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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yokomoc
Something else to consider - UK/US pop is largely rooted in soul and RnB, J-Pop is more rooted in jazz. Personally I'm not into much jazz music so it's understandable Japanese pop acts would appeal less.
Posted in: Does J-pop really suck?
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yokomoc
Since we're on the topic, does anyone know the name of the Japanese band that sound just like the Scottish band The Proclaimers? Having heard a couple of songs I've been wanting to check out their albums for ages.
Posted in: Does J-pop really suck?
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yokomoc
Point is still my favourite Japanese album - I definitely wouldn't call him Jpop or describe his music as any one genre. He almost has a musical style of his own. He's another singer who sticks to his natural voice, and while he isn't a great technical vocalist I find him easier on the ears than most J-Pop singers.
Posted in: Does J-pop really suck?
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yokomoc
Where are all the young people? If anyone should be protesting the government it's the kids in their 20s living with the consequences of their parents' previous excesses. Great placard though.
Posted in: Time for change
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yokomoc
Problems with J-Pop music?
No killer tunes. Personally I love a good catchy tune be it pop, rock, whatever but nothing I hear here ever grabs me enough to make me want to go look up who the artist is. The melodies are formulaic, not my thing.
Singing voices. For the men, they try to put this over-to-top fake vibrato that just grates my ears, then for female singers there seems to be clause in the contracts that in every song they must randomly lift their voice an octave for no real reason. And their voices usually lack power - the Japanese diva voice just doesn't work for me, they're more suited to soft jazz. Actually the female pop singers I like are those that don't try to sing in an unnatural voice, like Tomiko Van (ex-Do As Infinity) and Puffy.
Inserting crap English phrases into the chorus.
As others have said there's rubbish plastic pop music everywhere but usually there are quite a few 'guilty pleasure' exceptions that are really good (lost count of the number of times I listened to Katy Perry's debut album) but I don't find it too much in J-Pop. Anyway I'm going to see Ginger Wildheart tonight so for me all is well in the music world for now.
Posted in: Does J-pop really suck?
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yokomoc
Yeah, sadly Russell Crowe and Skippy weren't available.
steve, lol. Will they be using Selhurst Park for the Olympics?
Posted in: Race wide open for 2018, 2022 World Cups; Japan promises high-tech tournament
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yokomoc
Isn't a bit of a hard sell using currently non-existent techonology as your main appeal? You've got the factor where the techonology may or may not be developed fully in time for the event, then if it is will it function perfectly? Will fans really gather en masse in stadia to watch the 3D match instead when chances are strong it'll already be displayed in 3D at home by that time? And if the technology is available at that time wouldn't it be in widespread use everywhere and not just in Japan? And won't the use of techonology be more at the behest of the domestic media rather than event planners? In that respect the likes of Sky Sports in the UK or the major US Sports channels have been way ahead of the Japanese media for years.
Still think Australia's the best bet as a growing economy and a rapidly improving football nation with quality investment in sport. The appeal for the Aussies is much the same as when the US got '94.
Posted in: Race wide open for 2018, 2022 World Cups; Japan promises high-tech tournament
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yokomoc
Never been into them and could completely ignore their existence if my Facebook feed wasn't spammed with weekly X-Factor comments.
Posted in: What do you think about the quality of reality TV shows?
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yokomoc
But if he opened the door that would have let the spiders in...
Posted in: Man in possession of marijuana locks himself in car in Ginza
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yokomoc
Love this!
Posted in: Autumn glow
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yokomoc
pointofview, I didn't think it possible, but in the context of external poltics the US second-hand AM radio rent-an-opinions sound even dumber than they do already. Also this is the UK - there are no 'tax dollars'.
Posted in: Thousands of UK students protest tuition fees hike
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yokomoc
They're right to protest - this is nothing more than robbery of the lower to middle classes. For the last twenty years these kids' parents have been paying their taxes to contribute to their future education and the government now changes the rules, so they now have to pay tuition fees on top of the education taxes they've already paid.
We can thank our lucky stars in Scotland we have a devolved parliament with at least the power to control tuition fees (still completely tax-payer funded with no extra tuition fees) to give some shelter from the Con-Dem disaster.
Does Nick Clegg manage to sleep at night? He looks like a man carrying a massive guilt. Hope it was worth it Nick.
northlondon, agreed that the apprenticeship system should be revived, although now these fees are in place and the poor are effectively being excluded from higher education it'll likely come about naturally anyway.
Posted in: Thousands of UK students protest tuition fees hike
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yokomoc
borscht, don't forget the mandatory fried chicken karaage, which is typically a ball of batter with a little piece of meat at the centre.
Harvest (under Yodobashi Camera in Yokohama) is a good one I find, as long as you're not after meat as it's veg-heavy. My wife goes through about two days worth of food there! Grand Buffet in Kamioooka as well - they do Chef's specials every half hour or so.
Posted in: What behavior by diners at buffets bothers you?
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yokomoc
At the ryugakusei welcoming parties you had less than 5 minutes to grab anything tasty looking before they were hoovered up by the Chiense and Thai students. We didn't mind so much though, while they were grabing the food we were grabbing the beer :)
Posted in: What behavior by diners at buffets bothers you?
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yokomoc
Looks like releasing this book might be the best thing Bush ever did for the economy!
Posted in: Bush memoir sells 220,000 copies on first day
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yokomoc
What's the scale size of this?
Posted in: Seeing the light
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yokomoc
Surely the kawaii overkill is fast headed to breaking point. Any ideas what counter-culture will fill the space when this passes - like dress-down grunge and goth replacing the big hair and makeup eighties? The sub-culture should already exist on a smaller scale.
Posted in: Seibu Railways to introduce 'maid trains'
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yokomoc
I'm with EbiChiri here, takoyaki gives me the boak.
Posted in: Megumi Yasu appointed 'takoyaki' ambassador
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yokomoc
Ludky her, she got a free hotel
Posted in: Woman trapped inside Osaka subway car for 4 1/2 hours
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yokomoc
thetruth, don't mistake the results of this research with the media narraive spin on it. Nowhere in the article are any of the researchers quoted, and the spin is based entirely off the quotes from this De Brink who had nothing to do with the study. It's just sensationalist reporting.
Now what's to be taken from the study? It's a snapshot of how varying drugs affect society at the moment, given current laws, law enforcement, economical factors, social trends etc. Where it would be useful is as a baseline to enact future legislation.
Let's assume a couple of things - it's accepted that society as a whole needs some kind of drug or drugs as an escape from societal constraints to maintain order, and it's desired that legislation and fiscal policy exists to create an optimal distribution of drug use so as to minimize the negative impacts of these drugs overall.
What the study would suggest is that further restrictions should be placed on alcohol above what is currently done to lower it's overall negative impact - probably in the form of price increases and in fact price hikes are already being seriously considered in the UK. This, though, would have to be traded off to some extent by easing restrictions on drugs that score at the low end of the study - marijuana, MDMA etc (and NOT heroin and coke of course). Perhaps starting with limited medical/psychotherapeutic usage.
This is how I interpret it anyway.
Posted in: Alcohol more lethal than heroin, cocaine: study