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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knowitall
Unfortunately, many many people fail to get quake insurance. There have even been TV ads informing people that damage by fire (and I assume tsunamis) caused by earthquakes is not covered by regular homeowners' insurance. Yet time and again people fail to pay out the extra for coverage on the assumption that it couldn't happen to them. I do, of course, have sympathy for those affected by this disaster and lenders must be flexible. But I can not say the banks must forgive loans and the government pay to give everyone a brand new house.
Posted in: Sake brewer loses all to tsunami, vows to rebuild
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knowitall
Don't know what country has such regulations, but it certainly does not apply to Japan. Kerosene is generally stored in red containers in Japan. I can't remember seeing a blue container in 20+ years here. Those people are lining up for kerosene. FYI, gasoline is not usually put in plastic containers in Japan. Plastic containers can only (legally) be used for up to 10 liters of gasoline. Greater than that requires a metal container. Those red plastic 20 liter containers are exclusively for kerosene.
Posted in: Fuel line
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knowitall
The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health's hourly measurements don't count? Sorry, they don't provide information in English. I assume they have greater priorities now than translating geiger counter readings.
Posted in: Geiger counters sell out in Akihabara over radiation fears
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knowitall
Interesting that the NRC claims they would require evacuation up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) if this happened in the USA. The Union of Concerned Scientists say that "If there was a reactor accident in the United States, the emergency preparedness measures that would directly protect the public, including evacuation planning and potassium iodide distribution, are limited to a 10-mile radius" The Wall Street Journal reports that the US nuclear industry also questioned necessity of 50 miles.
Posted in: Comments from U.S. Embassy and British Chamber of Commerce on radiation danger to Tokyo
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knowitall
This could be the Kan I have been waiting for to make a comeback (if he lives up the the expectations the article puts on him). We will know later if he did his job managing this very complicated mess. Can't judge his performance by how many times he shows up on TV. Every minute preparing for a TV appearance is a minute not working on the issues. Leave that to Edano. His administration is, in my opinion, at least doing better than Mr. Eyebrows (Murayama) in 1995.
Posted in: Kan meets destiny in tsunami tragedy
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knowitall
Note that this is a story form AP, so it had nothing to do with iTunes in Japan. In addition to movies, Sony Music still is keeping most of its catalog out of iTunes in Japan. They are hell bent on running their own store.
Posted in: Sony adds extra features to iTunes movies
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knowitall
Actually, it is illegal for them to refuse service. If it is an operating taxi (with the red available sign on) and he refuses to take you, report him. He can have his taxi license revoked for things like that.
While I generally agree that taxi drivers are incompetent and downright dangerous (almost got killed a few times back when I commuted by motorcycle), you do occasionally encounter a decent driver. Just the other day, commenting that "hmm, that is a few yen more than the same route usually takes" got me a reduction in the fare. I wasn't asking for a reduction, just commenting that meters are not always the same. Even got the receipt for the meter price which was more than I paid.
Posted in: Why are Tokyo cabbies so clueless?
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knowitall
Actually, JR East named the service GranClass (one word, no "d"). JT's "writers" didn't bother to look for the official naming in the English language material JR East has provided. Also, while the Hayabusa is the only current series E5, there could be future lines using that series which are not called Hayabusa. So the current phrasing E5=Hayabusa is not actually correct.
Moderator: It has been corrected.
Posted in: Hayabusa shinkansen offers first class speed and service
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knowitall
Why have you been waiting? This is just one of many products already on the market that do the same thing. There are even water resistant ones like the BioLogic Bike Mount for just 200 yen more that let you navigate in the rain.
Posted in: Navigation system for bikes
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knowitall
Of course, this would be OK if it were girls saying oneechan for women or boys saying oniichan for men. We wouldn't be able to say things about the tastes of a "legitimate" minority.
Fringe product for a fringe crowd=not news.
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knowitall
Haven't we been told all this since last week?
Just because AP has finally picket up the story due to a 007 link doesn't mean we have to submitted to a rehash of what anyone who has been awake in the past week already knows.
Posted in: Volcano made famous by 007 wreaking havoc
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knowitall
There is no scientific evidence of a link between volcanos and avian flu.
Is there such thing as a winter crop of rice in Japan? Granted I haven't checked out the situation in Kyushu, most of Japan does not grow rice in the winter.
Posted in: Power of nature
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knowitall
Charles Manson (co)wrote a book from prison. The USA, the publisher, and every citizen of a country that allows such speech should be ashamed for letting that monster have his story published! Like it or not, this happens all over the world.
Posted in: Ichihashi's book goes on sale; says he hopes to give royalties to Hawker family
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knowitall
Love it when these companies boast of their thousands of translators in their database. Most of those "translators" are worthless and never used. They are just keep in the database so the company can boast of the numbers. Only about a tenth of those are used on a regular basis. Many a freelance translator is used one time only, whereby the client finds out how incompetent the person is and never calls on him or her again.
Posted in: A flare for language services
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knowitall
Saw some of that. Takeuchi was there just to say her lines and not say a thing about how fake the "Japan" in that show was. In one scene Takeuchi was talking to a woman in Japanese who obviously spoke no Japanese at all. The woman's pronunciation was so bad Japanese TV had to subtitle it. And her kimono was on backwards (the way they dress the dead at a funeral!). I know dozens of white guys who speak better Japanese than the woman who got the part because she is "Asian". And the "Tokyo" scene had those 3-wheel motorbikes popular in the 1950s alongside some superfuturistic cars parked on the street. If they intended to show it in Japan, the show would have done better investing in making it not look stupid. And "big name" Japanese stars should speak up and say something when the show does some really really stupid things.
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knowitall
Japanese to English translators... Well, at least until computers get smart enough to guess the omitted subject of a sentence or Japanese start adding subjects to all the sentences they write without a subject. Ah, Job Security!
Posted in: Which jobs are on the endangered species list because of technological advances and which jobs do you think there will always be a demand for?
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knowitall
Thanks for the legal advice lawyer guy. Now I know that this thing I often see is wrong:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
You're the lawyer, so you must no more than us commoners...
Posted in: Apple's iTunes music store starts selling Beatles songs
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knowitall
At least they are letting people on planes.
Posted in: Scanners and pat-downs upset airline passengers in U.S.
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knowitall
" if the video was deemed so important it shud (sic) never have been on any servers and access shud (sic) have been limited very few individuals."
Well it wasn't deemed secret for quite a while. The government didn't decide what to do for a long time. The CG quite often disseminates video of its actions. By the time the government big wigs decided what to do, half the coast guard already had seen it. What the government "shud" (is that some newfangled past tense of should?) have done is decide that it was classified from day one.
Posted in: What do you think about the online posting of a video showing collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands by a Japan Coast Guard member? Is it a big deal? Should heads roll over the matter?
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knowitall
You mean the one that fired machineguns and rockets at the coast guard, forcing them to use their cannon to sink it? I think that qualifies as stopping.
Posted in: Japan may form new unit to watch Chinese navy