted in: Last Airbender
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CoolCali
I'm sure they would feel the same toward you
Cool biz doesn't fly because if you really want to save energy in the summer just go home on time. I've heard, but don't know if it's true, that the reason DST isn't used in Japan is that the dimwit salarymen will keep working until the sun goes down. How daft is that?
Posted in: Does Cool Biz help or undermine productivity at the workplace?
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CoolCali
Doesn't this look like something a Las Vegas hooker would wear?
Posted in: Sancta Karina
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CoolCali
Why wait for the lame rentals which will probably be vandalized. Go watch it on Bestdocumentaries.com right now.
Posted in: Dolphin hunt film canceled in Tokyo after protests
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CoolCali
Simple workaround that worked for me and a couple friends.
1) Make friends with an older Japanese person who has lived in the area all/most of their life. Should be easy in bigger cities, I don't know, where I live there are only about 75,000 people.
2) Live in a business hotel for a month or two while pursuing #1, and working. Most of these places have discounts for long term stays. I was paying about 55,000 a month.
3) Broach the idea of an apartment with your new found friend who then can introduce you to a landlord directly. Once this happens, the landlord loses face if he/she refuses their friend, so they are compelled to deal with the situation.
I have never paid key money, or resigning fees. I've been here 7 years and still cannot speak Japanese worth a damn. It's called being smart.
Posted in: Real estate agents and landlords often say they are interested in renting out houses to foreigners, but they hesitate to do so due to concerns.
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CoolCali
1)Too much emphasis on preserving the 'wa' and not enough stones to tackle the tough issues with the forethought that not everyone will be happy.
2)Too many backroom dealings instead of transparency or at least the illusion thereof.
3)Too many unelected, over privileged wankers in the bureaucracy.
Posted in: Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's decline is reviving an old question about Japanese politics: why does the world's second-largest economy produce such lackluster leaders?
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CoolCali
Had one my first 2 years here because it was the thing to do, now in the last 6 years I find I can take more trips oversees and fewer unwanted interruptions. A money saver for sure. Cell phones are a friggin' waste.
Posted in: Could you go a day without using your cell phone?
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CoolCali
Because all too often the 'teachers' are irresponsible, unethical frat boys that have read one too many articles in soft porn fluff mags like "Maxim" portraying Japanese women as an easy mark. These jerks come over here, act like, well, like frat boys. It's been going on far too long, so now the profession has been scarred. If the J-govt wanted to, they could tighten up the requirements for teaching English conversation. Say a minimum being a TESOL/TOEFL cert. I don't know if that will ever happen though. Until then, I'll just keep providing the best I can for my students.
Posted in: Why is teaching at English conversation schools in Japan such a maligned profession by some people?
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CoolCali
Which is why when people ask me, I tell them "Vulcan." It pretty much ends the conversation.
Posted in: Here people don't like to be upfront and open about their opinions. So if you can hide behind blood types you can then tell someone indirectly what you think about them.
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CoolCali
The opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan."
Posted in: What do you think are some of the most spectacular scenes ever filmed in movies?
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CoolCali
"Wahhh! Wahhhh! I want it easy... like, like my grandparents after WWII."
What a load of crap. Images and idiots on TV are what these overprotected wimps see as success. Monster parents who don't allow their child to taste defeat or real success early on are creating children incapable of thinking and acting for themselves.
I just had some kids mother write yet another note to the school. This is the third in, you guessed it, 3 years. Each year it's the same old BS: "My son finds English difficult. He has problems speaking in front of others. He gets easily intimidated." And on & on it goes. When this kid was in first grade he still couldn't use chopsticks, let alone a spoon and fork. Why? You guessed it, right? Mommy was still feeding him.
Anyway, rant over. Off to Kamakura for the day.
Posted in: Children fear that in a society with a widening gap between the rich and the poor, making a big mistake will prevent them from moving up in the world, which diminishes their ambition and motivation.
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CoolCali
Ah Pukey, you beat me to the punch.
Yeah, my friends in the states have read about the hellish ambulance experiences in Japan and just hope National Health care won't lead the USA down that path. I tell them not to worry since western doctors actually have to take AND pass (college courses in) AND practice ethics.
Posted in: I want these events to help make the world a place where people don't need to be afraid of dying in childbirth, just like in Japan.
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CoolCali
Ghostwriting in Japan is a VERY lucrative business.
Posted in: Want to look like Aki Hoshino? Read her book
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CoolCali
Well duh? Did you just arrive here dude? Is doesn't take a "Director of ...." or a PhD to figure out that Tokyo is about as cosmopolitan as a hillbilly reunion.
First, the so-called anti-discrimination laws have to be honored and enforced by the keystones.
Second, the government has to actively acknowledge, encourage, and embrace the importance of foreign cultures in a tangible way.
Posted in: Japan is the only major developed nation where almost none of the men and women of influence — in the realm of ideas, business or government — are from foreign backgrounds. Tokyo, as opposed to other global metropolises, has no cosmopolitan flavor.
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CoolCali
Of course people will call me racist, but I've heard worse from better so here goes my rant.
You want Chinglish? Go to China. You want Singlish? Go to Singapore. You want Jinglish? Go to a Juku.
Native English teachers, not speakers, TEACHERS, like myself are the ONLY ones who should be allowed to teach English. Fortunately, the BOE in my prefecture agrees with me, and compensates me accordingly. These boneheads that come here with anime wet dreams and degrees in underwater basket weaving have no place in the classroom. Too bad the J-government doesn't make it a requirement for a credential. It's probably why J-students rank last in Asia in English proficiency year after year.
Posted in: Do English teachers at schools have to be native speakers? Can non-native English speakers do just as well or better?
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CoolCali
Well no kidding? Geez, finally someone with the stones to actually say it like it is. The kasumagaseki is a dinosaur. Actually, he's not the first. I forget the J-title, but there is a book out there, in English, called "Straightjacket Society" that explores and explains the completely &#$%*! up system that has paralyzed Japan for the last 20 some years.
Posted in: The bureaucrats created a very centralized system that has become out of date, and unable to react to the world’s changes. We need a system that serves the people, not the bureaucracy and entrenched interest groups.
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CoolCali
I keep my spittoon in the corner, and my Copenhagen in the fridge. My cigars are in the humidor. Don't like it, too bad. I'm sure all of the non-smokers who comment here have nasty, dirty little habits that the rest of us don't want to know about. Personally, I like the fact that smoking is still legal in most places around Japan. A bar without smoke is like fishing without beer. On the other hand, smoking in public buildings/places like offices, schools, and trains I do not condone.
Posted in: Would you support a total smoking ban in public places?
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CoolCali
Nice article Peter, but with the tiniest amount of research you would have found that the birthrate in the USA is not much better than it is here. The US keeps the population pumped through.... anyone, anyone??? Yes, immigration.
Posted in: Bare statistics mask human cost of Japan’s high suicide rate
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CoolCali
Anna, you should have told him off. Why cater to this barely concealed racism and/or sexism?
Had something weird on the train happen several years ago. I was actually relating a story to my wife and friends and was using my phone as a prop. The idiot behind me thought I was talking on the phone. He leans over my chair and tells me to "shut-up!" It was perfectly pronounced English. I was impressed. So I impressed him with a slew of Japanese epithets about his mother, family, and state of mind. Needless to say HE shut up and moved. I really don't care what other people think, but if you are going to open your mouth and let someone have it, make sure you've got your ducks lined up. Chances are you'll never see them again anyway.
Posted in: Train shame