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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guuzendesu
I have to agree a little bit about the news coverage. "The masses" are a strange animal. They should be able to look up news if they want to, of course, but I feel news needs to be given out in a different manner. On this particular story, giving some sort of local coverage would be good. Maybe even just sending a note home with students to alert them and their parents. But when you start giving national news, it's obvious that telling millions of people "the financial outlook is grim" will have a direct effect on the economy, especially when it's repeated night after night. They make the problem worse by using news as entertainment, "thrilling" people with how terrible things might become. Naturally, people hear this and start thinking "we'd better cut back on our spending." "Best to put off those big purchases for a few months." "Better have a small Christmas this year." Sales fall off, production is scaled back, jobs are lost, and that becomes part of the ongoing terrible news. The news industry needs to change, because the world itself has changed. In this age of information, what is reported can also cause changes. They need to rethink carefully how the news should be covered. Why do they need to tell EVERY PERSON IN THE COUNTRY that the economy is bad, and going to get worse? If people see prices going up, they'll know it's bad. Hearing it every day is only going to exacerbate the problem. Likewise, if people are told every day stories of how crazy society is getting, it is going to make people behave more and more erratically, and also cause paranoia and fear. Change the information people get, and you will change the world. And for you who will of course scream "censorship!", know that information is already changing the world. It just doesn't seem to be helping any the way it's being done.
Posted in: 8-yr-old girl stabbed by man while walking home from school in Matsudo
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guuzendesu
I'm thinking maybe it should have been "Saliva" instead of just saliva. Like a band name or just a strange hat that said "saliva," if you can imagine a Japanese item of clothing saying something strange... :P
Posted in: Woman attacked with box cutter in parking lot
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guuzendesu
"Ticket out of Okinawa"??? Is it really that bad a place? Is Okinawa communist or something? What did I miss?
Posted in: Proxy wedding means Marine's Japanese widow, baby unwelcome in U.S.
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guuzendesu
wow, illsayit...that was probably one of the strangest posts i've seen on this site.
Posted in: Woman, child not wearing seatbelts fall out of car at intersection
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guuzendesu
Personally I hope Bono and the dancing chicks from those initial ipod commercials all choke on an ipod. I'm tired of seeing so many accessories--heck even cars with built-in stuff--geared toward the ipod alone. Personally I refuse to ever invest in a product which is more expensive just because of a brand logo on it, let alone something which tries to have as many proprietary things about it as possible.
My mp3 player is a Sansa, and it works great just using drag-and-drop from my PC. It has NEVER told me "You need to upgrade to the latest version" of ANYTHING.
Posted in: Walkman outsells iPod in Japan
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guuzendesu
As I understand it, Japanese people rarely hug their own children after a certain age, and most of them wouldn't think of doing it in public. If you are going to post on this, please also include your country of origin so that the differences in culture can be observed. It's quite interesting. I'm an American, and it doesn't bother me at all. My wife is Japanese and she says that hugging other Japanese does make her uncomfortable, but hugging Americans is "ok." But, I haven't asked her if that's only while she is in America. That will be interesting to find out too.
Posted in: Does hugging ever make you feel uncomfortable?
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guuzendesu
Oh. Sorry. My bad. There I thought I was posting links with numbers and facts. Boy was I wrong.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
Hm. Also, you seem to be trying to use my statements to argue that I believe you can't have moods or mood changes without music. That's a misinterpretation on your part. Also I have never said or hinted that I didn't know the source of my depression. I just didn't care to tell you.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
Some people...
This does not have anything to do with the fact that the song is what changed my mood at that time. You are incorrect: I never said "music didn't help my condition." I'm aware of what I said and didn't say. So let's stick to that. What I said was "A song ruined my good mood." How hard is this, really???
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
And I do not hide behind what a study says. It would be pointless to start a "study war" since you know already that there are countless studies that show music DOES increase all those things, and so do video games, movies (which was originally my main point) and lots of other stuff. I am citing my own and others' experience.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
No, it was not about depression. It's about rap music lovers who refuse to entertain the idea that rap increases violence. And I don't stop just at violence. Rap music increases egotism, disrespect, violence, drug trade, and other things. And I am stating flatly, and anyone who admits to being influenced by music will also state flatly, that it is apparent that you are defending a belief that you already have, and that you are unwilling to believe anything to the contrary. No degrees are required to see this either.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
Crimes have to be reported by police departments, and some don't bother, and others outright distort the facts in the city's favor. Check old news articles and you will be able to find things like "The city says it accidentally misrepresented crime statistics..." I know, because I heard that very story not a year ago.
littleman, for a guy with degrees, you don't read much. You ignored half of what I said. YOU HAVEN'T PROVEN ANYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF AND CAN'T. You could be a 13-year-old in Idaho for all we know. Do you understand that yet? People can post lies. Is that plain enough for you?
About my own experience, let me clarify, if you can read. I was depressed a lot in my teen years. I listened to a lot of depressing music. I figured this was not a contributing factor to my depression. I had been told that but I didn't want to believe it and argued against it because I didn't want to admit that it was stupid for me to listen to depressing music, the same way people argue about any music or anything else they love even though the arguments could obviously be wrong. (Ahem.) Years later, a depressing song completely ruined a good mood I had going, and I REALIZED it. This is what finally made me admit that music does influence and can completely change your mood. A psychologist or anyone else who could think about prescribing drugs was not and is not required in that situation. What IS required is introspection and self-honesty. I am capable of both.
IF you are capable of either, then you will have to admit two things: One, that a study can be made to show any fact that the study group wants. Ask any statistician. Two, that experience is a valid form of evidence.
My brother and a friend of his told me how, after seeing the movie "The Warriors," they walked down the center of the road and just WAITED for someone to pick a fight with them. No, it's not music, but the spirit is the same. I know that millions of people experience the same thing every day. If I listen to a song full of sexual sounds, I think of sex. If I listen to a song about fighting, I think of fighting. The idea that "thoughts make the man" is as old as...well, at least as old as philosophy. I really can't fathom why it's ever really questioned, except that, like myself in the midst of my UNDIAGNOSED depression, people don't want to admit that something THEY LIKE could be bad. Or even bad for them. Does 50 cent think his music causes violence? No. Do his fans? No.
This whole dumb argument reminds me a lot of another guy I know who has a drug problem. He will tell you time after time that he doesn't. He will also tell you he doesn't even use drugs anymore. Then you can open his drawer and find needles. This is the same crap in a different drawer.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
I say...personally I could never "start to like" rap. If rap music would start to all (or mostly) become positive in nature, then I would start to disapprove of it much less. Most of my problem with rap is its bad attitude. Right now, most of the rap that isn't about illegal stuff or violence is about all about arrogance, defiance, or how the system is keeping them all down. Even most of the rap that people say isn't negative is all about how the rapper is better than any other rapper, or any other person. That's arrogance and it's also a negative emotion.
I don't think rap could survive without negativity. There are too many people who listen to rap to make a statement about how "baaad" they are. Without that message, without those consumers, I don't feel the market would be there to sustain the artists.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
biglittleman...you are a judgmental American with a big head. Believe it or not, there are people who understand themselves, and they don't need a person with a piece of paper to tell them how they feel. It was not hard for me to observe facts. Your undergraduate degree, if it exists, doesn't make you smarter or more useful, unfortunately. People who write in journals are going to do all they can to make people believe that you have to have a piece of paper to be able to tell people how they feel. And they will certainly not give you any guidelines in their journals as to how to avoid depression without helping to pay for their little pieces of paper. If they did, their papers wouldn't get paid for, and neither would their subscriptions to those journals. Same as a doctor isn't allowed to tell you that an orange is a cure for scurvy, a psychologist sure as heck will not just up and tell anyone in a magazine the best ways to get better. How many drug ads are in those journals? Answer that and you will have the answer to the next question: Who are those journals trying to help?
Also, I did NOT say that your mood doesn't influence the music you listen to. Obviously if you're depressed you're not going to get out Mini-moni's greatest hits. UNLESS...you believe, contrary to those wonderful journals, that you can change your mood if you try, by listening to upbeat music and thinking positive things, and getting out of bed.
But you know...I guess none of that matters. I'm just some screwball who used to have "mood swings," which never got properly diagnosed by someone with degrees and subscriptions to "journals," so that I could find out how I feel something and why. I must be a fool to believe I've really been living happier all these years, and I'm sure at some point my foolish resistance to all those helpful drugs will bite me in the butt and I'll commit suicide. Right next to the guy who had the prescription for Prozac from the Psychologist.
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
random, I understand why you don't want to be blocked from websites. But, if I were a software maker in danger of being shut down because of some fanatics in Ireland and Zimbabwe, you can bet I would place my business interests above the idea of "free internet."
Posted in: Dating simulator games inspire legion of followers—and detractors
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guuzendesu
DenDon...you may as well stop posting. It's obvious you want to wear all the "gold" chains you can find at the thrift store. No one will take you seriously.
And personally, Mocheake, I can't STAND eminem. Never could. But I do love a good sex scene! :P
Music can and does change a person's psychology. I spent most of my late teens in a depressed funk and thought I was choosing music to suit my mood. I finally realized it was largely the other way around when one day I was in a really good mood and listening to music. Then one of my favorite downer songs came on and within minutes I was back in the hole, BECAUSE of the bad memories and junk that the music made me think about. I realized then that music DOES change how you feel. Likewise I'm sure with movies and games. However...there is a difference between a game about charging through terrorists gunz-a-blazin to rescue hostages, and charging through LA gunz-a-blazin to...charge through LA gunz-a-blazin. It's the message. The difference is in the idea "Wow...imagine doing this in real life..." Would I want my kid to imagine being in the Special Forces and rescuing Olympic athletes from wackos? Maybe. Would I want my kid to imagine shooting a gun or blowing up ANYTHING for a really just cause, or to save the lives of civilians? Maybe. (I'm pretty against war these days, but not every gunshot or explosion happens in a war.) BUT...would I want my kid to imagine shooting people to get rid of drug competition? NO. Would I want my kid to imagine rampaging through LA (or B.F.Egypt) throwing people from their own cars or any of that stupid, worthless crap? Absolutely not. Setting and reasoning are important factors in the issue of violence that is largely overlooked. A game about rescuing hostages could increase patriotism and even the idea of discipline. A game about killing people because you want their car or their drug territory...that can only increase stupidity.
It's funny to me that so many people these days say, like robots, "Kids today aren't any worse than when we were kids. You just got old." Yet they're the same ones who say "Society is degenerating, and kids have it tougher." Why is society degenerating? It's because of all this crap! In "our day" parents were worried about rock music and pot. Why? Because rock music featured lyrics (that made it to the radio) with words like "Hell" and "damn," and talked about how great pot was, which was illegal then. Now, those words and worse are commonly on TV and pot is becoming legal. Why? Probably because the people who are deciding on the laws grew up hearing about it all day in their music. So...should we worry about music and movies that commonly use much worse language and promote much worse behavior? Definitely. Society is degenerating specifically because WE ARE BEING TOLD TO TOLERATE EVERYTHING!
Posted in: Tattoos, rap and saggy pants
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guuzendesu
Yeah, I have to agree. Responsible, maybe not at all. But it still wouldn't cost the companies squat to have someone peek in all the cars once every 45 minutes or so. Require smoking employees to look in cars while they take a smoke break.
Posted in: Baby boy dies in locked car while mother plays pachinko in Akita
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guuzendesu
Nobel prizes...hm. The value of those is sometimes dubious at best. Try looking into the number of patents, and what they're for. If I remember correctly, one of the most "patented people," who in fact invented the floppy disk, digital watch and other things we all benefited from, is a Japanese guy. Japan is not far behind the US in terms of scientific achievement and technological innovation. Also many times, after we invented something, they made it a lot better.
Anyway, be sure to continue ignoring my final thought about the asceticism of the culture. In comparison, America flat sucks. Then throw in unfathomable junk like how fashionable it is to wear pants that you actually have to HOLD UP while walking! What is that???
Anyway...I don't want to keep arguing so I won't check back. America is marginally better overall, perhaps. Mainly in terms of economy, freedoms and spiritedness. Japan has us beat in many, many other ways, not the least of which is overall standard of living (look it up), education (look it up), and general respect for others and for environment (do you need to look it up?).
Posted in: Why the Japanese Are a Superior People
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guuzendesu
A spouse not being around is not a reason to have an extramarital affair. It's also unnatural to feel that it's fine for someone else to have body parts inside your lover.
If they're not around? That's what hands and batteries are for. Not strangers. Intimacy of that sort is what should naturally follow intimate emotions, not vice-versa. If your spouse is experiencing those physical things with another, then the emotional things could easily follow. Then, you may find out your spouse is quickly deciding no longer to be your spouse, and they no longer need you around.
A person of low intelligence will argue about being "man enough to keep her." Well, sharing her isn't "keeping" her in the first place, and she will know that too, regardless of what she says. If you "keep her" then it would only be because not leaving you is more convenient.
Posted in: Noriko Sakai’s love triangle with best friend and husband
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guuzendesu
I wish everyone could just get over it. I thought around the 2nd grade you were supposed to be taught not to let other people's words bother you. Oh well.
Posted in: Jewish human rights group protests 'anti-Semitic' ad in Nihon Keizai Shimbun