InspectorGadget

Maybe he has arranged something. . . . . . :-p IG

No more "spongee cakeeee" for Christmas from here on. :-P What line of work are you in? All the best to you whatever you decide to do. IG

When are you off mate? Are you taking a break when you go back to re-adjust? IG

Evo_Lee just reminded me of the article I was reading the other day in the Japan Times. Normally to register a business you need either 3 or 10 million yen (?) in working capital, but they've lowered that to just 1 yen for the purpose of encouraging entrepreneurs to start up small businesses. However as Evo_Lee stated, you need to get your working capital up to normal levels within 3 years. And the kicker is, I'm pretty sure that you need to be a Japanese national to apply for the programme. What really cracks me up is the number of people who are fascinated by Japan (especially young Americans) due to manga and music, build up huge misconceptions about what Japan is about,. Then they get all disappointed whenthey get here and no-one is carrying Katana's to work on the subway and their apartment is the size of a dog kennel.

1) Tokyo generally doesn't get much snow. Usually it'll snow over night and melt by the early afternoon. The good news is that the earliest that I can recall snow is mid-December and the latest is about mid-March. So it is quite possible that you may see some. 2) Head to the North or to the West. Using the train would be the best idea, but once again, that depends on the snow . . . . . 3) Dunno. Japan LOVES red tape though, so he's probably going to have to jump through quite a number of hoops to get things started. 4) If you want to do that, I would suggest mortgaging your house and selling your wife and kids into slavery before coming here. Japanese taxi's are probably among the most expensive in the world.

drift007 Is your employer handling your tax? IG

Watch out though. Income tax in Japan is worked out on what you've earned in the previous year, so the initial year is on an extremely low rate. IG

Batchelor of Business with a Major in Tourism. I'l be bugged before I ever work in the Hospitality Industry again though. As far as degrees go, people don't really seem to care what field you have it in.

1) Generally you will need a degree, not so much for getting a job, but for getting a Work Permit to allow you to legally work in Japan. If you are caught working without a work permit, expect it to get VERY VERY messy (imagine bars of soap, a very big Japanese guy named Daisuke, and sadistic wardens . . . .kinda messy). As you would expect, those people with degrees tend to sit on the 'top of the pile' when they are working through appplications. 2) If you're lucky enough to be employed by a Board of Education, they often provide a subsidy for your accomodation. Board of Education jobs are generall only offered to ex-JETs, teachers and others with relevant qualifications. Most people arrange their own accomodation, which is an exremely expensive proposition, especially if you're only going to be here for a year or less. Homestays are unusual. 3) Not everyone holds a TESOL cert. If you have a degree, you can generally get along just fine without one. 4) You don't need to be super out-going, but it does help if you're working with young children. You DO need to have a lot of patience You DO need to adapt well to foreign cultures, languages and traditions. You DO need to have a good attitude to work. You DO need to have a good head on your shoulders. You DO need to be flexible and to be able to think on the move. IG

There was one in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture as well, but that shut down in January. IG

I can only reinterate what the others have just said. Just treat her as you would any other girl. Is it her first time to Aus? or outside of Japan? If so, she'll probably be a little uneasy about 'how things work' (with regard to local customs, habits . . . etc). It's worth bearing that in mind. She'll be looking to you for assistance and guidance. Relax, be yourself and enjoy the time that you have together. You're going to have a great time once you get over the initial case of nerves. IG

Naaaah! They'd janken to see who should ask. :jester: IG

No, Evo_lee, I'm not having a 'hate Japan' week. Nor am I generalising. I am reporting back on my first hand experiences with emergency situations in Japan. And I maintain that the ambulance services here are not what you'd expect from a 1st world country such as Japan. I was also expressing my opinion that most Japanese people are extremely reluctant to render assistance in emergency situations, and rarely have they been trained in First Aid. IG

Unfortunately, this isn't first time I have seen this kind of thing happen. And for the second time running I was apalled at the level of involvement of the people who were there, and secondly by the 3rd world treatment he got from the ambo guys. Just from the responses of the others on this board, I'm sure that this isn't just a once off. This may be a country prone to natural disasters, however, it also has shockingly low rates of people who are trained in First Aid. Or if they are trained, they're certainly VERY reluctant to put what they've learned into practice.

Hey All, I never want to have a road accident in Japan after last night My partner and I were driving home along a busy road at about just after 9pm last night. Passing an intersection, I saw a mangled scooter and a guy standing over the mess looking over it with a large van parked nearby. It was obvious that an accident had occured just seconds before. Mr partner turned our car around and we went back for a closer look and to see if we could help. When we got back, there were about 4-5 people standing around (including the other diver who was involded). They had put a blanket over the scooter rider to keep him warm and called an ambo, but that was about it. However, it was obvious that: 1) No one had first First Aid training, or if they did, they weren't using it. 2) No one had assessed the scooter rideres injuries, nor had they assessed whether there were any injuries/conditions that were immediately life threatening. 3) No one had taken control of the situation. 4) No one had done anything about the traffic that was roaring past at about 80km/h less than 2m from the accident scene and was showering the victim/us with debris and wreckage. 5) There was a 'committee meeting' taking place. In fact, when I did assess him, I found the the idiots that put the blanket over him completely failed to notice that he was choking on his twisted jacket . . . . (and he wasn't wearing a helmet when he had the accident either . . . . . so you can guess the type of rider I'm talking about). Then the ambo showed up. For those of you who don't know, ambulance services in Japan are little more than medical taxis, picking up broken bodies in one place and ferrying them to the hospital. There is extremely little in the way of treatment that goes on inside them. Not only did they NOT assess the patient, other than a "Hello can you hear me?". They didn't even lift the blanket off him to have a look at the rest of his body before deciding to move him. Even then, there was nothing in the way of restraining equipment (neck brace, back board) fitted prior to moving. Just 3 elderly ambulance men picked him up and put him on a gurney. So the lesson here is, don't have an accident in Japan, get first aid training, and encourage others to get first aid training. IG PS Does anyone know where I can buy an emergency road flare?

Definately not. They run on two system here in Japan. One is a GPS based system that superimposes your position and direction on maps stored on a DVD or HDD. The second system does the same, but uses terresterial positioning rather than GPS. Either way, you'll need to get a GPS based system WITH Australian maps in order for it to work. Since each navi system manufacturer has a different format for their maps, that's going to be extremely difficult. It'd be easier and cheaper just to buy an equivilent system in Australia. IG PS On a side note. The boss of a friend in NZ has a navi system in his car that was terresterial based in Japan. It now permenantly displays the last location signal it recieved . . . . . . . . . . . The car thinks it is about 100km out to sea from Tokyo.

You'll know what I look like if we ever meet. :wassup: IG

You'd write it in Katakana, the alphabet used for `loan words` in Japanese. IG PS Whats the Kanji for "Sold". I want to tatoo it on my forehead. :-P

How about: "Do you know how many doors I tried until I found the right one . . (mumble mumble). You can get your own bloody jacket next time Dad!"

Heh! A giant nappy. :-P

If JR ran Christmas... Your ornamental christmas tree lights would come on for a precisely a minute at 0428. 0519, 0642, 0812, 0916, 1031, 1111, 1210, 1325, 1410, 1556, 1617, 1704, 1836, 1910, 2034, 2145, 2243, 2318, 2356. When on, they would be accompanied by a cheaply synthesised version of Handel's Messiah. However, they would stubbornly refuse to operate at all between midnight and four in the morning. :-P IG

Agreed. When I go shopping here I generally have to go one ot two sizes up from what I normally buy. IG

Once again, Cheers Rezz. Hopefully the forums won't fall over this time. IG

Hey All, I posted this up before but it got lost when the forums were restored from the backups. This is my email sig that I've been working on for a couple of weeks. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the Tokyo Metropolitan Government ran Christmas... Standing and singing "Jingle Bells" would be compulsory for everyone. Anyone objecting to singing "Jingle Bells" would have their salary cut, receive an official reprimand, and would not get any presents. If Sony ran Christmas... Their Personal Xmas-ing Device, which would be barely larger than an address book, and would allow you to celebrate the season at a touch of a button, with a device attached conveniently to your belt. If K's Denki ran Christmas... The staff would sell you ornaments for the tree, but not know anything about them or what they were for. Or you could buy parts to build your own tree. If a Japanese construction company ran Christmas... Several pristine wetlands would be destroyed, and a 12 storey grey tiled Christmas tree would be constructed at taxpayers expense. Overruns would mean that the total cost would be twice the original estimate, but construction would continue as the local politicians were all getting kickbacks. When construction was finally completed, local residents would be unable to use the tree due to an architectual oversight, which led to the tree being built up-side-down. If a Japanese T-shirt manufacturer ran Christmas... Everyone would be forced to wear 'festive' t-shirts bearing slogans such as: * Let's Clitsmas. * Enjoy Pooh Cake and Present * Look What Santa Left in My Sock * Ahhh!, Smell My Nuts Roasting On the Fire. If Mitsubshi ran Christmas... It would be O.K. Because sleighs don't have wheels, gearboxes, brakes or use flammable liquids. If the Japanese music industry ran Christmas... All Christmas carol would be performed by group of attractive 12 year old female elves. They would wear short skirts, big boots, perform perfectly syncronised dances in time with the music and be heavily promoted throughout Japan. One of their most popular songs would be named "(random kanji characters) Christmas (random kanji characters) blue eyes (random kanji characters)big sausage". They'd remain popular for about a week, until the next troups of dancing elves released their song. If a Japanese bank ran Christmas... Santa's grotto would have a 'queue ticket' dispenser mounted outside. Children would be required to take a ticket and wait until their number was called. Each time a child sat on Santas knee and told him what they want for Christmas, it would incur a charge of 110 yen (unless they visited him in the weekend, and it would be 210 yen). The grotto would not be open normal store hours, but would be shut when it was most convenient for the children wishing to visit him. When it shut, a roller door would automatically roll down, trapping children inside. If NHK ran Christmas... You would need to pay a "Christmas Fee" several times a year for the privilegde of celebrating Christmas. Christmas inspectors would be sent to your apartment to collect payment. When you tell them that you don't celebrate Christmas, they would demand to know what the decorated tree is in the corner of the room. If the Right Wingers ran Christmas... Red and White speaker trucks would roam around town blaring out old Christmas Carols at full volume. People who didn`t celebrate Christmas would be blamed for all of society's ills. If the Pachinko industry ran Christmas... Christmas trees would be lit with huge garish neon lights and the Christmas Angel on top of the tree would be replaced with a giant rotating searchlight. People would give each other crates of ball bearings for Christmas. You would then need to redeem your ball bearings for a gift at a local store. If my Japanese landlord ran Christmas... I would need to pay six months Christmas tree tree deposit in advance, plus a pot deposit, plus a gratuity to him for allowing me to put up a Christmas tree. Being a fresh tree, it will invariably drop it's pine needles, and I would have to forefit the deposit due to `wear and tear` on the tree. If the National Police Agency ran Christmas... Santa's helpers would decide that an effective way of deciding whether a child had been good or bad, would be that all children with red hair must have been bad unless proved otherwise. They would then back up this argument with falsified statistics showing this alarming trend. Santa would then increase funding to the 'Good or Bad Department' to reward them for their stunning discovery. If the Sapporo Police ran Christmas: The elves would blow an entire years' toy construction budget on `entertainment`. The `entertainment` in question would usually consist of all expenses paid "no-pants shabu-shabu" parties for retiring elves in the red-light Snowskino entertainment district. If Santa ever found out, the elves would be required to repay the money, but no one would ever be held accountable for a few hundred million toyless children that year. If the Bosozoku ran Christmas... There wouldn't be one Santa but 12, mob riding erratically through the sky. Forget hay, moss and lichen, the Santa's would be forced to run the Reindeer on a diet of baked beans and curry (you work it out), and the gentle ringing of sleighbells would be replaced with a "Dukes of Hazard" horn set. Each Santa would be instructed to violate as many air safety laws as possible, while at the same time buzzing passing 747's. Children would wake up in the morning (if they'd ever slept through Santas's visit in the first place) to find soneone had pissed on the tree, left a 2x4 plank embedded in the side of the house, and signs that someone had been doing donuts on the roof while destroying the chimney. If the Japanese cellphone industry ran Christmas... Foreign christmas trees would not work in Japan. You would need to replace your foreign christmas tree with one that was designed for use ONLY in Japan. BUT Not only would it serve as decoration for your apartment, it would also be capable of cooking an entire 12 course Christmas dinner for 8, and doing the dishes afterwards. IG

I think we killed your website. All I'm getting is a note from the webmaster stating that your account has been suspended and that you need to contact them. IG