JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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ThonTaddeo
Asking people to cut by a percentage is ridiculous. That means that extravagant wasteful people can just go back to normal use, whereas people who were already using as little electricity as possible will really be in a dire situation.
Rather, some kind of rationing based on kilowatt-hours per person would have been better.
Posted in: Compulsory power usage cut implemented for 1st time in 37 yrs
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ThonTaddeo
Consumption tax? Absolutely not. But punishing the little guy the most is just what to expect from today's politicians. Hopefully Kan will be out of office before he can ram this through.
Posted in: Do you support hikes in income, consumption and corporate taxes to finance quake reconstruction?
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ThonTaddeo
Ivan, I feel like you. Japanese society is ruled over by the "samugari" tyrants, who assure that ambient temperatuers are uncomfortably high all year round.
It should be the opposite -- they can always bundle up if they feel cold, but in the heat we hairy men can hardly work shirtless!
Posted in: How do you intend to cope with the heat without turning the air conditioner on?
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ThonTaddeo
I vastly prefer metric, but I have to admit that Fahrenheit degrees make for a nice human scale: instead of zero being when water freezes and 100 when it boils, we have zero being so cold that you'd shove your own grandmother aside to get back into the house, and 100 (more likely at this time of year) ebing so hot that you're about to pass out from exhaustion!
The US is still making progress, though. Soda is sold in 1- and 2-liter bottles, and I notice more and more things having a round volume in metric even if the imperial units are stil printed on the package. "Contents 3.5 oz / 100 g"; that kind of thing.
Posted in: Why doesn't the U.S. adopt the metric system?
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ThonTaddeo
It's a shame that a company as lax and incompetent is now the face of nuclear power for Japan, because nuclear power itself isn't the problem here.
(We should be far more concerned about the dioxins and black soot that spew from the millions of automobiles that fill the nation, but, unlike with radioactive elements that cause different kinds of maladies that are just as life-threatening, somehow people seem to be able to endure this pollution without complaint.)
A power provider that didn't paper over mistakes like TEPCO did wouldn't be in the mess they're in today, and neither would the people of Japan who now have to endure a summer with less power that society requires. Perhaps the solution is to turn a public good like nuclear power over to prefectural governments. Dumping nuclear power entirely is a short-sighted feel-good move that ignores a host of other problems -- peak oil being one of the biggest. I say make use of nuclear power to the fullest, while simultaneously researching other, cleaner methods. Those methods should be well-developed before the next once-in-a-millennium killer tsunami arrives.
Posted in: Shareholders slam TEPCO at heated general meeting
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ThonTaddeo
I just hope that this means the end of "Cool" Biz! The productivity increase once this pledge expires and the current power shortage ends and we get our livable indoor temperatures back should be inspiring.
Posted in: Japan says it won't extend carbon reduction pledge
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ThonTaddeo
Reckless, to offer an answer to your question, I imagine that with some couples, the deprived one decides that it's better to have sex only on rare occasions but maintain a happy relationship rather than be pestering your partner. Particularly if you're a man, the last thing you want to do is look ilke you're begging. Better to make do with less than to humiliate yourself like that.
Posted in: Office romance: Beware your coworkers
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ThonTaddeo
Chinpira, I know just how you feel. I was in Akihabara on one of those days and was riding along on my bicycle at a normal speed when suddenly one of those elderly jobsworths grabbed my arm from behind and tried to lecture me in broken Engilsh about "no bicycle!"
I was completely bewildered aspedestrian zones in general don't make people get off their bicycles; my own neighborhood has one.
With my favorite Turkish kebab place closing up shop after the quake, there are fewer and fewer reasons to go to Akiba these days.
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ThonTaddeo
I'm with the necktie companies; a little formality is a good thing. I like looking and feeling professional when I'm at work, and seeing co-workers in short sleeves and bare feet isn't helping.
The fact that the excessive heat in the summer, rather than being balanced with extra-cold temperatures in the winter, in fact tends to remain all year round (my office is at 24-26 even in January!) is just salt in the wounds.
Setting the temperature a degree or two higher is great. Opening windows and using fans is great too. But 28 degrees is far too hot an environment to work efficiently in no matter what you're wearing.
It even causes the average person to consume more energy -- with reasonable indoor temperatures in the pre-Cool Biz years, I could wear pants and outer clothing multiple times, but now they're all soaked in sweat even indoors and I have to a lot more laundry.
Here's a way to save on air conditioning costs: how about making sure employees all go home at a reasonable hour and then turning off the cooling when they leave?
Posted in: Say 'Aloha' to Super Cool Biz
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ThonTaddeo
Eddiejet, well said. He might be guilty and he might not (I confess that I smell a set-up) -- and if found guilty, there will be plenty of opportunity to punish him then.
Posted in: Ex-IMF chief released on $1 mil bail
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ThonTaddeo
This article would be much easier to read if a copy editor had made sure that Shanti's name was written in accordance with the rules of the English language, and not in all capitals as if it were an acronym of some kind.
Moderator: That's how she spells her name in showbiz.
Posted in: Japanese-American singer SHANTI making sound waves
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ThonTaddeo
Both Chris and Noriko should be required to live in the same city, within walking distance of one another, so that their kids can attend school normally and enjoy the presence of both parents without the two parents actually having to live together.
One of the most overlooked disadvantages heaped upon children of divorce is all the time wasted needlessly traveling between the two homes of their parents. If parents can't get along with each other, they should still have the obligation to live near each other so that the kids' lives aren't disrupted.
Chris took advantage of a legal loophole (having the divorce in his "home" court) but Noriko violated the court ruling outright. There's no reason why their kids should be forced to live with their scofflaw mother any more than their forum-shopping father. Make them both live near their kids. Different floors of the same house, if need be, with only the kids switching floors. And since the kids lived mainly in Japan until now, Chris should return to Japan to raise them.
(Is Noriko still using Chris's surname? If not, why is her name such a closely-guarded secret?)
Posted in: $6.1 mil awarded to Tennessee man in Japan child custody battle
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ThonTaddeo
If I had previously directed a mission that killed three thousand innocent office workers who were guilty of nothing more than showing up for work one summer morning, then no, I wouldn't like it, but I sure as hell would be expecting it.
At least I think I would be. I mean, I can't totally get into OBL's head with the part about having one of my wives shot in the calf, never having had multiple wives myself. Maybe that part is no big deal if you've got a few backup wives in other parts of the compound.
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ThonTaddeo
Just for the record, the Hanshin Tigers player's name is Akahoshi, not Akaboshi.
Posted in: Repetitive post-quake public service messages drove TV viewers nuts
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ThonTaddeo
This is disgusting. What right does the government have to prevent people from entering their own homes. If I were one of the people in these areas, I'd sue the government for the full value of everything I owned. What an outrage. Even the language is disgusting -- "sneaking"? No, not sneaking. People were returning to the private property that they owned.
This is even more disgusting. What were people without cars, such as the visually impaired, to do? They were limited to what they could cram into their pockets?
If any person thinks it's worth it to them to secure their possessions even if it means exposing themselves to radiation briefly, that's nobody's decision but the resident's. Not the government's! Even if a resident wants to stay in their home until they die, that's their right as a human being.
Shame on whoever made this wrong-headed human-rights-trampling decision.
Posted in: Evacuation zone widened beyond 20 kms from nuclear plant
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ThonTaddeo
Then it must remain standing no matter what condition it's in. The owner owns the house, not the government.
Posted in: Tsunami-hit town uses colored flags to indicate which house debris to clean up
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ThonTaddeo
"Hey, I own this place! Get off my land, copper!"
Posted in: 2 men arrested for growing hemp in Tokyo park
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ThonTaddeo
Icewind, of course the majority of potential customers can still use the 3DS, but I'm surprised to see Nintendo shutting people out after their previous policies of inclusiveness. Wii Sports had you tell the game which hand you liked to use; years ago game makers took steps to make sure graphics wouldn't harm epileptics; and locking out games from other regions is something they'd have to spend money and labor to implement, as opposed to selling games in the main language of the region but not actually stopping people from playing others. (The Game Boy Advance and regular DS are not region-locked.)
It'sjust disappointing to see these backward steps from a company that had once been famous for being inclusive and considerate of their customers' needs.
Posted in: Nintendo ready to take 3D gaming to mass market
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ThonTaddeo
No excuses for this "mother". Especially not if she was living in an evacuation center. If there's one time in recent history when such a person could get all the help they needed, it's now. At a time like this, other evacuees could really rally around a newborn -- new life in the face of death and all that -- but now there's just one more death. Shame on this "mother".
Posted in: Body of newborn infant found in mountains near quake-stricken Miyagi city
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ThonTaddeo
The design and implementation of the 3DS presupposes that all users are right-handed (check how the stylus is meant to be used), have stereoscopic vision (obviously), and are monolingual in the language of their region and have no desire to play games from other regions.
I am none of these things, so I'll stick with my DS and PS3, thanks very much. I hope the 3DS bombs and -- holdiong my nose as I say this -- Sony's new PSP takes the lead.
Posted in: Nintendo ready to take 3D gaming to mass market