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
There's nothing womanly or sexy about pants -- pants are men's wear and aren't attractive in the least! Skirts are flattering to ladies' legs, and we guys love seeing all the interesting colors and patterns that are on tights these days. Why a woman who wants to look attractive would choose pants is beyond my imagination! Trust me, skirt-wearers, we men appreciate you!
Down with women's pants!
(Wait, that didn't sound right... but you get the idea!)
Posted in: Who cares about hemlines? Women's pants again on the radar
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ThonTaddeo
Make that the regular Mr. Donut uniform and I'll be back there every day ordering whatever is available!
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ThonTaddeo
Stop blaming the game consoles -- for every kid walking while playing a game, there are a dozen tuned-out adults walking while texting on their mobile phones. How can we expect a kid to be more conscious of his and others' safety when everyone else around him is just as bad?
I go jogging and bicycling every day, and am always getting road rage at all the imbeciles who are talking or typing while they walk, looking in any direction but forward, and gravitating toward the center of whatever space they're in (at least on some level they know they don't want to bump into anyone) and thus taking up even more space than they should, and blocking anyone moving faster than their phone-focused snail's pace.
It's not the DS, and it's not the kids. It's mobile devices in general. If mobile phones can have pedometers that sense each step you take and count them, they should also be able to turn the screen off when the user is walking! When you're about to get up and walk, hit the pause button. It's not hard.
Posted in: Boy falls onto train tracks while looking at handheld game console
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ThonTaddeo
Disgusting how the police were able to raid the guy's apartment based on something as flimsy as a "reoprt of a fire". Thundercat and Whyamiiinjapan have it right.
Posted in: Marijuana discovered in apartment after reports of fire
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ThonTaddeo
Totally in favor of this service, and shame on those of you who think that the disabled should just go without. There but for the grace of God go we all, no?
Posted in: Business caters to sexual needs of disabled
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ThonTaddeo
Bare feet and toes sticking out of those black leggings that are so popular these days. Put something on your feet!
Posted in: Which fashion trend do you most wish would die?
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ThonTaddeo
A friend of mine once lost her wallet late at night and was able to get a few hours of sleep in at a net cafe, cadging some money from kind-hearted souls, until the trains started running again -- just like the salaryman in the story above.
With this law, people stuck in situations like that will be stuck on the streets.
And what happens with information gathered from the IDs that the customers will show? How will it be stored, and in what form? Who gets to see that data? Will the police be forcing cafes to hand this data over as part of some dubious "crime-fighting" initiative?
Posted in: New ID requirements for Net cafes unlikely to deter cyber-crimes
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ThonTaddeo
Mod (and Wakarimasen), it also stands for requiescat in pace, as the Latinists among us will insist!
Posted in: Man stays with murdered woman for week after death
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ThonTaddeo
I'm confused.
Posted in: New program warns elderly against 'ore ore' scams
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ThonTaddeo
Question for those of you supporting this violent woman:
What if it had been a teenage girl who refused to move for an elderly man? Would you supoprt the man breaking the girl's nose?
Posted in: Elderly woman arrested for beating youth sitting in priority seat of bus
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ThonTaddeo
I'm not at DuraAce's level -- I only ride about 650 km per month -- but I agree with the points about riding with traffic and maintaining a good speed. I've found that as long as you're going more than about two-thirds of the speed limit, you can ride in a regular lane and won't be hit by anything.
The problem with the "mamachari" bikes is that it's hard to use them the right way on roads. They're big, slow, and heavy, and are hard to ride at the speed that you need to be at in order to ride with traffic on the roads and not the sidewalks.
I agree with Whiskeysour; the biggest danger on the roads is not cyclists or pedestrians, but taxis. Taxi drivers seem to think that a red light means not "stop" but rather "you have three more seconds to get through" and that lane markers indicate where everyone other than a taxi has to align themselves. I know they're professional drivers and presumably have good insurance in case they hit someone, but the close shaves I've gotten from them are frightening. They ignore speed limits with abandon, too.
The second biggest danger is of course the imbecile pedestrians whose faces are pointed downward at their phones while they gravitate toward the exact center of whatever thing path they're on, preventing any cyclist (or jogger, for that matter) from overtaking them.
(You know those cell phones that have pedometers in them to track how far you've walked? If they can sense that you're walking, they should also have the ability to turn off the screen and reject input if they sense that the person carrying them is walking!)
The only rule I migth flout is that sometimes, particularly at night when there are no pedestrians around, I'll race through a yellow light to get to the other side rather than line up at the crosswalk and wait for the next green. More than once I've had cars, also lined up waiting for the light, completely fail to notice me as they try to make a left turn coming from behind me and to my right. We're lined up at the same intersection and they somehow don't notice that maybe there's a person at the crosswalk wanting to get across!
Posted in: Confused by Japan’s cycling laws? You aren’t the only one
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ThonTaddeo
Great article; Molly, I've had many similar experiences.
Just what is the deal with towels anyway? When I moved into my new home, I bought some high-quality American Ghirardelli chocolates for the neighbors, thinking that they might enjoy something out-of-the-ordinary, but the dear wife insisted on towels!
Getting something like a towel can be downright insulting if it's in return for days and weeks of jackhammering. In my apartment building, the couple upstairs had trouble with their pipes, and water dripped through the ceiling into my apartment.
That was bad enough, but the owner of that room insisted on having the jackhammer-involving construction work done at 8:30 AM, when a night-shift worker like myself really, really needs to sleep. No amount of cajoling from me (or pointing out that in this case, I'm the victim and he's the one at fault) could get him to start that noise at a more reasonable hour, like noon or 2 PM.
So when he showed up on the day of the construction (waking meup, mind you) with a pair of plain white towels as compensation, I wanted to throw the things right back in his face!
I'd love to see a pile of used towels thrown on the doorstep of that grocery store in Molly's neighborhood. Maybe use them to clean up filthy messes involving garbage and motor oil first!
Death to towels!
Posted in: Navigating the intricacies of Japan’s gift-giving protocol
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ThonTaddeo
I'm not going to carry anything at all, KnowBetter. If the overzealous bullies in the NPA want to take me to a holding cell to confirm my status, I'll have them apologizing to me on television like they did for that poor woman from Saitama who was brought in for questioning just because she was carrying a book written in Portuguese and was too shy around people to speak clearly to the police.
I'm always amazed at the ferocity with which the police handle their duties as domestic immigration enforcers. Even the "real" immigration officials at the border -- the prime place to catch illegal entrants -- aren't aggressive in the least. And those are the ones whose jobs are exclusively devoted to immigration!
Posted in: Japan weighs up whether to give foreign residents the vote
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ThonTaddeo
If Japan allowed dual citizenship, none of this would be a problem.
I don't see why one should have to swear exclusive loyalty to a large nation just to be able to have a say in the workings of one's own small town or neighborhood. Let local issues be decided by local residents regardless of what country claims them!
I myself would consider taking Japanese citizenship just so that I don't have to carry that god-awful ID card arond all the time. It doesn't sound like much on the oppression scale, but when you consider that you have to remember to carry it every time you leave home, the psychological burden (and risk of identity theft if you get pickpocketed) can add up. Let people have dual citizenship!
Posted in: Japan weighs up whether to give foreign residents the vote
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ThonTaddeo
Nice job, Ai!
Posted in: Ai Miyazato is new No. 1 in women's golf
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ThonTaddeo
TheRat, why wouldn't they let you register your inkan in katakana? When I bought my home I was careful to do the entire operation using my katakana name (surname first, Japanese style) on everything from bank papers to tax records.
Could the problem be that your alien card has only romaji on it, and you used that to register the inkan? Don't do that; make sure you use ID with katakana to register the inkan. If your alien card doesn't have katakana, get it put on there. And if they balk at using the spelling you prefer (insisting on including meaningless middle names, for example), get "surname + given name" in katakana as your registered alias. Shouldn't be hard to do.
Posted in: Why Japanese property managers are so strict on renting apartments
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ThonTaddeo
Gogogo, he probably just upgrades with each new 2-year contract and then hands on to his old phones -- unlike a typical cellphone, the iPhone makes for a great iPod even without voice capability.
Posted in: iPhone pre-orders trigger long lines
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ThonTaddeo
I echo the other posters: this is news?
A few years ago, some imbecile sprinting up a stairwell on the wrong side came barrelling up around a blind corner and ran straight into me, throwing me to the ground and breaking my ankle. Not only did I not make the newspapers, but the train officials wouldn't even look at security cameras or station someone in that spot to try to find the guy. And I was left on crutches for 8 weeks!
How did these two manage to get media attention, anyway?
Posted in: Pair sustain minor injuries after tumble down Ginza subway escalator
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ThonTaddeo
Surely the NPA can come up with some kind of violation against them, such as "resisting arrest" (because he ran to the embassy instead of turning around), or "obstructing an officer in his duties". Two "crimes" that cops can use against just about anybody.
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ThonTaddeo
I'm struck by how Melissa saw only one part of their confrontation -- the man swearing at the woman -- and then extrapolated all kinds of things from it.
There are still many people who see a woman loudly berating her husband in public and wonder what the man did wrong to deserve it, yet if they see a man shouting at his wife in public, they think he's a violent boor.
Posted in: Dear Angry Western Guy