Archive for the 'National' Category

My Thoughts on The Tsukiji Fish Market Banning of Tourists

Published on December 15, 2008 in Culture and National. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The Japanese news has been buzzing with the news that the famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo has started to ban tourists from their morning tuna auctions. Apparently, tourists had been ignoring signs warning them not to use flash photography or to disrupt the auction process, so the people who run the auction decided it was best to keep tourists out of the auction area. Flashes can interfere with the bidding process and hundreds of thousands of yen are at stake.

My first reaction to this was that the people at Tsukiji were going too far. How bad could it be? Well, then I saw the videos roll in. People firing away with full flash. People going up to and touching the tuna. One guy even licked a tuna.  The men guarding the fish tried their best to warn the tourists, but it was no good. Earlier this week, the signs went up, and it was announced that a month long ban was to go into effect. Many of the tourist who showed up displayed shock with many declaring that Tsukiji was on their list of major venues to visit in Tokyo.

After seeing a video of a guard trying to get two french tourists to stop joy riding one of the trucks near the auction site,  I lost it. I have never felt so ashamed to be a foreigner. Many of these tourists were warned over and over again, and refused to behave. When confronted about it, some of them pretended they didn’t speak Japanese and played innocent, despite the fact most of the signs were written in easy to understand English.

I have a strong message for all foreign tourists coming to visit Japan in the near future. Please respect the rules in the tourist areas, and please be on your best behavior. You are guests here and you are being judged. I live in Japan and I work hard everyday to break down the myth of the rude foreigner. Even after five years of living here, local people are still sometimes uncomfortable around me and other foreigners.  Sadly, I’m not sure what else we’ll be able to do to reassure them.  So please, either act your age when you come here, or don’t come at all.  Your actions have ramifications that go was beyond your cushy little vacations. These are people’s jobs that are at stake.  Imagine if someone who didn’t speak your language came into your office, took pictures of you and ignored you when you set out some ground rules about what they could do in your office. You would be quite upset, I’m sure. Well, now you how the people at Tsukiji feel.

Transplanted – Dean Ruetzler

Published on September 1, 2007 in Culture and National. 0 Comments

   This is the latest episode of Transplanted. Transplanted is a podcast I do about people living abroad. I like to talk with ex-pats and ask them about their experiences abroad.

This week, I speakwith Dean Ruetzler, an English instuctor working in Japan. He talks about his life in Japan and his former life in Finland. If you are planning on living overseas, you may wish to listen in and find out what he has to say on the subject.

I am a Pasmo, and Proud of It

Published on April 13, 2007 in National, Other, Technology, Travel and ihorner. 4 Comments

Pasmo

Let me give you a little bit of a background here. Back when I as in University, there was a meeting held, where we decided what direction to take our lexicon in. After many hours of hot debate, a consensus was reached on two new suffixes that could be added to almost any verb, thereby transforming them into a noun. “-xor” would be added to anything to make it good, see “l33t haxor”, or “delicious meatxor” for examples. “-mo” would be added to the end of any word, to signify displeasure, and a certain air of mental retardation, see “lame-mo” or “tard-mo”.

Well, it seems that Japan has once again chosen something from the west to latch on to. Enter the Pasmo! Pasmo, from what I can gather with my limited Japanese, is two things. First, it is a wonderful RFID based rail pass system, that can easily be recharged at any train station. However, unlike its brilliantly marketed cousin Suica, Pasmo not only works at JR stations, but also on the Tokyo Metro, Busses, and most notably to me, the Noda Tobu line and Tsukuba Express! It also appears that Pasmo, and Suica can be friends, but more on this later.
Continue reading ‘I am a Pasmo, and Proud of It’

The Test From Hell!

Published on December 5, 2006 in Language, National and Personal. 0 Comments

When it comes to tests, I’ve pretty much seen it all. I have been through the labs and essays. I’ve survived four hours exams and thirty minute interviews. I even walked away with a University Degree at the simple cost of my soul. Yet no exam in the entire world has frustrated me more than the dreaded Japanese Proficiency Exam(日本語能力試験.) I just wrote the 2nd level test for the third time this past Sunday and I want to scream “bloody murder!” Now I’ll tell you why.

The first and foremost reason why I hate this exam is that it’s very difficult. It keeps getting more difficult every year you take it. Almost like a cold war between exam writers and participants. Every year, I approach the exam site with an arsenal of new grammer and vocabulary. Oh, but the test is ready for me. It constantly finds new ways to confuse the hell out of me and leave me bleeding on the floor. But that is only the worst part. I bet you didn’t know there were other nasty elements to this exam. .

Did you know that the exam only happens once a year? Yes, you have one shot to nail it or you’re screwed. But if that wasn’t bad enough, you also pay 5500 yen to take the damn thing. Oh, and guess what happens if you actually find a way to pass an exam. If you ant to receive the a diploma, you need to send them money for the diploma and the shipping cost. Yes, they are so cheap they won’t even send you a diploma with your results. Also, did want to see how you did on the exam. Too bad! You don’t get your results. You only know if you passed or failed. You can, however buy a copy of the answer for about 1200 yen at the bookstore.

So you can see, I am not a big fan of this exam. Lucky for me, the only reason I take it is to improve my Japanese. I’d be in real trouble if I needed it for a certification of something. To wrap this up, I’m going to go out and call JESS(the organization that administrates the exam) something they need to be called. You are TEST NAZIES. Stop being so damned cheap and extreme about this test! There, I feel much better now.

Suicide City

Published on November 13, 2006 in Culture and National. 0 Comments

I wanted to open up the launch pad this week with some good news. However, it seems Japan doesn’t want me to have a good week. Let’s explore the front page of popular Japanese news site Japan Today to get an idea of just how unhappy people in Japan are at the moment.

If you take a good look at that page and it’s November 12th you’ll see what I mena. If you are reading this article at another time, then you’ll see articles about suicide here, here here and here. That is not to mention the principle who killed himself a couple of weeks ago. The saddest part of this is that most of the people killing themselves are younger people. This is simply a tragedy, and more needs to be done to get to these people before they go through with it.

If you take the two principals who have killed themselves in the last two weeks, it set a disturbing trend. You can start to see how some Japanese people in power positions handle responsibility. Instead of dealing with their problems, they escape them and leave them for others to clean up. At one point in Japan’s history, ritual suicide could almost have been considered an honorable way to end ones life. I can’t think it is like that anymore.

I have one request for the people of Japan. Please, for the love of god, start taking care of each other. You obviously have people in your society that cannot handle this artificial rat race you’ve created. Now either start making Japan a better place to live or face international condemnation.

I cannot believe that Japan has returned to the top ten best places to live. Obviously the U.N. isn’t counting suicide in their criteria. Perhpas they have also ignored hour worked, or vacation time taken. Good stats there, UN. I hope your week starts off on a better note than mine.

Amazon is king

Published on October 4, 2006 in National. 0 Comments
 

Good news for those of us who order books and software from Amazon Japan. I was walking to school this morning and stopped by lawsons for a quick breakfast snack. Low and behold, there were amazon pre-paid cards waiting for me at the cash register. This is wonderful news for us who order from Amazon using the “Cash on Delivery” method. Previously, if you ordered using COD, they’d ding you 250 yen. Well, you can kiss that charge goodbye as of now. This means that I will be shopping online at Amazon Japan for years to come. I am not sure if this is an exclusive with Lawons or if they can be bought anywhere. I’ll let you know when I get home from work today.

Watch your step! 注意！

Published on September 13, 2006 in Administation, Iwate and National. 0 Comments

Hey there everyone. This is Jason Hill, the owner and author “jasohill.com” and “Jason’s Launching over Japan.” First of all, I want to apologize for all the construction that has been going on around here. I decided that the site needed to be moved to a more scalable technology, so I  purchased some webspace and moved everything over to wordpress.

You might notice a few things are different. First of all, I delete many of the posts that I made before coming to Japan. There really wasn’t any need for them. You can, however, now search the entire blog with the built in search feature. I have also added a number of categories. This will make finding an article much easier. All you need to do is search by the category tag.

I still intend to carry on in the same way I did before. Although, this time I hope to be a little more hard hitting, and digg up some great social and cultural information about Japan and Iwate. Please be patient while I categorize the 300 some articles that I have written up to this point. Thanks.

Mandatory Broadcast Receiving Contract with NHK

Published on August 26, 2006 in Culture and National. 0 Comments

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I will translate it into something a little more readable. If you live in Japan, and own a Television, you have to pay the Japan Broadcasting corporation a lot of money. What? Yes! Money! Let me give you a run down of how my morning went.

Me:(on computer) “type type type”

Person at Door: Ding Dong!

Me:(getting up to check who is at said door)

PAD: (speaking in Japanese) Top of the morning to you sir!

Me: Er, can I help you?

PAD: My good man, telling from the color of you skin, it appears you come from a country other than Japan. Did you know that if you have a television you must pay us around 1400 yen a month. And if you use a satellite receiver you must pay us twice that amount. There is no way around this. Even if you are white.

Me: Er, what if I don’t watch NHK.

PAD: That doesn’t matter. According to article 32 of the broadcast law of 1950, you must pay us just for the privilege of owning a TV. Now pay!

Me: Uh, are there any repercussions for not paying.

PAD: I will get very angry with you, and possibly stalk you.

Me: Okay, what if I don’t have a TV? What if I use the Internet for all my media consumption?

PAD: Then there is no need to pay. But the minute you purchase a television, you must contact us immediately. Or else!!!

Me: Or Else what?

PAD: ….the stalking!!!!

Me: Are there any criminal or legal repercussions?

PAD: Well no, but we will hunt you down ..

Me: Um, okay. Well, since I don’t have a TV I guess there is no need to charge me.

PAD: Right you are sir. Have yourself a majestic day.

Me: Oh, I will!

So as you can see, there is a law in Japan that forces you to pay a monthly tax just in order to own a television. However, there doesn’t seem to be anyway to force people to pay. This makes me happy. I don’t have a TV right now, but should I get one, I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to inform NHK of my new purchase. Japan, I think I love you.

Enomoto’s Space Dreams Dashed

Published on August 21, 2006 in National and Technology. 0 Comments

Story from Crisscross Japan

There is some unfortunate news in the world of space tourism this week. It appears that Daisuke “Dice-K” Enomoto’s dream to be Japan’s first space tourist was quashed this week when it was determined that he is medically unfit to travel into space. the specific cause of this sudden cancellation hadn’t been revealed at the time of the announcemnt, but it’s obviously something bad enough to keep him from space travel.

It doesn’t take much to keep someone from launching into space on a controlled explosion. One bad heart beat here, or a eye problem there is enough to ground someone. Some might even say that nasty condition we call common sense keeps most of us from attempting such a risky proposition.

As a fan of Japanese popular culture I am a little saddened by this. Enomoto was a Gundam fan and had planned to Cosplay as Char from Gundman while he was in space. That may sound a little silly to you, but I think it’s a bold step in the right direction of space tourism. After all, if you are going to pay 20 million to travel somewhere, shouldn’t you be allow to wear whatever the hell you want. The agency that puts these trips together is having a special meeting next week to determine who will be Enomoto’s replacement. One thing I can already ascertain is that whoever it will be, they certainly won’t be as interesting as Enomoto was.

City pays 2.2 million yen for teacher’s bullying

Published on August 14, 2006 in Culture, Education and National. 0 Comments

I read a disturbing story today on the Asashi online website. You can read it here.

It appears that a teacher to taunted and bullied a student after learning the student had an american grandfather. He was caught by someone(or reported by the boys family), but has so far dodged any responsibility for his actions. In Japan, it seems that as a public servent, the government will protect you and compensate victims in your name. In addition to this, the teacher appears to be back at work. What a wonderful day this must be for that poor boy, who had to endure abuse just for having some american in his blood.

This story wouldn’t enrage me so if it wasn’t something I read about all the time over here. An isolated story is one thing, but this is becoming a weekly topic. As a response to this, I have decided to provide a series of thought provoking questions that foreigners in Japan might want to bring up in a public forum. Here they are:

1. Should a government institution shelter an employee from taking responsibility for his or her actions?

2. Does coming from a mixed background make one human being lesser than another?

3. What do you think of foreign residents in your area?

4. What do you think of children of mixed races? Do you call them half, or something else?

I fear the answers you get may not be the answers you are looking for. I pray I am wrong here, but I am pessimistic about this.