Tessa comments

Posted in: 7 teens arrested for pelting police car with eggs, tofu, potatoes after false 110 call See in context

Saga ... the armpit of Kyushu. No surprises there.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japanese people seem expert at napping on trains, subways, in department stores, cafes, restaurants, park benches or anywhere in public. Have you ever been able to nap in public like that? See in context

Two stories for you, from my students:

Fell asleep on the last train, woke at the terminal station about 50km from home. Wallet gone. Had to call wife at 1am and ask her to pick me up. Boy, was she pissed. Finally arrived home at 3, rose at 6 for work.

Next? Identical to the above, except it happened on bonus day. All gone!

Let's be careful out there, folks.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Posted in: Do you enjoy spending Christmas in Japan? See in context

Hell yeah, I love Christmas here! Fried chicken and sex, what's not to like?

0 ( +8 / -8 )

Posted in: Retired sex workers establish their own association See in context

I am pleased to see that they then go on to being paid company, baking bread, marriage counselors, beauticians etc. They continue to be productive members of society.

Yes, they do, unlike their bonbon-munching housewife compatriots.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Posted in: Man arrested after attacking woman, child with metal bat See in context

Tennoji. Surprise, surprise.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

Posted in: Warm Biz campaign kicks off across Japan See in context

Yup, 21C and sunny outside today and the heating is on in trains, stores and people are wearing Michelin man coats, mufflers, hats etc.

And don't you love it when you venture outside without bundling up like an Eskimo and all your colleagues keep asking repeatedly and incredulously "don't you feel cold?"

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: How to avoid being a 'third-rate patient' See in context

Oh boy. The stories I can share!

Let me first state that the care that I've received in Japan has been incredibly efficient, if not exactly sympathetic. However, some of these "doctors" really need to brush up on their people skills.

The doctor who performed my emergency appendectomy (brilliantly, by the way) actually told me just before the op that I was the first gaijin he had ever operated on, so he was a bit nervous about the outcome. Imagine how I felt.

The doctor who diagnosed my gallstones told me that he'd never encountered such a young patient before (I was 33 at the time) and that it was obviously caused by my decadent foreign lifestyle and eating habits.

The doctor who diagnosed my mumps - which I caught from a Japanese student, btw - felt the urge to inform me that foreigners have superior salivary glands, which explains our supposedly superior linguistic abilities. He wasn't joking.

The doctor who wrongly diagnosed my friend as having breast cancer (how can such a thing happen in this day and age?) advised her to start making care plans for her children. Fortunately she got a second opinion. It turned out to be a mere cyst!

A doctor I met in a nightclub passed around a huge photo album of medical photos of women's genitalia, possibly taken by him or a colleague.

Another doctor showed up in one of my English classes, wanting to improve his communication skills. He had been sued for medical malpractice by a patient. He seemed like a nice guy, but frankly his bedside manner was appalling, and I wasn't surprised there were misunderstandings.

By the way, almost every single one of the above doctors was a second or third generation one. Avoid those guys like the plague!

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Posted in: Make a happy occasion even happier with these Sanrio-themed birth registration forms See in context

Yep, that's gonna do the trick, Japan! I can just see thousands of young couples running off to produce as many babies as they can, once they get a look at these cute pieces of paper ...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: 53% of travellers see airports as something to be enjoyed See in context

Changi, Changi, all the way, baby! If I could live in that airport, I would (preference would be Terminal 2, but everywhere's good).

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: As more elderly people require special treatment due to dementia and other illnesses in Japan, what should the government do to increase the number of nursing care workers and caregivers? For example, See in context

There are more than enough Japanese women that quit their jobs after getting married that can be coerced into going back to study and work if the salaries were there.

I absolutely agree with you. I would go further and say that Japanese housewives should be forced to get off their lazy butts and earn their keep, for a change. Like many salaried workers, I am sick and tired of carrying their load.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: Goldfishing See in context

At least they've stopped doing that thing with the baby chicks. Haven't they?

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: Abandoned boy reflects Japan's attitude on discipline, abuse See in context

The mere fact that I don't remember ever having read any of this shows me that you're heavily exaggerating. For what purpose?

You obviously don't read Japanese.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Posted in: Man arrested for kicking his dog to death See in context

A horrifying story, but good to see that Japan has come so far in such a short time, regarding animal rights. It'll be interesting to see what kind of sentence he receives.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Abandoned boy reflects Japan's attitude on discipline, abuse See in context

You did say, back in the day....

Meaning 1999, not the Mesozoic Era.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Should the parents of the 7-year-old boy who spent six days in a Hokkaido mountain forest after being forced out of the family car for misbehaving, face some sort of criminal charges? See in context

Have you not been tossed out of a car by an angry parent?? I have ... brought back some funny childhood memories.

Me too. I remember my mother bringing the car to a screeching halt and screaming at me and my siblings to get out of the car (we had been quarrelling in the back seat). After a few minutes, she cooled off and told us to get back in. The rest of the drive continued in complete silence. The worst part for me was biting my lip, trying not to laugh ...

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Posted in: Even if I could pull the trigger, I would probably close my eyes. See in context

I'm sure they'll get the hang of it eventually, it's not as if there's never been a historical precedent for "Japanese going abroad en masse and killing people."

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Posted in: Abandoned boy reflects Japan's attitude on discipline, abuse See in context

Back in the UK.

Seriously? that must be a generational thing. I have never heard of anyone being sent outside as a punishment, ever. I used to get sent to my room if I was naughty, and that was pretty standard. (Actually, I then used to sneak out of my room and race outside to the yard and poke faces at my mother through the kitchen window as she washed the dishes. That probably wasn't standard.)

Mum used to make everyone laugh with her tales of how when I was a baby she would leave me outside a shop in the pram.

My own mother, who apparently was a "good baby" with very regular habits, used to be left napping at home alone whilst my gran did the grocery shopping. But it wasn't pachinko, and it certainly didn't make the international headlines.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Posted in: Even if I could pull the trigger, I would probably close my eyes. See in context

Do they not quite understand the meaning of "self-defense?" These guys remind me of the students who show for my English 101 class, and then get shocked when they are actually expected to speak English during the lesson! (No, seriously, the dean asked me not to use so much English in my English conversation classes ...)

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Posted in: Abandoned boy reflects Japan's attitude on discipline, abuse See in context

Oh, I've been here too long. I can remember a certain TV programme that featured small children being separated from their mothers, and being told that they were never coming back. How the panels laughed to see their reactions! Does anyone else remember this?

Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon, in certain low-rent areas, to see babies in prams left outside pachinko parlours.

One of my students told me me, between gasps of laughter, that her pubescent daughter still bathes with her father, and that dad pats the girl's chest and tells her proudly "you're getting bigger now!" (Another student gigglingly told me that her little girl complained that "daddy's poop was floating in the bath water" but that's not really relevant here.)

And how many of you remember being annoyed by neighbourhood kids who had been locked outside as punishment by their parents, banging on the doors and screaming and crying to be let in? At least a few of those kids gave up and wandered off elsewhere (I should know, I was hauled out to help search for one of them, who was quickly found sitting on the swings in a local park).

Actually, maybe it's not me who has been here too long ... it's those of you who think that this is all normal and acceptable, and also that all children in other countries are gang members.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Posted in: Missing Hokkaido boy found alive in SDF hut in forest after 6 days See in context

What is striking about all this is the number of disgusting comments made condemning the parents - some even saying they murdered him.

Well, just a minute. I was keeping track of various Japanese mainstream social media sites, and 99% of the comments were just as vicious and condemnatory, if not worse. There was even a wacky theory going around that the sister of the boy had murdered him, and that the parents were covering for her. The comments here on JT were downright mild in comparison.

He was six kilometres away and it took up to 900 people 6 days to find him? Completely pathetic. Did no-one look at a map and think, 'Hey there's a hut nearby, let's look there?'

Good point. There were looking in all the wrong places. Apparently he found the hut on the very day he went missing, and stayed there the whole time!

Resourceful little boy.

That's for sure.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Posted in: Nap time See in context

You know you're in Japan when you see more elderly people napping in parks than babies.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: JAL to introduce 'AIR MOS Salad Burger' on some international flights See in context

This exclusive hamburger is a collaboration of MOS BURGER’s respect for Japanese food culture, and JAL’s commitment to provide high quality service with the spirit of Japanese hospitality.

Am I the only one who nearly fell out of her seat with laughter upon reading this? It's a hamburger, people!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Searchers struggle with lack of clues to fate of missing 7-year-old boy See in context

And bears bury their kills for later.

According to today's news reports (both Japanese and international), searchers have found fresh bear droppings in the area.

A very uncomfortable spotlight is shining on Japan, and parenting practices, at the moment.

This is very true. This story is up on the Guardian and Daily Mail sites, and a few of my horrified friends back home have asked me about it. I hasten to assure them that abandoning children in forests is not common practice in Japan at all. However, older Japanese friends have told me awful stories about childhood punishments that shocked me to the core.

I hope the little boy is found safe and unharmed.

Me too. All children are precious, but Japan in particular can ill-afford to lose the few that it has.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Missing 7-year-old boy left in mountains by parents as punishment See in context

According to news reports, the dad is 44! Sounds more like 24-year-old thing.

The idiocy of Japanese parents never ceases to amaze me!

I don't want to judge a whole nation by the idiocy of one parent, but in cases like this ...

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Posted in: Japanese swoon over Canada's 'hunky PM' Trudeau See in context

The son of a leader is going to grow up with a leader as a role model, learning lessons first hand from a leader. This is going to put them in a better position to become a leader themselves, and increase the likelihood of their becoming one.

Yeah, just like Dubya.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Retirement can create multiple tensions at home See in context

Sad how it's these brilliant women who are sure it's all so easy who (choose to?) miss out on having kids....

Considering that my young pupils literally spend more of their waking hours with me than their mothers, I don't feel I am missing out on anything.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Posted in: Retirement can create multiple tensions at home See in context

Kids grow up and these small, hard years don't last that long unless a couple is constantly having babies.

But they are constantly having babies ... 1.46 per woman!

It's always the kidless ones who are so quick to tell us how easy it all is......

And it's always those mothers of 1.46 children who are so quick to tell us how taihen it all is ...

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Posted in: 37-year-old woman arrested for beating 4-month-old daughter See in context

What I find puzzling about cases like this, in Japan, is how many of them involve mature married mothers with good social and personal support systems. Where I come from, child abuse is typically (but not always) associated with young, unmarried and unsupported girls and/or their boyfriends. But this particular mother, like so many I read of in Japan, didn't fit into the high risk category at all. She was 37, married, and staying with her own mother, which meant that she was reasonably mature, had a stable income, and was being supported by the people around her. I can only conclude that she was mentally ill.

Hope it works out for the family.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Posted in: '3keys' NPO founder sheds light on Japan’s poor orphanage conditions See in context

International comparisons of national education systems rate Japan very high in terms of inclusion.

Sounds like absolute bliss! That explains why so many new schools are opening up, to accommodate all the students.

There is an extensive system of aid and subsidy for high school kids who come from low income families.

No wonder the birthrate's so high! I bet millions of young Japanese couples are champing at the bit to make babies here.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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