JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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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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JohnBecker
Or for an American. I visited Japan last fall for 3 weeks, and had bought yen back in July of 2007 when the rate was about 115 yen to the dollar. With the current exchange rate of about 91 to the dollar, there's no way I could make the trip now or anytime soon.
Wherever I've stayed in Japan, I've never paid more than 8,800 yen per night. (Usually a lot less!) Business hotels are perfect when you're interested in saving a buck and seeing Japan every day, not enjoying the amenities of a hotel.
Posted in: Some hotels in Tokyo, Osaka slash rates by 55%
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JohnBecker
Exactly, presto - during the Great Depression, movie box office was off the charts. Same thing today.
Posted in: Video game sales shine in U.S. despite economic gloom
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JohnBecker
Quite a lot of rationalizing going on here. A lot of people want something for nothing.
As a photographer, my original, creative work is owned by ME. If you want a copy to stick up on your wall, you're free to pay me for it. If you choose to give it to someone else, that's fine, because you're not creating another copy. But if you take it from me without paying for it, you've stolen it. If you copy my work without permission and give it or sell it to someone else, you're in violation of copyright law and you're depriving me of income. And trust me, someone in my position can't afford to take that lightly. I'm not a "thieving corporation," I'm just a guy trying to make a living.
If I continue to lose income due to rampant illegal copying of my work, my own creative stuff winds up being no more than a hobby and I'm forced to make a living solely from contract work, in which I'm paid up front and my client assumes all rights in what's commonly known as a "pay for work" arrangement. No more headaches for me - all the money I'll ever see for that work is already in my pocket. My client is now the one who has to worry about those images being stolen. And rather than spending a significant portion of my time creating art, I'm reduced to shooting beer bottles or buildings or (shudder) creating stock images of attractive, ethnically diverse people standing around a generic flip chart in a brightly lit generic office. The horror. The horror!
100% WRONG. If you take something of value for which payment is expected, and you don't pay for it, you have stolen that thing. It's a copyright violation if you use (for publication, for example) or distribute something when you have not obtained the right (license) to do so. This kind of smug but ultimately clueless frame of mind is just another example of how little some people understand about the legal and moral rights of content creators and copyright owners.
Go ahead and rationalize all you want if it helps you sleep better at night. Stealing is stealing.
Posted in: Creative industries get ready for an offensive in copyright war
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JohnBecker
The government must preserve Japanese rice agriculture! Japanese rice is different, just like Japanese snow and Japanese apples!
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JohnBecker
At least the guy's getting the books.
Posted in: Aso buys books on diplomacy, but no comics
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JohnBecker
"Everyone" doesn't need a gun. I don't own a gun. Most of the people I know don't own guns. (Those who do, by and large, have only rifles and shotguns for hunting or target shooting.) And I live in Tennessee, not known for being the most liberal state in the country.
As countries around the world go, the U.S. is pretty free. And the people here are relatively happy. It is not the Wild West, everyone walking around with a gun on his hip.
If this mall argument had happened in Japan, there probably wouldn't have been a shooting. The aggrieved party might have just gone home, gotten on his bike and slashed some random schoolgirl with a kitchen knife as he rode past her. In his (inevitable) confession, he would have said, "I was angry about an argument I had at the mall earlier that day" and we would have ridiculed him just as we would ridicule the shooter in the Seattle mall.
I won't say guns aren't a problem; they clearly are. But the violence we see around the world isn't caused by guns. It's facilitated by guns. Or knives. Or baseball bats.
Posted in: Shots in U.S. mall after argument prove fatal
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JohnBecker
Here in the U.S., practical electric vehicles are problematic. Americans have spread out so far from the cities, they often live 30 or 40 miles from their workplaces. That's right on the edge of the maximum range of many electric vehicles. Add in errands or going out to lunch, and you have a real problem. It would be easy if recharging took no longer than pulling up to a gas pump and filling up, but we all know that's still just a dream.
The current hybrids are a good stopgap, and fuel cell/hydrogen cars appear to be the next step. Solar is a pipe dream, due to low output and uncertain "fuel" supply.
Until we have affordable, reliable and ubiquitous electricity from fusion generating stations and electric cars with swappable 100-mile (or more) battery packs, everything else is a temporary compromise.
Or we could make mass transit a viable option again, as Japan has always done.
Posted in: Ghosn says auto industry consolidation likely
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JohnBecker
There's plenty of fun to be had with that kind of car just about anywhere. I live in eastern Tennessee, very close to a road known as "the Dragon's Tail" that's one of the best driving roads in the world. Very twisty, you can't get much above the speed limit without scaring yourself silly. There are also a few places that drop off 60 or 70 meters if you get careless and get into oversteer through a curve. You don't need a supercar to have fun in a place like this, but it certainly wouldn't suck.
This Fairlady is fine, but I'll take the 240 - 260 - 280 of the '70s anyday. Lightweight, powerful, handled like crazy. And it was so much better looking than the current "machined out of billet" crop of rolling bricks.
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JohnBecker
Saddam was plenty bad, but he wasn't bothering us at the time of the invasion. We didn't have WMDs, and we knew it.
If Saddam were still in power, living in Iraq would suck for the Kurds and the Shia. That's a shame, but the U.S. don't have a dog in that fight. Saddam's value to the U.S. (if you can call it that) was to be an ever-present thorn in the side of Iran. All that's left locally to keep Iran in check is Israel. They'll fly their air strike on the Iranian nuclear facility when they feel it's time, but that may not be enough this time.
I know this is a cold and callous stance to take, and I do feel bad for the Kurds and Shia. But I think the U.S. would have been better served to just keep Saddam in his box, as we'd done from the end of the Gulf War.
Posted in: Saddam Hussein-era mass grave unearthed
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JohnBecker
Nintendo beat the market by giving the average person what he/she wants, a fun, accessible, no-brainer gaming experience. Pick up the controller, swing it to hit the ball. No 100-page manuals to figure out how to do skateboarding maneuvers or fighting moves. It's fun and as easy as you want it to be.
Hardcore gamers are maybe one half of one percent of the world population, if that. (Still a vast population for XBox and PS3 to battle over!) The Wii was designed for, and marketed to, the other 5.97 billion people in the world. It's not rocket science.
Posted in: Wii and DS top video game system sales in U.S. in October
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JohnBecker
Every nation has its idiots, but racists in America take the cake.
(Full disclosure: I'm a white American who voted for Obama.)
Posted in: Obama's election spurs hundreds of race threats, crimes
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JohnBecker
Sarge, the Mississippi plant will be producing the Prius.
Posted in: Nissan announces additional production, job cuts in Japan
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JohnBecker
@Molenir: I didn't say this polarized atmosphere just started. I said it's getting worse.
Posted in: U.S. congressman warns of Obama dictatorship
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JohnBecker
Like it or not, folks, Barack Obama will be president in a couple of months. You'll agree with some of his policy, disagree with some of it. Just like with every other president before him. Certain things will get better, others will get worse. Just like with every other president before him. After he's served his term, some will call it successful, others will call it unsuccessful. Just like with most other presidents before him.
The only thing that I see changing decidedly for the worse is the highly polarized, fearmongering rhetoric that's flying around in many places, including this forum. Obama won the election, fair and square. And now, as good Americans, it's time to give the man a chance. There will be plenty of time later for those who feel the urge to run around and tell us the sky is falling.
Posted in: U.S. congressman warns of Obama dictatorship
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JohnBecker
@Harry: Before Thriller and Dark Side of the Moon, "Tapestry" was the biggest selling album of all time. It came out in about 1971 or 72... and she'd been writing songs in the Brill Building for many years before that.
But yeah, how time does fly.
Posted in: Carole King holds first concert in Japan in 16 years
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JohnBecker
I'm not a big fan of synchronized swimming, but those young women are athletes by any measure. The Olympics are for athletes, not game players. Video gaming (with the possible exception of games like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution) is no more athletic an endeavor than Scrabble or Chess, neither of which is an Olympic event.
Posted in: For Japanese gamers, everything old is new again
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JohnBecker
Video gaming in the Olympics??? Please....
Posted in: For Japanese gamers, everything old is new again
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JohnBecker
Yeah, they can raise taxes and spend money like nobody's business.
Hm. Definitely a change from the Bush administration, which cut taxes for the rich and then spent unlike any other administration in history.
Posted in: Fast transition of power seen after Tuesday's U.S. election
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JohnBecker
@proxy: When Wal-Mart buys a boatload of Wiis, China has nothing to do with it. Wal-Mart pays Nintendo in dollars, which must convert to Nintendo's price in yen. A surging yen means a Wii costs more in dollars. This is pretty simple stuff...
Posted in: Nintendo cuts annual profit forecast on strong yen
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JohnBecker
@hellokitty: There was no riot. There was celebration in the streets and a few random acts of vandalism. The story you linked to quotes the police as saying everything is under control, no big problems. Only 76 arrests among a crowd estimated by police to be "over 100,000" sounds like a pretty orderly evening in South Philly. If that's your idea of a riot, you must not get out much.
@hotbox: the Phillies played a lot better. That's how they won the Series 4 games to 1.
Posted in: Phillies finish off Rays to win World Series