JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

missbatten's past comments

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  missbattenFeb. 03, 2012 - 11:30PM JST

  mastertigurius: Mitaka is nothing like Misato.

  Posted in: Teen held over knife attacks in Saitama, Chiba to get psychiatric test

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  missbattenDec. 05, 2011 - 12:38PM JST

  Laissez-faire might work in leafy Setagaya, but in this area, Lourdes' approach is the way to go. Local cram schools and other places where children gather called parents and asked them to pick children up the evening after this attack...they didn't seem to think that fostering independence by sending kids out to walk home alone in the dark was a good plan either.

  The school the girl attends is very close to where I live. The roads are busy, with poor visibility, and there are mostly no footpaths...after a few serious accidents, the busiest places are patrolled before and after school. We have also had our share of knife-wielding nutters in parks and on the streets since disability benefits have been cut (the mentally ill are the group least able to argue that they really do need assistance, and the more they need it, the less able they are to fight for it). Two or three kids have been dragged into cars within the closest three school districts and abducted in the past decade...and let's not start on the damage kids are able to do to each other on the way home from school!

  I am not sure which river the girl was walking along, but some have limited car access and few houses nearby...but easy enough for somebody who lives not far from Misato or Matsudo to walk down the main local river from the nearest Musashino Line station.

  Posted in: 8-yr-old girl stabbed by man while walking home from school in Matsudo

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  missbattenNov. 07, 2010 - 11:30AM JST

  I first taught Japanese university students in 1980...I haven't been in Japan or taught continuously since then, but I can confidently claim that students these days generally have better listening and speaking skills than their counterparts a generation ago.

  That counts as a JET-program success, even if direct teaching by ALTs is only one factor in that success. Whether or not today's students have better English skills overall is debatable, and that is related not only to English curricula, staffing, and total hours of tuition, but also to the typical 2010 student profile.

  Posted in: Grounding the JETs

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  missbattenOct. 16, 2010 - 06:40PM JST

  Smoking on the streets...I'm not a fan. I often need to leave home around 6 am, and it's disappointing when instead of the fresh morning air that is about the only consolation in an early morning start, all I can smell is the cigarette the guy 10 meters in front of me is smoking. I bet he (it's never been "she" so far!) gets a lot less of his cigarette than the hapless downwind walker.

  Posted in: Make way for the Butt Police

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  missbattenSep. 02, 2010 - 02:07PM JST

  Parent-teacher conference during summer vacation....but "nothing unusual"? Must have been some reason to hold a parent-teacher conference during vacation.

  Posted in: Saitama woman held over death of 11-year-old son

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  missbattenSep. 01, 2010 - 02:43PM JST

  What porter says...JAL spent too long as the bauble of bureaucrats.

  Posted in: JAL to slash 30% of global workforce as part of restructuring

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