JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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Ramzel
I need to emphasize popular... Like for instance Japan has some of the greatest ping pong players, as well as ice skaters, but only the ice skaters make bank.
Posted in: Bolt is human; his sport's rules are not
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Ramzel
Tmarie - yes, yes it does. You
re talking about 4th and 2nd, not first. First in most popular disciplines means youre going to earn a lot.Posted in: Bolt is human; his sport's rules are not
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Ramzel
@ Elbuda Jealous much? Once you're the best in the world at something, you will be paid the same way. He was leading the entire game up to the finals and then has a mis-start and is disqualified. It is arguable whether or not this is a good rule. I personally think that one false start should be allowed.
Posted in: Bolt is human; his sport's rules are not
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Ramzel
Agreed, Korean beer ranks among the worst in the world.
Posted in: Korea’s popular beer Hite reaches Japan
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Ramzel
Ludicrous. If they had planned a session in Fukushima, I would understand, but that is ridiculous.
Posted in: New York Metropolitan Opera stars, fearing radiation, skip Japan tour
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Ramzel
Besides Japan car culture, except for car enthusiasts, goes for smaller vehicles that are easy on the fuel usage. How many SUVs do you see on the roads that are not luxury such as MB, Porsche, BMW?
Posted in: Ford sees chance to woo Japanese buyers
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Ramzel
The solution is pretty simple really. Replace Shimizu with one of the many iron willed know-it-all posters from this board. They will be down there in a pair of cover-alls with their balls out and have everything fixed in short order. After that they will go on T.V., look everyone in the eye and give them the straight dope. Next order of business will be scrapping all reactors, working or not, and just shrug off the multi-billion yen loss, because that is how real men do it.
Exactly.
Posted in: TEPCO to scrap 4 reactors at crippled nuclear plant; president hospitalized
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Ramzel
Most cabbies are paid on a 50% of fare basis. I've had chats with dozens of cab drivers in Japan. So you'll see a lot of them coasting in the left lane not paying attention to the road, because they are looking at the side walks. The ones who cue up are either tired or just do the taxi gig in order to have something to do, eg. retired.
Posted in: Why are Tokyo cabbies so clueless?
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Ramzel
"I fail to understand why the writer continues to take taxis after, apparently, so many bad experiences. Try a bike, or a train, or buy your own car. There are many options out there."
Posted in: Why are Tokyo cabbies so clueless?
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Ramzel
In contrast I will also mention notable cabbies: Ex-Director at Hakuhodo in his mid 60s who was very polite and friendly and knew how to use his GPS well. Former liquor store manager in LA who moved back to Japan 5ish years before I met him. Funny guy and fluent English. Knew the backroads like the back of his hand. Driver in his mid 30s who was quite chatty and told me about his plan to open a limousine business. Smooth sailing. Heavy-set guy with slicked back hair in his late 30s who must have had professional driving lessons as he can whip a cab to it's destination quickly and the ride is comfortable. I had him as my driver at least on two occasions.
Posted in: Why are Tokyo cabbies so clueless?
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Ramzel
I can relate with Daniel as I have taken a lot of taxis in Tokyo over the past 7 years. I also agree with some of the posters who said that one cannot judge taxi drivers from one poor experience. Generally they are quite okay, but there are many black sheep. First thing to note if you're taking taxis between several destinations that you know well is to remember the most commonly known landmarks/roads/points of interest near your destination. Do not try to go into back streets as this confuses most taxi drivers. However, if you're going to a place that you do not know well, then this does not apply and you will need to pay attention that your driver is going the right direction. Over the past 7 years I've had a lot of poor encounters: Once needed to take a taxi from Meguro to Hiroo as I was running late. The guy didn't understand Hiroo at all, no matter how many different ways I pronounced it. I even went as far as to describe it's approximate location by mentioning where it would be on the Hibiya line. After 10 minutes of tinkering with the GPS we were off! Fast forward 5 minutes and wham - hit a pedestrian. I saw him from the backseat clearly, but I did not say anything. The reason being that a friend once told me that a similar thing happened to him and he told the cab to stop and they hit the pedestrian anyway - when the police arrived the cabbie blamed my friend because he apparently distracted him. Class act.
Another time my wife had terrible stomach pains at around 10PM and we called a cab to our house (which costs 500 yen extra) to drive us to the hospital. They told us that it would take 15 minutes for the cab to get to our house - it took 45. We had the address of the hospital ready in Kanji - it took 10 minutes to enter the address. The drive should have been 10 minutes - it took 25. So, yes, whilst my wife was in pain the cabbie took about an extra hour to get us there and charged us the full fare, plus the ordering fee.
Other events include: -Another pedestrian hit -3 car pile up caused by my driver -When the route clearly indicated that we should go past Shibuya on the outskirts, he drives through Shibuya crossing during rush hour. -Going down one way streets. -From Aoyama-Itchome to Ebisu, drives via Meguro, resulting in a 50% higher fare than usual.
There are many many more stories, but these are the ones which stick out at the moment.
Bottom line: Generally cabbies in Tokyo are okay, but know how to use them and always be on the look-out for any unforeseen circumstances. Be vary of the many black sheep...
Posted in: Why are Tokyo cabbies so clueless?
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Ramzel
When I first started reading this article, I thought that the author was a country boy who first traveled to a big city and is surprised by the noise and bright lights. Turns out that he is an ex-London resident and has complaints about the Tokyo Metro. Interesting. Firstly to compare the two in regards to "treacherous chasms" and pointing fault to the Tokyo metro is preposterous. Anyone who has ever been on the "Tube", even going from central London to Heathrow, can vouch that at one station the platform will be 1 foot below the train's entrance and at the next 1 foot above. I personally have never seen such poor construction on any of Japan's train platforms. Moving on to the incessant sounds and announcements. London has it's "please mind the gap" warning blasted and repeated at every station. Makes you think what this fellow is on about. In different ways, every metropolis has a lot of noise pollution. The more advanced the technology gets, the more machines tell you what to do. Been to Hong Kong? The escalators tell you that you are about to arrive at the end of the path in both English and Cantonese. Other cities have close to as many announcements on the train. The newish NYC subway - same deal. However, the major difference in noise pollution is that it is mostly artificial on the Tokyo trains and in others it is the actual people yapping away on their phones or with each other in baritone.
Infantile jingles - another point. Notice how Tokyo's metro is the largest in the world and some people commute for 3 hours each way for a total of 6 hours a day? Notice how many people opt to sleep in the trains due to this. The jingle is not just for entertainment, but for the sleeping passenger to recognize that it is their stop. Makes sense, doesn't it?
The few people that he asked with inconclusive results is hardly worth mentioning.
Posted in: Why must Tokyo’s railways engage in aural assault?
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Ramzel
In the end of the day any additional corporate taxes will be passed on to us, the consumers.
Posted in: Would you support an environment tax as part of measures to counter global warming?
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Ramzel
Whilst I agree with the posters saying that it is great to focus on family and to have a nice work life balance, if the survey is indeed accurate, Japan will face severe difficulties in years to come. Their study implies that the young generation do not have any drive and want to work with one company for life. Sure, that is possible, but when there aren't any movers and ambitious workers in a company, it will eventually fail. There is no business that you can continuously run by a mediocre effort and still be successful. If the entire next generation opts for being the life long staffer in the company, then all corporations in Japan are doomed. You need initiative and innovation to beat the competition. We are already facing difficulties with the aging population, lack of future pension funds and unstable global economy. If you add on a generation of barely motivated workers and then Japan can say good-bye to the days of being a major world economy.
Posted in: Japan's young generation pursues stability over promotion
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Ramzel
Ryomasa - I think that your view is a bit skewed on pornography vs prostitution. Yes, both involve sex, but they aren't the same thing. "Actors & actresses" are screened for STDs regularly and they make "movies". Prostitutes have a pimp and engage in relations with any ol' guy in any ol' location for a marginal fee. They can spread diseases easily as there is nothing stopping them from doing so.
Rico - You are on the money. The awareness promotion is absolutely necessary as the usage of condoms is probably the lowest amongst the leading developed nations. Also the smoking analogy doesn't make any sense, as you state.
Posted in: Japanese porn stars fight AIDS with 24-hour telethon
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Ramzel
Yes, that is what I was saying.
Posted in: Why is teaching at English conversation schools in Japan such a maligned profession by some people?
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Ramzel
Oh and to the actual profession of teaching English in Japan: I have no disrespect, but also at the same time no respect towards the profession, because as many people pointed out, a lot of people do it as a filler or because they cannot do anything else. However, it depends on their situation. If they are passionate and professional about their work, all the power to them. If they slack off and just wait for their paycheck, then they may as well work at the ward office equivalent back home. The guy who looks down on people who teach and do webdesign and insurance - I cannot identify with his opinions. Some people are career ambitious, others are not. Everyone has to work though. If you are happy with 150,000-400,000JPY a month, fine, teach English. If not, then get some commitment, aggressiveness and go out and do something. I am the type of person who doesn
t care about peoples life styles as long as they work for them. Personally I like to make a good living, so I would never consider teaching. About 7 years ago I had some free time and a friend asked me to take some of her classes for a week. I absolutely hated it, but I made 30,000JPY for 6 hours or so. I was pretty surprised at the wage as I had no experience and no idea what I was doing. Coming back to my previous comment, I think English teachers (especially who are non qualified, like I was for a few hours) are overpaid. Taking that wage would make me nearly 10MJPY a year (40 hrs a week) and having no experience in the field. Bottom line: Do as you please as long as it suits you, but I think that generally the English teaching "profession" is flawed in Japan as most teachers are not good at what they do. Having seen the results of "teaching" a lot of the people I have met could have saved a lot of money not taking lessons and simply watching something like "Friends" instead for free to gain the knowledge of English that they have.Posted in: Why is teaching at English conversation schools in Japan such a maligned profession by some people?
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Ramzel
Yeah true, but that profession does have an 80% drop out rate, meaning that it is not a simple "working holiday" job. Also a lot of ex executives from major corporations work in that sector.
To the person that was saying that English teachers should make a union and agree not to go below 5000yen an hour - please tell me you were joking. At those rates you`re making more than some college/university professors if you work a meager 40 hours a week...
Posted in: Why is teaching at English conversation schools in Japan such a maligned profession by some people?
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Ramzel
Vertu is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia.
Posted in: Y20 mil gold handset from Vertu
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Ramzel
Ozawa should at least step down, if not taken to court.
Posted in: Is Ozawa heading for the slammer?