pussywillow comments

She is an assistante teacher in junior high school. She got 2 bonus per year. She is paying per hours. No work = no money.

I’m in a similar situation. There are quite a few part-time teachers in my school and we’re all paid by the class. The full-time teachers will be paid regardless of whether classes are held or not. Part time teachers - I have no idea yet but I have a feeling we won’t be. Irritatingly enough we’ll have to go into school anyway because we’re in the middle of grading tests, inputting data and writing reports.

I wish Abe had promised to guarantee the wages of part-time workers unable to work because of this decision. I’m not just talking about teachers - also parents who have to stay home now to take care of their kids. There are a lot of part-time workers in Japan, and the government should have at least thought of some measures to counteract how this will affect them. I get that public safety is important but just announcing the decision without putting in any measures to help with the repercussions indicates that this hasn’t been thought through properly.

@ Tokyo-Engri

I agree. I’ve lived here over 20 years and while on the whole I’m very comfortable here this case and others like it have me on edge. I don’t know whether Mr. Ghosn is innocent or guilty. The same goes for Mr. Kelly, but the way they were deceived, particularly Mr. Kelly who was scheduled for an operation before being tricked into making a trip to Japan, is disgusting.

The continuing detention of Mr. Ghosn, on very flimsy grounds, scares me, because if it can happen to him it could happen to me. I could be detained if the police suspect me of something/anything. And if they want to continue that detention what recourse would I have?

Bungle - I understand your point as a counter to feminist arguments but emotionally I can't help but feel the name I have had since birth has become part of my identity and I struggle with the idea of giving it up.

It really does seem to be a double standard. It's difficult in that these seem to be 'historical' cases and times have changed. What is utterly unacceptable now unfortunately was passed over/covered up then. I'm glad that people are coming forward now - it will make it so much more difficult to perpetrate such behavior in the future. On the other hand it's hard to prove/disprove many allegations.

However, Franklin has admitted, apologized and his victim has accepted the apology and believes it is sincere. In many ways I admire that while deploring the original behavior. Moore has not and Trump only has to a certain extent by saying that he shouldn't have said his 'locker room talk'. In all honesty, I'm not American but if a politician said 'yeah, I was a total f*ckwit and treated women badly until I realized that I was wrong and proved how they have changed I would still consider voting for them.

I'm well aware of that Toshiko - that's why I asked the question, hoping that maybe someone from Thailand could explain it to me.

Anyhow, I read around a bit and found that while it is an unusually long period of mourning it is a sign of just how beloved and revered the late king was to his people. And he had indeed been lying in state so that millions of people could go to pay their respects.

Can anyone tell me why the funeral is this October when the King passed away last October? Has he been Lying in State or something? I mean no disrespect by my question - I would genuinely like to know.

Unfortunately she has already passed away. It was on the local news this morning.

Daniel Neagari - but why would you do that? Seems like a bit of a weird way to get your jollies. I don't think I'd be particularly amused if I was standing nearby.

This stabbing happened just round the corner from me. It's a very quiet street in a neighborhood with lots of young families and also many retired people. People are quite worried that the culprit still hasn't been caught and are taking extra care about their kids walking to and from school. Having said that it's a quiet neighborhood I wouldn't call it particularly safe for women. The lighting is poor and the streets ( including that one) are very narrow and dark and the quietness of the area actually increases a woman's vulnerability. Before I became more aware (and stopped buying into the 'safe country' spiel and started to take precautions) I was sexually assaulted twice when walking home, had loads of underwear stolen, was followed home and once woke up to find a complete stranger in my bedroom (luckily for me I wasn't alone). All between 1 minute to 5 minutes from where this attack took place.

Sorry Cleo, but you do sound a bit judgmental. Different people have different lives and different experiences and they may also get together with partners who don't follow the point of view that you have put forward.

I get that you have kids, a happy marriage and a good life. That's really great and I'm happy for you. But the path you have chosen isn't available or desirable for a lot of other people. Calling them 'selfish' isn't very classy.

As for me - I'm in my forties and I have no children though I'm in a long term relationship of 19 years. Years ago 'I' probably did want kids but I gradually came to realize that it wasn't me that wanted them but others wanted kids for me. Especially as I and my partner are both teachers and both good with kids of all ages. I like kids, I really do, but I spend so much time with other people's kids that I almost feel that they're my own.

I would love to adopt but that isn't really 'done' here. I would love to be a stepmom but that also isn't an option. Luckily I can be a surrogate 'mom' to my students whose parents aren't in the country and the kids and the parents appreciate that.

Recently my man and I have been talking about having children a lot. And for you to call us selfish just highlights your ignorance. Yes, we're both aware that our ages put us more at risk but does that make us bad or evil people? When we devote most of our lives to other people's children are we really that selfish? Was teaching really just one of those ' better things to do'???' Right there you display contempt for other lifestyle choices.

Again, I'm glad you're happy with your life. Just don't impose it as a model of happiness on others who may not identify at all with your way of life...

the execution of this man is no different than the murder he committed in terms of ending a human life willingly.

Oh, I think it is quite different. A 'pregnant newlywed' was 'raped and stabbed' at random, without having done anything to have deserved such a death. For it to have been no different this man would also have had to have been innocent and have been raped and stabbed with no foreknowledge that it was going to happen. I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty but presumably he knew that would be a possibility if he was caught after committing this crime in that state. Not only that but he tried to pin it on his brother-in-law first with no thought for the punishment that the brother-in-law might receive. 'Terror and agony'? He got off lightly in my opinion.

"TOEFL is a bad idea. I do not think English ability can be measured by a MUTIPLE-CHOICE test.

Why none of the commenters here points out this apparent shortcoming of TOEFL?"

Probably because it's not clear whether the proposal means the paper-based TOEFL or the IBT. If it's the latter (and I hope it is) then although there are multiple-choice sections there are also parts of it that require free-speaking and free-writing - i.e. actual production of English. The IBT is a much better test of how well students can actually communicate in and use English.

I've been teaching TOEFL to high school students for years and it requires specific training in most cases. They can't just do well on it without a lot of guidance and practice and classes need to be small because of the spoken element.

then my question to Japan is what is a medical and a legal definition of death right now? Anyone?

I was discussing transplants with a group of youngish (17/18 year old) students a few months back and I asked them what they considered 'death' to be. Almost all of them said that they considered it to be when a person's heart has stopped and they have stopped breathing. Most of them didn't consider 'brain death' as 'real' death, even if the heart and lungs were only functional through a machine.

As I said, they were quite young, and their opinions were based on feeling rather than any logical/medical reasoning. Most of them also said that although they recognized transplants as being necessary, wouldn't want their own organs to be donated. Many held out hope that by some miracle they might one day 'recover' from brain death and so didn't want that chance taken away. Optimism of youth maybe?

@ Orange. Thank you. Actually, we have a vet and he's great, as are all his staff, so I'll be sticking with him. I didn't know we could get help with the cost but that makes sense really so I'll look into it. If not it doesn't really matter. I've talked to the vet about it and he says our cat is healthy enough and old enough to have the operation. It's just Mr. Pussywillow changing his mind every time we seem to be decided on taking her in.

I agree that part of the problem is the expense of neutering here. I have a female cat that I rescued when she was about 2 months old and it's going to cost upwards of 30,000 yen to get her fixed. Even so, I have no problem with having that done, especially when she's in season like right now and yowling at the top of her voice and bouncing around at all hours of the day and night. It really is like having a newborn in some ways. However, another problem seems to be the attitude of quite a few people here who seem to think that getting a pet fixed is 'kawaiso' and unnatural. Time and time again I've said to the man of the house that it's high time to get our cat fixed and time and time again he's put it off. For a while he said that he wanted her to have the experience of motherhood once and then we'd get her fixed. I pointed out that she herself was unwanted by someone and thrown out and that if she had one kitten we could cope but what would we do with 5 or 6 ? - she's hardly a pedigree. Plus she's an indoor cat (much as she'd like not to be) and so how would we find her a 'boyfriend'? Certainly not any of the mangy old Toms around here that come a calling. He understands all this and yet still he's reluctant to do it. I showed him a video of the pet pounds in Japan and how many stray/unwanted dogs and cats are euthanized here every year and that really got to him but he still says no or rather 'wait'. I think I'm just going to have to take her to the vet's without his say-so.