JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- Full-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥200,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month Depending on your ability and experience
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- Part-time English Teacher - Osaka
- Epion English Language Schools, Osaka
- Salary: ¥10,000 ~ ¥15,000 / Day Depending on how many days a week are worked
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the_harper
Hang on - a welcome cat duck?
Posted in: Happy birthday
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the_harper
What a coincidence - Australia has the same problem with Telstra's monopoly over the copper network, and Australia is also trying to get fibre to the home.
Posted in: Softbank floats plan for Japan-wide fiber network
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the_harper
Interesting that none of the media reports in Australia are mentioning that the fault is caused by the owner or service agent using the incorrect brake fluid.
Posted in: Toyota recalling 1.5 million cars worldwide
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the_harper
I agree with Klein2 in that it appears that the author has mislabelled "non-spicy" food with "bad food". I note also that the author seems to be saying that if they can't get the food they like (which is native to another country), Tokyo's food is all bad. If you want to eat authentic Thai, go to Thailand! Likewise for Indian food. Why should restaurants in Tokyo risk financial ruin by serving food that only a handful of gaijin will eat?
When I lived in Japan, I learned to enjoy Japanese food. Surely most visiors to Japan would want to do likewise? There's a huge variety of Japanese cuisine, and while it may not generally be spicy, I'd call it subtle rather than bland.
As others have pointed out, most countries are guilty of adapting foreign cuisine to local tastes. Chinese food in Australia is generally very different from what is served in China, unless you can read and order from the special menu which is only written in Chinese. Serving what will sell in the local market is not at all unique to Japan.
Claiming that the food served in Japanese restaurants is worse than creamed corn and hotdogs is just plain silly, and frankly offensive to the chefs in Japan.
Posted in: One man’s culinary paradise is another’s cultural wasteland
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the_harper
It's actually legal to test such technology on public roads?
Posted in: Google tests cars that can steer without drivers
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the_harper
For a foreigner in Japan, it would be difficult to report unless you had enough Japanese to better understand what was going on and communicate it to the authorities. If I was teaching in japan I might ask a native Japanese teacher to query why a child had suspicious bruises. But I agree with others that it would be better to make a report if possible than to risk the consequences of doing nothing. I wonder if a foreigner could get in trouble if a counter-complaint was raised by a citizen?
Posted in: Dealing with child abuse: What would you do if you regularly heard your neighbor's child screaming in distress or if you noticed a child with bruises on him/her?
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the_harper
But only one of the three of them is wearing clothing that highlights the shape of their legs.
Article Unavailable
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the_harper
But does it do continuous AF in video mode? If it can't, then you can't use it as easily as a camcorder.
Posted in: New Lumix boasts world’s fastest auto focus
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the_harper
Japan probably needs more patrolled beaches, too. The article talks about swimming between the flags but not why - because the flags are placed by lifeguards in a safe position on the beach and there is a lifeguard actively watching that section of the beach ready to help anyone in trouble!
Let's hope that people pay attention to the safety campaigns.
Posted in: Aussie lifeguards push beach safety for tourists
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the_harper
I agree with "thepro" that the photo is a bit odd. It would have been better to get permission and take the photo inside the fence so the mesh to keep basketballs or whatever inside the grounds don't look like a wall to keep the children in. I'm guessing that most of the comments here are from people from north America who are horrified by the idea of school uniforms. I don't see any harm in school kids marching. Frankly it would give them some sense of respect for their elders and for the concept of order. Kids where I live seem to have no respect for older people, no respect for the law of the country and perversely they seem to be angry with older people as a result.
Posted in: On parade
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the_harper
Some of the "alternative treatments" are very effective and others are completely ineffective. The danger of lumping herbal medicine with homeopathy is that a person will reject both because of the poor reputation of one. I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of some herbal and acupuncture treatments, but unfortunately a lot depends on how good the practitioner is at identifying the problem and the correct treatment. The same is true of conventional medicine - your results can vary enormously depending on the skill of your practitioner. Many "alternative" treatments have been shown to be effective in double-blind studies, while others have been shown to be ineffective. It's a mistake to claim that none are effective. At the same time, many conventional treatments have mild to horrific side effects, and the use of some is hard to justify on a purely scientific basis (electric shock therapy for example). It's worth a bit of research about both a proposed treatment and the practitioner - whether the treatment is conventional or "alternative".
Posted in: What do you think of alternative health care methods such as homeopathy, indigenous medicine, acupuncture, mind-body medicine and so on?
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the_harper
The article doesn't mention the power consumption of the lights, which seems high according to Sharp's announcement; http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/100819.html
The lights use between 46W and 86W for a brightness between 2350 and 5100 lumens depending on the model. For comparison, a 5100 lumen fluorescent tube consumes about 58W. Of course it's a different kind of lighting and doesn't have the ability to vary in colour according to your mood...
Posted in: Sharp to introduce industry-first LED ceiling lights
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the_harper
I was once berated by an American woman for opening a door for her. Nobody else has ever complained. I will hold a door open for anyone regardless of gender if I happen to be there. It seems to me that there's very few people who dislike politeness. This thread reminded me of a quote from Heinlein:
"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best."
Posted in: Do you think a man holding a door open for a woman, holding her chair for her when she sits down, or giving up his seat for her are outmoded gestures of politeness or do they still have their place in today's society?
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the_harper
@DeliciousWhale - OK so you're saying that the superhero image is the way he sees himself rather than how Nihonjin see him. The article would be improved with an image of how he looks when "Western Woman" sees him. Of course, both images could be wrong - maybe he's not as geeky as Western Woman thinks, just as he's not as attractive as he thinks he is.
Posted in: The return of Charisma Man
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the_harper
I don't have a problem with there being guys who have great charisma, but I have a problem with this; "Utterly geeky, yet walking hand-in-hand with an impossibly beautiful Japanese girl". I've never seen anyone who I would describe as a geek that I could also describe as "Charisma Man". The image from the comic is a superman style cliche caucasian - blue eyed and blonde haired with a cleft chin - which has nothing "geeky" about it. Am I missing the humour of the comic because I only have the information in this article? I guess the superman look is the way "Charisma Man" looks to the Nihonjin, rather than being a weedy, bespectacled cliche geek? Foreigners are attractive precisely because they are different. I've seen Australian women swoon over Irish men simply because of their accent. For what it's worth, I think the foreigner attraction probably still applies in country areas of Japan; women in Tokyo or Osaka probably see too many gaijin to find them exotic anymore.
Posted in: The return of Charisma Man
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the_harper
Of Japanese beer manufacturers, my preference would be Kirin and Sapporo. I certainly didn't like the Asahi "Super Dry" that the locals seemed to be obsessed with.
Posted in: Which brand gets your vote for the best beer?
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the_harper
The article says that the practice of the husband handing all the income to the wife to manage is not widespread outside Japan. My understanding is that it's common in China - which makes it a significant proportion of the world's population.
@Velvetrosetta - how do you explain the salarymen populating hostess bars in Japan if this practice is so effective?
Posted in: The shrinking state of Japanese salarymen's pocket money
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the_harper
Does she go to third base?
Article Unavailable
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the_harper
I was looking forward to quieter streets with electric or hybrids replacing noisy petrol driven cars. Instead we'll have a cacophony of beep and bleeps which will be utterly pointless and plain annoying.
Posted in: Quiet hybrids: An end to their sounds of silence?
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the_harper
Imagine how much power could be saved if all the street lights were LEDs! I'm looking forward to replacing the fluorescent bulbs in our house with LEDs as well.
Posted in: AGC releases glass-ceramics substrate for high-power LED lighting