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
sk4ek
alladin, and if they did one of Elmo or Hello Kitty or god forbid AKB48, then you'd just complain about Japanese ignoring their own cultural history and not doing things "Japanese" enough...
The material they choose each year is perfectly appropriate for the setting, I think. Other towns have been doing this too, but not at the level of dedication and detail that this town in Aomori puts into it.
Article Unavailable
0
sk4ek
NHK, which used to produce really world-class documentary series, has seriously cut back its budget, and production values have plummeted. Some of their most interesting recent series, like "Mission" (about people/organizations trying to effect various social changes) and "The Star" (two-hour episodes delving into the lives and work of some of Japan's most venerable performers), are ruined for me by the use of superfluous guests, "talento" hosts and hostesses, and cheezy CGI sets. The content is great, the presentation is just not what it used to be.
My expectations for the commercial broadcasters are near zilch these days, but I used to have more respect for at least a good portion of NHK programming.
Posted in: Marcia's family history to be revealed on NHK documentary
0
sk4ek
Music by Stevie & Son, body by Steven Seagal...
Article Unavailable
0
sk4ek
alladin--if you think that, you've probably never met Jake or seen him perform (and while his success comes from what is traditionally considered a Hawaiian instrument, it has little to do with Hawaiian music per se, as he seldom plays Hawaiian numbers).
I've met Jake numerous times, talked to him, seen how he interacts with his audience, and I think he would have been a success at whatever he decided to do--with or without the ukulele. He's got character.
Posted in: Jake Shimabukuro speaks to generations through the ukulele
0
sk4ek
Which reminds me, is there some technological hurdle that prevents WOWOW (and other channels) from providing access to the secondary, original language track when they broadcast the dubbed version of a movie??? Do the dubbed versions they get have the foreign (original) language track stripped away or something?? Most of the major commercial broadcasters show foreign movies in their dubbed form, but allow you to switch to the secondary voice track to hear the original... but not WOWOW...
Posted in: Would you rather see a movie that is not in your native language, with subtitles or dubbed into your own language?
0
sk4ek
Subtitles always, except for the U.S. designer competition show "Project Runway" on WOWOW, where the voice actors really seem to be having a blast.
Posted in: Would you rather see a movie that is not in your native language, with subtitles or dubbed into your own language?
0
sk4ek
Jake's sure come a long way in five or six years. I can remember seeing him play (for free) at Willow's Restaurant in Honolulu, and I know he still does charity concerts in Hawaii, and of course he's since toured the U.S. with Jimmy Buffet and the great Bela Fleck, not to mention playing Europe, performing with Bette Midler (another of Hawaii's notable artists), even hitting blues clubs in New York City. His annual summer tours of Japan have crept up in price though, over the years, and his handlers (Sony Music Entertainment) have really pushed him to tailor himself to Japanese audiences, which has led him in a rather bland direction of late. Still, he remains a humble, hard-working, versatile, and extremely talented performer!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPQ1z5FoqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEqzV3ysPEg
Posted in: Jake Shimabukuro speaks to generations through the ukulele
0
sk4ek
Maybe part of the problem--from the JT reader point of view, anyway--is that while there are any number of talented, thoughtful, intelligent, even subversive actors in the Japanese film and theater industries, they either don't speak English (and thus don't get much exposure to Western audiences), or express their sentiments about their art, the industry, the world at large, in documentaries and interviews not seen by the average foreign resident of Japan. I've seen any number of full-length interviews on NHK and other stations with Shinobu Terashima, where she expressed many of the same views as in this article, as well as with long-time stars such as Hiroyuki Sanada, Koji Yakusho, Chieko Baisho, Ken Takakura, Shima Iwashita, etc. etc. that were equally engrossing.
Until Hollywood is willing to incorporate subtitles in major productions, they will rely on stars with name recognition and English-language ability. The majority of truly great actors in Japan lack the former, outside of Japan, and certainly the latter, but why should that not be the case, as it is in many other countries?
And well...I'm sorry, but even putting those issues aside, there is no way any competent director or casting official is going to choose Norika Fujiwara and Shizuka Kudo over Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li, at least not for roles that call for any range of acting ability.
Posted in: Shinobu Terajima talks about cinema, sex scenes and why she hates doing commercials
0
sk4ek
Off topic but let's see, I count no fewer than 50 cast members in "Memoirs of a Geisha" with Japanese names versus what, 20 possibly Chinese names, 4 or 5 possibly Korean names, and a similar number of Vietnamese-sounding names. Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, and Kaori Momoi are hardly minor talent, either. Anyway, as Pukey2 says, it's a silly argument anyway--watch any Japanese TV drama with Western roles and listen carefully to how many "American" characters are played by Russians or other Eastern Europeans (thanks, Motoko Inagawa)...
Posted in: Shinobu Terajima talks about cinema, sex scenes and why she hates doing commercials
0
sk4ek
Steam-powered! Ha! You don't need to plug it in--just hook it up to the hot water heater??? And double the amount of microwaves!!! Just what the happy, newlywed couple needs as they try to build a family!!
Posted in: Panasonic oven range
0
sk4ek
timtak--I've read Nakajima's books and enjoyed his curmudgeonly take on things. I think of him every time I get on an escalator!
Posted in: It’s time to get rid of sound trucks
0
sk4ek
Finally, Ueno gets a 'real' hotel... :-)
Other Mitsui Garden hotels run in the 18,000-40,000 range, depending on location and room type. Their rooms are small but generally nicely designed and well-appointed. The location near Shimbashi Station/Ginza, across from Shiodome, has a really comfortable bar on, I think, the 25th floor.
Posted in: Mitsui Garden Hotel to open in Ueno in September
0
sk4ek
Yeah, the yaki-imo and tofu vendors (an increasingly rare bunch) are two of the types I don't mind; they predate both commercial trucks and electronic amplification by a couple of centuries at least... and really, the calls for recycling appliances, etc. have really just replaced the guys going around offering to exchange old clothing and newspapers for rolls of toilet paper made from recycled pulp. I don't know if trucks still go around selling aluminum or plastic rods for hanging clothes ("sao-dake").
I actually kind of support the yaki-imo guys. Most of them (according to several friends who were radical leftists in the 60s) went into the job after being hounded by the Department of Public Safety for their activities as student radicals. The job offered mobility, an ear on the street, and--oddly enough, considering the noise--a kind of anonymity.
Posted in: It’s time to get rid of sound trucks
0
sk4ek
Well this is really a question that calls for a subjective response that I think the average consumer--i.e., the average reader of JapanToday--is probably not qualified to make. Asking for a quantitative judgment is even more difficult unless you are an economist or financier. And there is the qualitative query, as well--how important to whom??? Something more specific might be helpful: "Do you believe ratings agencies have too much influence in the market or in political policy-making?" or perhaps "Do you believe the ratings published by credit rating agencies are truly objective?"
The international credit-rating agencies originally played an important role, especially for smaller foreign governments and institutions looking to either raise capital or publicize the stability of their own underlying economics. But as their independence has gradually eroded, their ability to provide truly useful ratings has also been compromised, despite the fact that their influence on policy remains undiminished. They have been allowed to wield a very big stick with few or no restraints, a situation which must change if the flow or accurate, reliable analysis and information is to be maintained.
Posted in: How important are ratings given to companies and countries by agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's?
0
sk4ek
Though the players change from time to time, there are at least a half-dozen companies that regularly patrol our neighborhood (central Tokyo) offering to relieve people of their unwanted appliances, computers, anything. They start at 8 a.m. and go on until evening, at roughly half-hour to sixty-minute intervals. Because I work at home, and my work requires a good amount of concentration, these trucks are a serious distraction. After some investigating, I found there is a Tokyo metropolitan ordinance that prohibits sound trucks from operating on streets of less than 3 meters in width--and the road running alongside my building is certainly less than that--so I lodged a complaint with the ward office. I don't know if it did any good (I wasn't able to provide specific company names; though my mailbox is regularly stuffed with fliers from these companies, their trucks are unmarked, so it's difficult to know which is which), but I've noticed a definite drop in frequency, if not volume.
Posted in: It’s time to get rid of sound trucks
0
sk4ek
All of these tactics skirt the boundaries of legality on many, many fronts. Given the potential liability, it is unlike that any major Japanese corporations would stoop to using this kind of service--they have plenty of other ways of fixing personnel problems. But I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of thing from any of the thousands of medium-sized companies that are fighting for survival these days.
Posted in: New breed of corporate head choppers set up errant workers for decapitation
0
sk4ek
I should have noted that this policy change is driven by revisions to consumer lending laws that took effect in June of this year, and is not just something the credit card companies came up with arbitrarily because of the weak economy. They are no longer allowed to extend credit--including card-based cash loans--to consumers with debt exceeding 30% of income. If you get a written request from your card company asking you to provide recent proof of income, you should submit it (especially if your debt-to-income balance is well under the limit) or risk having your credit limits drastically reduced (which may not be such a bad thing, either, if you're trying to wean yourself off of paying for things with money you don't have).
Posted in: Which credit card company do you recommend? Have you had any trouble with any credit card company either in Japan or abroad?
1
sk4ek
It's a big myth that Japanese credit card companies reject foreign applicants simply for being foreign. They use weighted scoring systems just like U.S. banks do, so things like length of employment, housing, duration of residence, etc. (and lately, if belatedly, total domestic credit card debt)are all considered. That puts non-permanent resident foreigners at a disadvantage, of course, but foreigners in the U.S. (don't know about other countries) who haven't established any credit face a similar hurdle. There's certainly no algorithm running in the background, looking for and tossing out applications with "katakana names".
I hear Saison and Orico are both pretty loose in accepting applications; the big banks tend to have the toughest standards, especially since most of them are bleeding cash from their acquisitions of consumer loan companies.
Posted in: Which credit card company do you recommend? Have you had any trouble with any credit card company either in Japan or abroad?
1
sk4ek
Never had a problem with credit cards in Japan, except being rejected by JR for a Suica card (even though I also have a JAL/DC MC gold card, and have had at least one other card here for almost ten years). People who find their credit limits shifting suddenly (downward for the most part) like movieguy, should be aware that they are now tying total credit debt (cashing and charge limits for all card debt combined) to income, and as in the US, the card companies are moving to reduce credit limits on consumers who are over the total debt guideline 30% of gross income.
Posted in: Which credit card company do you recommend? Have you had any trouble with any credit card company either in Japan or abroad?
0
sk4ek
Actually, those are leaves, not petals... :-)
Posted in: Titan Arum