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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cleo
philly, the emperor is not in the same situation as your father. He did not choose his 'job' (I assume president of the council isn't an inherited post), his vitality is not good, he is not well, and far from 'pushing' him out of his job people are suggesting that he be allowed to step down.
Posted in: Prince Akishino says there needs to be discussion on retirement age for emperor
4
cleo
Being smaller than Labs, these two little puddles will eat less, take up less space and therefore save the taxpayer a bit of money. I'm sure the missing hikers won't mind whether they look cute or not.
Poodles are fine, intelligent dogs. Some of their owners need taking aside for a good talking-to, though.
Posted in: Toy poodles to join Tottori police
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cleo
Older brothers are born before younger brothers.
Posted in: Prince Akishino says there needs to be discussion on retirement age for emperor
2
cleo
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/olive-oil-cake-6167195.html http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Olive-Oil-Cake-234274 http://leitesculinaria.com/20321/recipes-portuguese-orange-olive-oil-cake.html
Posted in: Tokyo beats Paris again as world food capital
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cleo
Yeah Squid, that's what threw me......
Posted in: Despite recent crackdowns, pet industry still rife with problems
1
cleo
Now I see I read it wrong - 1.5m more animals, of which the pet industry supplies 'only' 770,000. Seems pretty obvious the difference is 'amateur' breeders and folk who can't be bothered to spay/neuter. Of the four dogs I've lived with in Japan, one came from a reputable breeder, one was a rescue from a pet-shop and two were abandoned strays, which would fit the pattern of roughly half being unaccounted for. And I've lost count of the number of waifs, cat and dog, that I've picked up and found new homes for.
In addition to the shelter, there are sato-oya-sagashi sites on the Internet overflowing with animals needing a forever home. Our current dog and cat both came from there.
Posted in: Despite recent crackdowns, pet industry still rife with problems
3
cleo
Our cat hasn't read that instruction manual. It's only after the lights are out that she starts chucking her toys around and chasing round and over the bed after imaginary mice. (I think - hope - they're imaginary)
On a serious note, it's well past high time something was done about pet shops and the way animals are sold in Japan. Closing pet shops after 8pm is a start - I'll be happy when pet shops sell only food, toys and equipment and the whole 'business' of raising animals for a market dies a death.
Does that figure of 700,000 animals falling through the cracks mean that roughly half the animals in pets shops end up not sold and disposed of? Horrifying. It should be illegal to breed animals without a license, all animals registered and microchipped so that people who abandon them can be traced and punished. Those with a history of too many early/unexplained deaths should be banned from owning animals for life.
Admitting he works in an irresponsible industry where anything goes in the name of a quick buck. Scum.
Posted in: Despite recent crackdowns, pet industry still rife with problems
3
cleo
I'm not all that keen on OHige-sama - like others have said, he seems a bit too eager to get his made-for-the-purpose son on the throne - but I agree that there should be a retirement age for emperors like there is for everyone else (should be for politicians, too). It's so sad to see a frail old man dragged out and propped up for all these mostly meaningless ceremonies while the younger generations have way too much time on their hands and spend it twiddling their thumbs and waiting for a dead man's shoes.
At least let the old guy have a bit of freedom at the end of his life.
Posted in: Prince Akishino says there needs to be discussion on retirement age for emperor
3
cleo
Of course he's insane. Killing people for their money, out of hate, revenge, etc - that's criminal. Killing indiscriminately for some non-existent 'resistance movement', because you're a 'knight with special powers' and 'a future ruler of Norway' - looney as a fruit cake.
Posted in: Norway killer found insane, unfit for prison
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cleo
As an ideal that's admirable, but unfortunately it doesn't work in real life for most people. If you can make it work in your family - if you both have jobs/careers that allow you equally to take time off to raise a child (alternate days? weeks? a year each?), then that's wonderful. But for the reasons tmarie gives, it does not work for most people and isn't likely to work anytime soon. You may as well argue that men should be given the opportunity to get pregnant and give birth.
Most men would run a mile.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
1
cleo
What inland sea? The Mihama plant is on a promontory sticking out into Wakasa Bay, on the Japan Sea side. It's got sea on three and a half sides.
Posted in: Kansai Electric says reinforcing Fukui nuclear facilities will cost Y200 bil
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cleo
scotchegg, it's possible to disagree with a person's choice yet still respect it. Saying you want people to feel awkward about their choices if they're different to yours isn't showing much respect.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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cleo
I second that.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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cleo
The 1% wins again....:-)
There's a list of famous people who have had their ashes scattered in Japan here - http://www.sankotu.com/090_/ (only Japanese, sorry) The list includes Hide of XJapan, Yokoyama Atsushi (comedian) and Ishihara Yujiro (actor, singer, brother of the other one). Ishihara's ashes were initially interred as it was illegal to scatter ashes in Japan at the time he died (1987), but later some of the ashes were scattered in the sea in accordance with his wishes.
Today it isn't illegal, but you need permission from the landowner if you want to do it on private land.
Posted in: Beat Takeshi, Ken Takakura reunite after 26 years
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cleo
NOV. 27, 2011 - 05:47PM JST a uni degree for someone who won't use it is a waste .......I personally don't see the point of a uni education for a women if her whole ambition is to stay at home with the kids. Sewing, cooking, child rearing, early childhood education.. would be better
It looks like I missed the first part of your post yesterday (it's a long thread.....)
Strange my kids never went to juku but did fine in entrance exams and got a recommendation to a very good public uni. Juku may help kids who 1) attend schools that aren't fulfilling their task of teaching or 2) have parents who don't/can't help with schoolwork. But you are absolutely wrong if you're suggesting that attendance at juku is necessary to get a recommendation. It isn't.
It's pre-school. What's wrong with pre-school? Lots of Mums, like me, see the start of kindergarten as the first step in getting back to work. Don't you want women back at work?
I thought she was out there because she mustn't waste her education and working is more fulfilling than looking after a kid?
Perhaps they'd do better if they'd had a bit more education.....Seriously though, come on, lots of parents on either side of the divide feed their kids crap, some because they don't know any better, some because they don't care all that much, some because they have a chronic phobia regarding healthy eating (vis the comments following any recommendation of a healthy vegetarian diet), some because they like crap themselves and no one is going to tell them what to eat or feed their kids, gawddammit. If time is at a premium it's going to be hard to spend hours preparing food every day.
Again, I know how my kids got in...recommendation yes, based on grades. No money, no juku, no connections.
A lifetime of struggling on low incomes in unskilled jobs? I know lots of people do it, my parents did it, their parents did it, I don't want my kids to do it. Not snobbery, realism.
Oh my oh my oh my. Pot, kettle, black. lol
?? why are women who never had kids taking maternity leave? (I'm not really concerned about women who stay home to 'bake cakes'. I'm discussing the ones who stay home to raise kids.)
Sympathy as in (1)'understanding between people; common feeling : (2)agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim'. It doesn't only mean (3)'feelings of sorrow and pity for someone else's misfortune', which I would expect you to know as an English teacher. Is it not only human to feel (1) for one's fellow (wo)man? or do you have to be scathing of everyone who isn't in the same situation as yourself or makes different choices? Then again (3) would apply to (a) women who don't want to be home with their kids but are forced to due to lack of good day care places, social or family pressure, lack of suitable jobs etc and (b) women who do want to be home with their kids but can't because of financial concerns, social or family pressure, lack of flexible working hours etc.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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cleo
And is the stuff actually radioactive?
Posted in: There are 18 million tons of debris in Miyagi Prefecture that we need to dispose of but sadly we are struggling to find other prefectures that will hep with disposal.
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cleo
Yup, Mabo, it's right there in the dictionary - tuck in (or into) informal eat food heartily. In British English a tuck-in is a large meal, and a tuck shop is where you buy your mid-morning snack at school.
Posted in: Japan cooks world's longest kebab
1
cleo
You mean overseas? 'Cos if you mean in Japan, wouldn't that suggest that the shaken system works pretty well by keeping defective vehicles off the roads?
Posted in: Toyota unveils high-tech concept car
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cleo
The best mother is one that does the best for her child. For some, that will mean staying at home. For some, it will mean leaving the child with a competent child minder while she earns a living. A mother who stays at home going neurotic because she really wants to be somewhere else is not doing what's best for her child.
Don't hope for your Mum to want to look after you? Really?
You're saying you want to impose your values on others, and you want them to feel bad if they don't agree with you. That's reactionary.
tmarie, it seems you've flipped from sensible discussion to desperately trying to pick holes in anything and everything. You asked about men, I replied about men. That doesn't mean things are different for women. In fact while you and I sit on opposite sides of the fence on this topic, we're actually pretty close in our base opinion - people should have choice. You seem to be blinded by the notion that 'anyone who is sympathetic to sahms hates working women'. That isn't the case at all, and it doesn't take much insight to realise that - though as a working woman, you do seem pretty scathing in your opinion of sahms. Like the majority of other mums, I did my stint as a sahm, stayed at home until the younger child was in kindergarten, now I work. Why would I be against working women?
As for single-sex schooling, yes, I'm against it for both boys and girls. What are the all-girl schools teaching that boys don't need to learn? And what are the boy schools teaching that girls are not allowed to learn? The world at large is co-ed, school is a good place for people to learn to get used to that. In the old days, all schools were for boys, and girls stayed at home to help Mum until they married. While many girls' schools in the West seem to have developed into respectable academic institutions in their own right, in Japan they still seem to me to have an atmosphere of being somewhere to park daughters until they're old enough to marry. I wouldn't send my daughter to an all-girls' school or my son to an all-boys', unless there was absolutely no alternative.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
0
cleo
On some men? Heck yeah.
All the 'skills that will benefit them' that you have mentioned are, with the exception of early child education (why only early? Kids grow, still need help with homework right up to high school), skills that I would have thought everyone needed to learn, not just potential mothers. How do you know they don't really care about what they're studying? Isn't a well-rounded education that develops the person just as valid as some narrow vocational course? And why would you expect a 16-year-old to be dead certain what they wanted to do with the rest of his or her life?
Oh dear tmarie, it was you who brought up the 21-year-olds.
You don't 'have' to be anything you don't want to be. Isn't that the whole point? Though why the mums should look miserable I have no idea. I loved having the opportunity to watch my kids grow.
I don't think I would say 'less educated'. More like, steered along a set path. One example, a neighbour who is the father of one of my daughter's friends told me he decided to send his daughter to an all-girls' school instead of the mixed school the rest of the gang went to because he wanted her to have a 'proper feminine education' and didn't want her going out with boys... nothing to do with academic standards, though it was a good school and she was/is a bright kid. As it turned out she was the first of the group of friends to get married, and is now a sahm. The girls who went mixed are mostly married, some are parents and all are working. I know one anecdote doesn't indicate a trend, but DS's mention of all-girls' unis brought it to mind.
Nope, both extremely bright kids at top-notch Japanese unis. But neither were there alone - hundreds of other kids working just as hard.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan