JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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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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tkoind2
I have to add one more thing. Yes!! Australia rates right up there too. Some nice cafes in Sydney.
Posted in: Japan's coffee culture
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tkoind2
Consuming coffee and having a "coffee culture" are two different things. I know I am from Seattle the place that defines coffee culture in ways that are sometimes way beyond belief.
First of all, the availability of coffee does not mean that there is a culture associated with it. Culture requires that people interact and that there is interaction between individuals who share a cultural thread. The isolated, unfriendly nature of cafes in Japan hardly warrants consideration as interaction.
Second, a coffee culture must have far greater flexibility than the presence of a few Starbucks, Tullys and Dotour. Where are the corner espresso stands that are the core of coffee culture in cities like NYC, Seattle, SF and much of the rest of the planet? And where is the exhaustive variety of coffees?
Let`s face it, without some 2000 plus blends, brands, varietals etc... to select from, can we really call it coffee culture? A one block area of Capital Hill in Seattle has 9 coffee shops and or stands each serving different brands, blends and options. Each with a signature finish and with options ranging from Soy and Rice Milk, to decaff (that actually tastes good). The shock and fear I see in barista faces in Japan when one mentions decaff, underscores the absence of any real depth to the facade of coffee culture here. And what decaff that does exist here, would meld iron it is so bitter and acidic.
So if you really want to experience "Coffee Culture" then forget Japan, get on a plane and stop off is Seattle, Washington, Portland Oregon, San Francisco or New York and I promise you will never consider anything you get in Japan to measure up in variety, quality, availability and flexibility. Not to mention quirkiness of baristas which is a big part of the fun.
Posted in: Japan's coffee culture
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tkoind2
Let's face simple facts, working people have been losing ground in most of the industrialized world for a long time. And most of that ground is going into the pockets of people who are already well off. The same people who lay working people off to keep stockholders and investors happy. And the same people who come to us begging public funding when their schemes backfire.
It is about time that people voiced their outrage and frustration. In that alone this is a good movement.
But it cannot end here. It has to evolve into a movement with a tangible agenda. One intent upon changing the system to better care for the needs of working people.
Posted in: Do you support the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement which is spreading globally?
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tkoind2
If you like wasting money, Japan has endless ways to do so. This is just another one. Bar torture by stuck up people in aprons. The few times I have been dragged to this kind of place, I usually end up wanting to throw things at the stuck up staff. But being a peace loving soul, I usually just find a quick reason to escape and go somewhere better.
Same thing goes for some cafes where the unbathed bearded waiter in a crumpled hat seems to think he is god's answer to all our hopes and dreams. How does one's ego get so big in a nation where few people interact with each other?
Posted in: The definitive Japanese bar code of conduct
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tkoind2
Without George and his poorly thought out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would not have to be supporting out troops. I guess is you start a mess, you damn well better be supportive of the people who have to go deal with it. So good on you GWB, at least you have the intelligence to support the people tasked with your idiotic wars.
But for the rest of us, we support the idea of getting them out of there and ending these wars ASAP.
Posted in: George W Bush still supports troops
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tkoind2
It is time to start thinking locally people. Japan has a unique opportunity to focus business on local markets. If Japanese start to consider that local micro-economics make more sense for energy, green behavior and for local jobs, there will be more demand for domestic goods in the local market.
We have to stop thinking that the only solution for business is international. For a lot of industries and small companies a shift to domestic facing business makes sense. Also the government should encourage micro-economics over macro because it has greater potential to assure local jobs.
Companies thinking about international business will often move jobs to cheaper markets anyway which does the owners good, but does local people no good at all. It is time to change this focus. Globalization has meant that more and more people are losing middle class jobs. So it is time we as citizens stopped supporting it and increased our demand for and our support of domestic facing production, goods and services.
Posted in: The worst case is, a greater percentage of business will be done overseas. And that will lead to big, big problems for small and medium-size companies. They have two options. Either they follow suit and move overseas, or they go out of business.
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tkoind2
Sometimes I think Japan misses the forest for the tree. Nearly everything here has so many rules that it "rules out" any hope of actually having an enjoyable experience. I have seen this from events, bars, parties and even with music performers I know. This obsession with rules and perfection that render otherwise wonderful things into grueling boxed in nightmares of restriction.
So there is an easy solution here fellow card carrying "Aliens". Let`s drink elsewhere where our money is both appreciated and our presence welcome. There are many local spots here and there that love the odd foreigner and who operate with a simple rule of smile and enjoy.
My wife's family run a small Izakaya and they love our friends who drop by. We eat and drink as much as their Japanese clients and we don't cause any trouble. Most of all we adore the owner and his wife and spend wonderful evening smiling and laughing.
Are the drinks 100% glamorous? No, not really... but then again, after a rule laden uptight day at the office, who wants to wind down with a rule laden uptight night out of drinking with racialists? Not me!!!! I support businesses that have better common sense and don't practice silly elitism. Afterall a rule laden bar is just another form of Otaku obsession, isn't it?
Posted in: The definitive Japanese bar code of conduct
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tkoind2
I am sickened by the people who posted here suggesting that we should not pay for health care for those in prison. This is absurd and inhumane thinking not worthy of modern human beings. Of course society has a cost associated with prisons and the care of prisoners. It is part of having a society. Do you prefer some sort of world where you have no obligation to other human beings? Then go live in Siberia's north on your own.
Japan and any other nation should be ashamed to deny care or to have poor care for those in prison. It is barbaric.
Posted in: Prison inmates' illnesses, injuries go untreated
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tkoind2
Alphaape. Way to get the point entirely wrong. It is clearly not a vacation, but a way to pay for the cost of the research. Essentially donations. I think the article pretty clearly demonstrates that point.
And yes we can tell you to stop using things that harm the environment and we all will need to be increasingly careful about how we take care of the world.
Sorry to put you out, but you and everyone else has a responsibility here that selfishness cannot release you from.
Posted in: Environmentalists pitch voyage in sea of tsunami debris
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tkoind2
Maybe nature is doing what the law and country continually fail to do, kick this evil old skimmer in the behind!
Posted in: Ozawa, suffering from kidney stones, will be in hospital for a week
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tkoind2
Every time someone stands up against capital punishment, the first thing some of you do is start slinging the "Liberal" slogan, as if it is some omin-defining tag.
This kid of polarized thinking is exactly why the US is sinking into the mire and why nothing gets done there. Why can't you just see another person's opinion as just his or her point of view and not something married to their political views?
I don't like the idea of killing people. Period. Whether that killing be personal, state or otherwise.
Now to clear up the whole abortion vs anti-capital punishment issue. The key here is how one defines human life, not whether you are a liberal or not. I don't regard a fetus before a certain point to be conscious life. But I do regard living human beings to be conscious life. I side with science here and not religious mythology. I guess you will say that makes me an "evil liberal" too.
Just do us a favor and drop the tags and deal with the topic itself.
Posted in: Troy Davis executed in Georgia amid international outcry
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tkoind2
Bottom line, it is all nonsense about Mixi protecting this or that. It is exclusive and they should just be honest about it.
Facebook IS about real people. My family members, real world friends, work friends, music and creative contacts are all there. They write in English, Japanese, Farsi, Tagalog, Dari or whatever other language they prefer. They hail from every corner of the world. And they network and help each other out.
During the quake we leveraged FB to follow the fate of friends who where near the Tsunami zone. We shared information and kept our families calm with daily updates. We leveraged it to raise over $10,000 in one weekend for donations to the north from people in 40+ countries. Then we used it to promote our other charity projects and continue to leverage it for sharing information.
It helps us book music and dance events in Japan in Tokyo, Osaka etc... and to bring people from abroad to join us.
So bottom line. FB is a mega networking, real world connecting, hard hitting tool in the right hands. My Mixi, by contrast, is a waste of key strokes most of the time unless I am trying to catch up with the one or two last contacts who only use Mixi. The writing is on the wall for that company. Sooner or later, young people in Japan will not bother with it any more. If they want to stay in business, they had best start looking for some outside clients.
As for adds, you can drive directed adds by where the person is accessing from. Lots of sites do this. Not rocket science and not an excuse to remain xenophobic Mixi.
Posted in: Mixi spokesman gives views on Facebook, Twitter & social media in Japan
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tkoind2
hoserfella, "Nonanon - If this had happened back in the 1800's, then yes you could blame religion. However, in 2011 you have to blame 2 idiots"
I am sorry but you have really got this wrong. Do you really think that humanity has moved past religion just because it is 2011? Where have you been for the last decade? You are aware of the various religious wars and problems still plaguing the world, right?
Religion is alive and well and there are plenty of followers out there ready to do all kinds of things in the name of faith. In this regard very little has changed since the 1800s or the 800s for that matter.
These guys were practicing something they believed would work. As foolish and medieval as it was, the fact that they believed in it is evidence that religion and superstition are alive and well even here in techno-color Tokyo.
Posted in: 2 arrested after teenage girl dies in 'exorcism'
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tkoind2
I am sorry but Mixi's Japanese cell phone policy is clearly an effort at exclusivity. There are a lot of people out there who have strong ties to Japan. I have many friends who have visited Japan many times, keep close ties with people here and yet cannot join Mixi.
Not to mention the legions of people wishing to make ties to Japan for their impending work or time spent here.
I have all but abandoned Mixi over the last year along with almost all my Japanese friends. We have all moved to Facebook where we can more easily share information and keep in touch. We had all been using Mixi heavily to network inside Japan for our arts and music events. Something that was very useful for a few years. But in recent time Facebook's functionality and the increasing presence of most of our Japanese friends there, have rendered Mixi redundant.
I don't use Twitter, Myspace or any gaming sites. Nor do many of the people I know in Japan. But nearly everyone I know has moved on to Facebook and rarely post anything on Mixi any more.
Perhaps Mixi had better start considering how it will survive as the wave of migrations of Japanese to the global sites is very likely to increase.
Posted in: Mixi spokesman gives views on Facebook, Twitter & social media in Japan
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tkoind2
Another day to feel shame over being American. How can any advanced society still practice the barbaric act of capital punishment? How can the state say that murder is wrong and then use the exact same act rationalized as justice?
Capital punishment makes a joke out of our values. If the state can kill, then why can it expect the individual to respect laws against killing? Taking human life, whether sanctioned by the state or at the hands of an individual is still murder.
We must evolve beyond thinking of revenge as justice. Justice must include the very core values of humanity and uphold the sanctity and value of human life. The state should take the moral high ground and assure that murder is demonstrated to be absolutely wrong.
So long as our justice system is imperfect, the risk of murdering an innocent person should also make capital punishment unthinkable.
I am ashamed that my country carried out this act. As I am ashamed of any human state or nation who uses state murder and tries to pass it off as justice. Grow up humanity, violence is not an answer to anything.
Posted in: Troy Davis executed in Georgia amid international outcry
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tkoind2
This is the kind of idocy I expect from Texas of Mississippi, not Japan. But just goes to show that there are religious nut cases everywhere.
Poor girl, probably suffering from some mental illness and these jerks killed her with their flat earther nonsense. When will people stop holding on to primative nonsense waiting for nonexistent "spirits" and "gods" to sort out problems they should face on their own. Primative minded people.
Posted in: 2 arrested after teenage girl dies in 'exorcism'
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tkoind2
The real truth is that Afghanistan was already a victim long before the "War on Terror" started. It was a victim of cold war policies that led America to fund and back fundamentalist groups in addition to legitimate rebels in the war against the Soviets. The very same groups that would later give rise to the Taliban, support Al Qaida and assasinate the only real leader the country had.
All this was locked into place when the west conveniently forgot about Afghanistan once the Soviets pulled out. Afterall a pawn in the cold war game was only as valuable as its ability to help win the game. When the game was over, so was interest in the the pawn Afghanistan.
The US has no one to blame for the mire in the country than itself. We set the stage for this problem to begin, we helped it by our self centered policies and we are now suffering the consequences of even more bad decisions.
Afghanistan cannot be won as it is being managed today. It can only be won with exponentially more investment, greater collaboration with the locals and even then, violence is likely to continue.
Posted in: Afghanistan and war against terror: 10 years on
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tkoind2
Sorry Jean Val Jean but you are entirely wrong here. Intelligent, focused spending is exactly what is needed in the US and in Japan. You cannot stimulate growth without spending. You cannot restart the economy without spending. Thinking otherwise is sheer fantacy.
What the US needs are jobs. Job creation will not come from the private sector who are worried about long term economic decline, or from large companies trying to push up profits. This is propaganda and wishful thinking.
What WILL create jobs is spending on programs that will put people back to work. US infrastructure is in serious decline. Repairing and rebuilding it would drive up spending in the near term, but would generate jobs and tax income. The projects would fuel confidence by small to mid size companies who service these projects and would drive up employment and create downstream stimulus for communities.
Roads, bridges, schools, community rebuilding projects, new energy development, technology development etc... will help grow jobs.
Then, tax the hell out of companies that send their production abroad. And give substantial breaks to those who re-import manufacturing and production jobs to the US.
As for "Let Freedom Ring." Our forefathers were not all about "every man for himself" which the Tea Party and Libertarians in the US would like us to believe. They had better common sense to know that if your neighbor is suffering, you soon will be too as we are a community and society interdependent upon each other. If your definition of liberty is being left alone, untaxed and unburdened by others, you had better seek refuge on a desert island somewhere because that is now what a society is all about friend.
Posted in: Obama says Republicans would 'cripple' U.S.
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tkoind2
History tells us quite clearly that bubbles break. When China's breaks the fallout will be heard around the world. There are far too many optimists about China's growth. They fail to see that the majority of people in China are still suffering under horrid conditions and tyranny.
Sure a few rich Chinese now look more or less like wealthy Koreans and Japanese, but look past these people and you will see legions of poor and increasingly disillusioned working class people. People who have been taught their entire lives about the evils of Capitalism. How long do you really think it will be before the minor protests and uprisings turn into something far more widespread? Especially if the bubble bursts and their conditions decline further.
Posted in: China enjoys 'bubble' while Japan languishes on sidelines
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tkoind2
YuriOtani, the "scare" is very real. Global economics have been balanced on the edge of a depression since 2008. Where have you been? If the reality of global economics is not enough to frighten you, then perhaps the problem is with you and not reality. It is time to wake up and recognize the very real state of global economics and that of the US.
I am not a full fan of Obama, I think he has been weak on issues he should have fought harder for. But I am very worried by the pack of inept potentials on the GOP side this election as well. I see no bright lights of hope on either side.
The key fact is this. If we do not find ways to reverse the current trends we invite a recession and possibly a depression. The working people of America and the world are at risk here, and they are all I care about regardless of their political stripe.
We need a new FDR who is not afraid to spend and create jobs, demand and stimulation of the economy. A leader who can tell industry to stand aside for the interests of the masses. And a leader who can shatter this polarization that is turning America into the world's political nightmare.
Working people need to take to the streets now and demand the place of priority in politics that they deserve. Perhaps tossing out both existing parties who have long represented wealth and not working people.
Posted in: Obama says Republicans would 'cripple' U.S.