JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- 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
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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the_harper
That's funny, some14some - I visited a maid cafe in Akihabara and there were a lot of female customers. The promotional video they played showed a customer dressing up as a maid and doing a voice-over for an anime clip. To a westerner this may look like it's purely for guys but I don't think the Japanese necessarily see it that way. It's a smart way the owners have thought up to charge more for cheap cafe fare. They make money, nobody gets hurt so as far as I can see it's just a bit of harmless fun.
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the_harper
Am I the only one who noticed that the manufacturer of the faulty assembly was not Toyota but an American supplier?
Posted in: Toyota recall spreads to 2.4 mil vehicles worldwide
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the_harper
Scotch - there are three sizes of Poodle from largest to smallest: standard, miniature and toy. The one in the picture is too small to be a miniature; it's about the same size as my mother's toy poodle.
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the_harper
With respect to tuna, everyone needs to realise that the species needs to be fished sustainably or the only place you will enjoy it is in a museum.
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the_harper
That's so funny! I walked past that Wendy's on Thursday and wondered why the queue was longer than at McDonalds...
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the_harper
The crowd at Meiji Jingu was at least as big. I think it is good to see that many Japanese traditions are still very much alive.
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the_harper
Also for DSLR owners, there may be more accessories such as lenses available in Japan than elsewhere.
It's all very well to say that camera equipment is cheaper in the USA, but billions of people live in other countries. However, I wouldn't buy a DLSR camera body in Japan simply because the warranty wouldn't be valid at home in Australia.
For those looking at video cameras - be sure to match the video output of the camera to your home country. This is easy for Americans since both Japan and the USA use NTSC. But for Australians and many Europeans, you need to find a camera that supports PAL. I bought a PAL video camera in Tokyo - a SONY mind you - which has english menus, but you have to be careful to buy one made for export. Actually, the PAL issue applies to a lot of still cameras now which feature the ability to plug into your TV.
Why shouldn't Japanese companies make models only for the Japanese market? It's big enough!
But absolutely - check prices locally before you consider buying in any other country, and be sure that the warranty will be valid when you get home. If you're going to spend a significant amount of money on anything, it's worth a bit of research.
Posted in: Buying a camera in Japan? Think again
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the_harper
Maybe some people could learn a thing or two from the film about destroying the lives of native people and the ecosystems they live in. I just saw the movie in 3D and it was awesome. Sure, there's some cliches, but it takes CGI to a whole new level. Both WETA (who made Lord of the Rings) and ILM (who made Star Wars) were involved. Thumb your nose at the blue aliens if you like, but I'd be surprised if anyone could watch it in 3D and not be impressed on some level.
Posted in: Can Cameron deliver Titanic results on 'Avatar?'
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the_harper
It looks more sensible from the front rather than the back.
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/10/18/earthrace-reborn-sea-shepherd-unveils-the-ady-gil/adygil/
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the_harper
Zenpun wrote
OK, so please think twice before posting claims that you can't back up.
Actually, I lived in Queensland from 1984 to 2006 and I am a native Australian. I'm perfectly fine with our PM being outspoken about Japanese ships hunting whales in the Australian whale sanctuary. Yes, I know that Japan doesn't recognise that sanctuary, that is obvious.
Sometimes, things only change if people say things that others might not like. If the Australian government object to Japanese whaling, they are within their rights to say so. Do you really think that the only kind of diplomacy is the kind performed out of the glare of public attention?
As for Kevin Rudd speaking candidly in putonghua I say bravo! The only people John Howard seemed to want to talk to were the Americans and Europeans. Our current PM and cabinet recognise that geographically, Australia is in Asia, and we need to engage with our neighbours and primary trading partners.
I can't understand why any Japanese person should expect Australians to be happy about Japanese whaling ships breaking Australian laws on our doorstep. Please tell me who is being disrespectful under these circumstances?
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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the_harper
Don't they mean surge socket? I've never heard of an electrical socket being called a tap before?
Posted in: Surge tap series
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the_harper
Zenpun wrote:
If we don't learn from history, what hope is there for the future? Are we just going to keep wiping out species until we're the only one left? I want to emphasise this - if whaling is about traditional culture then Japanese people should do it using traditional methods in Japanese waters. But don't try to claim that hunting ships and explosive harpoons are any part of "traditional culture", nor try to claim that hunting whales in the Antarctic is traditional. It's just an excuse to continue supporting an industry that is commercially unviable and only exists because of government subsidy. Even Japanese schoolchildren were banned from eating whale because of the high levels of contaminants.
Anywhere else? What, including all the blood that pours off the decks of Japanese factory ships? Please don't spout rubbish like this unless you have figures to back it up.
And thanks YuriOtani for what I think is the perspective of a majority of ordinary Japanese.
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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the_harper
What on earth is a battledore?
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the_harper
Scandinavian nations don't hunt whales in the southern ocean - in the Australian whale sanctuary. Killing whales doesn't affect the Japanese tourist industry but it does affect the Australian tourist industry.
And when there was no reason to kill them, we stopped. When we saw them on the verge of extinction, we stopped. Now Australians make money from whales as a tourist attarction and nothing gets hurt in the process.
Maybe if you were in Eden, but not the places you mentioned. There's no evidence left of the whaling stations in most parts of Australia. Why would you feel uncomfortable seeing places where whaling occurred when you are defending the Japanese right to continue the slaughter?
Posted in: Australian PM threatens legal action against Japan over whaling
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the_harper
What annoys me about this article is that it presents an example of one organisation, the CRU, and pushes the conclusion that because corruption may exist within this one organisation, all organisations involved in climate research are corrupt. There's a huge amount of data from many sources - all peer reviewed - providing evidence for climate change. My own personal observations convince me of it anyway. People shouldn't be misled into thinking that the whole body of evidence is to be thrown out on the basis of a small proportion of the research.
Posted in: Climategate: The fix is in
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the_harper
Peachy871, I agree with you. The human race needs to find a way to exist sustainably on this planet. I live in Australia where we've had the longest sustained droughts ever, and recorded the hottest and driest seasons ever. I can't believe that people still think it's OK to cut down all the forests and pump the air full of carbon from fossil fuels; somehow nothing will change in the ecosystem we all depend on for our existence. I don't need to go to the arctic to see the icecap melting completely in summer, or to the antarctic to see ice shelves tens of thousands of years old sliding into the sea. All I need to do is look out the window at the dried remnants of lawn and remember that a mere 20 years ago it was always green, or look at the trees around the street that have died from lack of rain.
Posted in: Climategate: The fix is in
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the_harper
I didn't visit the open air museum in Hakone due to lack of time unfortunately. I was more interested in the onsens, onsen tamago, Lake Ashi, the preserved section of the Tokaido Highway and the Edo border post. Plus the view from the top station of the cable car was the best I had of Fujisan (Mt Fuji) while I was in Japan. It was a great place to spend Golden Week.
Posted in: A visit to Hakone Open Air Museum
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the_harper
They burn them for public health reasons? As a doll cremation? As an offering to the kami of dolls? I think they'd be better sent to needy cihldren somewhere though.
Posted in: Dolls' day
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the_harper
So what is being done to foster HR and software development?
Posted in: It's better to foster human resources and develop software.
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the_harper
Brown coal is Lignite as opposed to black coal which is Anthracite (but there's other types in between). Victoria has some of the biggest reserves of brown coal in Australia and uses them for generating power, but it's not as clean to burn as black coal. So the Victorians have a greater need to make their coal cleaner. Victoria isn't known for coal because a lot of the exported coal is coking coal for steel production as well as other types for power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal
Posted in: Japan, Australian state of Victoria to collaborate on cleaner energy