JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Part Time Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥9,000 / Day per 4 class shift
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UdaMan
To echo majimeaussie, I had no idea Miniskirt Police were a band (are they still around??). I just thought they were a little troupe of tarts paraded around for bawdy-humor effect, like the girls they used to have on stuff like the Benny Hill Show...
Posted in: Why are girl bands and glamour groups like AKB48, SKE48, Morning Musume and Miniskirt Police so popular in Japan?
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UdaMan
I think the haters here just need to try some different restaurants. Outback? Ditch the chains and find a local restaurant that does a good job. There are any number of websites devoted to restaurant reviews, where you can even find a good range of reviews of restaurants in Japan in English.
Either that or some people are just chronically unhappy and will find something to bitch about no matter what.
Posted in: What are some differences you have observed between waiters and waitresses in restaurants and cafes in Japan and other countries and also the way in which customers treat them?
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UdaMan
@ Monkeyz: Are you speaking English or Japanese to them? At Subway they're always careful to ask you if it's OK to put all the vegetables in, & I always get my subs "tamanegi nashi" with no problem (oh, except once, when the place was very busy, and was apologized to profusely when I pointed out the error).
I know it's an American chain, but in Japan I don't expect anyone to really understand English, even "no pickles".
I certainly wouldn't go into Yoshinoya in New York and make requests to the American staff in Japanese and expect them to understand me...
Posted in: What are some differences you have observed between waiters and waitresses in restaurants and cafes in Japan and other countries and also the way in which customers treat them?
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UdaMan
The question, I believe, was about the waiter/waitress-customer interaction... Well, they're not working for tips, so they tend to be more workmanlike and less personable (although extremely cheerful and polite). I have to agree about the food-service timing issue, which I've only seen done properly in higher end restaurants. I suspect this is due to the fact that traditionally in casual Japanese dining you don't get "your own" food -- people just order for the table and everyone shares, so it doesn't really matter when the food comes out. (It is weird when your entree appears before your appetizers, though, at any rate...) The lower-end western-dining establishments -- family restaurants, Italian chains, etc. -- don't seem to have considered that that's not the way their customers are eating it. And the majority of the clientele, being Japanese and not having much to compare it to, don't think much of it (until a noisy foreigner garrulously points out the nonsensical nature of getting your soup after someone else at the table has been served his steak).
Posted in: What are some differences you have observed between waiters and waitresses in restaurants and cafes in Japan and other countries and also the way in which customers treat them?
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UdaMan
Obviously no country or culture has a monopoly on ignorantly bungling another's language... Be it Engrish on t-shirts or misguided kanji tatoos (although the latter, being permanent and applied directly to the offender's body, does seem to be the more egregious offense), there always seems to be plenty of stupid to go around.
As for going "mideavil" on the "jackass who marks someone with a kanji 'joke' ", I'd suggest it's probably more ignorance than malicious humor at work, and that anybody who elects to have a tattoo without doing the research into what it means for themselves probably deserves whatever they get.
I personally have made for myself a t-shirt reading "超酷”, precisely because it could be read as "exceedingly cruel" by a Japanese reader but "exceedingly cool" by a Chinese. Because I'm just that big of a dork.
(Side note @Beelzebub: The latter kanji may be used as a phonetic equivalent to the English "cool" in Chinese, and the original meaning may have been the same as in Japanese, but to imply that "cool" is not its "meaning" now in Chinese is incorrect -- roughly analogous to claiming that "cool" itself doesn't really "mean" "stylish or appealing in form" but only "mildly cold".)
Posted in: Kanji catching on all over, but frequently misunderstood
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UdaMan
I find Becky insufferable. To me, she comes off as more fake than most, and in a way that specifically grates on me for reasons I can't quite define. I feel compelled to change the channel as soon as she appears on TV.
The bloke I have no feelings about one way or the other.
Posted in: Becky and Ryuta Sato win Best Smile of the Year awards
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UdaMan
niibu_yaa: You're missing one basic distinction, and that's the addictive nature of pachinko for some people. People don't go to the grocery store or hair salon and lose track of time to the same extent. I don't think we should blame the pachinko parlors specifically, but for a mother to leave her child in the car while she plays is quite a bit different from leaving the child in the car while she buys some groceries (getting her hair done is pretty borderline, if you ask me -- some hairstylists take just a few minutes, others take considerably longer!). It is sickening to think that for this woman, the prospect of winning a few yen (or recouping her loss) was more important to her than her child's well-being. To speculate that she actually did it on purpose seems rather unfounded, though. It's not unreasonable to think that maybe pachinko parlors should perhaps post some kind of public-service message around the place, or occasionally make an announcement, to the effect of "We appreciate your patronage -- however, please be sure not to leave your child in the car."
Posted in: Baby boy dies in locked car while mother plays pachinko in Akita
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UdaMan
It's all crap. Once in a while I'll walk by one and it'll smell good, and I'll grab something, and it's always crap. The only thing I use McDonald's for these days is coffee -- not bad, and cheap. When I was in high school, though, I loved McDonald's fries and milkshakes. I wonder if they changed, or I did.
Posted in: Fast food places like McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, etc, are frequently criticized. What do you think of them?
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UdaMan
Second from right. Done and done. Thank you, ladies; Mr. Go, nice shoes, now goodbye.
Posted in: Lux
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UdaMan
Ah, Ebi-chan. Is there nothing she can't sell?
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UdaMan
Is Billy just actually kind of small, or is his wife (who IS hot, by the way, at any age) a GIANT for a Japanese woman? Or maybe she's standing on a riser or something in this photo?
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UdaMan
urufuls: The basic issue here isn't whether or not marijuana is good for you; it's whether or not its illegality is consistent with the legality of other drugs, namely alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol abuse clearly is more harmful to the body, and causes more social problems in the way of violence and traffic accidents; tobacco is more addictive, and more carcinogenic (come on, smoke entering the lungs?), and yet these are legal. So I'm sorry you have friends whose lives were wrecked by ganja, but my grandfather died of lung cancer from smoking two packs a day, and very dear friend of mine drank himself to death at the tender age of 31, yet that doesn't mean I think either of these substances should be outlawed.
BTW THC in solid or liquid form acts too slowly to be of use to medical marijuana users, who generally rely on the substance for immediate relief. Short of injection, inhaling is the only suitably fast delivery method.
Also BTW, marijuana can also be ingested (not so pleasant with tobacco), thus avoiding the whole smoke-in-the-lungs problem. The effect is much slower in onset, but longer-lasting.
Legalization, regulation, and taxation (on commercial production) of marijuana makes a lot of sense. People already use it anyway, and it's doubtful that many more would just because it were legal, just as plenty of people decline to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco regardless of their legality. In fact, legalizing it might actually reduce marijuana's supposed effect as a "gateway drug", in that there would be a clearer difference between its status and that of other, harsher illegal substances.
Posted in: Japan going to pot: Celebrity busts and student smokers have authorities in a tizz
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UdaMan
I just saw her on "Gu-tan" last night and she was ravishing. Vivacious. OK, maybe not genius-level smart, but not a ditz, either, by any stretch.
Posted in: Jun Hasegawa capitalizes on 'haafu' look
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UdaMan
Can't even download mp3s on amazon.co.jp yet... bummer. Stuck with illegal file sharing or iTunes music Store with $#%%$ drm...
Posted in: Amazon unveils Kindle Application for iPhone
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UdaMan
Japan's overwhelming "shoganai" mentality doesn't help one bit.
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UdaMan
When the Constitution was written, four months was deemed an appropriate amount of time for a president-elect to get his affairs in order and make the move to Washington (remember, this was horse-and-carriage days). Thus the original date of March 4th.
November was convenient as it was after the harvest, but the weather still would be reasonable for travel. Nobody really knows why Tuesday, but presumably because it would take voters a day to get to the county seat and a day to get back to their farms, and not impinge on the Sabbath.
FDR didn't change the inauguration date, Congress did (presidents can't change the Constitution, much to G.W.Bush's consternation, no doubt) by passing the 20th Amendment in 1932, to make the lag-time less, and more in keeping with the more modern transportation, etc. available at the time. A majority of the states ratified it in '33.
Obviously, none of these logistics really matter to most voters or to the presidency today, and there's no real reason why Election Day couldn't be some other time (& a national holiday for that matter), or why the president shouldn't be inaugurated sooner -- except that it's tradition, and the standing president during the change wouldn't technically serve exactly four years.
Posted in: McCain, Obama make final push for votes
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UdaMan
I've met Thane on a couple of occasions, actually. Decent, down-to-earth guy. Not at all impressed with his own celebrity; he just seems kind of amused by it.
He is fairly tall, and none of these girls are runway-model tall, so yeah, they're going to look short. But they're probably on the tall side for Japanese women.
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UdaMan
Sarge: OK, Arnie has gone against Bush on a few issues (I did my research, and came back, as per your kind suggestion). I'd say I stand corrected, but since I originally phrased it as a question, there's really no need. I guess I was just remembering him plumping for W in 2004. But my original point stands: What I'm saying is, Arnie's not breaking any surprising ground by getting behind McCain. Did you think he would endorse Obama?
Do you suspect the Terminator of being a closet liberal???
Posted in: Obama confident, McCain seeks upset
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UdaMan
Sarge: "Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed McCain. Does that make him a traitor to the cause?"
Nah, that just makes him predictable. He's always stood by Bush, too, hasn't he? Not sure what your point is. Is Arnie supposed to be liberal or something? Because the idea was, see, that Ron Reagan, being the son of the archetypal Republican president, you'd probably expect to vote Republican, too, right? So maybe his endorsement of Obama comes as some surprise -- like the endorsements of Buckley and a few other notable conservatives. Follow me? The only way your question would make any sense is if Schwarzenegger were considered a liberal or something, which to the best of my knowledge nobody thinks he is.
Different subject, but who was it cited a Fox News poll as evidence of a McCain comeback? I'm assuming that was sarcastic. Either way I got a good chuckle out of it.
Posted in: Obama confident, McCain seeks upset
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UdaMan
"And yes Koda Kumi has tree stumps for legs..."
Those are "tree stumps"? I don't know... I think Kumi's pretty hot. Maybe not Jun-Hasegawa hot, but still. Rather those legs than the skinny, bony-kneed, muscle-less legs you see on so many Japanese models. They look like they'd fall apart if you... never mind.
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