ukguyjp comments

Japanese neighbors can be very nice but I'd also recommend keeping them somewhat at arms length. You can bet they'll have their eyes on you, especially if it's a traditional neighborhood where there have not been many foreign residents. It's been known in the past for the police to encourage Japanese residents to spy on their foreign neighbors, and to report them if there's any illegal activity going on. In addition, be prepared to be patronized endlessly on your understanding of Japanese culture, and never to be seen as an equal. So, by all means, have nice friendly relations with your neighbors… I certainly do… But be aware that you're always gonna be a foreigner wherever you live in Japan.

Utter insanity. A need less risk.

It's way too expensive. I recently stopped my mobile service for this reason.

Considering how polite Japanese people are often said to be, it's surprising how rarely you hear them thank waiters and waitresses when they bring their food. And it's common to hear customers - generally men - barking orders at wait staff: "Beer!" rather than, "Beer please." It's accepted in the culture, but surely this could be changed?

WA4TKG: Woody Allen didn't adopt Soon-Yi.

Mia Farrow and her previous husband Andre Previn did.

Appalling isn't it? But when you have a youth which is so lacking in curiousity and originality, so insipid and dull and unchallenged, minds numbed by an authoritarian system and bland consumerism...the dominant youth culture is bound to reflect that.

Pretty underwhelming.

People use TVs in different ways these days. I use mine as a 'smart TV' and only watch streamed content from overseas. I don't use or watch NHK's decidedly below-average programming , don't even have an antenna or TV hook up. Therefore I refuse for pay for something I never asked for, need or use.

I live in Kyoto, take buses nearly every day. The driving is often appalling, with drivers often heavy on the brakes, especially difficult for elderly passengers to maintain their balance.

Truly appalling,　and a new height of idiocy as Japanese bureaucrats move one step toward eugenics. Why don’t they measure students' skulls too, just to confirm how Japanese they are?

I’m also wondering what they’d say to students of mixed race ... are they gonna ask them to change eye color too?

And how can they even say this with a straight face: “School staff told her mother they would even ask foreign exchange students with blond hair to comply. ” You also have to break one school rule (no dyeing of hair) in order to enforce another (everyone must have black hair).

It reminds me of when students at the prestigious Kyoto university I worked at came back from their year abroad. All the girls with brown hair had to dye their hair back to black in order to go job hunting. We can never be identical enough!

Oh hang on...was he driving? If so that's different.

Appalling.

Last night for the second time experienced racist treatment in a Kyoto standing bar. We will not be going again.

Personally I find the term 'hafu' offensive, for the simple reason it seems to imply that someone is half a person and not as fully Japanese as someone with two Japanese parents.

"places with less than 30 square metes of floor space would not be affected by the restrictions"

Considering how many small restaurants there are in Japan, that's probably the majority!

Have lost or mislaid wallet three times in Japan. Got it back every time. Pretty amazing.

Bought a house 18 months ago. Some of the neighbors are nice, others are indifferent, but someone obviously doesnt like foreigners. They have thrown eggs at my house twice and were regularly dumping trash in my bicycle basket until I put a cover on it.

Nice tribute. Just as Dylan himself has expressed gratitude for many artists including Woody Guthrie, Little Richard and Muddy Waters for inspiring his own musical quest.

RIP and, yes, Bhumibol Adulyadej presided over an increase in tourism, income and prestige for many Thais. But Thailand's lese majesty laws are appalling.

in 2015 two Thais convicted of posting anti-monarchy messages on Facebook received jail terms of 28 and 30 years.

Monarchy complicit in keeping huge parts of the population in poverty and ignorance. 10% of Thailand’s landowners own 30%s of its titled land. A fifth of rural Thais don't even have a bank account.

Totally agree. Crap airport considering it's Japan's main entry point. They don't even have a bar!

Well it certainly looks sadistic when you see the movie. Westerners don't have much room to talk, though. The meat/fast food industry commits animal cruelty on an industrial scale.

It has to be said that purely from a PR perspective, this looks bad for Japan. Kids love dolphins and whales, and when they think of Japan, they associate it with killing cute cetaceans.

As a friend and I noticed on a recent jaunt to an erotic dvd store in Kyoto, the number of porn DVDs sold in Japan is amazing, considering the vast amount of mosaic-free content available on the internet.

Thursday is the 70th anniversary of the bomb.

Compelling account here that it was unnecessary.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0806-25.htm

Just wondering how many Japanese kids are taught to swim as a matter of course. There seem to have been several of these sad occurrences recently.

Once every six weeks, whether I need it or not.

Headline should be, "ALLEGEDLY tries to kill husband..."

Decent bacon.

It's true that there are many unqualified, unprofessional English teachers in Japan.

However, there are many university English professors who are incredibly well-qualified, motivated specialists in their fields. They have relevant masters degrees and PhDs.

They are familiar with cutting edge pedagogy and the latest trends in applied linguistics and related fields, presenting at international conferences and publishing academic papers in Asian/international journals.

They take their profession very seriously and they are committed to education and bringing the best out of their students, including opening learners' eyes to a huge variety of issues which they don't learn about from their Japanese teachers, from gay rights to critical thinking to globalization. That's why they are actively hunted by Japanese universities.

In his classic book on communication skills, "How to Win Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnegie urged readers to "Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. "

Again, I'm surprised by the comments by (well-meaning but misguided) English teachers here who are talking about pronunciation, translation, immersion and so forth. Yes, all these things can make language learning easier, but they aren't the reason why Japan is lagging behind in English language acquisition.

Yakimo has a point when s/he talks about the deep enculturation of Japanese people which prevents them - generally speaking, there are exceptions - from meaningfully interacting with the world. In Japan cultural identity is imposed as ideology and one acquiring English is largely seen as losing 'Japaneseness'.

If Japan really wanted to be bilingual it could do so in one or two generations, much as other Asian nations like Taiwan, Philippines and Malaysia have done.

For instance, Japan could have two official languages (Singapore has five) - Japanese and English. 50% of kids' TV shows should be in English with English subtitles.

In short, the reason English language acquisition is failing in Japan is becasue the culture doesn't want it.