We don' need no ed-u-ca-tion..."
??.we don?t need no thought control, no dark sarcasm in the classroom ? teachers leave them kids alone?

Reluctant teachers: ?Why should English be studied?? Japan Times / Dec 09 )

Study showed early English education useless Kyodo News / Dec 09

Hmmm, let me see. Japanese can?t speak it. Japanese teachers can?t teach it. Students can?t learn it. So why bother?

What Japan is really like
Topic: Concrete Japan

Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan
by Alex Kerr

Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub (February 10, 2002) ISBN: 0809039435
"A woman named Kato Shidzue, writing on her hundredth birthday in The Japan Times, lamented: `There must be many foreigners who come to Japan full of dreams about the country`s scenery after having read Lafcadio Hearn only to be surprised and upset at the sight of the Japanese so heartlessly destroying their own beautiful and unparalleled cultural legacy.` Sadly Ms. Kato is wrong. One looks in vain in the foreign media for expressions of surprise or conern at what has happened to Kyoto. It would seem that Western visitors fail to distinguish-perhaps it is parts of their condescension toward Asia- between well-preserved tourist sites and a thoroughly unpleasant city-scape. The fact that Kyoto has nice gardens on its periphery is enough to make them overlook the unwelcoming mass of glass and concrete cubes in the rest of the city."

A natural killer Ts and an Okinawan sea sponge walk into a Japanese brewery....

Tell me if you heard this one:
A natural killer (NK) cell and an Okinawan sea sponge walk into a Japanese brewery....

Marine Sponge Leads Researchers To Immune System Regulator
University Of Chicago Medical Center
Date: 2004-12-07
A Japanese brewery, an Okinawan sea sponge, and some clever detective work have enabled an international research team based at the University of Chicago to solve a biological mystery, and the solution suggests a novel way to boost the body's defenses against cancer.
Discovered less than 10 years ago, natural killer (NK) T cells are unusual because they target lipids, often bound to carbohydrates, rather than proteins....

Japanese public broadcaster hires real ?Ghost? writers

NHK pays mysterious TV writers in kickback scam
Source: Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 6, 2004
Two people that a fraudulent former NHK producer had registered as TV program scenario writers may have got paid by the network for work they never carried out? [he] wrote scenarios of the program, either, and nobody who actually worked for the program knows him?.

NHK?s woes are neverending?and for good reason.
With the conversion to digital broadcasting NHK is now EXTORTING monthly fees for each household of 1,395 yen ($13) plus 2,340 for NHK
?BS? satelite without providing value for that money.
If NHK was a cable package maybe they could collect 500 yen (about $5.00 USD) per month for their 3.5 channels of programming.

Japanese vinegar
?su.no.mo? vinegar drink in a soda can (Read the article)