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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jeancolmar
Whatever the case, I am glad that big Putzmeister is coming. Its presence is long overdue. I hope it is around when (not if) either Tepco or the Japanese government decides to entomb the reactors.
Posted in: Heavy help
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jeancolmar
This is typical sensationalist and stupid weeklies fare. You get a lot of questionable little tales from which you get sweeping generalizations. Oh yeah, the foreigners think the Japanese are all polluted with radiation. Yeah.
All this article proves is what we have known all along. You have to take the weeklies with a huge grain of salt. (I am being delicate for the sake of the children who might be reading this.)
Recently the Japanese government berated the foreign press not to be "sensational" but to be "objective" (code for refrain for reporting our obfuscations and evasions). But nothing has been official has been said, as far as I know, about rubbish like this.
The chief bearers of rumors and paranoia about evacuees from Fukushima have been the Japanese themselves. As one Japan Today article has pointed out the most outrageous rumors have been spread by Japanese through the Internet, including the lie about widespread looting in a disaster zone.
Frankly, your health is far more endangered by proximity to a typical sloppy Japanese cigarette smoker than a Japanese, or anyone, evacuating from Fukushima who is a nonsmoker.
I must say the timing of this stupid piece of writing is really great, coming as it does when millions of non-Japanese around the world as pouring out their hearts and wallets for Japan.
Posted in: Japan's disaster becoming contagious abroad
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jeancolmar
According to a TEPCO worker featured in an article in Today's Japan Times, workers have been using plastic garbage bags to protect there feet when wading in radioactive water.
Today's Daily Yomiuri had a feature article that catalogues all of TEPCO's screw-up right from 11 March.
When the Yomiuri is not happy with a big business you know things are less than wonderful.
Posted in: Absorbent yet to soak up radioactive water at Fukushima plant
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jeancolmar
When the power reserve is exhaustED....
I just checked Orient's English website and the crystal is sapphire. That makes this watch even a better deal at 56,000 yen. Of course you could go for a Rollex Submariner at something like 700,000 yen.
Posted in: Always on time
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jeancolmar
Not all Orient watches are automatic--half are quartz--but this one is. Automatic means that it has a self-winding mechanical movement that is activated by the wear's arm movements. Two hundred meters water resistance is the minimum for a diver's watch. For 56,000 yen this is a remarkably good deal for an automatic (mechanical self-winding) watch. I only wonder if the glass is industrial sapphire or mineral. Sapphire is highly scratch resistant, which is what you do need under water.
I also wonder how well this watch keeps time. Mechanical watches are not a good at keeping time as quartz (battery powered) watches, though some of the best (and most expensive) come close. We are speaking in seconds here, though a lot of mechanical watches have a tendency to either speed up or slow down, particularly when off the wrist for extended time when the power reserve is still in operation. When the power reserve is exhaust so are the watches, of course.
Posted in: Always on time
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jeancolmar
Another bought "expert." Except this is an especially condescending and silly-clever "expert."
Why does nuclear radiation give us "the creeps." The reasons are perfectly rational, contrary to the subtext of this piece. It's power of destruction transcends localized catastrophe and can quickly become global, as in the case of Chernobyl and Fukushima (though as this point to a lesser extent). Chernobyl's meltdown's explosions were two-fold. First was the steam explosion and the second was an "excursion," that is an explosion caused by a nuclear reaction. Germany's radioactive boars are a legacy, 25 years after the fact. As I write, Fukushima's Tepoc nuclear facility is leaking radioactive water into the sea.
Nuclear power is dirty and difficult, if not ultimately impossible, to contain. Nuclear plants take a long to set up and have a short life, leaving tons of radioactive garbage to dispose of somewhere.
These are a fee of the reasons nuclear radiation gives us "the creeps."
This is also why Seth Borenstein gives me" the creeps."
Posted in: What's behind our conflicted feelings on nuclear power?
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jeancolmar
Cute photo. But, yeah, the real clowns are TEPCO and the Japanese government.
Posted in: Bringing a smile
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jeancolmar
They are stupid.
Posted in: U.N. nuclear chief to convene high-level safety meeting
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jeancolmar
Welcome to the Land of the Rising Screw-up.
The stupidities have now gone beyond TEPCO. The Japanese government and all the so-called experts that NHK has paraded to a tell us there are no risks to human safety have proven themselves utterly useless.
The 1995 Awaji-Hanshin Daishinsai showed that the Japan government was incapable of crisis management. Then volunteers stepped in where the government failed. Volunteers cannot help in this case. We need responsible people in charge. There are none to be found in Japan, at least as long as the status quo prevails. An international force, invited or not, must step in and real experts must put a stop to this mess.
Posted in: TEPCO apologizes again and again
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jeancolmar
Hey TEPCO creeps: Apologies not accepted.
It is is past time for patient with TEPCO and the bureaucratic morons who are supporting them.
TEPCO should be nationalized immediately and international experts brought in to clean up this mess.
This is not simply a local issue. It is an international issue. If the Japanese authorities won't do anything about TEPCO then the international community should step in.
Forget Iran. The clear and present nuclear danger is right here in Japan.
Posted in: TEPCO apologizes again and again
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jeancolmar
Thank you ThonTaddeo !!
Posted in: As Japan shutdowns drag on, auto crisis worsens
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jeancolmar
Are they being lazy and uncreative. Uncreative. Which is business as usual.
The counter argument to nuclear power opponents has always been, "What are you going to do if you shut down the nuclear plants?" Well, nature and TEPCO stupidity has done just that in Fukushima. Now Japan has to become creative and start considering how to carry on without the Fukushima nuclear facility. If they can do that, then maybe we will be on the way to ridding ourselves of nuclear power generation.
My late friend, Miyamoto Masao, wrote in Straitjacket Society that the bureaucrats he worked with were intelligent but hamstrung by precedents. One day he shredded years of old reports related to a project his team was working on and told his colleagues that there were no precedents and they'd have to use their imaginations. They did and came up with brilliant ideas. What Miyamoto said about bureaucrats I believe is symptomatic Japanese leadership--and not just Japanese leadership but leadership in general. It is happening now in regard to this crisis.
Clearly, this is a time to minimize the use of energy. It is past time for Japan to examine how it wastes energy. It is also past time for Japan to consider developing alternative energy sources. Yes, it's going to be difficult. But it has to be be done.
Posted in: As Japan shutdowns drag on, auto crisis worsens
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jeancolmar
This is great news! If the Greens can win in Baden-Wuerttemberg they can win anyway.
Posted in: Merkel's party suffers historic defeat in German state over nuclear power
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jeancolmar
A few thoughts.
I always hope that Basel World will have few a practical innovations along with the diamond-studded stuff. Truth is that there are things that a mechanical watch can do that a quartz watch and a smartphone watch (yuk) cannot do. One example. A mechanical chronograph's stop watch has instant return and a quartz watch doesn't. You can run a mechanical chronograph's stopwatch for 12 hrs every day with no problem. Do that to a quartz chronograph and you burn out the battery in a year or less.
I love Breiting because it makes beautiful utilitarian watches for flyers, spacemen and divers. But I also like the Rollex GMT and Sea Dweller. Their Dayton is a nice chronograph but too much of an icon and therefore overpriced. (I saw one with its face made from a piece of the moon and didn't ask about the price.) The Omega Seamaster is a gem and the Speedmaster is cool as well. Seiko makes some cool mechanical watches. Check out the Landmaster. A good mechanical watch is expensive but it need not be outlandishly so as long as it is made of steal and does not have useless doohickies.
One doohicky I don't need is a tourbillon. It was developed in the 18th century by Abraham-Louis Breguet and its purpose was to aid in the watch's accuracy by countering gravity with the escapement was rotated. There is debate amongst horologists as to whether it was ever useful (I think it was not) and is as useful as teats on a boar hog on modern mechanical watches. It unnecessarily raises the price of a watch and is only there for show. The joke is that the Chinese are putting cheap tourbillon mechanisms on the market that might cause a crisis in Switzerland.
In the end a watch is a watch. Quartz beats mechanical and radio controlled watches beat them all. But mechanical watches have their grace, charm and practicality; and they are green.
Posted in: Watchmakers compete for the young, old and rich, smartphone crowd
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jeancolmar
The oyajis ruling TEPCO are the Homer Simpsons of Japan. The history of TEPCO coverups is also largely a history of avoidable screw-ups. Like hand-mixing uranium in stainless steal buckets. In a situation comedy or cartoon that would be thrown out as slapstick too low for all but the cognitively challenged viewer.
The Homer Simpson factor is always a clear and present danger in nuclear power generation--it was a screwed up experiment that gave us the Chernobyl disaster--but if this article is accurate it would seem that Japan's nuclear industry is one big Homer Simpson.
Posted in: Bungling, cover-ups define TEPCO
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jeancolmar
Can you imagine not broadcasting nonstop about a disaster of this magnitude? It was necessary.
When we in the Kobe area were hit with a massive earthquake I was grateful for the coverage we got and was sorry when it leveled off. People were still suffering when the Awaji-Hanshin Daishinsai became yesterday's news. I hope that this does not happen this time, though it seems like it is. The daily fare of lowbrow commercial TV is now taking over as if normality has returned when it has not. Not by a long shot.
The quality of the coverage was uneven. NHK was very careful to follow the government line, particularly in regard to the nuclear disaster. But with Internet it was possible to get other perspectives and news that the networks would not cover (like yakuza engaging in humanitarian aid).
The unfortunate irony of all this coverage is that the worst victims of the quake have seen little or none of it, not having the means to do so.
Posted in: How do you feel about the nonstop television coverage of the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis? What effect do you think it has on the public?
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jeancolmar
Hypocrites, you say?!
Well, what else is new?
Saudi troops invade Bahrain to prop up the monarchy while at home the Saudi autocrats suppress their own people. Snipers acting on behalf of America's friend, the Yemen autocracy, murder 46 innocent demonstrators. And the list goes on. And on. No objections from the same people who are waxing sentimental over the Libyan people Gadhafi is killing.
Just a little while ago Gadhafi was everyone's friend. The Pan Am-Lockerbee atrocity was more or less forgiven and one its perpetrators released from prison is Scotland on "humanitarian" groups. Thanks to Libyan oil Gadhafi was allowed to come in from the cold.
Of course nobody really liked him. So when they saw the chance, the Western powers jumped on him.
I hope the rebels win. I also hope they won't have to fight NATO occupation forces after Gadhafi is overthrown.
Posted in: 48 killed, 150 injured as allies launch airstrikes in Libya
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jeancolmar
However accurate or otherwise this article may be, it is not objective. It is tipped in favor of the points of view of Tokyo Electric Power Co and the bureaucrats who have a vested interest in nuclear power generation.
Yet, this article cannot escape the fact that entombment, while distasteful and embedded with dangers of its own, may be the only option if all else fails. The article quotes David Lochbaum, nuclear safety director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, as saying that "sealing in the reactors or fuel pool" is something to be done "only when hope runs out." This is mildly echoed by others cited in the article, including Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The article end with the happy note that David Lochbaum "believes there is still hope."
More than anything I hope there is still hope. But what happens if it comes to pass that there is no more hope? Specifically, what happens if current efforts, noble as they are, fail and entombment becomes the only option, as it was with Chernobyl, even with the risks involved?
If entombment has to be done as a last ditch effort it should be done right. This mean preparations need to be started now. The authorizers and the entombers should know exactly what they are doing.
Whatever the bias of this article are, its chief virtue is to point out that entombment is no easy matter and can create more grave troubles if mishandled. This all the more reason to begin preparations of entombment now, even if it never has to be done.
Posted in: Experts knock notion of burying nuclear reactors
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jeancolmar
Thank you for those valuable points wanderlust.
TEPCO would not have been so bold in its reckless behavior (so-called bungling) and coverups if it did not have the power of the nuke-loving LDP government behind it. Blame can also be passed around to so-called experts--including those from academia-- who for years negated the dangers of nuclear power, remained silent to TEPCO's abuses and today have downplayed the severity of the current nuclear crisis.
With the DPJ we have seen considerable government dishonesty with regard to the Fukushima--until called to account by the international community.
The reactors would have been buried by now if this government was not hamstrung by the powers of capitalism and the bureaucracy.
Posted in: Bungling, cover-ups define TEPCO
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jeancolmar
“Unequivocally, Tokyo will not be affected by the radiation fallout of explosions that have occurred or may occur at the Fukushima nuclear power stations,” says the intrepid Sir John Beddington.
"Radiation detected in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama; Kan blasts TEPCO's handling of crisis," says today's JT headline.
I say: "I don't know what Sir John is drinking, but I'll have the same, bartender.
Posted in: Comments from U.S. Embassy and British Chamber of Commerce on radiation danger to Tokyo