JAPUNDIT Open Thread - 024
07/05/2008 @ 12:00 pm
Here is the Open Thread for this week.
This is the place to talk about politics, policies, and cultural issues if that is what turns your crank, or just about anything else you might have on your mind.
Rules are very loose for open thread posts, and usual restrictions concerning topic matter do not apply.
Q1. Is this also the place to talk about British Politics and East Asia?..sort of after Baron Chris Patten the 28th Governor of Hong Kong and his amigo Boris Johnson the new head honcho of London Town?
Q2. Bullying (Ijime) in Japanese Schools is a problem sadly to say..what can we do as parents to counteract it?
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/html/hpae199901/hpae199901_2_020.html
thankyou
remora
July 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pmSorry about that, rem. . . I and the post stand corrected.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pmJust for you, rem. . .
Guerrilla gardeners in L.A.
July 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pmThis is why I like golf and pro golfers so much.
July 5th, 2008 at 3:03 pmwhy when I go to Fami-Mart and buy a litre of milk, do they always give me a staw?
July 5th, 2008 at 5:56 pmRiki, do you have a letter stamped by your Japanese spouse expressly asking them NOT to give you a straw?
I think you don’t.
Schoolboy error.
July 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pmI’ll bet there is something somewhere in the Fami-Mart manual that says it is required.
Your story reminds me of a time way back when an American friend of mine and I went to KFC in Kunitachi, a suburb of Tokyo. We had a house full of people and so we (just the two of us) went in and ordered a 20-piece bucket of chicken. The girl at the register asked us, “Is that for here or to go?”
July 5th, 2008 at 7:52 pmhaha great replies.
I’m going to open the carton next time and start drinking it there in front of him. Strange though that they never give me a straw when I buy a beer.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:30 amReminds me. We had a American supplier visiting who dared to venture into “Makudonarudo” alone. He pointed at the Big Mac set, which was the number 6 set on the menu - and kept pointing directly at it and saying 6.
They gave him 6 Big Mac sets, and he dutifully paid.
July 6th, 2008 at 8:49 amAnd what with this “eco-friendly” crap where the local supermarket forces me to ask for a bag every time I go shopping there. I’ve got 20 items. Do they think I am going to juggle them all the way home?
July 6th, 2008 at 8:51 amI was watching this woman buy a loaf of bread the other day. The bread was already in a plastic bag (as per normal), then they pulled out this special printed carry home box, then a second plastic bag to protect the box. In the end this loaf of bread had more layers than Napoleon tomb.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:37 amactually, maybe they think that you bring bags with you to the store (which I do).
July 6th, 2008 at 12:13 pmthank you EC, its nice to see that there are like minded people in the United States (and probably elsewhere) who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and tackle the problem of Urban EyeSore-itis..now if we can only get the rural Pachinko Parlour Builders to tear down some of those hideous neon monstrosities that seem to litter the outskirts of every small town we might be getting somewhere..
*as I mentioned previously… Day Dreaming about Flying Pigs is one of my favourite pastimes*
thankyou
remora
July 6th, 2008 at 2:45 pmBrain, they don’t think anything. That’s why I’m annoyed. Unless I can fit an entire shopping bag in my back pocket, I obviously don’t have one. They ask the question because their boss requires it. He requires it because he thinks it’s a clever way to save money at the customer’s expense.
And the best part is….he can say he’s doing it for the environment!
I think its great that you carry your own shopping bag. I canceled a family trip to the States this summer, which must be worth several lifetimes of shopping bags, carbon-emissions wise. So I do my bit, and I won’t get into who’s more carbonating. The store, on the other hand, wants me to do their bit as well.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pmI think the government recently passed some regulation that requires shopping centres to charge 1 or 2 yen for plastic shopping bags, that’s why they have to ask.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pmIs that right? Well, great. We know how little the government wastes.
Still, other supermarkets don’t ask - so it’s not required by law. The supermarket I complain about is particularly bad in customer service anyway (this is just another excuse for them) - but they seem to be everywhere in Fukuoka.
July 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pmA little late in the week, but too good to ignore. . .
July 8th, 2008 at 2:39 amye ole Britain seems to be turning into a PC basket case
July 8th, 2008 at 8:00 pmtoo true riki!..too true old chum..first they allow women members (Anne Widdecombe) into one of our most hallowed sanctums - the mens club and the next thing y’know they’re foisting Women Bishops on us.
..and then to ruin everything they propose turning the exquisite St James Park into a vegetable growing allotment - within a stones throw of overoften’s
and my club (Boodles).
Where will it end I ask myself?..where-will-it-End!
perhaps with the vision and firm helmsmanship of our new Mayor (Boris Johnson) sanity will prevail and all will be well again in Merry Olde England.
yours truly
remora
July 9th, 2008 at 3:54 amJust a few more days until my Honda Civic Hybrid arrives at my dealers. It was built in Japan on May 25th of this year. It left Japan June 4th and it is between LA and the east coast. I hope to visit the factory that it was manufactured in on my next visit to Japan later this year. Anyone have any advice on visiting the Honda factory in Suzuka, Mie?
July 9th, 2008 at 4:21 am“first they allow women members (Anne Widdecombe) into one of our most hallowed sanctums - the mens club”
To be fair though rem, that’s not bending the rules much, is it.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:55 amagreed! lets get the old girl to run the MCC as well we are at it!
remora
July 9th, 2008 at 8:49 amJapan cannot have an army by law, but can they have an army of robots?
Also, who is that professor up in Hokkaido that is suing the college where he works for not giving him tenure.
July 10th, 2008 at 9:31 am