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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smartacus
I do not support dictatorships but I have seen too many instances of popular uprisings that result in worse conditions for the people after the revolution. What I would prefer to see in countries like Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt right now are for the governments to call elections so that people can vote for a change of government rather than it falling into the hands of those in the shadows who may promise better days but will deliver nothing.
Just as Facebook and Twitter are playing a big role in these campaigns, if the Islamic hard-liners get in, those same protesting young people will very quickly lose their Internet access.
Posted in: Thousands of Yemenis demand change in government
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smartacus
I hope all these protesters, as well as the ones in Tunisia and Yemen beware because Islamic fundamentalists are waiting in the shadows to grab power. Al-Qaida must be loving the current turmoil.
Posted in: As unrest sweeps Egypt, president refuses to quit
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smartacus
I hope all these protesters, as well as the ones in Tunisia and Egypt beware because Islamic fundamentalists are waiting in the shadows to grab power. Al-Qaida must be loving the current turmoil.
Posted in: Thousands of Yemenis demand change in government
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smartacus
Uniqlo can start by giving him a more fashionable pair of shorts to wear.
Posted in: Advantage Uniqlo
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smartacus
I wouldn't be too critical of the father. The girl may have been acting violently, being destructive or even suicidal.
Posted in: Nara schoolgirl arrested for drug possession
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smartacus
fishy
Exactly what would you do if the adult told you to mind your own business and kept on berating the child? If you touch the child, you could be in big trouble and if you touch the adult, you could be in even bigger trouble. There are not a lot of options other than to stand nearby and glare.
Posted in: If you saw an adult hitting or roughly handling a child in public, would you intervene or just mind your business and assume it was a parent disciplining his/her child?
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smartacus
I have seen this a lot recently at the shopping mall near where I live. Once I saw a very young mother, around 20-22, I'd say, and she was shouting at her young boy. Maybe he was about 2. Apparently, he had wandered off while she wasn't looking and she was loudly scolding him and slapping him about the face and ears.
I really wanted to intervene but didn't because she would have told me to mind my own business. Other passersby didn't seem to notice.
I often think that one of two things will happen to that boy - he'll either end up with severe injuries or dead from a beating, or he will grow up to be an abuser himself.
Posted in: If you saw an adult hitting or roughly handling a child in public, would you intervene or just mind your business and assume it was a parent disciplining his/her child?
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smartacus
Why do readers always come onto these threads and say what they would do the perp if they had 5 minutes with him?
tokyokawasaki, how do you know you could take him? He might tear your throat out. Just because he attacked a girl doesn't mean he is a weakling. One of the meanest bullies I knew at school picked on smaller kids, but he was no weakling. He was a tough brute.
This guy in Yamaguchi is sick in the mind. He may even believe himself to be justified in doing what he did. I often wonder what make a person flip like that.
Posted in: Man arrested over knife attack on 8-year-old girl in Yamaguchi Pref
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smartacus
What surprised me the first time I went to Japanese wedding was how much money I was supposed to give in the envelope. I had put in 10,000 yen but everyone else told me that 30,000 yen was about right. These days, I politely decline invitations to weddings.
Posted in: How to not make a fool of yourself at a Japanese wedding
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smartacus
Snoring, but I guess we all do it. But sometimes, I really think that separate bedrooms would be more inducuve to a good night's sleep.
Posted in: What is one habit that your significant other does or has that you can't stand but put up with anyway?
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smartacus
This bothers me a lot in Japan. I can't count the number of times I have had to step aside for someone who would have walked right into me because they were engrossed in their cell phone. I also don't get why women have to carry their cell phones in their hand all the time. I leave mine in my jacket pocket and if there is a call, I can feel the vibration.
I fondly remember growing up when there were no cell phones, smart or otherwise, and we got along just fine without them. I bet if you took a cell phone off someone today and told them they'd have to go a day without using it, they'd go into a state of meltdown worse than a drug addict being denied his fix.
Posted in: Smartphones foster dumb habits among pedestrians
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smartacus
Who'd go to an airport just for sightseeing?
Posted in: The number of passengers using the international terminal was within our expectations, but the number of sightseers was overwhelming.
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smartacus
These 5-star hotel spas have a huge loyal clientele of Japanese women (my girlfriend is one of them) and they go almost once a week. I had a peek at the Mandarin's spa and it is truly world-class but I resisted my girlfriend's urging to try it (she can afford it but I can't).
Anyway, people who patronize these hotels don't consider it a waste of money. It's fun to pamper yourself once in a while.
Posted in: Hotel spa offers heavenly experience
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smartacus
You're looking the wrong way. The grassy knoll and Texas School Book Depository are behind you.
Posted in: Recalling a fateful day
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smartacus
Ah, so they are back by the Russian embassy, with mysterious antennae on the roof, by the pool, no doubt, for some eavesdropping.
Posted in: Join the club
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smartacus
There is also the possibility that it was a murder-suicide.
Posted in: Tokyo couple die in apparent suicide
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smartacus
I know a couple of women who go to a different hotel spa on weekends once a month to pamper themselves. They spend most of the day there, getting the royal treatment and then enjoying the restaurants. No boyfriends, of course. I guess they can afford it because they live at home.
My girlfriend tried to get me to accompany her to a spa once but I backed out. I know the story says otherwise but I can't grasp the idea of spas being for guys. It's also hard to take two hours out of a weekday to go and weekends and holidays would be too hard to make a booking in a hotel.
Still, the Mandarin Oriental is a great hotel, by the way. I enjoy the restaurants and I can guarantee that the view of the Tokyo skyline from the restroom window is superb.
Posted in: Hotel spa offers heavenly experience
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smartacus
I tend to buy DVDs, CDs, books, and few chocolates I can't get in Japan, online. But I still prefer to shop for groceries, clothes, electronic items, furniture, etc, in stores.
I'd like to use the to do my banking but I don't have the confidence or anyone to show me how to do it.
Posted in: What do you like to shop for online and what do you still go to stores to buy?
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smartacus
I think the anonymity of the Internet fuels the fire. I've got lots of friends who hold opposite views on whaling and gun control. One of my good friends often eats whale meat but I have never felt like insulting him or even chastising him.
I decided a long time ago that on issues such as whaling, gun control, abortion, etc, that neither side has the moral high ground, even though they both claim to at times.
Posted in: Why are so many people unable to debate contentious issues such as whaling, gun control, politics and so on without getting acrimonious?
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smartacus
The guy is a sleazeball, no doubt, but the girl is no angel, either. The story doesn't say if he paid her for the photos but most likely not since he was posing as a younger man.
Why would any girl send nude photos of herself like that? I guess I must belong in a bygone era. I just don't understand it and I'm glad I am not the parent of a teenage girl
Posted in: 52-year-old man tricks high school girl into sending naked photos of herself