daver
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Posts posted by daver
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let em go. we don't need that unruly bunch chewing up all our intermediate power with their back weighted surfer stance anyways. hehehe.
but true it is an interesting shift. however, at least when i was working the canadian ski scene the aussie tourist was not really a huge market. at that time we were much more concerned with the british market. i don't know if that has changed much in the last few years.
i suspect the low yen and the extremely high canadian dollar has a lot to do with it as well. as long as the canadian dollar is as high as it is and as long as the RCMP continues to taser our visitors to death in the vancouver airport we can expect far fewer guests coming here. regardless of the 2010 games.
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it might be losing popularity in japan but it seems to be gaining popularity world wide. funny any other country would see that as a good thing.
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funny, i always felt like stinky nihon-jin smelled awful; at work, in the gym, on the train. i've run across lots of stinky japanese people with very poor personal hygiene.
IMO people with poor hygiene regardless of their cultural background (or blood type which prevents them from contracting HIV) stink. people who wash regularly don't. pure and simple. can we move on.
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Originally Posted By: rachI can see the appeal in speaking to attractive ladies, but wouldn't a normal bar be just fine for that?
how many bars have you been to in japan where it is possible, lets forget about socially unacceptable, to casually approach someone of whom you don't know? -
after spending time with students in thailand, cambodia, and nepal from all age groups i can quite confidently say the system in japan is pathetically failing. all of the students i met spoke better than any of my students in japan. and none of the students in these countries have nearly the same resources the kids in japan have. they certainly do not have a well dressed foreign monkey coming to their class every
day to play with them or do a trick for a cookie at the JTE's request.
the one thing they all had that only a few of my students in japan had was motivation to learn the language. there was a specific, tangible advantage to being proficient or at the very least capable in english; learn to speak english and get a job that gets me out of the shanty town when i grow up. (most could also speak a little of a third language too.)
the biggest motivation to learning english in japan is perhaps watching foreign movies or listening to foreign pop music. you could argue they are motivated to pass their examinations but really all they are learning to do is pass the test. there in lies the flaw in curriculum development in japan.
my experience as an alt, and i worked with some very good educators involved in curriculum development research, taught me that i really could do nothing more in the classroom than a well trained and properly motivated JTE could do. what i could do was provide a tangible reason and motivation for students to learn. if they practice and study their english they can try to speak with weirdo foreigner in their 5 minutes of free time. and that only works if the alt is motivated and approachable. that being said, for the most part the students who benefited most from my help were students who were already keen and motivated to learn english prior to my arrival. those who were not interested simply talked to me in japanese.
so can alt's be effective in the classroom? as teachers no, as a teaching resource sure. but i don't think any more effective than any other teaching resource. they certainly aren't needed to effectively teach kids. if their job is to get kids proficient in english they definitely are not doing their job well. but then again neither are most JTEs. and neither is the system of education that places such emphasis on rout learning and systemized testing as the only means to gauge success.
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on vancouver island for the moment, but i'll be flying around the country for the next two months making obligatory visits. i might even be able to get a few days in the rockies, whistler and the local hills here on the island. i'm eventually ending up in new zealand come february. which is great but it means i will have a stunted season.
hope you all have a good one this year.
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looks like fifty in three days. damn. are you going to manage your time and get on the hill this year samurai?
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you left too? isn't North America such a strange place? thus far i am not impressed.
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i went to two of the big tohoku festivals this year. but they happened in the beginning of the month. nebuta was great, but the real star is kanto. i also was able to get in the last day of hanagasa here in yamagata. not bad, but a little pedestrian (pardon the pun) after seeing the others.
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Originally Posted By: thursdayit's actually more dangerous to hunt and kill a carnie.
you aren't kidding! they are generally a wily folk. and never seemed very appetizing. what with their mullets and the tear drop tattoos. -
wavy stick guy.
(that's meant as a contribution to things i think are brilliant about japan, and not meant as a counter argument regarding the efficiency and standard of japan's construction industry.)
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"An anal attention to detail is the hallmark of the Japanese industrial revolution."
yes, and also a throw it up as fast as possible and work round the clock to make it happen attitude. don't you think the two sort of contradict each other?
soubs you place is brand new. take a look around at all the houses more than 10 years old. they're falling apart.
why, after the big kobe quake was there a massive thrust to change to timber frame and as such employ canadian builders at huge salaries to come over and teach all the guys how to make them?
why do you read day after day in the papers about corrupt building companies skipping out on details?
i would dare say, much like anywhere else, when it comes to the building industry you get what you pay for, and it's prudent to research your contractor's background before committing.
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just came back from kanto and nebuta; kanto is amazing! nebuta is fun and worth seeing but not as good as kanto. don't be disappointed, see nebuta first.
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but back to the original topic, what is brilliant about japan...
festivals. i love em!
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Originally Posted By: soubriquetI'd say Japan is an excellent place to bring up children.
i suspect japan would be a great place to raise young children. especially if you were living in a more rural area like we do. i really find it amazing how children simply wander around alone outside. now i don't know how much safer it is for children compared to back home; the recklessness of the average driver certainly would have me concerned, and according to the news we should be severely worried about the number of strange and perverted attacks focused on kids. but i do love the trust parents seem to have here, warranted or not.
i don't know how keen i would be to raise an adolescent here though. sure the drug problems here aren't like back home, but i suspect as a keen and responsible parent that's the sort of thing you can prepare your child for. especially if you've had some experience in that world.
isn't this the country with the highest teen suicide rate? i wouldn't want my child growing up in a world where being different is simply not acceptable, and neither is failure to achieve impossible standards. -
Originally Posted By: Tubby BeaverCould be, but the reason given was that they didn't want the houses to be too hot in summer.
it works both ways, keeps the heat in during the winter months and does the same for the air con everyone constantly pumps all summer long. can't say the open door policy for shops does much good though. -
as for service, western countries = customer is always right. japan = retailer is always right. but they will be very polite in explaining this to you. YEAH!
as for crime, true break ins are not common in the rural communities, but are they back home? there is indeed inner city problems in the city areas, perhaps not like back home, but then again back home organized crime isn't nearly the same institution it is here. hmmmmmm?
drugs, don't be so quick to suggest there is no drug problem in japan, there is, however most people are quick to say there is no problem at all, it is a different problem. kids at home take crystal meth, how many high school kids here take speed to help them keep up with the seemingly insurmountable study load. and isn't denying the problem's existence an even deeper problem.
there are plenty of wonderful things about this country, however why must these types of discussions always end up as a comparison to our previous homes? can't things be wonderful in their own right without our need to re-affirm our choices to expatriate?
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so it's really hot here right now. i was told the other day reached a scorching 37 degrees. now the people in town tell me yamagata is the hottest place in japan. and as a matter of fact, the hottest temperature ever recorded was indeed here in yamagata. the local explanation is that it is because "yamagata is surrounded by mountains and so the valley heats up like a pot yo."
can anyone verify this? or is this just another local crack pot explanation?
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Originally Posted By: thursdaySilver. Sca Fell, Lakes.
Getting gold would mean walking around the lawn trying to avoid shaking hands with the DofE.
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ok so far an AK heli ski trip ($5,539.00 - $5,695.00 US at 5 days 7 nights, H20 heli) or a cat ski trip ($3,760.00 CD at 4 days Island Lake Lodge) will not last longer than two/three weeks.
the other option is to "keep it real" and stay for 6 weeks in squaller in india and give the rest away to some sort of NGO i support.
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i wouldn't say it's racist, it is pathetic though. not pathetic in that he/or anyone else is attracted to japanese women, men, dogs, cranes, ect. but that he has decided to categorize all japanese women and all foreign women with such dialectic precision. every person regardless of cultural background carries their own unique kind of baggage.
granted i haven't dated japanese women as i am in a serious relationship, and was prior to arriving in japan. but my own opinion is that i would have a lot of trouble with all the re-education required in dating a japanese woman.
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this is hokkaido's asahidake i presume?
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actually what makes me wonder is why the biggest power plant in the world is built directly on a fault line and yet it is not built to sustain heavy quakes.
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to add to fattwins' list:
Ghetou Kogen
Yamagata Zao
Hakkoda
"There's also a boys' culture"
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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are you living in canada now ebc?