JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
- 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
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
-
- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
0
jonobugs
Ah, after reading it again, I noticed it's a vacuum storage bag. Need glasses...
Posted in: Man attempts suicide after police find mother's corpse hidden in vacuum bag
3
jonobugs
Am I the only one that thinks this must be some sort of monster vacuum cleaner? I mean, the mother couldn't have been that small.
Posted in: Man attempts suicide after police find mother's corpse hidden in vacuum bag
0
jonobugs
People are funny. If you do a study to prove your point, people call it a waste of time and money because it's common sense and they already knew that. However, if no studies are done, they point out the fact that, "no, marijuana doesn't affect the way people drive. If it did, someone would have done a study on it."
Well, guess what, NOW a study has been done on it. I'm sure that it won't matter though because people will only believe what they want regardless.
Posted in: Marijuana users twice as likely to cause car crash, studies show
0
jonobugs
New drivers getting confused is not strange because they are still gaining experience. Normally, they get better as they drive more. Elderly get confused because they are slowly losing their mind and/or body. It's a fact of life. So far, no one is immune from this.
I agree with a few others that people over a certain age should be tested more often since they will simple not be able to cope with confusing situations and/or even more simple situations. Re-testing younger people is just a waste of time and money as someone else pointed out they are knowingly breaking the law.
I think it's sad that these two died sooner than they had to. I'm sure they still had a lot to contribute to their families. It would be a waste if no one learns from this.
Posted in: Two elderly people dead after car plows into supermarket
0
jonobugs
Hearing about so many cover ups, I'm glad to hear about a company who is willing to step up and do the right thing even at the expense of their name.
Posted in: Mold found on Daimaru Matsuzakaya Valentine chocolates
0
jonobugs
Um, that's assuming that the brakes stop the elevator instantly. I'm pretty sure that the elevator will brake a bit slower than that.
Posted in: Mitsubishi Electric announces ultra-high-speed elevator tech
1
jonobugs
I think my sense of direction is pretty good. I don't normally get lost easily and I like to wander around sometimes just to explore. That said, I find that many streets in Japan are not always straight and sometimes they are not even noticeably curved. I have found myself going west when I thought I was going north, occasionally.
Of course having a map is of great help, but even with maps, traveling about in areas you're not familiar with is often confusing. It also doesn't help that there is noticeable lack of street signage.
Having a GPS is really a great way to get around without feeling the need for a local guide. I now know my way around my particular area better than almost anyone else but I am not sure I would have been able to find my way around so well in the beginning without a GPS.
Posted in: GPS is the traveler's enemy
0
jonobugs
How about instead of taxing sugar, make healthier foods more available as well as getting everyone educated.
Posted in: Time to tax sugar to combat health crisis: experts
4
jonobugs
@Yubaru: While I applaud your morality, how about not taking the car if you're planning on drinking. I'm sure a taxi ride is far cheaper than a potential 100,000 man fine and possible deportation. Please don't try and tell me that there is a lack of taxi service here in Japan.
Posted in: Parents of hit-and-run victim present petition demanding stiffer penalty for defendant
1
jonobugs
I believe that driving after drinking is at the very least negligent homicide (is there such a thing?) and should be punished severely. Note that this is the least. Anyone who drinks and drives is either in deep denial about what happens, doesn't care or is somewhat of a sociopath. The parents are right to be very angry. The only thing I'm surprised about is why this isn't brought up in other similar hit and run cases. At least I haven't heard of any on this site.
Posted in: Parents of hit-and-run victim present petition demanding stiffer penalty for defendant
1
jonobugs
I have to agree with King Basil on this one.
Try not to be afraid of emerging technology, but learn how to use it. I used to bike around a lot with maps and I would have to stop every 5 minutes or whenever the road changed to check my map. It wasn't that difficult, but there was an occasion or two where I would find myself in a place that didn't match the map and I would spend quite some time figuring out where I was.
About 3 years ago, I bought a portable navi (Garmin Edge 705) and while it's not perfect, it has made travelling around Japan, and anywhere else, a pleasure.
That's not to say I trust everything about it completely, as it is only as good as the map I've updated, but in the 3 years I've had it, it has not let me down once. Now, I like to think of my Garmin as the "idiot genius". Yes, it knows the road, and yes it can calculate a route based on time, etc., but it doesn't always pick out the best route or the one that I would have chosen. Sometimes I will notice it will actually take me OFF course for no foreseeable reason but it's simple to just ignore the prompts and go whichever way I feel is best as it will recalculate my route automatically if I decide to change things up a bit. Now, this is a tiny pocket GPS and I'm sure that the car GPS computers are much more powerful with better maps so I can't imagine anyone having that much of a problem with them.
I love my GPS and I have travelled around Japan quite a bit with it. If it were not for this wonderful device I feel that I would not have been able to travel to many of the places I went with just a map. (Maps don't work that well in rain and believe me, it's poured down on me something awful at times)
Posted in: GPS is the traveler's enemy
-1
jonobugs
since when is 6.1 hours considered a lengthy running time? Maybe for a laptop.
Posted in: Fujitsu releases Android tablet
2
jonobugs
I suspect that the machine itself is worth far more than the contents and this smoking fool will be paying for it one way or another!
Posted in: Cigarette vending machine thief's getaway foiled by snow
1
jonobugs
Regardless of her mental state, this woman is very dangerous and needs to be kept away from society until she is no longer a threat. My concern is that since an insanity please was not accepted by the court, she will NOT get any help and after four and a half years she will be out free and possibly more miserable than before and probably way more dangerous.
Posted in: Woman sentenced to 4 1/2 years for breaking babies' legs
0
jonobugs
@loudlight: you shared two articles. The first article seemed to downplay statistics and studies as irrelevant. (I didn't read it thoroughly as it was very badly written and incoherent in many places) and the second was a study on ETS. It seems that they contradict each other. In any case, tobacco smoke is not some chemical that will instantly destroy a person's lungs but has been proven to destroy the body over time. It takes years of exposure to do any serious irreparable damage and people who quit will notice a vast improvement in their health. All of that may be interesting or not, but the real point is that smoke is noxious, smelly, disgusting and very annoying to people who do not smoke. Even people have noted that it can be smelly.
The human body is incredibly elastic and strong and is able to resist a few doses but you have to be in serious denial to ignore common sense that second hand smoke is harmless.
I grew up in an environment of 2nd hand smoke and believe me, I escaped whenever I could. Driving in a car during my childhood was horrible when it came to smoking. I remember living in Alberta with temperatures of -20 and lower, yet I would opt to open a car window and face the wrath of my parents than continue to breath in the smoke.
Now, you can point to me and say "you don't have cancer, so second hand smoke has done you no harm", but the truth is that no one will ever know what harm it has done. It's impossible to measure the physical damage it has done, but I can assure you that the psychological damage is there.
Posted in: Gov't figures show lowest ever percentage of smokers
-1
jonobugs
Anyone who plays a sport knows that grunts, etc. are a part of the game. It's often done unconsciously and yes, sometimes to offset your opponent. Anyone who really cares whether people grunt or not on the court are obviously not true sports fans. Anyone truly complaining is only trying to malign the athlete.
Posted in: Stop shrieking about women's tennis noise
2
jonobugs
My bad. I haven't been out to see any movies recently for a few reasons. First, this year they have really pushed the 3D movies, which frankly, are a nuisance for me rather than a bonus. It's annoying to have to wear those heavy glasses overtop of my regular glasses and after the first 5 minutes of watching a 3D movie, my eyes adjust and I don't really even notice the 3D effects anymore. Waste of money to go see them. Plus, they add an extra 300 yen per ticket to view them. Secondly, the selection of movies has been a bit thin this year. Few movies that have truly caught my attention. I'm also with a few others in that I am annoyed by those ads to stop internet piracy. If I'm in the theatre, I'm not downloading, am I, so stop bugging me about it.
Posted in: Film box-office revenue down 17.9% in 2011
0
jonobugs
Hm. I like to think I have an open mind and I my mother always said, "don't knock it until you've tried it".
Well, I would try this, if someone made it for me, but I don't think I'll do it on my own as it really doesn't look healthy and I already have a bad enough diet.
Bizarre is sometimes good.
Posted in: Try cooking a Big Mac in rice cooker
0
jonobugs
I believe that there is not enough information to condemn this man for anything other than stabbing his mother in the back, which is pretty heinous. However, there could be many reasons for his living with his mother and not working. As many pointed out, he might have some sort of mental disability. As tmarie noticed, his mother is only 60 and receiving a pension. Why? Perhaps she is disabled and needs constant care (which might be why the son has no job).
I am definitely NOT trying to defend this man, but I am also saying that we should not just jump to conclusions no matter how obvious they may seem. I agree that there is a strong possibility that everyone is correct in that he may just be a lazy psychopath, but there may also be other reasons.
Regardless of why he is living with his mother, there is absolutely no reason for any kind of violence never mind what he did. I also think that there is a very strong possibility that the mother herself probably pushed all his "buttons" and just didn't realize how far he could be pushed.
Unless it comes out that she accidentally fell backwards onto a knife, I think that there is some serious dysfunction going on in that family. I hope she recovers, though.
Posted in: Man held for attempted murder after stabbing mother in back
2
jonobugs
It's not E. Coli. They are using E. Coli to convert the seaweed into ethanol. Besides, you should know that you have E. Coli in your body right now! It's a common bacteria and not always harmful.
Posted in: Scientists report breakthrough in seaweed biofuel