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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imacat
What's everybody's top 3 MJ tracks? Mine are:
Posted in: Michael Jackson dies of reported cardiac arrest at 50
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imacat
As the pic shows, it was quite misty in Tokyo on Monday evening... a bit of rare occurrence I thought as I returned home.
Posted in: Candle Night
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imacat
There's all kind of parents in Japan, just like your country or mine.
Why can some people only see the bad parents? There are some really great mums and dads here... I've learnt a lot about parenting from them.
Posted in: What's your impression of parental supervision of children in Japan?
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imacat
What an excellent train. I really admire Japan's constant investment in rail travel. It's definitely the way to go for so many reasons. Hope I have a chance to ride this beauty some day.
I always find a rail journey a pleasure. It makes getting there fun. Air travel on the other hand is always just a grueling nightmare that I want to be over as soon as possible.
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imacat
It sounds like a lot of fun at Takagawara.
I've always had a good time at hot springs in Japan, especially if they have a kashikiri-onsen or kashikiri-buro.
If you going to a hot spring with your cute Japanese girlfriend, make sure it has one of these.
Posted in: Foreign nudists flock to Gunma hot spring resort
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imacat
It's a tricky problem. One aspect is that many people traveling are too young to have kids yet or have chosen not to have kids. If people had more kids then it probably wouldn't be such a problem!
Once you've had kids this problem seems to melt away. For one thing you really get used to crying kids! A few months ago I was on a trip for work, got my seat on the plane, settled down with Newsweek and read it cover to cover. After I finished I looked around, saw numerous angry sullen faces and then realised that a kid had been bawling her eyes out for ages in the seat in front. I'd barely noticed.
On another occasion my son was crying and the guy in the next seat suddenly shouted at me "Shut that ******* kid up!". It was a bit brutal but to be honest I could completely understand his feeling and I might have said the same thing when I was younger. In my defense I was trying to do something about it at the time so it wasn't a particularly helpful comment. I just said sorry etc and actually the guy later made an effort to be friendly later in the flight so it seemed he kind of regretted his outburst. But I think such outbursts are perfectly justified if the parents are making no effort to distract or console a crying kid... that's just rude to all the other passengers.
Mild sedatives have been mentioned. There is one kind of "kampo" type sedative/sleep medicine sold in Japan that is good for kids and I have used on flights... it worked really well! The kids were sleeping fitfully for hours! I can't remember the name but it is tiny little silver balls in a small tube. If anyone knows the name please share... it really does work well! It tastes pretty bad so it's a bit of a trial to get the kids to swallow it but once that's done they will be settling down to a nice nap and you can watch the in-flight movie.
Posted in: In-flight madness with the kids
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imacat
These movie premiere's in Japan really are hopeless. The last one was the idiotic A4B28C little girls (or whatever they were) at the Star Trek premiere. Now we have some random sportsperson of all people turning up at Terminator. How ludicrous can you get?
What's the problem with Japan? For a premier you get a famous movie theater and lay a red carpet leading up to the entrance. Limousines bring lots of famous people to come and watch the movie and they pose on the red carpet. As they come out they say how much they loved the movie and hang out with the stars of the movie. It's easy.
You don't get some fast fading sports star or one minor group of silly little girls... that's pathetic. The premiere for Slumdog Millionaire was also useless. Of all things, they wheeled on some tonkatsu to eat because katsu also means win and it was hoped it would win the Oscar. So ridiculous.
Posted in: Terminator Japan premiere
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imacat
I think the problem of poor attendance at Japanese universities (if there is such a problem) relates to the length of classes, the number of classes students have and of course the content and how they are taught.
For a start 90 minutes is way too long. An hour would be fine and indeed it's difficult for anyone to concentrate for 90 minutes.
Students have too many lessons in the 1st and 2nd years. They seem to have really full schedules. I seem to remember that at uni we generally just had lectures in the morning and each lecture was an hour. The afternoons were freed up for lab work, self-study, library work, computer work (on the state of the art 80286 machines), sports, etc. That seems like a much better system. Japanese universities should make all their classes 55 minutes and just hold them in the morning... a whole day of 90 minute lectures would make the heart sink of even the most dedicated student.
And finally lecturers here seem able to make even the most interesting subjects an appallingly boring monotone lesson in tedium. They need training on how to spruce up their act. Having said that some of my lecturers at uni were really bad.
Posted in: Tokyo university gives away iPhones to nab truants via GPS
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imacat
Next time they are smashing up the park toilets at 1:00am you go and try "listening" to them. I am absolutely sure that would stop further vandalism...
I'm all for this device, but it's a short term measure, not a solution. What is needed is a strict zero-tolerance policy by the police and community. Teenage kids shouldn't be out after 8 or 9pm. They shouldn't be allowed to gather in large groups in the park late at night. They should be at home, studying or watching TV or listening to music like normal kids. If they don't follow the rules both they and their families should be punished. It's as simple as that.
Posted in: 'Teen repellent' in Adachi park spurs flood of inquiries
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imacat
Heroes has been quite big in Japan in case you haven't noticed. Eric Bana is also quite well known from Black Hawk Down and more recently The Other Boleyn Girl.
Hey, maybe you could get a job with a Japanese movie promotion company. Thats about the depth of their thinking... "AKB48 are cute and famous in Japan so we'll put them in front of the Star Trek crew"
Posted in: Star Trek
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imacat
Looking at it once more, the Star Trek guys really do look uncomfortable, and understandably so. They are all cool guys, here to promote a movie they've worked hard on and which has a rich heritage... but yet they've been stuck behind a group of idiot little girls.
Obviously these little girls have simply been roped in to try and attract the attention of the 20,30,40-something male Japanese otaku who would be probably be the target audience for this movie, as well as to try and make the movie appealing to other similarly idiotic young Japanese women who want to see a kakkoi gaijin in the movie or whatever.
I can't put my finger on it but it almost seems disrespectful to the Star Trek series and heritage.
It also gives the impression that Japan is a completely dumb and childish country... an impression I have had from previous movie presentation events pictured on Japan Today.
Posted in: Star Trek
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imacat
The wonderful Emiri Miyasaka would have been much more appropriate at this event. I could see her as a female Sulu.
But to get an idea of the ludicrousness and incongruity on display here, just imagine these AKB48 little girls as members of the Star Trek crew. They'd be spending hours mailing each other on their mobile phones, err, I mean communicators, or be screeching "kawaii" about Spock's ears, or else day dreaming about having a cute half-child... half Vulcan that is.
Posted in: Star Trek
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imacat
The Star Trek guys must be wondering why the organizers of this event invited a bunch of idiot little girls along.
The two groups seem so incongruous... it's ludicrous.
Japan seems to specialize in making these movie promotion events completely ridiculous.
Posted in: Star Trek
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imacat
Thank you, Jesus.
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imacat
I wouldn't hand it in but instead would selflessly use it to stimulate the local economy.
Posted in: If you found a large sum of money on the street, as happened in Kanagawa last week, would you help yourself to some of it, or hand it in?
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imacat
I do know how to drive but I can't seem to translate that knowledge into actual driving skill.
I'll grant that you've got a point about backing into a space at the side of the road, that does seem to challenge some Japanese drivers. Maybe they don't need that to pass the test in Japan.
But in a car park they seem pretty good to me.
Posted in: Man runs over daughter, nephew in Chiba restaurant parking lot
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imacat
This is tragic and a reminder of how dangerous car parks are. Kids should never be left unsupervised in car parks, even for a few seconds. Hope the little children recover.
As for reversing, I'm always very impressed at Japanese people's reversing and parking skills. They're much better than me.
Posted in: Man runs over daughter, nephew in Chiba restaurant parking lot
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imacat
In any case in Japan where the presumed victims start claiming "foreign accents" or "blonde haired assailants" etc, then it's time to start looking closely at the victims themselves... there's a fair chance that they are actually the perpetrators of the crime.
Posted in: More details emerge in Aichi double murder, including cat's death, mysterious assailant
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imacat
I'll never become a Mac user because I'd hate to turn into the kind of person who posts about how much better Mac is than Windows... in the end they're all just boring old computers!
Posted in: Behind the scenes with Windows 7
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imacat
If we all lived on three sho of rice a day then none of this would matter.
Posted in: Supermarket investigator exposes slipshod quality management