The little observations...

[allblacks]

If you are going to kick and punch your girlfriend in public, dont be too surprised when two foreigners come over and threaten to smash your fucking head in.

[sirwanksalot]

The hot chick's husband owns the local Harley shop. They drive big cars and like loud music and beer.

[allblacks]

As long as you are in your car you can park it anywhere. This guy was right in the middle of an intersection. Note the LETS STOP ILLEGAL PARKING sticker on the side of it! In the second pic on the footpath those two guys in uniforms are the parking police. They walked past talking about some domestic problem one was having and totally ignore this idiot in the taxi.

Words fail me!

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

...two guys in uniforms are the parking police...

Well you do know the only people more ineffective than the plods in this country are the rent-a-cops...

[Mogura]

Well you do know the only people more ineffective than the plods in this country are the rent-a-cops...

Sure, they don't have legal authority, but the rent-a-cops do seem to be more effective at doing their job in comparison.

[allblacks]

Those guys arent rent-a-cops. They are officially part of the Osaka police. They are, however, fucking lazy and dawdle around in pairs.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

Those guys arent rent-a-cops. They are officially part of the Osaka police. They are, however, fucking lazy and dawdle around in pairs.

And do shady shit to meet their quotas. I've seen them removing air from tires, and I think you mentioned the same at one point ABs. Yet an abandoned bike on the road, in front of the Hilton in Umeda sits there for a week before it disappears...

[sirwanksalot]

#1 I was driving and I noticed it smelled like oyaji only later to notice that there was a truck full of pigs a few vehicles in front of me. Seriously just like oyaji.

#2 For the second time in as many weeks there were people in the opposite lane making eye contact and gesturing wildly to warn of a speed trap. Nice of them but the gestures are hard to comprehend.

[inflames]

I've been a bit bad about going to the dentist (in that I haven't gone for 2 years). I brush and floss every day but honestly it's a pain in the ass to go there, plus I got pissed at the receptionist from before (I asked if she needed the number from my card and she said no, then said I should have given it to her on the phone when I arrived!). In the states my dentist would always try to get you to schedule the next appointment before you leave (so 6 months in the future) but that really works - no getting too busy and not going.

I referred a friend there and he said he always had to wait a week or two for an appointment - I just called today and got my appointment for today.

[angryboy]

Subway seem to be doing well in Japan contrary to what my student said a few
years back when the first Subway opened in her area.
"Subway won`t last in Japan because Japanese people won`t pay for something
we can make at home"

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

To counter your post, Angry: "Bread in Japan is so thick, because Japanese don't make sandwiches."

[SamhainP8]

My all time favorite hand on face / eye rolling / rip off my ears wazza voice student's observation:

Foreigners have good eyes because they hunt animals, we Japanese have bad eyes because we grow rice (something about having to bend over and focus so close when planting rice).

That ignorance and genuine blinding stupidity offended me to the point of uncontrollable guffawing.

[steki47]

My all time favorite hand on face / eye rolling / rip off my ears wazza voice student's observation:

Foreigners have good eyes because they hunt animals, we Japanese have bad eyes because we grow rice (something about having to bend over and focus so close when planting rice).

That ignorance and genuine blinding stupidity offended me to the point of uncontrollable guffawing.

Actually, I have heard that theory before. Not from students, but from evolutionary psychologists and the like. East Asian nations have very high rates of myopia, far higher than other groups. Africans tend to have great eyesight.

Personally, I blame kanji. Twelve years of studying those complex characters makes their eyes go bad. Half-joking. This article argues that East Asians study longer hours and that is the culprit.

http://theweek.com/article/index/227670 ... g-to-blame

In the major cities in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 80 to 90 percent of teens had myopia upon leaving high school. More worrisome, 10 to 20 percent of the high school grads were afflicted by high myopia, a more serious strain that can lead to blindness. The main problem, say the researchers, is lack of exposure to sunlight.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

http://theweek.com/article/index/227670/east-asias-nearsighted-child-epidemic-is-over-studying-to-blame

In the major cities in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 80 to 90 percent of teens had myopia upon leaving high school. More worrisome, 10 to 20 percent of the high school grads were afflicted by high myopia, a more serious strain that can lead to blindness. The main problem, say the researchers, is lack of exposure to sunlight.

That would explain the, seemingly, extremely high number of blind people I see in Osaka...

[steki47]

http://theweek.com/article/index/227670/east-asias-nearsighted-child-epidemic-is-over-studying-to-blame

In the major cities in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, 80 to 90 percent of teens had myopia upon leaving high school. More worrisome, 10 to 20 percent of the high school grads were afflicted by high myopia, a more serious strain that can lead to blindness. The main problem, say the researchers, is lack of exposure to sunlight.

That would explain the, seemingly, extremely high number of blind people I see in Osaka...

I still say that the bad driving I see here is more likely explained by personality/cultural issues.

[SamhainP8]

The main problem, say the researchers, is lack of exposure to sunlight.

I'm fairly certain that rice farmers get exposed to fuckloads of sunlight.

[MacGyver]

Subway seem to be doing well in Japan contrary to what my student said a few
years back when the first Subway opened in her area.
"Subway won`t last in Japan because Japanese people won`t pay for something
we can make at home"

Where to start with this....so I won't but fark me you must have been flabbergasted....

[angryboy]

Subway seem to be doing well in Japan contrary to what my student said a few
years back when the first Subway opened in her area.
"Subway won`t last in Japan because Japanese people won`t pay for something
we can make at home"

Where to start with this....so I won't but fark me you must have been flabbergasted....

Mate,I could have reeled off 1000 dishes but knew it would have been a waste of breath.

[exUsagiCoalMiner]

That would explain the, seemingly, extremely high number of blind people I see in Osaka...

I still say that the bad driving I see here is more likely explained by personality/cultural issues.

I was referring to actual blind people, there seems to be an extraordinarily high number in Osaka, but fair enough on the driving point!

[steki47]

The main problem, say the researchers, is lack of exposure to sunlight.

I'm fairly certain that rice farmers get exposed to fuckloads of sunlight.

I missed that first time around. Now that you point it out, that does seem like a dumb line. They are talking about kids, though.

I do remember reading some more on eyesight and Africans tended to have great eyesight, Asians with a tendency towards near-sightedness and White in between.

Must say, myopia in Asians? Literally and figuratively, if you ask me.

[SamhainP8]

No worries, no doubt some expert fucker on TV said something along those lines. Cluck cluck cluck.

Wouldn't be the first time that someone here had come across a conclusion and then went and fudged an abstract to match.

[steki47]

Just saw yet another recreation of an earthquake knocking down bookshelves and mannequins.

Hmm, if you went full digital and didn't keep so much useless shit in folders that needed to be stored on metal bookshelves, maybe your offices wouldn't have so much shit falling over in an earthquake.

And you could stop killing so many perfectly fuckable mannequins!

[sirwanksalot]

And you could stop killing so many perfectly fuckable mannequins!

Best comment I've read online in quite a while!

[allblacks]

Japanese seem to be so pre-occupied with those plastic chest of draws. What is it about those? I dont get it. They feel so cheap to me. Like you arent gonna be there long so why spend the money on a real chest of drawers?

[Langslave]

I bought 2 sets of those maybe 10 years ago or more. They werent heavy, but they were a bit too bulky for me to carry along with the other stuff I had, so I asked them to deliver. They cost just under 2,000 yen for each unit and the frame is one moulded piece, but they wanted to charge me for each drawer seperately, and about as much as the whole thing cost. So they wanted me to pay something like 5 or 6 times the price of the items for a 10 minute delivery drive! I asked my missus to double check that thats what they were asking so she did and said yes. Bring on 'The Angry Foreigner' mode. I said I wasnt about to play that game so they could take their drawers back. The staff asked us to wait and she dashed out the back. Two minutes later shes back and miraculously the delivery price has been reduced by 75%. To this day Im not sure if it was just 'The Angry Foreigner' that did it and they wanted me out, or if they regularly ripped everyone off like that and didnt want to get called on it.

[MacGyver]

Don't give coworkers feedback. Doesn't matter that I've been on this team the longest at 7.5 years and the new guy, who I trained, has been here less than a year. Apparently it doesn't matter cause I'm not his boss. Carnt. What he doesn't realise is the boss is still giving him a pass cause he's "new" (fark me, if he isn't up to speed by now, he never will be) and I have to clean up his messes. In fact, during my annual review, I was tasked with a goal of keeping certain standards of some of the things we do, and the boss even pinged me when the noob farked up, stating how this was my responsibility. But when I pinged the noob about a fark up in process, he gets pissed and the boss tells me to back off. Well, fark me if that isn't some messed up, mixed signals bullshit. So to get promoted I've been told to take on more resposibility. But when I do I get told to back off. Although I did say to the boss that this would happen...so maybe the observation should be oyu can't win at work?

Here's another observation: New carnt in America, harden the fark up sunshine! sheesh.

[steki47]

Well, fark me if that isn't some messed up, mixed signals bullshit. So to get promoted I've been told to take on more resposibility. But when I do I get told to back off.

Maybe you did your job too well? Perhaps the boss was testing you to see how you would react in certain situations.

[allblacks]

Im nicking off at 1730 every day now. Fuck doing overtime unless its something urgent. My boss et al can do what pleases them. If you want to avoid your wife and kids...work in a Japanese company hard not smart!

[MacGyver]

Maybe you did your job too well? Perhaps the boss was testing you to see how you would react in certain situations.

Who knows. You may well be right. But I think its more of a case that to promote me my boss needs to go to his boss and make a case for me to be promoted and for whatever reason he can't or won't. Personally I think its the latter cause he's pretty weak. Case in point, I use software that is 5 years old (I use version 3 and its now up to version 6) and to make sure I'm compatible with another guy on our team who has a newer version, I need to be upgraded. The boss won't do it cause its going to cost US$700. Why won't he do it? Cause it means he has to ask his boss for the money and he's obviously afraid she'll say no. He could easily argue his case for it but as he's too much of a pussy, he won't. It will bite him on the arse because sooner or later I'll have do a collaborative task with my co-worker in Dublin but fark him. Its his arse. I've warned him.

So back to the promotion. Because he is basically refusing to promote me, I virtually demanded that he give me a pathway to promotion. So this is the pathway but he's already setting me up to fail. And its not just this either. There is another goal that he's given me but he mentioned in passing the other day he's probably going to get someone else to do it....Sorry turning into a gripe now....

[steki47]

So this is the pathway but he's already setting me up to fail.

I'm just wondering if this guy totally understands what the job entails. (Heck, neither do I.) I just notice little things here in which the stated goal is not the reality. I am a teacher and actually expected to teach Japanese people or something I call a hobby I do more than once a year.

Damn, you're right, this is a gripe.