ThonTaddeo's past comments

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    As someone who's never owned a Microsoft game console, I was interested in the Xbox One and was looking forward to this announcement.

    But... what a disappointment. Anti-consumer negatives all over the place! The biggest is the severe restrictions on borrowing your friends' games and buying used games: MS wants people who bu previously-owned discs to pay them a fee each time the disc changes hands. They plan to require the Xbox to go online once every 24 hours to check in with MS, and disable the Xbox if you're offline. (Good luck enjoying your games if you take the Xbox on vacation to a place where there's no internet connection.) Specs aren't what they could be. No backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360 or the original Xbox.

    It's the anti-used-game stuff that bothers me the most. Today's kids can rediscover the classic games of two or three decades ago just by going to a used game shop and buying them -- usually at knockdown prices. What will happen in 2040 when the DRM servers that this next generation of games needs to connect to in order to function are long gone?

    Posted in: Microsoft touts Xbox One as all-in-one entertainment

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    What's the big fuss? 100yen/dollar has been a historic average for decades.

    It's a big fuss because the dollar has been plagued by 2-3% annual inflation over the past 10-20 years whereas consumer prices in Japan have remained just about constant. It thus makes sense that the yen would gain in value against the dollar.

    Also, from the article:

    Finance Minister Taro Aso, whose ministry runs Japan’s currency policy, said ... that the government must craft measures to help companies hurt by a weaker yen.

    Here's where we see where their priorities lie. Not with the salarymen who have seen their nest eggs drop in value, who are paying more for electricity and gasoline, and who will soonbe paying more for food. No, the goverment needs to help companies hurt by the weaker yen.

    Posted in: Japan Inc averse to further yen drop, poll finds

  • 6

    ThonTaddeo

    Mr. Hashimoto doesn't seem to know the First Rule of Holes.

    "When in a hole, stop digging."

    Posted in: Hashimoto says S Korean troops guilty of wartime sex abuse

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    Tokyo and Nagoya in 14 years, but 32 years to get it to Osaka, Japan's second-most-important business city?

    What a punch to the gut for Osakans. I hope it at least stops in Kyoto by 2045.

    Posted in: New shinkansen to use revolutionary simple stations

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    自転車 should be on the 車道

    I never move aside for bicycles on the sidewalk. They should be on the road.

    I had one guy, about 20ish, shout at me to move once, so I kicked his front wheel and watched him fall into a bush.

    Hey Probie, should people in wheelchairs have to share the roads with cars too? After all, they're riding in 車椅子.

    Posted in: Road traffic laws in Europe and the United States are simple, whereas in Japan pedestrians are always exposed to the risks of bicycles bumping into them from all directions...It is time for us to go back to the original point of the road traffic law, where bicycles and cars share the road.

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    People are not out buying stock because they suddenly believe in the increased profitability of Japanese companies. They're buying stock out of fear, to shield themselves from the catastrophic inflation (probably not "hyper"-inflation) that is sure to come when the money supply has been increased so suddenly.

    The average Taro and Hanako don't pay much attention to exchange rates, so as far as their concerned, the huge decline, engineered by Abe, in the value of their savings on the international markets (a Y10,000,000 nest egg would have bought $130,000 just half a year ago; only $100k now) isn't something they're paying attention to, because domestic prices haven't changed yet.

    But they will -- massive increases in the costs of electricity are already scheduled; gas prices are also pushing upward. Basically anything purchased on the international market will go up, because the value of the yen, internationally, has plummeted like a stone.

    Abe knows that he has a window of opportunity right now -- after the stock investors have picked up some profit, but before higher consumer prices catch up and he starts taking flak -- to get his policies passed. While I hate to root for a market crash, I have to agree with Amida: the sooner, the better, for a correction in the Nikkei. Unless you're in the export business, or have all your savings in things other than yen-denominated cash and bonds, Abenomics is bleeding you dry.

    This is a bubble. There's nothing fundamental to push stock prices upward except fear that cash will lose its value. And when the bubble pops, like all bubbles in history have popped, who will be left holding the bag? The rich, the connected, the politically powerful... or the public?

    Posted in: Nikkei closes at highest mark in nearly 5 years

  • 1

    ThonTaddeo

    I agree wholeheartedly with these conclusions -- in recent decades, automobiles have been favoried in just about all urban planning, with the needs of pedestrians put at the bottom, when they're thought of at all.

    A pedestrian can be killed by a car, but a driver of a car can hardly be killed by a pedestrian. Exhortations to "both people and cars" (人も車も) to share public space together, as you sometimes see on signs here in Japan,are being a bit unfair to those on foot: it's a one-sided affair in which automobile drivers do all the killing.

    While driving a car is a privilege that some people (such as those with eyesight below 0.6) will never be able to enjoy, occupying public space as a pedestrian is a human right -- even someone who can't walk can still get around in a wheelchair. Automobile-centrism is de facto discrimination against non-drivers. Want to make walking safe? Start by favoring pedestrians (which means favoring all human beings), and by putting the needs of automobiles a distant second.

    Posted in: Over 270,000 pedestrians killed each year: WHO

  • 2

    ThonTaddeo

    Princess Takamado, in supporting all kinds of cultural exchange and academic activities, it a tremendous credit to the nation. I wish there were a dozen more just like her.

    Posted in: Good gardening

  • 1

    ThonTaddeo

    Open Minded, you can say that again! It amazes me how tolerant people in Japan are of hellishly-hot indoor temperatures, whereas in the winter nobody would ever consider enduring a bit of cold.

    I confess to being biased -- I prefer cool air to warm, and also I prefer the snappier, smarter employee dress over the Cool Biz accoutrements like sandals and shorts. I have four or five sport jackets that I used to wear to work regularly, before 2005, and now never get to put on, because at my company it's 25-26ºC in the winter and 28-29ºC in the summer. Why is it that only those who feel hot have to suffer?

    Posted in: Cool Biz season kicks off across Japan

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    The gov't have stated there'll be no demands/orders/requests for any power consumption reductions during the hot summer season

    Zichi, you mean no further demands. As far as I know, the hellish 28-degree "Cool Biz" thing isn't gonig anywhere.

    Posted in: Some nuclear reactors may be restarted in fall, Motegi says

  • 1

    ThonTaddeo

    Congratulations, Mr. Kimura! I second Borscht's wish that he record his biography. Hopefully there are lots of neighbors around who want to hear the memories of someone who is probably the last person in the world to have any recollection of the 19th century.

    Posted in: World's oldest ever man turns 116 in Japan

  • 3

    ThonTaddeo

    Is there no end to this charlatan's poison-pill populism?

    Heaping praise on women sure looks good on the surface, but what is Abe's ultimate goal? Abe wants more women in the workforce because they (1) would then pay taxes to the government rather than supporting their families at home, and (2) will raise household incomes and make the inflation that he wants to foist on the public more bearable -- at a terrible expense to society. Having both spouses outside the home also means children will be sending more time in day care centers and other government facilities rather than in the care of their loving parents.

    The younger generations in the West are rediscovering the benefits of having one parent stay home -- but unlike in the '50s, this time around only the richest segment of society can afford it.

    But he also knows that it's political suicide to oppose anything that looks like it's pro-female. So he'll get what he wants: both parents slaving away at the kaisha all day long to pay for a collapsing currency, an ever-rising cost of living, and a skyrocketing government debt. Don't be fooled, women of Japan. This snake isn't thinking about your interests at all.

    Posted in: Abe says women are key to Japan's economic revival

  • 2

    ThonTaddeo

    How many Americans pronounce "pizza" like piza, and how many pronounce it like pit-tsa as Italians do. Almost all of the Americans I have met pronounced it like piza.

    I've never heard an American say anything other than the correct Italian "pit-tsa". "Piza" is how you (and Americans, and Italians) pronounce the name of that city near Florence where there's that famous leaning tower.

    Posted in: Required or not, English knowledge no guarantee of success

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    Stephen, Andersen is indeed excellent; I wish they still sold the big round bread with cheese chunks in it for ¥398 like they used to. Now that I live near a Kayser, I never go to Andersen anymore.

    Posted in: Where do you shop for high-quality French bread in Japan?

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    Whoa; the number in my last post should be 85. Eighty-five. As in George Costanza's IQ. No idea why the site's coding changed my 85 into a 1!

    Posted in: What do you think the yen-dollar exchange rate should be in order to benefit the Japanese economy?

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    1. Much stronger than that and Japanese products won't sell abroad; weaker than that and Japanese people will be paying too much for imports, particularly energy/fossil fuels.

    Posted in: What do you think the yen-dollar exchange rate should be in order to benefit the Japanese economy?

  • 1

    ThonTaddeo

    You guys supporting Paul... Paul is OK, but Maison Kayser has them beaten. If you're in Kagurazaka for the bread, go off the main road and head over to the Kayser. It's some of the best-tasting bread I've ever had.

    Posted in: Where do you shop for high-quality French bread in Japan?

  • 0

    ThonTaddeo

    I eventually decided to move closer to my workplace.

    I often wonder why certain companies (mine included) move their offices every few years when they could be making their employees' lives much easier by staying in one place and letting the employees move close to work. Sometimes I think employees like having their workers commute because in the evenings people, dreading the train ride, will be more willing to stay at work longer.

    Posted in: Veteran strap-hanger gives upbeat advice for surviving daily commute

  • 2

    ThonTaddeo

    Or why the US doesn't screen Chinese movies in their theatres.

    Who says that "the US" doesn't screen Chinese movies? Movies that aren't in English have a hard time becoming blockbusters -- blame English speakers' reluctance to read subtitles for that -- but you can still see them in smaller and indie theaters. Japanese releases are no different, and Hong Kong movies in particular have had a dedicated niche following for decades.

    In today's globalized world why would any of you think ANY government would openly allow entertainment from anywhere in the world to freely be on display in their country without some form of screening or censorship?

    You presuppose that no movie should be shown unless the government specifically permits it. This kind of thinking is part of the problem.

    Posted in: Chinese cinemas pull Tarantino's 'Django' on first day

  • -1

    ThonTaddeo

    Literary critic Yoshinori Shimizu earlier suggested that, when written in the alphabet, “Tazaki Tsukuru”—which appears to be a man’s name—is an anagram of “Tsuzuku Tikara”

    Clever indeed, but no one would romanize 続く力 like that; it's either tsuzuku chikara in regular Hepburn romanization, or if you like kunrei romanization, tuzuku tikara. It's a bit of a stretch to "find" this in the man's name. A good effort, though, and I'm looknig forward to the book!

    Posted in: New Murakami novel goes on sale for excited fans

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