JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
1
To be healthy, live in the big city
-
2
Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
-
3
Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
-
4
Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
-
5
From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
-
- 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
-
- 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*
-
- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
0
Cos
Japan is a dynamic country
Thanks for that gem. That said, if anyone wants advice, call me. I sell some.
Posted in: If a longtime expat starts offering you advice, walk the other way
0
Cos
Bimbo is an attitude not a level of education. She is getting an incredibly costly wedding buzzed in media as if she was Paris Hilton. Her choice, so she can't complain if we say it's tacky exhibition of money.
Posted in: Crowd on VIP alert at site of Clinton's wedding
0
Cos
I never watch Japanese anyway -I don't even have a TV. Otherwise I would just boyicott all those archaic oyajis. That said, the whole soccer business also excludes totally women, so that's not a surprise that the media that follow them have a similar mindset.
What did the death in Thailand change ? Are women living in Japan eternal and immune to accidents and crimes ?
Posted in: We can't possibly send female announcers to a place which is said to be insecure.
0
Cos
I agree that Macdo's communication directed to children is particularly evil. Yes, parents and educators have a responsability and should provide real meals to children. That's one part of the equation.
But the child lives in the world...he receives all the messages from CMs, street posters (what do you think about that teen golf champion selling the fatsands in the present campaign ?). Some countries have had to set restrictive rules on CM to prevent from showing in middle of children shows, childen magazines, children books, because you couldn't get anything, even educational material free of the burger sponsoring.
In some places, the "Donald" is even allowed to do shows in the street, outside the shop. It gets inside schools, to sponsorise school sports events, pop stars... And they give to your kid that walk in the street, a balloon, a toy, a sample, a coupon, an invitation to a concert of the most popular teen stars... These days, cities have to make local laws to forbid them to advertise to schoolchildren in uniform on their way to/from school. That means the macdos and others would do that constantly if the cops let them.
@Telecaster Subway healthy ? My pet rabbit wouldn't touch their poor veggies. You're confusing marketing stuff as "healthy" and providing really healthy products.
And well macdo does it. You can have their healthy menu. Instead of hamburger, chicken pureed with flour shaped in nuggets. Instead of fries, sweetened corn. instead of coke, flavored sweetened milk... That one looks decent ? Really ? Their idea of drinking their milk makes me sick. We are 80% of lacto-intolerant on earth. It's 99,9% of Japanese population. Dairies we can have, but the big glass of milk, we don't digest it.
Posted in: Ronald McDonald under fire from child obesity opponents
0
Cos
Seeing the photo, I first believed that was the latest version of the "grow your breast gadget" you find on sale in the last pages of catalogues. Well, that's not better...
Surely this girl is not thick and illustrates well the risk of rice penury.
Fukuyama, the skin and the teeth get as white as you want thanks to a bleaching product and a good photoshopping.
Posted in: Grow-Your-Own-Rice bra
0
Cos
Supernatural, I guess you have never seen those noodles. They have contained dried veggies since the beginning. Freeze-drying was invented by the Japanese Koya mountain monks last century, before instant coffee (another Japanese invention) and that probably gave the idea for the instant ramens.
The noodles in themselves could be healthy (as an element of a balanced diet). But yes, the salt, the sugar, the MSG, the artificial flavorings, the preservatives in the soup... and even the contact of the hot water with plastic/stryofoam cups are not something you want to eat regularly. If they reduce progressively each of these things, their noodles will be decently healthy in about 100 years.
Posted in: Ramen inventor's son soups up healthier legacy
0
Cos
Pasta are good but not as much as French fries. They don't contain potassium. LOL
Cooked al dente, white pasta has a glycemic index lower than that of brown rice (which I like too), and lower than the GI of whole wheat pesudo-pasta. Not that I am impressed buy the GI fad diets. Aren't they already out of fashion ?
*** i have never seen anyone eat plain pasta.
Why not ? I often do. I have seen people that never eat anything "plain", that don't even drink their water "plain".
***it is science you can see how bad white starches are for you. ***
Yeah, after all, in the last 500 years, all the healthiest and longest living communities on the planet have lived on traditional diets with a 50% of their food being white starches (rice in Asia, white surdough bread, couscous and pasta in Mediterranean areas, potatoes in North of Europe...). That must be so bad.
Let's all listen to 25 yr old science made by researchers that graduated in weightlifting and bikini modeling... and followed by a crowd of super-sized bums that would make Ozekis look skinny compared to them.
Barilla is industrial lower-end pasta, totally similar to supermarket brands if you take the same size. Except they are more expensive in Japan (they are actually the bottom of the supermarket shelf in Europe). In Osaka, you can find De Cecco and a few hand-made brands. You can see the difference : the surface of the old style pasta is not so smooth. That means it was not made with the big machines, not quickly dried. It's quick and easy to make your lasagna, tagliatelle, spaghetti from durum semolina (that can be ordered online). Other shapes, it's complicated...
Posted in: Some diet gurus say pasta is good because it is low-fat; others say it's not so good because it's high carb. What do you say? Is it a healthy dish?
0
Cos
I eat tuna only a few times a year, dolphin and whale never. I appreciate the very occasional quality toro. But those fish/sea mammals are really a tiny part of Japanese cuisines, and tuna is mostly used for the lower-end supermarket sushi, to be gulped down by Japanese that never cook and eat any kind of fastfood.
My fishmonger proposes about a hundred of species of fresh and delicious local fish and seafood. You must really have bad taste to focus on tuna and whale Mrs Takamura. You're probably very ignorant in your own country's foods.
100 years ago, most Japanese people wouldn't eat much maguro, and they wouldn't waste like now. And that was not a "simplification" at all, there was a great variety of recipes. They should go back to traditions.
Posted in: Japan's food culture is an endangered species
0
Cos
"Ethnic sentiment" is the automatic consequence of institutions that refuse to consider them as nationals. Why would someone with a North-Korean passport (for instance) would vote like a Nihonjin ? You cannot be "inside" and "outside" at the same time. As long as they have different rights from Japanese citizens, they cannot vote the same way. That's clear.
I am totally opposed to foreigners voting in elections. It's illogical. Give these people the possibility to acquire the nationality, even as a second nationality. Then they will vote as citizens... not as "ethnic people".
If at least we were discussing it about migrants, that would make sense as we/they are not naturally entitled to obtain the new country's citizenship. That should be something acquired for the others. That's a total absurdity that people born and growing up in a country cannot be full right citizens. I can't even believe that now in Osaka, there are kids that are 4th and 5th generation, and they are not officially "Nihonjins". Stop that joke someday !
Posted in: Letting foreigners vote would stir ethnic sentiments and risk generating confrontation.
0
Cos
I have zero sympathy for airlines. I wish we stop giving any tax money to those irresponsible businesses.
Oh it's easy for them to target "young fatties", as it's not so fashionable to blame obese people. But well, they do the same if you are tall, unable to fold your leg, in a wheelchair, elderly that have reduced mobility, even people with a pace-maker. My grand-dad, then 92, was nearly denied boarding as they didn't find him fit for their standards. His crime was to have a medical certificate saying he should not pass their x-ray gadget door, we had to threaten them of a trial. And that was 1st class, would have been a first class trial. Who do they think they are ?
All that means they are allowed to work with the 40% of population that are perfectly young, healthy and slim. And they do the diagnostic themselves. And some of you think it's OK ? If you are lucky, you'll reach an old age too, and you will be in the group they reject too.
To offices, schools, hotels, restaurants, we ask to make the place accessible to the majority of people. Obesity is not a rarity, whatever you may think. In Japan, doors have to be wider and higher than 150 yrs ago. What would you say if a new mansion had Edo era sized doors ? Wouldn't you say it's anachronic ? Equipment has to be adapted to people.
Some of you say that's an additional cost. That's not even true. There is no itemized cost of passengers. The weight ? Being tall and slim, I am under the average and rarely carry luggage, so come back with the argument when I will be given discounts for underweight. The big and tall people don't need 2 seats, they need a larger/longer seat. Any airline can order interior design, even for cattle class. They can decide to have all the seat at the size of 40% of population (then, JAL and all those that land on subsidized airports, give back the tax money). Or they can decide to have 40% standard seats, 20% wider, 15% longer and 5% space to make a separated nursery area. Percentage evoluting according to needs. In 2010, an American airline that doesn't have 50% of wide seats is a shame.
Posted in: Actor-director Kevin Smith ejected from plane for being oversized
0
Cos
If the translation is exact... it is stupid. I will always buy the cheapest offer at equivalent quality.
But she is right if she means a meal as a service. I mean when you buy a meal, you pay the salary of the person preparing it. That the food is bowl of ramen on a counter or a luxury kaiseki service doesn't matter. Most of the price is used to pay the staff. If you pay that staff 1500 yen per hour, they can be a customers of your neighbour's beauty lounge, then the neighbour can make 2500 yen an hour and can be your customer, so you can make 5000 yen an hour... It's a cycle. If the restaurant staff gets 500 yen, well accept to also get 1/3 of your hourly rate too. So it's not so much the value of your life than the amount of your salary.
Posted in: If we all got used to spending just 250 yen for every meal, then meals priced respectably will soon become too expensive. When you buy something cheap, you lower the value of your own life.
0
Cos
***Anyone else annoyed with Christians right now? ***
Wait a minute. Those retards or criminals happen to be Christian (and it's not a VIP club, anybody can say he/she is Christian). They only represent themselves. Well I wish them to also get a good lawyer to represent them from now. I hope they will get a very exemplary and mediatized trial... Just to show to the next ones.
But I'm very pessimistic. I don't think the TV watching masses are able to understand. 24 hours after that earthquake, I had a big internet fight with some of my (French) compatriots. We had our case of abductors in Africa a few years ago, so nobody can say they did not suspect anything was fishy. At that point, you can't realistically suspect any NGO in poor kid adoption business to be honest. The whole operation is unfair to poorer countries, it's trading humans, even when paperwork is well done.
Those were not Christian, just 21th century celebrity wannabes. They want to do big PR operations of "saving the world", some "rescue orphans" like the brandgelinas, others rescue dolphins like Bimbo Pannetiere... I prefer that they do the animals and plants. And that works, even if everybody knows that after 2 or 3 years of a real "humanitarian" job, all his actions were just publicity stunts for his own profit, Kouchner lives like a billionaire and has a job in governement now. So the next morning after Haiti's disaster, they started a petition to ask French governement to rapatriate imediatly all the Haitian kids that were being adopted by French bobos. Like : "we have to get them quickly before Haitian autorities block adoptions...". They don't lose time, they'd go there stepping on corpses not yet cold to take their pet-kids. And they are so sure of themselves : "those that criticize us know nothing, they are real orphans, no comparison with people that adopt in dishonnest countries.... we are doing it for the sake of Haitians". Oh come on, before the quake there was already a warning about the questionable "legality" of Haitian adoptions on Foreign Affairs Ministery home page, and about Haitian authorities and UN already trying to freeze such operations.
Doesn't matter, they had scores of airheads signing...
Posted in: Haiti detains 10 U.S. Baptists for taking 33 kids across border
0
Cos
@dontknockit Abandoned kids are also known as "orphans". Hello?
OK. So, if there is an earthquake, any American missionary can come and pick up your own kids, nephews and cousin and bring them to a petshop (that they call an orphanage) in a tourist resort.
the Dominican resort of Cabarete
You'd want your daughter going there ?
its difficult to imagine that where they were going could be any worse than where they left.
You have no imagination and you're very ignorant. Read at least the article.
People go down and they’re going to fall in love with these kids
You need a picture ? Dominican Republic, where they were taken to, is one of the hugest brothel on the planet. Rates of AIDS are constantly breaking new records. And if that's already a hell for adult citizens, guess what that can be like for kids and teens that are illegal aliens.
Even if the kids have apparently no family, they have a country. Haiti never meant to abandon its kids. In a few weeks, there will be Haitian kids without families, but there will also be other Haitians that will have rebuilt a housing place and that will be able to adopt children and raise them in their own country.
If those folks were not in kid traffic, they would built their orphanage on Haitian soil. They had no need to cross the border. They only did it to get away from the control of Haitian authorities.
Posted in: Haiti detains 10 U.S. Baptists for taking 33 kids across border
0
Cos
I don't think many people try to really suicide from the 3rd floor. It's a bit low, too many chances to miss yourself. But well, some jump because they are crazy, on drugs, drunk, walking in their sleep, walking back as they are fighting with someone, lose their balance while they try to catch some laundry taken away by the wind, or they are just plain stupid (real case in my family, he survived and he is still stupid). Well, I would often jump the 5 meters from my bedroom when I was a (grounded) teenager, and never got a scratch, but someone less trained could manage to land on their neck and break it. Many possibilities.
Posted in: Singer Maki Goto's mother dies after falling from 3rd floor window
0
Cos
I used to pay... I don't think I'll go back there. The quality of articles became so low, the technical interface were always bugged, then they started adding pop-up ads to paying edition, blogs of readers and comments were included in the news and becamemore voluminous than what the paid journalist wrote. Then during elections they started spamming me on the email I used to subscribe (and they had said they were keeping privacy etc), that was the last drop.
OK, if people work they should get a salary, but at that point the bloggers are working more than journalists. So it's fairer if that comes from ads and affiliates. I think readers don't wish to give more money to established papers than to individual blogs/pages.
Posted in: Would you be willing to pay for access to newspapers' online content?
0
Cos
That's so hypocritical. There are toilets for male in many "ladies" in Japan, so little boys go with their Mums.
Anyway, that makes what ? I understand we don't want men on ladies's side of the gym changing room, sento, open showers... but for station toilets, there are doors for each individual seat.
Posted in: Crossdresser arrested for trespassing in ladies room at train station
0
Cos
Her run... They mean she can't dance ?
Posted in: Norika Fujiwara starts her run in 'Cabaret'
0
Cos
North-Korea, welcome to 21th century. Put your dear Kim Jong Il in a retirement house. I don't know ...something nice, with a golf course, in case if he wants to throw something into the sky...
Then, start living like the rest of the world. The truth is your country is in such a miserable condition now that you have to kidnap people to invade you. So open up, see the world and join us some day to party in Tsuruhashi in 2010 !
Yeah, I know they can't read me...
Posted in: N Korea calls for end of hostile relations with U.S.
0
Cos
*** most Koreans probably do not even know what an Okinawan is.***
Really ? What uneducated folks they are in your opinion ! And they all dare commenting Japanese textbooks they have never seen. LOL
Funny that all you found to answer me is that I would be incompetent and I have no right to comment, VG877.
That's just as I said, South-Korean youths are taught history in a disproportionate way. They end up believing their country is the center of earth, the biggest victim of the universe, the only ex-colony (while they not even an "ex" colony), etc.
They don't realise that in other countries, including Japan, in the whole curriculum of history, about 0,05% of the space is considered enough to say it all about little South-Korea. My Korean students always start screaming the first time I show them what the world knows of South-Korea : bloodiest civil war ever, American military base, dictatures, propaganda and censoring of information, industry, corruption and bankrupcy. (and well, to be nice, I don't list them prostitution and baby girls given for adoption, but to be fair, before high-school, that's all what we knew about South-Korea)
That's not only about South-Korea, but the pre-1945 problems are considered as archeology, the chapter is closed. 60 years of newer history has ran since.
***There is no territorial dispute between Korea and Japan over Tsushima. ***
That you ignore something does not make it inexistant. South-Korea officially claimed Tsushima in 48, kind of invaded it in 50, and had to drop the claim in 51. The Americans told them they were asking a lot those days, a lot more than what they could administrate.
The situation is the same with Dokdo, a country that has not the command of its own army, that have accepted heavy occupation for decades (I mean the 50 last years) and is not even able to access to it's old capital (the beautiful Pyonyang) and 1/3 of the territory Japan gave them back in 1945... You'd think they already have enough territory problems.
But they are making a huge fuss over a neighbouring country just alluding that Koreans shouldn't own 2 rocks in the sea. (re-read the article, it's exactly that)
Apologies, the ODA etc. You believe that a couple of half hearted apologies and the ODA is enough to settle all historical grievances. In other words, you are basically setting a price on human lives. And that is your biggest mistake.
It's not a mistake. You are ignorant of the basic facts of history of South-Korea. I did not set any price. I quote historic facts. The ODA and their amount were negociated in 1965 by the South-Korean government. They were not only accepted, they were calculated by Seoul. They asked Japan to give all the money to SK's governement and to refrain from dealing directly with victims. The investigations and establishment of the list of victims was done by South-Korea, they asked Japan to let them do it, Japan did not even got the list, only the numbers and the amount to pay. SK authorities gave a very little part of the money to victims and their families.
Here, I add, as you seem ignorant, that after 45, most countries signed deals like that. Each State compensated its citizens that were victims (even victims of a foreign power) and the States arranged for compensation. So if one victim felt he/she desserved more, he/she would complain to his/her authorities. And (even there were exceptions) foreign countries refuse to accept individual claims as they sign the agreement with the other state, so they have to respect it. So, all the South-Koreans saying they are victims and Japan refused to acknowledge and pay are factually wrong about the second part. Japan acknowldeged and paid. And they often protested at the wrong window. Sorry for them if the mistake was sincere.
I think many South-Korean citizens didn't know the 1965 deal, or did not understand its content, because that was not written in their textbooks. That's what I call a problem. They are all taught about Hideyoshi, which is a folkloric tale with no consequence in present. But about important treaties of present time, they are ignorant. In all the textbooks we gathered (published 10 to 5 years ago), the compensation deal of 1965 was not explained. That was not false,just omitted.
And at that time (10 to 5 years ago), herd of South-Koreans patriotic activists and their many followers were screaming at Japan, saying Japan refused to pay for "comfort women", for irridiated people, etc. And when non-Korean historians would tell them of the 1965 deal, most South-Koreans would say that was lies we all made to "protect facist Japanese". Now the SK version of the 1965 document has been published. Everything I said is written clearly in Korean language.
So before going abroad to make a scandal, it's wise to learn about your own government and what your compatriots in power did recently.
If you say I gave innacurate information, show me any textbook of South-Korean public school that was relating those facts.
Posted in: S Korea-Japan territorial dispute flares up again
0
Cos
@VG877 I am not taking any guess about textbook content.
I read 3 of the languages you list. And our local Asian association regularly makes exhibits about the topic, they show pages of the different books translated into Japanese. Many of our members are Chinese and Korean and they don't like so much the situation in their country. For instance, a Chinese friend does and publishes any research she wants in Japan (she is a specialist of Japanese history, she went to do a PhD here), but in China, she cannot write anything about Japanese history past 1850 without getting problems (her coworkers are told they are not harsh enough against the Japanese, etc, and they get bullied by administration), so she researches only very old stuff, even now in 2009.
What is wrong with their textbooks ? Oh the whole concept. It's far too nationalistic for the century. They are not the only countries in the world doing it. French textbooks of the 1930's were a bit like that too, and even in my time, I remember asking my teachers of some rats had eaten something like 40 pages about our colonial wars (their answer was : "No, about 100 pages."). So as you guess Mao, Kim 1st, Kim 2sd, any guy that was a leader of South-Korea are heros misunderstood by the rest of the world. Their defects are forgotten (or a world coalition of historians invented them). For some details, who cares ? But there were a few big stuff. Then about Japan, they charge the wagon. That gives the impression that 98% of the war victims of those countries were killed by the Japanese. But reality is more 50% by the Japanese (which is huge), and 50% by their own compatriots (while the Japanese were there or later, for totally unrelated reasons). If that was only that... who cares ? They pay for their mistakes because they have let their own criminals keep the power.
My problem is they continue. They make no mention of any apology speech by Japanese Prime Ministers (and there were 16 so far, I think, even if the recipients did judge them sufficient, they exist), or of the ODN development credits by Japan, as an apology. And all mentions about Japan is to relate stupid disputes over those rocks in the middle of the sea. So that gives the impression that Japanese people now, even those whose parents were not even born in 1945, would be still hostile. You can say what you want about Japanese war crimes, that's one thing. But accusing Japan of still being a warmonger nowadays is not fair. And that brings nothing good for present and future international relations. But well, I wouldn't tell a word about it (I don't wake up every morning thinking about Chinese/Korean textbooks) if they were not the ones starting criticizing Japanese textbooks. They shouldn't throw stones while they live in glass houses.
The last time I was in South-Korea, I was walking in Pusan and saw a park. I wanted to enter and the janitor told me "You won't like it, I don't like showing to foreigners...ok, if you insist, but I let you in for free.". Inside there was a memorial about Japanese invasion, hundreds of years ago. And groups of kids in school uniforms brought there by their teachers and spitting at the images of those [enter insult) Japanese. Teachers were encouraging them. I went to talk to the teachers, in Japanese (on purpose), they were nice guys, they spoke perfect Japanese, one had done a ryugaku of several years and they told me they visited Japan sometimes, had friends, etc. So why ? "Oh, they are kids. It's like a game... And well, we have to teach a curriculum, not what we think... Is it nationalistic ? You're kidding girl ? Yes of course, it is. And the boys will do military service... No, no, personnally, we agree with you, but we won't tell it to our pupils, they'd repeat it and older teachers and school directors want us to teach the patriotic history... But don't worry, adults are intelligent, they make the difference between history and people living now.". They really do ? You wouldn't say. I find the Korean teaching methods worrying. I really had the feeling they lived in a very different world from mine, even if apparently they now have the economic development, the education and freedom to travel. The teachers told what all nationalistic Koreans tell me : "But our families were victim... oh, you are from Lorraine, so your family lived German occupation ? ...and they died ? kids were orphans ? they lost all ? So you must hate German people, no ?". Hell no ! Why would I ? I never even considered it. My ancestors that were victims never hated their German acquaintances, only German leaders and officers using unnecessary cruelty. They always said that when there is a war, small people of both side are in the same boat, the one of losers and sufferers. And once the war was finished, they first idea was not to revenge, but to find a way to prevent war from occuring again. Are Koreans dumber ? Well, they can choose to be.
Dont be a hypocrite. Im pretty sure if roles were reverse, you would be screaming bloody murder at the Koreans.
An idiot would.
If I saw any scene like that of Pusan in another country, I would find it equally weird. In Japan, I haven't so far. Many Japanese teachers are "leftists". The local ones bring their students to see all the exhibits about Korea and China, including those about Nankin events, about Japan wartime science experiments. I know Osaka is not all Japan. So maybe you guys have seen people pushing kids to be nationalistic hatred somewhere in Japan ?
Posted in: S Korea-Japan territorial dispute flares up again