JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Confrontation
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U.S. Navy investigating how parts fell off aircraft near Atsugi
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California court to decide if SeaWorld whales are illegal 'slaves'
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Kuroki reported pregnant 2 weeks after denying relationship with Akanishi
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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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doombird
And of course that seat can't be pulled up to a table... but who needs one, when you can just eat off your shelf of stomach fat?
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doombird
I'm confused. Does Japan not have statutory rape laws like the United States does? I'm pretty sure that if that happened here, the guy would pretty much be thrown in jail if he so much as touched her, even if it was consensual. And the legal age of adulthood there is even older than here... can anyone clarify?
Posted in: Kumamoto man arrested after fatally stabbing his daughter’s 38-year-old boyfriend
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doombird
Admittedly, if they were comedians I wouldn't be surprised if they used the usual crotch grabbing and butt smacking to get a laugh. But something tells me these guys take themselves very seriously, so I really doubt it...
Posted in: Rockabilly
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doombird
I haven't been reading JapanToday for all that long, so these guys are new to me! A publication has to have some middle ground between pleasing its veteran readers and not expecting that the new ones already know everything.
Seriously though, I didn't know people did that with their hair outside of cartoons.... yikes!
Posted in: Rockabilly
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doombird
An unfortunate accident, the kind that every parent fears as their child gets older. Bravado inevitably claims more than a few lives.
Especially when the river is named Arakawa (or "wild river"), it's generally not a good idea to try to cross it when it's visibly swollen by heavy rain.
Posted in: 17-year-old boy drowns while trying to cross river in Saitama
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doombird
I don't like they way they're confusing warning systems with prevention. A cell phone can't diagnose a disease, nor can it make you go to the doctor. It can't determine who's infected and who's not unless someone inputs that information. So what is the point of having a cell phone that supposedly alerts you if your child comes in contact with an infected person?
It's a nice little experiment, but as far as flu prevention goes, this is a glaring case of false advertising and pandering to people's fears to sell them unnecessary gimmicks.
Posted in: Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics
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doombird
When you put it that way, I do approve of what they're doing. I never "got" those high-fashion shows with models parading million-dollar monstrosities.
Still, pairing the words "cool" and "kawaii" is pairing the two most meaningless, trampled-on words in our languages. They should launch an Adjective Awareness Campaign.
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doombird
If the model in the photo is an example of what the crowd was screaming "kawaiii!" at, then the Japanese really need to get some new words. I could think of several ways to describe that, from "sexy" to "trashy," but it doesn't strike me as being particularly "cute."
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doombird
I'm a woman and I have played GTA - I think that baseball-batting a hooker to death to get your money back is pretty funny, not because I think it's acceptable in real life, but for the same reason the creators probably made the game: it's so outrageously and obviously wrong that it's hilarious. Though a sick sense of humor, I do however recognize that it's not something I should do on the street, which is a reason a lot of games are restricted from children under a certain age.
I admit that titles like "Battle Raper" do make me a bit uncomfortable, but considering that in the US it's acceptable to actually murder any number of fellow human beings in a video game, I do find it strange that what is in reality a lesser crime should cause so much more of a furor.
Maybe the problem is that we think of it as a game, when what it really is is pornography. We still associate anything called a "game" with children and to an extent with innocence, but games are increasingly being made solely for adults. I've seen stranger and more violent themes than this in domestic (Western) adult material and I don't see such publicized protests about it, but the fact that it is being called a "game" makes people look at it from the wrong angle. That I can understand.
Posted in: Boycott of violent Japanese video game urged in U.S.
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doombird
But they have that guy who puts on blackface and impersonates Barack Obama! ...what? Not the same thing?
Posted in: We are not led by the big stars. We don't have Barack Obama, we don't have Michael Jordan. But again I have to state that the Olympics is not staged by the person, it is won and staged by a team. We are promoting the team and the city itself.
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doombird
Polishing his loaded gun while it was pointed directly at his head? If that was the accident, it might as well be billed as suicide.
Posted in: 22-year-old riot police officer shoots himself in toilet at Chofu facility
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doombird
But then I wouldn't be able to "take a stroll" down the Kyoto streets where I used to live, and "visit" nostalgic places like Smile Burger! :(
Japan does go a bit overboard with its privacy. I've seen scenes on Japanese news/variety shows where they are filming at a location, and EVERYTHING is blurred out except the host. And the person he's talking to, although that person's face is also usually blurred. The ground is clear, but the buildings, the street signs, the faces of people walking by - all meticulously censored. It makes me wonder why they bother to film at all, when you can't even tell where they're supposed to be.
Posted in: Group seeks to scrap Google's Street View
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doombird
I don't even understand what it means! I don't think she does, either, the adorable empty-eyed thing! Awareness of safety overseas... will they have her on ads reminding people to exercise the exact same common sense abroad that keeps them walking the mortal plane at home? And will they pay her for this? Wow.
Posted in: Aki Hoshino appointed ‘Overseas Safety Ambassador’
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doombird
Exactly. IF she was just out for a much-needed movie and a pint of Ben & Jerry's with a girl friend and the husband couldn't handle taking care of the kid for an evening, then what I said before goes out the window. I wonder why they even bother writing these articles sometimes, for all the information they put in them...
Posted in: Father held for beating wife, 3-month-old son in Osaka
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doombird
I took this as meaning either of two things: 1) when she came home the husband beat her and she called the police, or 2) when she called the police, she informed them that he had beaten her before.
Now, this article gives us next to nothing to go on, but IF the second one is true, then I have to agree with Romulus: victims can sometimes bear responsibility for what happens. For example, a woman who thinks "I can put up with him beating me as long as he's not beating the kid" might well also rationalize "I can go out and do X because I know he won't hurt the kid." But for anyone who would beat their children's mother, it's really only a matter of time before they make that transition.
Is she a victim? Does she deserve pity? Absolutely. And in Japan it must be especially hard to get away from a deranged spouse. But IF she knew already that he was violent, I say shame on her for waiting until he nearly killed the baby to do anything about it. "Gaman" is not good when you are endangering someone else by staying put.
Posted in: Father held for beating wife, 3-month-old son in Osaka
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doombird
I think that the kind of people who sit in the front row at EITHER camp's political rallies are a little bit scary, but while the Democrat crowd all cheer whenever Obama says something catchy, all them Republicans know how to do is go "Boooooo, boooo!" and give a blank-eyed thumbs-down whenever McCain or Palin makes some snide reference toward Obama. There's lots of vitriol on both sides, but why is it only the Democrats even pretend to be polite? I haven't heard any shouting of "kill him!" or "shoot her from a helicopter!" from the Dems.
Sure, in a lot of respects our voting prospects are two sides of the same coin, but honestly... When Biden criticized McCain/Palin for having "drill drill drill!" as a campaign slogan, Palin corrected him: "No, actually, that's 'Drill BABY drill.'" Are we in third grade?? They're supposed to be showing us they're competent to run the country, and here they are basically giving the American people a green light to be dumb, thoughtless thugs. And we definitely don't need that.
Posted in: Raw anger in McCain's crowds as Obama strengthens
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doombird
Haha... Oh, Japan. Why do I get the feeling that given a few months, reports will come pouring in about these things going berserk and absconding with people?
"Oh no! These are the wrong trousers!"
Posted in: Robot suit for rent in Japan to help people walk
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doombird
I think he should go right ahead. Tour the country. And maybe go from city to city helping Japan out with its declining population problem.
Just sayin'.
Posted in: Duchovny's visit to Japan up in the air
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doombird
Wow, he's just like all the rest of us ordinary folks! Except for never having anything to do with us when he can help it! And it's so nice to know that his school treated him just like other students -- except for that whole thing about entrance exams, or probably anything the other students had to do, actually. What a swell, down-to-earth guy! This article is great.
Posted in: Crown prince recalls his college days
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doombird
Probably if it was a Russian, they would say "It was unclear whether he had been smoking marijuana before the incident."
Heheh... ooh. "Companion!" I like that. That sounds so scandalous! And I love how the man is the important one, and the girl or woman he was sleeping with was just something of his... or maybe they were both dudes. The whole story is in the details they left out!
Posted in: U.S. serviceman breaks into love hotel room