gdp's Comments

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Mind = Blown (it\'s 1 minute of your life)

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 01:20:58 +0000

Wow. They've had some really good ones in the past on TV but not like this. Emotions on full display and then, wham! indescribable violence. I spoke to one psychologist who advises on these types of ads here a couple of years ago and he thought because we've had so many of these kinds of messages over the last 20 years people had switched off. He thought that humour actually had a larger impact in terms of people taking on the message, and we've had more of those more recently especially around drink driving. Good for the YouTube generation too with memes being passed around. Still this one deserves some airtime. Thanks!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Loco in Yokohama (here\'s your fucking post...stop mailing me)

Mon, 4 Nov 2013 05:03:57 +0000

I don't have anything to say on the Loco part of the post...because I really don't. More importantly, I'm trying to piece together what happened to the dogs from the comments....they were ok in the end? I just got back from spending over two weeks in Rarotonga in the Cook Islandsand the thing that you notice are the wild dogs...it was great because they seemed to be well feed, and they were happy as they were swimming in paradise, and really liked humans. These dogs would be killed in our countries, but here they were happily living among the tourists and locals....everyone's pet and nobodies pet...and way more friendly than the dogs people had tied up as pets. I don't have any deeper point...it was one of the highlights of my trip.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : The hottest Summer of my _ucking LIFE!!!

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:52:08 +0000

When Google told the PRC to F* off I thought maybe they were different, but last few months in particular have told me they are no different. Anyway, hope whatever you do you document it, but I get it if you decide otherwise. Take it easy!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : A Convo Contest rapes a Speech Contest

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:07:37 +0000

The conversation contest idea is so precisely what is needed in Japanese schools. Often the most interesting people/students never learn English because they can't/don't want to go through all the hassle for something they probably won't use in any practical way (except to embarrass themselves as above!). I was often given students to train for speech contests who were, while trainable, were not the ones I would have chosen based on my interactions with the kids. Despite my asking there was never any thought that I would be involved in the selection process. Anyway, I was most pleased to see the "control the conversation" idea here - I have mentioned to others over the years and they think I am weird, narscisstic (maybe true but...). It is so true though. Over the years I have convinced many people that my J-go is far better than it really is mainly by dominating the conversation. As I get better/more comfortable I listen more, but not taking a step back is important for improvement. One of the best second language learning tools is to be very very talkative. Our brains evolved the way they did not to compute things (grammar rules, remember streams of vocab) but to engage in social interaction/communication. Use them the way they are supposed to be and you will be rewarded.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Time to open the books (Part 1)

Wed, 29 May 2013 01:26:42 +0000

I'm up to my eyeballs right now, but just wanted to say this was awesome and full of head-nodding goodness. Looking forward to ther others. I've had to advise a crap load of people around the uni here who just don't get it. How can I succeed in Japan? How can I succeed in China? Or whatever. They think taking some uni classes, a major in those languages will somehow, I dunno, get them a sweet job in those countries afterwards. It escapes them that one country has 120 million, another 1.3 billion, with excess labour. They will always be able to speak and read and write their own native languages better than you. They will work harder, longer and for less money than you. Why would worthwhile employers even think about you,? What else have you got? What else can you do? What do you bring to the table? Even if you wanted to be translator (or researcher in my case), it isn't really your Japanese skills that matter but whether you are fucking awesome at your own language. I see so many ex-JET stay on and get level 1 or whatever it's called now, and they scrape by still working at schools or low level translation firms etc (there are some exceptions of course). If they are truly happy and content, all power to them...seriously, I'm not there yet by any stretch. But I know some aren't. They don't realise the problem isn't their lack of Japanese ability, or that Japanese are discriminating against them or whatever, it is that they were pretty useless human beings in the first place. Not necessarily dumb. Just, uninspiring. They can't communicate or relate with normal human beings in their own native language....they don't know anything interesting or novel in their language...either that, or if they do have something, they are making a big mistake and pissing it away. Coming to the end of my PhD, people ask me if I will go back to Japan after. They seem taken aback when I say "maybe." First, I dunno if I am even going to continue to research on Japan after. In some ways I am a bit bored. Either way, if it is on my own terms, doing what I want, of course I will consider it...like anywhere in the world. /rant over.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Help Japan....help you!

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 08:28:03 +0000

"shit that has been re hashed to fucking death..buried...un buried and then beaten to death again?" I tell myself that's why I still have relatively few hits on my own blog - refusal to tap into the prevalent memes and taken for granted chestnuts and self-involved assumptions that would get a wider audience interested. Some of my material must be aching boring to some - no - most people. But if you are interested, you are. If not...so be it. I console myself with the "quality" of the audience ;-) (although my other site Japan Security Watch is putting up big numbers!) But we all need to write our own thing - there are enough mindless website clones out there "discussing" the "issues." The thing is that even if you were just to post about teaching etc, you bring so much insight and energy into what you do that it can't not be interesting. That is why I come back. I think your stuff has been getting better lately FWIW.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Watching Albinos with a Japanese girl

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:12:15 +0000

Fantastic, head nodding, post through and through. Girls like your student are Japan's main, maybe last, hope. This country educates females pretty well relatively speaking, and then...well everything your student already knows. Such a waste. Gender "empowerment" and getting rid of the OB networks should be a national security issue IMHO. Certainly going to make more of a difference than some islands.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : 地獄へ落ちろ Yeah..I\'ll see ya there

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 00:11:26 +0000

I agree with Hardkoretom - you would make a good profiler. I probably wouldn't even have the awareness at the time to put two and two together and would probably accept it at face value. Do your worst!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : The 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 08:58:52 +0000

Timely post mate. I have been feeling a similar way recently. I've long accepted that everything is BS, and the best way to be is to enjoy your own shit, whatever that is. I once thought too deeply about my surrounding to the point where getting up in the morning and interacting with people felt like I was engaging in some kind of universal game where the only prizes were, well, varying shades and piles of bullshit. I try not to go to that place these days because it isn't a happy place. The challenge I find is to "reflect" upon yourself and check the ego, without "dissociating", which teaches you nothing. The latter is so scary that I sometimes wonder if I am too timid with the former.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Ps. You scare the shit out of me!!!!

Wed, 6 Feb 2013 10:59:50 +0000

Who commits suicide or tries to, and who just keeps getting up day after day and soldiering on, seems to have no rhyme or reason. That much I know from experience. But I am sure single events are the catalyst rather than the cause, man. Like that British nurse who committed suicide after two Aussie DJs prank called her into revealing details about Kate Middleton - everyone was going on about how they "caused her death" etc. I'm a bit skeptical. You know this, but I doubt you "scared" him into doing this...more like you made him feel particularly helpless and humiliated that day, and it was the final straw on top of millions of other things that happened in his life. Would it have changed his destiny if you had of acted differently? Maybe...but probably only if you invested something more than a hug, I imagine. Either that, or you really are a scaring looking mofo!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Tired of waiting for you (Troll)

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 04:02:39 +0000

"Look at me...5ft11 no more than 185lbs...I ain't big...you can do it." You're funny. The two scariest people I have trained with in the various MAs have both been under 5'6 and have both been balls of muscle and fury. One was a pure psychopath through and through...wore glasses and looked like an otaku so I can only imagine the number of people who underestimated him. Once chased a guy out of the ring and beat the shit out of him because he thought he didn't get a good enough fight. Another was unbelievably nice, the sort who seems like they got muscles in their ears...great outside training, intense when training. I was glad I was his student and not his training partner! Anyway, lesson for me, don't go anywhere near someone who says "I ain't big" ;-p

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Bathing with your H.S. Daughter in Japan

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:30:56 +0000

Holy crap, yeah I think that is beyond culture, man - even the Japanese comfort for nakedness within families can't account for that weirdness ( totally comfortable with onsens etc myself, but sometimes back at "home" the lack of respect for "private space" has led to a few words!). Not quite as gross as your story but one friend of mine in the day went out drinking with his Japanese teacher at HS and when wasted the teacher suggested that he came around for dinner one night..."and you can bathe with our family and my daughter (HS age)". My mate tried to put it down to his being boozed and being not so good at j-go and misunderstanding, but he is pretty damn sure he was given the opportunity to bathe with a HSer by the dad! The teacher was totally matter of fact about it, which made my mate think that it wasn't meant to be taken "like that." But even if so...still can't get my head around how that can be normal. I have heard there is some Confucian/familial piety thing going on where children scrubbing the backs in the bath of their handworking (and eventually old and decrepid) father symbolizes family "love" or some such....but I am pretty sure this isn't what your guy is getting from it o.0

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Lazy Americans (Myth busting in Japan)

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 02:12:19 +0000

"I have lived and worked here for years and working with a Japanese person is about as fun as having teeth ripped out of your head. I went to a meeting once to discuss the next meeting.......I'm not joking." That takes me back...At one of my schools I had a teacher who used to let me know when one of these was happening so I could "excuse" myself so as not to be trapped in one of these life-depleting torture sessions. She wasn't the only one who knew half of what they did was a farce. But they all just accepted it, unwilling to see what might be on the otherside, but were happy to help someone "outside" the system escape! That was the most frustrating part. To be fair, the average citizen in every country is unlikely to rock the boat, as I have learned. But the "average person" in Japan seems to get screwed in various ways while the elite make out like bandits (I am starting to feel lots of Western nations are trending this way though, but that is a different story!). My wife said to me years ago when she first went overseas to other developed countries (to the US and Australia) and saw the general treatment of workers and citizens, she started to feel it was a curse to have been born Japanese because of the ridiculous expectations and rules and workhabits she and her mates had to put up with in their "average" jobs. I always remembered that comment - she is an otherwise "proud" Japanese so it stuck with me.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Yasukuni Shrine and the Myth of Hideki Tojo

Sun, 6 Jan 2013 09:19:47 +0000

I knew top US officials had threatened or "strongly suggested" the use of nukes on China both in Korea and later with Taiwan...but that is new to me! Tactical nukes are just scary. Apparently they even had nuclear depth charges at one point *shakes head*. We are definitely safer with them tucked away from crazy generals!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Yasukuni Shrine and the Myth of Hideki Tojo

Sat, 5 Jan 2013 07:12:54 +0000

Love it! There is still so much fascinating, sick and insane shit about that period that I don't know and am still finding out...and I think I know a pretty decent amount compared to most. My latest "discovery" is that the "Income Doubling Plan" that made Japan rich in the 1960s, ie the reason for the Japanese "miracle" during the "pacifist" sixties, was actually concocted by unconvicted "Class A" WC Kishi Nobusuke and Abe g-pa when he was a top colonial official in Manchuria in the mid-1930s before he became Industry Minister in the war cabinet. If Japan had of stopped with Manchuria, cut their losses and not give in to the IJA crazies, and implemented Kishi's clearly sensible plan there, Taiwan, Korea, and eventually back in Japan, imagine what a different world it would be 70 years later.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Santa in Japan

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:45:36 +0000

Man that is a cool tree and decorations- we move so often we just have a tiny one with the bare essentials but with my son now writing letters to Santa I am starting to think I need to go the extra mile also (how long does the age of innocence between learning to write and figuring out "Santa" last?!) . Anyway, Merry Christmas Chris!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Don't touch me please!

Sat, 8 Dec 2012 10:49:15 +0000

I had a PE teacher who couldn't speak any English respond to a "sumimasen" with a "I am a Lesbian" when I started to strike up a conversation once. I am guessing she thought I might be trying to hit on her and she had it prepared. If there is supposed to be something in that photo, I just can't see it!

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Episode II \"A New Beginning\"

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:24:47 +0000

Just found this...awesome and right there with you. I personally worship the 1st Amendment. Without that, none of the other rights really matter because you can't defend them without having speech and assembly to speak up for them and challenge power. Rowan Atkinson gives a good defense in the British context: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gciegyiLYtY&fe...

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : Cancer...would it matter?

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:07:19 +0000

All I can give is encouragement by way of an anecdote. A friend/workmate I know had a rather nasty genetic predisposition which meant no male on his father's side of the family had lived beyond 45 in about three generations. Heart disease related. They lived just long enough to procreate and then, gone. I got to know the guy when he was 42! But from his late 30s he radically changed his diet after new genetic tools revealed that he also shared the same gene. Went vegan so as to minimize all of the possibilities that might set off the heart attack he is predisposed to, and now he is in his mid-50s and seemingly fine. He had the knowledge to make the right decision for him. I have never met my own biological father and no one has heard from him since he went to jail in the mid-1980s in Aussie, but I want to know more about him not because I give a rat's ass about him but because I want to know if he has any weird genetic stuff going on.

http://badboyinjapan.blogspot.com/ : America votes 2012 (Here comes the BOOM)

Tue, 6 Nov 2012 01:34:55 +0000

Best evidence for your point is that the Chinese only half-heartedly censor information on the US elections...they figure that they are a good advertisement for why democracy doesn't work all that well.