JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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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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LFRAgain
Yes, it's as bad as it seems. And it makes me wonder where all this money we pay into the health care system goes.
Posted in: Cases of emergency patient refusal by hospitals rise to over 16,000
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LFRAgain
Yeah, funny, isn't it?
Posted in: Gov't asks Kansai to cut energy consumption by 10%
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LFRAgain
ThonTaddeo,
I don't deny the singular comfort of an air-conditioned room in the middle of a Japanese summer.
It's the blatant waste that irritates the hell out of me. Without having a shred of evidence to back the following statement up, I'd venture to guess the 10% cut could be achieved if people would simply stop pissing energy away through frivolous use, like the examples I mentioned in my earlier post.
No, 22 degrees for a restaurant is not appropriate. I shouldn't have to wear a jacket to eat lunch in the middle of a summer day. I shouldn't have to drape a blanket over my child in order to visit the local doctor's office. I shouldn't have to order a hot drink to endure a movie theater. I certainly shouldn't be able to tell what's on sale in an electronics shop just by glancing through the open doorway from the sidewalk. Yet, all of these have been the norm throughout Japan for the past 10 years I've lived here.
Nevermind the immediate financial rewards of closing a few doors and turning the thermostat to 25, it seems that even a massive natural disaster knocking out the electricity-producing capability of 1/5th of the country isn't enough to pursuade people to be smarter about how they use energy in Japan.
People waste an offensive amount of energy here, and balk at the slightest suggestion to scale things back a bit. 10% is nothing in the grand scheme of things, but you'd think people were being asked to turn over their laptops and cell phones, by the reaction of some Japanese, particularly in Kansai.
Posted in: Gov't asks Kansai to cut energy consumption by 10%
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LFRAgain
Excuse me?
Posted in: Come back, Koizumi. Japan needs you
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LFRAgain
People in Western Japan don't seem to really care about the situation up in Tohoku. Heck, people in Tokyo don't seem to care a whit either. As long as Starbucks is open and the trains run on time.
I mean, if they did, we'd see more people in Kanto, Kansai, Chugoku, and Kyushu getting angry at retailers that leave their front doors propped wide open during business hours with the air conditioning blasting away.
We'd see customers yelling about how restaurant chains like Yoshinoya and Skylark keep the temperature of their dining rooms at a teeth-chattering 22 degrees, regardless of the outside weather.
And we'd see more people taking small, private businesses to task for doing exactly what the big boys do as far as wasting electricity with reckless abandon.
People suck. Yeah, I'm feeling a little snarky today.
Posted in: Gov't asks Kansai to cut energy consumption by 10%
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LFRAgain
True enough. I think it's a fairly safe assumption that there's schlock on both sides of the sea. But the issue isn't so much with the quality of the source material as the faithful interpretation. So far, US filmmakers are zero-for-three as far as I'm concerned.
If someone wants to make a film inspired by "Akira," that's one thing. After all, the 1958 Japanese samurai film, "Kakushi toride no san akunin" was the inspiration behind "Star Wars," and no one criticized Lucas for butchering "The Hidden Fortress." Why? Because he made a different film.
But to have the audacity to call this ill-conceived cash grab a 'remake' while in the very same paragraph the appellation "Neo-frickin'-Manhattan" appears is ridiculous. They've already failed right out of the gate.
This won't be "Akira." It'll be "Escape from New York - Snake on a Bike."
Posted in: Collet-Serra to direct U.S. 'Akira' remake
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LFRAgain
This simply cannot be good. While the US film industry has certainly been successful bringing comic book properties to the big screen in recent years, it bears noting that that success has come largely with American cultural properties, i.e., Spider-Man, Superman, Batman.
The same cannot be said for imports that were adapted to more "American" tastes:
Fans trusted Hollywood by going out to see Godzilla (1998) with Matthew Broderick. With a budget of $130 million, the film netted $379 million worldwide. Not bad, right? But fans and casual viewers alike were not impressed or happy with the effort. Why not? Because it wasn't "Godzilla." It was an American twist on the giant-monster film genre that just happened to be called "Godzilla." Any other similarities simply did not exist, including the all-important message of the horrors and consequences of atomic weapons. Fans weren't fooled in the least.
Next, Speed Racer (2008) -- The film cost $120 million to make. It netted a paltry $93 million worldwide. Why? Because it failed miserably to maintain the cultural underpinnings of the original Japanese story, Mach GoGoGo!, which is fraught with enemies, dangers, and a storyline more involved than the cotton-candy pap the Wachowski Brothers tried to pawn on moviegoers.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? No way.
And yet Hollywood still hasn't gotten it through its thick head that it just isn't good at this.
Dragonball Evolution (2009) -- No one who has any familiarity with the original story has anything possive to say about the film other than that it finally ended. Again, the writers and director took such gratuitous liberties with the source material as to separate it completely from the original story. And they managed to go one further. After dishing out a very conservative $45 million (hmm... Maybe Hollywood's even starting to learn) to make this film, they only managed to bring in $57 million AND piss off the fan base of the very country from which they "borrowed" the source material, Japan. Dragonball Evolution failed abysmally in Japan, the second largest market for Hollywood films in the world.
Just as Japanese fans rejected Godzilla, Speed Racer, and Dragonball Evolution, just as they rejected the the plethora of simply awful video game adaptations (Street Fighter, Tekken, etc.), they wil reject any remake of Akira for the same reasons: American directors and producers just don't get it.
Posted in: Collet-Serra to direct U.S. 'Akira' remake
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LFRAgain
Actually, modern democracy and the framework it provides for a comprehensive legal system find their roots steeped deeply in ancient Greek philosophy, and not religion. Religion came along considerably later.
Posted in: Sydney man whipped in religious attack
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LFRAgain
j4p4nFTW
Freedom isn't absulute and all-encompassing. It comes with a boatload of responsibility. If you can't exercise your freedom responsibly, then you should be prepared for the consequences of your actions.
In the case of these four morons, holding a person down and whipping him because you don't like the way he practicies your particular brand of religion isn't a excercise of freedom. It's criminal assualt by morons.
You seem to implying that these four men are somehow being robbed of their right to practice their religion.
Well, if their religion mandates that they can assault someone for practicing differently, then yes, their freedoms can and should be officially curtailed. In this case, prison time seems more than appropriate.
Whatever these four bozos were trying to do, be it haze the man or exert some slapdash layman's version of Shiria Law, this demonstration of religious freedom that places them above the rules of the society in which they choose to live puts them in direct confrontation with what that society, and indeed the West deems as the unalienable right to not only worship whatever god one wants, but also to NOT worship, if one so chooses, without fear of reprisal from, dare I say it again, morons like these four.
Your attempt to paint Western ideas concerning freedom as hypocritical and contradictory fall far short.
Posted in: Sydney man whipped in religious attack
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LFRAgain
Mod, this has gotten really, really old already.
Why do you allow steve@CPFC the luxury of shoehorning his sexist nonsense into virtually every thread at JT since the relaunch virtually unchallenged? How comments like this possibly be construed as on-topic, much less contributing to any sort of quality in the level of discourse here?
Posted in: Aki Hoshino promotes next-generation KFC store
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LFRAgain
grammefriday,
Well said.
"Decisive blow." Wow. Blinders on, one and all.
This is the second administration that was unable to deal a decisive blow to the loosely organized but highly motivated rabble called the Taliban, and if Obama doesn't fulfill his campaign promise to pull our troops out of there, saving both lives and money, then we'll see this no-win situation continue into a new presidential administration.
What makes no sense is that if the Russians could figure out that fighting a land war in Asia was a really bad idea, then why is it so hard for the U.S. to learn from that lesson, despite wasting 10 years in the area with a local population that seems to lack the will to help itself?
McCain is still living in some sort of idealistic alternate universe in which good would triumph over evil if only everyone would just play by the rules. Leiberman is willing to trade his own mother's soul so long as it garners support among his Israeli allies. And Graham will say just about anything to gain brownie points with his constituency.
Not exactly the three Republican voices of reason I'd look to for answers as far as the Afghanistan situation is concerned.
Posted in: McCain: Afghan drawdown 'unnecessary risk'
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LFRAgain
That's a pretty tricky statement. Whose definition of 'justice'? Yours?
In the case of murder, premeditated or otherwise I can see perfectly well why someone would want to see justice meted out in an equivalent dose sans moral handwringing and pontification.
I can say without reservation that if my daugher were to suffer the way Lindsay Hawker did at the hands if this animal, the state wouldn't be able to waste time or money to put him to death. Becase I'd kill him myself. And I doubt there are very many parents on this earth who wouldn't do the same.
Posted in: Grim journey
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LFRAgain
Madverts,
1) Strauss-Kahn claimed "diplomatic immunity" in response to the charges. Those aren't exactly the first words of an innocent man, regardless of what the press or public thinks.
2) If you read, re-read, and read yet again the above story, what stands out glaringly is that the woman's claim of having been sexually assaulted is in no way being repudiated by the police or prosecutors. What's being called into question is her past, with accusations running the range from drug dealing to money laundering. Why not throw in gun-running while they're at it?
Its all pretty damning information . . .
. . . IF the maid were being charged with money laundering and drug dealing.
The woman isn't a character witness. She's a victim of sexual assault by a reknowned womanizer (ahh, see how that works?). Her past has nothing whatsoever to do with what happened in that hotel on that particular evening. And that this information somehow magically materialized in a mind-staggering clump should be more than enough to raise eyebrows.
Now if you think it's fair to argue a case based on who or what a person is or was, regardless of what the facts pertaining to issue at hand are, then respectfully, your take on justice and my take on justice might be a bit different.
Furthermore, it's ludicrous to think that it's as common as a sunny day for women to drop to their knees to service random 62-year-old men, particularly when that woman is a member of the housekeeping staff at a $3000-per-night luxury hotel.
The above article's "revelations" stink to the high heavens.
Posted in: Strauss-Kahn rape case 'near collapse'
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LFRAgain
Wow. This has got be one of the most blatant smear jobs against a rape victim I've ever seen.
The defense for Mr. Strauss-Kahn may as well skip the niceties and issue the following statement to the press: "Well, maybe he did rape her. Maybe he didn't. But look at what kind of person she is. She was asking for it." Go with an old classic.
And who says the ridiculously wealthy aren't above the law?
Posted in: Strauss-Kahn rape case 'near collapse'
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LFRAgain
Hmm...
Jun. 22, 2011 - 05:49PM JST ,
So which is it? Were you just having a laugh with the administrators or were you complaining? Doesn't sound like a very ha-ha conversation from the way you wrote it. In fact, it sounds more like you were looking for affirmation from other posters about how clever you were to put the secretary in her place with a liberal dose of your version of "common sense."
Beside, if you were having a laugh about it, then why start off your anecdote with, " . . . but actually this story makes me angry"?
And this "laugh" you were having certainly doesn't mesh up with the anger expressed in your other posts about how ineffectual school security is. I'd say humor is the last thing one could expect to find in your posts on the subject thus far.
In any case, I don't begrudge you for looking out for the wellbeing of your child. I have a child as well and would do anything for her. But, as I've already said, it's the way you went about it that I take issue with. Pushy, arrogant, obnoxious -- Yup. Based on how you related your story, every single adjective applies. And backtracking later to make it seem as if you were simply taking the piss isn't a very attractive discussion technique when your previous posts are still available for public viewing.
I hope your school gets those gates locked to address the needs of the parents. But I'll wager you could've gotten the change to happen sooner with a different approach.
Posted in: Teachers pin down knife-wielding man with two-pronged 'man catcher'
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LFRAgain
miamum,
And yet you still felt the need to top off a lengthy reply with that particular point
Yes, this is belittling the staff by being a smart-aleck.
No, I'm saying that you as a foreign parent with a child at that school stand out like blinking neon sign. They know precisely who you are, which is why you weren't challenged. And the two times you decided to "waltz" through the school (since "waltzing" rather than "blazing" through school policy to prove a point seems to make the idea more palatable to you), I can assure you you weren't seen as just some random foreigner wandering the halls. You were "Mr. So-and-So who yelled at the secretary last week because we didn't lock the gates." which was most certainly talked about at length at the next morning meeting. Maybe that'll cause the school to change their policy, but I doubt it. Particularly when the local PTA obviously hasn't seen a need to take the issue up with school administrators or the local board of education (hint, hint!).
Contrary to popular belief, Tokyo does not represent the whole of Japan. It's one city. And the gate-locking you claim is standard practice throughout Tokyo is in fact not standard practice nationwide. Case in point, the Aichi intruder story.
Re: School policy requiring visitors to check in, this, however, is standard policy throughout Japan, mandated by Boards of Education since long before the Osaka attack. You didn't deny that you were aware of this policy, which suggests that you violated it on purpose, yes, ostensibly to make a point about lax security, and again, not once, but twice.
So how's that strategy working out for you? Is the gate locked yet?
My beef with you here is that you're expressing this anger against the schools for not locking largely symbolic gates that you yourself admit are only speed bumps to the determined, while believing, shockingly enough, that your idea of what constitutes common sense somehow trumps that of 127 million people whose education system is still infinitely safer than most industrialized countries in the world. It's arrogant and it's obnoxious. And slapping the school in the face with some good old-fashioned gaijin gumption isn't the way to effect change. Not in Japan, it isn't.
You make it hard for other foreign parents who have kids in school by perpetuating the stereotype of foreigners as pushy, belligerent pains in the hindquarters.
Posted in: Teachers pin down knife-wielding man with two-pronged 'man catcher'
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LFRAgain
That's a very good point.
Meanwhile, I can't take too much issue with anyone who deftly quotes Tarantino.
Posted in: Why doesn't the U.S. adopt the metric system?
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LFRAgain
Oh? So, would 'cultural arrogance' be better? Or 'stubborn pride'? How about "limited intellectual capacity'?
Since we know these aren't strictly the case, then it must be laziness. Because nothing else makes sense, especially not, "Don't want to."
"Don't need to," I can get sort of see, but then again, how long will that excuse last, considering how piss-poor the U.S. is doing economically right now while our economic rivals only grow in number and strength?
The arguments against metrication are simply silly, but the arguments in favor make every bit of sense.
At the very least, students with a better handle on the infinitely easier measurability of metric units might be less intimidated by careers in mathematics and science, which could only benefit the U.S. in the long run.
Metrics are awesome. Come to the light side of the force.
Posted in: Why doesn't the U.S. adopt the metric system?
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LFRAgain
Too damned lazy would be my guess.
I remember my teachers in elementary school bringing in metric rulers for math class one day back in the 70s and say, "Kids, we're going to learn about a new way of measuring things!" It started off as very exciting and new, but it just fizzled out one day. Don't remember how or why, but it was just plain gone, and I never saw a metric ruler again until I came to Japan three decades later.
People really are set in their ways, which isn't good or bad. It just is. But now that I'm used to metric, I honestly wouldn't want to go back. It's infinitely easier to calculate off of a base-10 system -- which one would think would appeal to more people, being "easy" and all.
Posted in: Why doesn't the U.S. adopt the metric system?
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LFRAgain
miamum,
Locked doors and intercom systems? Sounds like a prison to me.
Japanese schools have not experienced even a fraction of the types of intrusion, violence, or danger that have prompted schools in other countries, i.e., the U.S., to turn their institutions of learning into armed camps.
Japan isn't there yet and spends a significant amount of time and attention towards preserving an environment of openness and safety. You can be snarky all you like about some posters' desire to maintain this atmosphere, but the fact remains that Japan still enjoys one of, if not THE lowest violent crime rates, particularly against children, in the industrialized world.
You bringing whatever emotional baggage from back home to Japan, slapping a label of "common sense" on it, and trying to force-feed it to the staff at your school most certainly does nothing to improve safety at the school.
When it comes to school violence being perpetrated by foreigners, well, those stats are virtually nonexistent. Which may shed some light on why no one challenged the random gaikokujin wandering the halls.
And as for your child's school having some 1,300 students? Been there, taught that. Here's a news flash: Far more staff at the school know exactly who you are than you seem to think, and I can assure you that after your first upbraiding of the staff, that number went up dramatically.
Ultimately, the lingering question on my mind is why when every other parent with children at your child's school understands and complies with the posted notice in the genkan instructing visitors to stop at the office to announce their presence and purpose at the school, you continue to brazenly flaunt those rules, blazing through the front doors and marching up the stairs to your daughter's classroom, as if this belligerent 21st Century version of extraterritoriality you brandish will somehow make the administrators of the school instantly see the error of their ways and obediently comply with the demands of the wise and oh-so-expert local gaikokujin.
The ironic and in no small way irritating kernel in all of this is that you would never do, much less be allowed to do this in, say, an American school. Yet you seem to think you have carte blanche to tromp through your child's school here in Japan, rules be damned. What's up with that, dare I ask?
On the contrary, had it occurred to you as you belittled the staff at your child's school that your very act of deliberately flaunting the school rules, not once, but twice, may actually undermine the efforts of the school to protect not just your child, but every other child at the school?
Posted in: Teachers pin down knife-wielding man with two-pronged 'man catcher'