battambangbound comments

Posted in: Eastwood's 'Jersey Boys' catchy but uneven See in context

Great review. I wonder how many who read this review will get the last line.

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Posted in: Eggs pelted at Suzuki's office after he apologizes for sexist jeers See in context

My question is were the eggs thrown because he made the sexist catcalls or because he apologized?

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Posted in: Two painters found dead in elevator See in context

Have the police put together "painters," "inhaling a toxic substance," "chemical substance," and "probable exfoliant" yet?

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Posted in: 85-year-old man arrested for stalking 80-year-old woman See in context

When a guy gets out of line like this, I wonder "Where are the parents?"

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Posted in: Study: Red meat possibly linked to breast cancer See in context

In 1979 I read an article based on the observation that in Japan women had a significantly lower breast cancer rate than women in America. That observation continued with the observation that Japanese women living in America and eating mostly American food, namely red meat, had breast cancer rates about equal with the overall American breast cancer rate.

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Posted in: 35 year-old-man arrested for exposing himself to schoolgirls See in context

The reason the other 8 or 9 incidents never got reported is that when asked if she wanted to report it, in each case, the flashed individual shrugged, "Nah. No big thing."

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Posted in: 9 reasons why Japanese men hesitate to say 'I love you' See in context

"Love" also relates to family relationships. Approximately 15 years ago I was teaching a course in Japan-American Comparative Cultures at a university in Sapporo. Half of my students were Japanese majoring in English and half were American exhange students in Japan to study Japanese and soak up Japanese culture. The Americans were on home stay programs. As their "homework" assignment for the week, I told them to "go home, hug your mother, and say to her 'I love you.' in whichever language you prefer. If you are American, say it to your homestay mother. Then come back here next week and report to the class on how your mother responded." I gave this assignment, threatening a failing grade, to later show the Americans what I knew would be the results. The Americans reported, "I hugged my homestay mother and said 'I love you.' She reponded, 'What are you dong?' I said, 'My university sensei said I had to do this.' She responded, 'Hen na koto' but shrugged it off." The Japanese students in my class confessed, "I couldn't do it." I set this entire thing up so that the Japanese and Americans would be asking each other "Why can't you do that?" and "How can you do that?"

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Posted in: Japan to export Doraemon to U.S. See in context

I think Doraemon will be an excellent ambassador and culture bridge to America. I think the writers are very clever to present the various characters, especially Nobita, as flawed. When Doraemon gives a wonderful gizmo to Nobita to help him with a problem but Nobita mis-uses it, we get a cautionary morality play about the limits of technological advancement for improving society. When Gian is a bully and Tsuneo is mean and selfish, but the kids can play together anyway, we get a lesson in the value of striving for harmony.

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Posted in: Biggest threat to Japan whaling: Declining appetites See in context

The remaining 200 whalers can be bought off (subsidized for life) for a lot less than what the Japanese government is paying to subsidize a whaling program that (apparently) no Japanese person other than a whaler really wants.

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Posted in: Schwarzenegger, Willis team up for coffee commercial See in context

Steve McQueen got a million dollars to appear in a TV commercial for Honda motorcycles in 1972 or 1973. One of his conditions, in addition to the million, was that he would not endorse the Honda brand or even use the word "Honda" in the commercial. After Steve McQueen came Sammy Davis Jr., who did a similar condition commercial for Suntory whiskey. And then came Kirk Douglas for an instant coffee (Maxim, I think) and then Charles Bronson for Mandom male cosmetics. None of them ever said a word to the effect of "I think this brand is good."

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Posted in: Elite universities no longer mean as much to students See in context

sf2k: My son has been interviewed a few times on Japanese television. He arrived from San Francisco at Haneda Airport about 30 minutes ago. He is in Tokyo again for another SF-Japan Night to promote StartUp companies. 7 years ago his was a StartUp company no Japanese company was interested in talking to. Now he is a mentor for young Japanese entrepreneurs.

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Posted in: 90-year-old man dies after snow falls off roof onto him See in context

We phoned my wife's 101 year-old father in Obihiro, Hokkaido from our home in North Carolina last night. It took us several attempts to get him on the phone because, as he told us when he finally did answer the phone, he had been outside shoveling show.

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Posted in: Elite universities no longer mean as much to students See in context

Since sf2k brought it up, I think it is appropriate to mention that after graduating from a Japanese high school, my son failed the Japanese university entrance exam, went to California and established residency, enrolled in San Francisco Community College and then San Francisco State, made the Dean's list, and established his own web design and branding business in San Francisco. At first, when he tried to establish business connections in Japan, they were not at all interested in what he could do, only in what major corporation he was with: Mitsui? Mitsubishi? Sanyo? No major corporation we have ever heard of? Thanks for coming in. After making a success of his business in San Francisco (btrax.inc), he opened up a branch in Tokyo and now when he periodically goes to Japan on business, the Japanese side introduces him as "Silicon Valley" since that is a term they recognize and respect.

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Posted in: Elite universities no longer mean as much to students See in context

I do not see anything in the article or the responding letters that questions the level, quality, or type of intelligence that goes into passing the entrance exam that admits one to an elite or any other level of university in Japan. As all know, the Japanese entrance exams test temporary rote memorization. Also, the system typically results in a university student whose attitude is "by going through the examination hell that enabled me to pass the exam, I have earned the right to relax for these four years." Thus, the term "Pachinko Daigaku." Perhaps the reason so few Japanese students are interested in attanding college in a foreign country, such as the United States, is that outside Japan, university students actually have to do homework, produce research reports, and pass tests in order to graduate.

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Posted in: 5 of Japan’s best locations to ski and snowboard See in context

I enjoyed skiing at Niseko in 1980. The mountains got so much snowfall that when sitting on the ski lift, you rode up the mountainside through trenches that had been dug in the snow that had piled up almost to the level of the overhead cable. From the ski slope there was a fantastic view of "Ezo no Fuji", so called because of its uncanny resemblance to Fujisan. (In the Ainu language, Hokkaido was called Ezo)

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Posted in: Elderly people's manners increasingly deplorable See in context

I was an international university student in the early 1970s in Tokyo. At that time, a humorous quip was that Japan had two priviledged classes: children and old people. This especially applied to tolerated subway and densha behavior. The kids climbed all over the seats, oblivious to the needs of others. The obaasans (almost always significantly shorter than the younger adults in those days) pushed others in the small of the back with their palms, if not the points of their umbrellas. These behaviors contrasted so much with all the others on the trains because all the others were extremely patient with each other.

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Posted in: Private investigator’s job takes him to darkest depths of juvenile crime in Japan See in context

As a half-American kid born and raised in Obihiro (where foreigners tend to be taken as curiousities, if not freaks) and then Sapporo, Hokkaido, my son would have been a prime candidate for bullying but for his natural characteristics of being physically tough (high threshold of pain) and cheerful. When a Japanese kid, spotting his almost-blond hair (it has since turned dark), would go over to him, shove him, and ask, "What are you?", instead of feeling bullied, my son would feel the approach was friendly, shove back in a friendly, yet strong, confident way, and respond, "Brandon desu. Asobo!" Taken aback, the other kid would respond, "Ah, Hai" and a friendship, not a bullying relationship would begin.

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Posted in: I won’t leave. Companies aren’t supposed to act this way. It’s inhumane. See in context

If he has been on the job for 32 years, he may have been one of the "kin no tomago" (golden egg) of what at the time was deemed to be the "shinjinrui" (new generation of mankind). The era started in 1975 when recent college graduates considered themselves golden eggs who could choose which corportation they accepted employment with. The corporations lamented what they feared was the "shinjinrui" that would have the selfishness and audacity to think of the well being of their families above that of their corporations and actually take much, if not all, of their allotted vacation time. However, now, 38 years later, the corporations still enslave their employees by keeping them insecure and dependent on their employment status for their self identity.

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Posted in: Woman forced to wear bunny ears as penalty for missing sales targets See in context

Was she also ordered to lean against the wall of a deparment store, chomp on a carrot, and loudly quip, "Eh, what's up doc?" customers who passed by?

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Posted in: Japan Tobacco sues Thailand over cigarette packaging See in context

During my visits to Thailand, I noticed that their television broadcasts censor out smoking and the image of tobacco: In a drama, when a character put a cigar to his mouth, they blurred out the spot where the cigar touched his mouth. In a televised news report on the inner workings of a cigarette factory, they showed thousands of the paper rolls of the cigarettes but blurred out the ends of the cigarettes that showed tobacco.

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Posted in: Employee injured as suicidal man leaps in front of train See in context

Sadly, this kind of thing has been far too common in Japan for decades. 40 years ago, when I was a student in Tokyo, there was a similar news item in which the suicide case jumped in front of the incoming train, crashed through the front window of the train, survived, but in the process he killed the driver of the densha or subway.

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Posted in: Young people don't think much of elders' manners: survey See in context

I first got to Japan in 1970. At that time, it seemed to be accepted that little old ladies would be pushing you in the small of your back (with their hands if not with their umbrellas) in their efforts to get out of a crowded subway before others. Also, because it was so common in the 1970s, I find it curious that public urination was not mentioned in the current survey.

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Posted in: Man who filmed up flight attendant's skirt freed due to jurisdiction loophole See in context

Why didn't they print the name of this perve? In Japan as a shame rather than a sin culture, the notoriety of this case would have been more of a punishment for this guy than any statutory punishment.

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Posted in: Bullied junior high school boy commits suicide in Sapporo See in context

My son was raised as a bi-culture kid in Sapporo. He went through the Japanese public education system from Kindergarten through high school. Although he was half American, he was never bullied. By my observation, this was partly because he never perceived the situation to be threatening. Japanese kids would see this American looking kid, come running over, and, sometimes even shoving him a bit, ask, "What are you?" Brandon would playfully shove back, sometimes a bit stronger than the other kid was expecting, and cheerfully respond, "Brandon desu. Asobo?" The Japanese kids would gasp, "Ah, hai" and the entire potential bullying situation was permanently defused. Brandon had friends but he was basically independentally minded, never depending on membership within some clique for his self-identity or social insulation. There is plenty of blame to go around as to the causes of bullying: pressures from parents, teachers, school administrators, and peers to conform and academically excell without seeming nerdy, all at the same time. By my observation, Japanese fathers don't interact with their children not primarily because they don't have time, but because they don't know how.

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Posted in: 'Modest' swimwear back in style in U.S. See in context

They might as well be wearing wet suits. Looks like the same thing.

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Posted in: Smoking in movies may turn teens to cigarettes: study See in context

The Marlboro Man also died of lung cancer. When I was a tourist in Thailand in 2001, I noticed that the sight of tobacco is blurred from the television screen, as is the sight of someone putting a cigarette or a cigar to his mouth. One news item I saw was of the production of cigarettes in a factory. It showed the mechanisms and the rolling paper surrounding the cigarettes, but it blurred out the sight of the tobacco at the tips of the cigarettes.

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Posted in: Study shows spanking boosts odds of mental illness See in context

I never hit our son when he was growing up but my wife did. He turned out fine. When he was around twelve years old, my wife told me, "I hit him all the time and it doesn't mean a thing to him. The only thing he cares about is the possibility that you might ever be disappointed in him. That is what keeps him being a good boy."

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Posted in: Zoo that lost 30 squirrels in typhoon 'recaptures' 38 See in context

Think of it this way. The squirrels that were born free will eventually be RE-LEESED.

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Posted in: Is U.S. heeding Watergate's lessons, 40 years on? See in context

I remember how between 1972 and 1974 Watergate caused the American people, most of them for the first time in their lives, become interested in and knowledgeable of how what is in the United States Constitution and how the American government is supposed to work. Character after character in the Watergate scandal, up to and including Richard M. Nixon, at first denied any involvement in Watergate, and then, when cornered, whined, "What did I do that was so terrible?" The response to this whine was a pointing out that, according to the US Constitution, what they did was grossly criminal in the category of treason.

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Posted in: Seiko Matsuda gets married for 3rd time See in context

Wow! 27 years have gone by already! The televised frenzy of her 1985 wedding had me trying to escape from it by going to Zennibako Beach from Sapporo for a day of windsurfing. It was a hot day, so I stopped along the way at a Ma and Pa store to get a cold drink. There on the television over the counter was the televised wedding. Another customer in the shop also commented on the national insanity over that wedding. At the time the popularity of Seiko Matsuda was also fascinating the sociologists since she wasn't that good looking or that good a singer. They concluded that because she wasn't that good looking or that good of a singer, Japanese girls could imagine being like her and Japanese boys could imagine being with her.

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