Stuff that is just brilliant in Japan (and you only really notice when you are out of Japan)

[daver 0]

 Originally Posted By: soubriquet

I'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.

[daver 0]

but back to the original topic, what is brilliant about japan...

 

festivals. i love em!

[rach 1]

 Quote:

This house is fully insulated, double glazed, centrally heated and air conditioned.

Good for you. But my guess is that kind of house is in a small minority soubs.

[soubriquet 0]

The area where I live is being totally re-developed. In the past three years, every home in the street has been demolished. The new houses are all built to what I consider a fully modern standard.

 

My UK brother is a snagger. His job is to go around after the so-called "professional tradesmen" and fix their stuff-ups. When he came here he was amazed at the fit and finish. No snagging needed here. The tradesmen here do their work with care and pride. Brilliant.

[bobby12 0]

I dont want to be contrary but that totally contradicts what I have heard about the building industry in Japan. I know a gaijin guy who ran a construction business and he was totally jaded about the way the Japanese run their businesses - no concern for safety, no problem with total lying and stealing.

 

This guy also talks about this issue: http://www.debito.org/housebuilding.html

 

Maybe u in a smaller community so it's impossible to survive if one does that kind of sneaky work. In Kansai/Kanto its a different story I believe.

[soubriquet 0]

No offense taken bobby12.

 

That guy is a moron. Give him a cold beer at the beach on a warm evening and he would complain about the size and shape of the bubbles. Like my ex-, some people can't be pleased. That doesn't make them right.

 

I have a LOT of experience in the building industry, in the UK and in Oz. Construction standards are higher here. For example, all concrete slabs are reinforced with steel here. Not there. Three story buildings here must be steel framed. Foundations are steel reinforced concrete and buried 1 metre underground. The list goes on.

 

Japan is the nation that taught the world how to make things. An anal attention to detail is the hallmark of the Japanese industrial revolution. Reiterating, the fit and finish of this house, and the others around me, is immaculate.

[NoFakie 45]

There are plenty of cowboy builders in Japan. Its not just the Aneha people by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to build a house in Japan, and especially one on the cheap, the most important thing is to avoid a "kekkan jutaku", basically a faulty or wonky house. It happens to thousands of people. They end up fighting in court for four or five years and even then only get the cost of polyfilla-ing the founds, plugging the leaks, or straightening the floors. All that while living in and paying for a crap unhealthy house. It must be ferking heartbreaking.

 

There are no building inspections during most builds in Japan. That's why Aneha managed to leave out the rebar on so many buildings. The individual stages (founds, structure, roof, first fix, etc.) are not inspected. You either trust your builder and whatever quality control they implement or employ an architect, planner, or whoever to go on site once a week or so as a "kantoku". The crazy one is that despite not actually inspecting or enforcing anything, the bureaucrats will pour over your drawings and give whoever submitted them stress based on what can be inconsistent and impractical rules. Thanks to the Aneha scandal, the bureaucrats also have new rules to sharpen their pencils with. They came in in June.

 

The houses around you may be may all be fine soubs, but thats not the whole country. Just guessing here, but an entire neighbourhood being redeveloped at the same time sounds like the result of "kukaku seiri", a reallocation of land when they widen a road etc. When this happens, all landowners get very nicely compensated from the public purse. This gives them lots of coin to build a new place. Left to their own devices, most neighbourhoods change in dribs and drabs according to the owners circumstances with no general plan or vision. I am sure most people have noticed this around Japan.

 

The average household in Hokkaido uses 2,000 litres of kero a year. That doesn't sound like airtight and/or well-insulated to me. Its a lot of BTUs.

 

Some Japanese houses are near state-of-the-art in energy use and comfort, but you've got to find the right people to build one and pay more than the cheapest houses cost. Gaijin readers may be tempted to import a house, but some of them aren't very good or particularly suitable for Japan either.

[daver 0]

"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.

[soubriquet 0]

Spot on MrW. The winding lane is being turned into a straight road, and everyone is being compensated.

 

daver: I've worked a long time in the building industry. Tradesmen work to a higher standard than in the west. The houses that collapsed in the last earthquake were all old timber buildings with tiled roofs. No modern houses failed.

[bobby12 0]

The guy I knew who built houses said his business took off after the Kobe quake. why? because he took a photo of a neighourhood wher all the houses were levelled bar one - the one he built (canadian style wood frame). after that there was a boom for his business buildilng those houses, but the japanese soon caugth on and started to do it too - cutting corners on the way, leading to bad rep. for those houses and he went out of business.

[daver 0]

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.)

[soubriquet 0]

I want to nail this. Those who accuse Japan of sloppy and cheapskate workmanship should check this out. Here are the footings of our neighbouring building. No lack of steel here.

 

 

This is the frame. It took five men two days to erect. It went together like Lego. No faults in the design.

 

 

I defy anyone to come up with better building standards, and I've been around the industry for 40 years.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Yeah the guy I was talking about as well ran his own show, he said that the japanese builders were way too slow, taking a million smoke breaks. he was able to knock up houses much quicker (and presumably to the same or higher standard) as the J-builders. He was Candian and came over just before the kobe quake. I think that most people aren't talking about mansion or apartment style houses, In my case I was meaning individual homes.

[soubriquet 0]

There are buildings going up on two sides of me. The workers work. Except for morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, they are out there rain or shine. Their workmanship is excellent.

 

Tohoku must be very different from the south. Glad I live here. This must be the place which taught the world how to make things properly.

[bushpig 0]

gotta say the work rate here does seem to be very good. Try getting a house built back in Aus and you can expect them to take up to a year. WTF?!

[SirJibAlot 0]

This thread went straight downhill. Anyway, back on topic...

 

I love the hot towels they give you at the izakaya and restaurants - very civilized.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Hey BP, when I was over in Oz, my bro was working as a Brickies labourer, he was saying that the hold up was mainly due to a lack of bricks. There was that many new builds planned that there wasn't enough bricks in the country.

[bushpig 0]

yeah well that is the case now with the way the market is, but even 15 years ago when my parents had a house built it was the same, and there was nowhere near the shortage in materials that there is now. Right now there is a long delay up to actually starting, but even when they start, the whole process takes ages. Anyway, let's get back on topic...

[indosnm 0]

There's also a severe lack of tradies.

[NoFakie 45]

 Originally Posted By: SirJibAlot

This thread went straight downhill.

Hey man, what's wrong with a few building site photos?

[soubriquet 0]

It's my fault. Blame me. I've managed to stuff the photography thead too

[SirJibAlot 0]

Wiggles, no problem - it just went from stuff that is brilliant, to stuff that is messed up, to why our home country is better, to rigging construction bids, to Soubs falling on his sword.

 

And SJ closed the other threads for posting positive exclamatives cause people thought we were twisted - this thread is worse!

[Tubby Beaver 209]

hehehe, I liked the other thread, it was challenging to come up with new words that ppl hadn't posted!!! hehehe

 

But back on topic, how great is it that you can drink anywhere you like in Japan!!

[SnowJapan 178]

Just for the record, SJ did not close the other threads.

 

[Tubby Beaver 209]

no but you did strongly suggest that we cut that shite out though....right?