Bogus Burusera ( Japanese schoolgirl uniforms)
More trendy uniforms for Japanese schoolgirls attract unwanted ...
6 Oct -- Channel NewsAsia's Japan Bureau Chief Michiyo Ishida. TOKYO : ....All they want is to enjoy making a fashion statement with their school uniform..."There are some public schools in Tokyo where you can dress in your own clothes, yet the girls choose to go to school in a uniform. They're called 'make-believe uniforms'."
Nobuyuki says there are even grown up women, who try to look young by wearing such uniforms.

Tokyo's a tight town sometimes
Now Playing: Captain Chaos in your trousers...

Seperated at birth?

Rodney Dangerfield is not dead! He's living now as General Tommy Franks and still doesn't get respect.

Zombie Models for the Japanese Zombie Market

Yamamoto Uses Zombies for Paris Fashion Show

AFP/Getty Images - 04 October 2004 - PARIS, FRANCE: A native Japanese zombie presents a creation by Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto during the Spring-Summer 2005 Ready to Wear collections presentations in Paris.

The undead are perfect for catwalk modelling - they don't smile, they don't eat, and they rarely have "wardrobe malfunctions", although they sometimes have "limb malfunctions". Actuually killed in a car crash 3 weeks ago, one Japanese model, apart from the gear stick stuck in her butt, is now perfect for hanging clothes on.

Distress call from Princess Leia in Makuhari, Tokyo
AP News / Tue Oct 5, 9:10 AM ET Visitors watch a woman projected on a three-dimensional display at the CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) Japan 2004 in Makuhari, east of Tokyo... The cylindrical display... shows a solid image on a rotating screen by projecting composed multiple images reflected by 24 mirrors set around the screen.

Gimboids, Goits & Smegheads vs NHK boneheads
the co-creator responsible for the cult-hit BBC TV series Red Dwarf, Doug Naylor. ....
...By the way, when the series was sold to Japan they were particularly worried about Red Dwarf because they thought it was (chuckles) 'anti-small-peopleist' ... but of course it isn't, it has nothing to do with small people, meaning to 'embarrass small people' they thought it was about, but anyway ...dvdanswers.com / Oct 5, 2004

One terabyte VAIO type X "home server" records 6 TV channels in a week
AFP/Getty Images / 5 Oct 2004 12:00 AM... Sony unveils the new home server computer "VAIO type X", equipped with a 3.6GHz Intel's Pentium 4 processor on its CPU and 1 terabyte HDD, enabling it to record six TV channels in a week with MPEG2 compression at the Ceatec Japan, Asia's largest electronics trade show at Makuhari..

Japan's PM Koizumi prefers to be Bush's lapdog

Japan PM Prefers Bush, Could Cope with Kerry

Mon Oct 4, 2004 09:30 PM ET / TOKYO (Reuters)- - If Junichiro Koizumi could vote in the November U.S. presidential election, the Japanese prime minister would almost certainly cast his ballot for his diplomatic soul mate, President Bush....

The end of Japan Inc's hollowing out?

So Much For Hollowing Out

--Japan's giants are investing in plants at home again. Why the switch?--
BusinessWeek magazine / OCTOBER 11, 2004 edition
Lying 800 kilometers south of Tokyo on the island of Kyushu, Oita prefecture is hardly the kind of place you would expect to find the trendsetting titans of Japan Inc. Until recently the biggest contributors to the economy in bucolic Oita were the hot spring resorts in the coastal town of Beppu.
But this year, Oita is flourishing as Japan's corporate giants invest billions in new manufacturing plants. Canon Inc. (CAJ ) is building a 29,000-square-meter digital camera facility near Beppu Bay. Down the road in Oaza Matsuoka , Toshiba Corp. (TOSBF ) in October plans to open a semiconductor plant that's part of a $1.8 billion, five-year investment in Oita. And auto producer Daihatsu Motor Co. is building a factory in nearby Nakatsu...

A Japanese rubber with an attitude: the VICON(tm) vibrating condom



Adult world abuzz over vibrating condom
By Ryann Connell - WaiWai - October 4, 2004
Since the development in 1909 of the Heart Beauty, Japan's first domestically produced condom, Japan has, according to the men's weekly, led the world in the development of rubbers.
And the Vicon, short for vibrator condom, the latest development the safe but saucy sex business has unsheathed, has proved to be a real humdinger...

Guy's like me Sit-n-Pee: It's Japanese!
More Japanese men prefer sitting whizzes
(Mainichi Shimbun, Oct. 4, 2004)
-- Almost one in every four Japanese men sits down on the toilet to urinate, according to a survey by Toto Corp., the country's biggest manufacturer of toilets. Toto's poll of 2,312 adult men from across Japan discovered that 23.7 percent sat down while having a pee....
...Toilet researcher Junichi Hirata blames the spread of Western-style toilets on the increasing prevalence for Japanese men to sit on the toilet even while only urinating...

The last American sumo Yokozuna grand champion
here's perhaps the last American Yokozuna (grand champion), Musashimaru, during his topknot cutting ceremony on October 2, 2004 in Tokyo....

Topic: adviceS

Q: What is the best way to come to Japan?

A; Joining a foreign software company and being sent to Japan on "The Package" for expats is the best. Why live in Japan as an "in-country hire" low-life like me when you can live the fatcat expat life?
Ahhh, the old pig-in-the-poke problem: No Japanese company wants to hire you sight unseen...but it's a pain in the ass to come to Japan without work (and often a visa).
"Ideally" if you want to come to Japan, you try to hire on at a non-Japanese company with a large Japanese division and then get transferred here to live as royalty. The greater the Japanese presence the non-Japanese company has, the more chances you have to transfer here on the all-important Package. Occasionally a smaller company like RAMRON (Colo. Springs) with have a gaijin director position available but you would have to have inside connections to know that and generally the smaller the company the higher the level of Japanese is required.
The reason I am saying non-Japanese companies is that Japanese companies don't like to transfer folks from the Real World to Japan except for specific projects of less than 6 months. The game industry has the greatest amount of cross-border transfers most other industries use in-country hiring of very F'ed gaijin and "astronauts" who commute to Japan for a couple weeks or months at a time.
You might find a master's degree somewhat a hinderance in the Japanese corporate world since you will outrank most everyone. I have for sure. The pay diifference for a masters is only 12-20,000yen/month at Fujitsu for example. It's experience and SKILLZ that count .
However, bigger companies, in particular DoCoMo and Hitachi value Phds and advanced degrees. If and only if you remind me by PM, I just learned of one contract programming company that offers 1-year job contracts* in NTT Data, Renesas, et al which would be a great foot-in-the-door.
*(in-country hire, no visa provided)

Posted by trek/taro at 11:14 AM KDT
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Bambi in Japan followup
"Underwhelmed and Overrated" blog wrote in The Old Messengers Of The Gods:
At one time shika (deer) were among the most revered animals in Japan. they were considered as "messengers to the gods" under the Shinto religion. And as such, they were not allowed to be hunted or eaten. Even today, many of the larger Shinto shrines will keep deer. ....
...I got down to the river a little after them and put it together rather quickly. Someone had killed the deer (there were four carcasses tied down in the river), disemboweled them, spread the organs out amid the rocks along the stream and weighted the carcasses down in the water. But why?
...Although, when I asked the man about eating the deer, he recoiled in horror. Poison not withstanding, based on that man's reaction, as well as those of my friends, I'll assume that whale is good eatin', whereas, deer is right out. ...
....the Japan Times is holding another photo contest. I entered last year's but didn't get any traction with my photos. So instead of the beautiful countryside shots that I turned in then, maybe I'll put in something more edgy this time. Such as the shot below--I'll title it, water with dead shit in it. ....

Image taken from the Underwhelmed and Overrated...Indeed blog.

BAMBI ATTACKS TOKYO!

Deer in Okutama stripping mountains bare
Kyodo / Sept 29
OKUTAMA, Japan - - The number of deer is expected to reach some 3,000 by the end of March next year. The photo, supplied by the metropolitan government, shows two deer spotted in the mountains in the town of Okutama, western Tokyo.

Miss International Japan
Via GettyImages / TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 28: Miss Japan, Tamiko Kawahara attends a press preview of the 2004 Miss International Beauty Pageant... 61 beauties from the world participate will select the Miss International in Beijing on 16 October.

Kaiju Donald Duck speakers from Japan
Kubotek?s man-sized speakers


Via Engadget.com / Spt 27
...at Tokyo?s Hi-End Show, a showcase for preposterously expensive audio gear, were these speakers from Kubotek....a shape that suggests the result of a warped mind playing with a Donald Duck head, a jumbo pot of varnish and a mirror, they stand 174 cm tall, which is, well, bigger than the guy in the black t-shirt... a pair of them will set you back Y7.35 mn ($66,000)

Collect the $5,000 please leave Japan evil gaijin bonus!
Topic: adviceS
Check out the Gaijin "bonus" for leaving Japan!
About the J-Pension Refund...
There is a Y590,000 limit on the refund so if you have paid lot of money into the Japanese Pension system having the 11 years you paid into the J-Pension transferred into your UK-Pension program is a better deal (if the UK and Japan have that pension swap).
On the other hand, for folks who mostly worked "off the books" doing freelance work, hostessing and the like during their stay, the J-Pension Refund will be a good deal just as it is for 3-or-fewer-years gaijin. (The very name of the pension-refund scheme in Japanese refers to payments for "short-term" foreigners--the 90 percent who leave within three years.)
The Irish Net Nippon presents Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The
JAPANESE PENSION REFUND SYSTEM
Adapted from an article originally published in the Japan Times.
[[ a bit old, but still valid]] >Q. What if I have more questions?
A. In Japanese, call the government offices mentioned earlier where the pension payment application will be distibuted and ask to speak to someone who can tell you about pensions (nenkin). Specifically, ask about lump-sum withdrawal payments for foreigners (tanki zairyu gaikokujin ni taisuru dattai ichijikin.)
Also be aware of this possible refund...
I don't know if I would trust these folks with my money, but they do seem to have a "method" to get both the: "1. The pension refund itself (below) 2. The additional 20% tax refund."
[url=] Tax Representative Service Pension Refund[/url]
See the old threads
Pension & Health Insurance payments
piggybank

The true ribald art of Geisha (literally "art person")

Geisha: 100,000 yen minimum for a few hours of

Not that anybody pays for those old ladies: it's always OPM on an "entertainment" account. I used to feel it was such a waste to take a gaijin like me since the randy but sophistcated Japanese banter that is the true "art" of geisha.

Kimina, 23 [looks 46] BBC News photo journal: Geisha 27 Sept 2004
"When I said to my parents that I wanted to become a geiko they said 'What are you thinking?' They didn't want to send their daughter into a strange world. "

Big Scooters - - Big in Japan
Big scooters selling like hot cakes
Yomiuri Shimbun / Sept 27
Scooters with an engine displacement of more than 250cc have become increasingly popular recently. The machines, which do not have clutch levers, are easy to handle, and their relatively large underseat storage space...At a time when the number of people applying for motorcycle licenses is falling, the motorcycle industry has high hopes for large scooters. Manufacturers, who expect that more people will get motorcycle licenses if a license for automatic machines is introduced, are likely to further boost their production and introduce new models of large scooters.



Photo via masamania.com, which also used to run now-offline-and-seemingly-dead ninjashot.com. Also see Steve B's thread: MasaManiA with fucking photo & poor English in his own world