Insanely overpriced Japan

[Samurai_Jerk]

Ahh, yes, the same author who referred to "talent" Rola as a mongrel recently, and even went as far as to try to justify his decision in the comments section. JT is continuing its classy streak. Plus it is putting tracking data on the URLs I try to link. Altogether too creepy.

I dunno, that guy seems alright to me and with a Japanese wife, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by the mongrol comment. If anything, he was probably trying to present the Japanese view on her, not his own....

Nigger. It's OK. Some of my best friends are black and I fucked a black chick when I was in Brazil so I can't be racist.

[matsuki]

Ahh, yes, the same author who referred to "talent" Rola as a mongrel recently, and even went as far as to try to justify his decision in the comments section. JT is continuing its classy streak. Plus it is putting tracking data on the URLs I try to link. Altogether too creepy.

I dunno, that guy seems alright to me and with a Japanese wife, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by the mongrel comment. If anything, he was probably trying to present the Japanese view on her, not his own....

Nigger. It's OK. Some of my best friends are black and I fucked a black chick when I was in Brazil so I can't be racist.

LOL, so a wife and chick you fucked are the same? SJ, you're stretching it. Hell, by definition I am a mongrel...and I'm not offended nor do I think the guy is racist. I'm not saying I would have used that word to describe her or worded it the way he did BUT I don't think he used the word to dis Rora as much as he was trying to show how she's viewed here by We Japanese...pretty much the whole article is supportive of her and taking pity on her situation.

[Coligny]

(I bet the Mainichi Daily News regrets bowing to pressure to drop a notorious but heavily trafficked column a few years ago, what with the promotion it was getting in 2chan and everything.)

A column dearly missed... who came with a warning along the lines "The statements made in this article might not be based on any real actual event"

[Mike Oxlong]

(I bet the Mainichi Daily News regrets bowing to pressure to drop a notorious but heavily trafficked column a few years ago, what with the promotion it was getting in 2chan and everything.)

A column dearly missed... who came with a warning along the lines "The statements made in this article might not be based on any real actual event"

The stuff of legend. Such superlative skillz

[wagyl]

LOL, so a wife and chick you fucked are the same? SJ, you're stretching it. Hell, by definition I am a mongrel...and I'm not offended nor do I think the guy is racist. I'm not saying I would have used that word to describe her or worded it the way he did BUT I don't think he used the word to dis Rora as much as he was trying to show how she's viewed here by We Japanese...pretty much the whole article is supportive of her and taking pity on her situation.

I call myself a mongrel too, although I suspect there may be a few border collie-golden retriever crosses which raise their hackles at my appropriation of their identity. I'm not so happy if someone else chooses to call me a mongrel, except if they share my own culture where you call your best mate a fucking bastard.

The standard description of Rola including in Japanese language wikipedia is 混血. OK, Choko, lets do some fun role-play! You are on the train. There are two Japanese there, guys you have never met before, lets call them Tanaka and Suzuki. In the extremely unlikely event that they can see past your gaijin nature and identify you as 混血, Tanaka calls you a mongrel. Suzuki calls you a mixed-blood. Which guy do you go out drinking with? Which guy do you punch in the nose?

In my view, in trying to justify his word choice, the journalist has to justify why he rejected alternative expressions. You may have a different view. I think that you can probably see where I am coming from too.

[yanpa]

Ahh, yes, the same author who referred to "talent" Rola as a mongrel recently, and even went as far as to try to justify his decision in the comments section. JT is continuing its classy streak. Plus it is putting tracking data on the URLs I try to link. Altogether too creepy.

I dunno, that guy seems alright to me and with a Japanese wife, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by the mongrel comment. If anything, he was probably trying to present the Japanese view on her, not his own....

Nigger. It's OK. Some of my best friends are black and I fucked a black chick when I was in Brazil so I can't be racist.

LOL, so a wife and chick you fucked are the same? SJ, you're stretching it. Hell, by definition I am a mongrel...and I'm not offended nor do I think the guy is racist.

FWIW his wife is half-Japanese, half-Korean and "born out of wedlock", as they say.

I'm not saying I would have used that word to describe her or worded it the way he did BUT I don't think he used the word to dis Rora as much as he was trying to show how she's viewed here by We Japanese...pretty much the whole article is supportive of her and taking pity on her situation.

+1. I think the guy's OK, just made a bad judgement call on a word which is bound to raise hackles...

[matsuki]

LOL, so a wife and chick you fucked are the same? SJ, you're stretching it. Hell, by definition I am a mongrel...and I'm not offended nor do I think the guy is racist. I'm not saying I would have used that word to describe her or worded it the way he did BUT I don't think he used the word to dis Rora as much as he was trying to show how she's viewed here by We Japanese...pretty much the whole article is supportive of her and taking pity on her situation.

I call myself a mongrel too, although I suspect there may be a few border collie-golden retriever crosses which raise their hackles at my appropriation of their identity. I'm not so happy if someone else chooses to call me a mongrel, except if they share my own culture where you call your best mate a fucking bastard.

The standard description of Rola including in Japanese language wikipedia is 混血. OK, Choko, lets do some fun role-play! You are on the train. There are two Japanese there, guys you have never met before, lets call them Tanaka and Suzuki. In the extremely unlikely event that they can see past your gaijin nature and identify you as 混血, Tanaka calls you a mongrel. Suzuki calls you a mixed-blood. Which guy do you go out drinking with? Which guy do you punch in the nose?

In my view, in trying to justify his word choice, the journalist has to justify why he rejected alternative expressions. You may have a different view. I think that you can probably see where I am coming from too.

No no, I totally agree with you if he was using it in a derogatory way with malice like that....but I think he was using it sarcastically to show the "We Japanese" view of mixed "talent." Hell, just like I did there with quotes...cause talented is the exact opposite of what I think of them. He might have got his point across better with quotes or "so-called mongrels" but yeah, I don't think his intent was to dis her as much as show her position within Japan. His justification seems to have caused more headache and looks like JT disabled comments but without even personally knowing the guy, I don't think there was any malice intended. I've read nearly all his articles and blogs (great sources of info for FG) and nowhere have I ever seen anything even remotely racist against anyone.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Ahh, yes, the same author who referred to "talent" Rola as a mongrel recently, and even went as far as to try to justify his decision in the comments section. JT is continuing its classy streak. Plus it is putting tracking data on the URLs I try to link. Altogether too creepy.

I dunno, that guy seems alright to me and with a Japanese wife, I don't think he meant anything derogatory by the mongrel comment. If anything, he was probably trying to present the Japanese view on her, not his own....

Nigger. It's OK. Some of my best friends are black and I fucked a black chick when I was in Brazil so I can't be racist.

LOL, so a wife and chick you fucked are the same? SJ, you're stretching it. Hell, by definition I am a mongrel...and I'm not offended nor do I think the guy is racist. I'm not saying I would have used that word to describe her or worded it the way he did BUT I don't think he used the word to dis Rora as much as he was trying to show how she's viewed here by We Japanese...pretty much the whole article is supportive of her and taking pity on her situation.

No. I'm saying that who you associate with has nothing to do with whether or not you're racist. I know a French dude married to a Japanese lady who despises the Japanese and anyone who isn't white (white Muslims don't count). I agree with you about what his intent probably was. He didn't pull it off very well though.

[Kanchou]

I personally thought it was a pretty informative article...

I have heard that it's almost impossible to repurpose rice fields, and almost impossible for someone who doesn't already own farm land to buy farm land.

From a foreigner's perspective, the way houses are crowded together despite the fact that there is plenty of land seems strange... but I guess it's just one of those cultural things. Like how gun freedom makes no sense to the Japanese or Europeans despite it being a big issue in America. One country's common sense makes none in another.

That said, the proportion of farm land dedicated to rice farming compared to other products is clearly a big issue that needs addressing. The reason that rice is the only product Japan is self sufficient in (besides the 700% tariffs) is because the incredibly high rice prices versus the cost of growing rice (almost nothing) means no one bothers to grow anything else. It's just not profitable to grow vegetables, or wheat, or soy... clearly we need people to grow more of these, as well as raise more livestock.

[Coligny]

No. I'm saying that who you associate with has nothing to do with whether or not you're racist. I know a French dude married to a Japanese lady who despises the Japanese and anyone who isn't white(*) (white Muslims don't count). I agree with you about what his intent probably was. He didn't pull it off very well though.

Hubby... despising a society is not exactly racism...

Racism is declaring there are several 'races' in mankind and that some so called 'races' have superior or inferior biological characteristics creating a natural hierarchy among them.

Saying that the japanese is one of the most disfunctionnal and delusionnal nation on this planet is not racism... And I think that just looking at Fukushima provide a really strong backing to my statement.

In fact, most of the time I see that Japanese, working together are clueless/weird/inneffective to the point of being really dangerous. While for the french it's the opposite...
You got one French... you got troubles... reach a critical mass of 25-30 of as various political and cultural background as possible and you got a working team.

(*) not sure if kidding...

[wagyl]

You got one French... you got troubles... reach a critical mass of 25-30 of as various political and cultural background as possible and you got a working team.

So essentially the problem we face on this board is that we need another 24 to 29 Colignys.

It could work. They could keep each other occupied.

[Coligny]

(I bet the Mainichi Daily News regrets bowing to pressure to drop a notorious but heavily trafficked column a few years ago, what with the promotion it was getting in 2chan and everything.)

A column dearly missed... who came with a warning along the lines "The statements made in this article might not be based on any real actual event"

The stuff of legend. Such superlative skillz

I wish I kept PDF prints of these...

Same level as the French edition of weekly world news when they shortly went back into publication in the early 90'. They took the editorial decision to be political-satire-meets-batboy during the XFiles craze...

Every wednesday you could see headlines such as:

"The Alien from Rosswell has been expelled from France for entering with a fake passport" (at time where the head of the ministry of interior nearly granted free fire on anything darker than an Aryan.
or
"the two headed women and the man with 4 arms but no legs wedding has been nullified on ground of violating polygamy laws"

Some newspaper shop were keeping all the previous edition lined up in their display windows... It was impossible not to laugh... and if you happened to laugh at this while a police patrol was on the sidewalk (which was quite common because of the terrorist activity in Paris back in these days) you could be sure to be elected for a random identity check...

[Coligny]

You got one French... you got troubles... reach a critical mass of 25-30 of as various political and cultural background as possible and you got a working team.

So essentially the problem we face on this board is that we need another 24 to 29 Colignys.

It could work. They could keep each other occupied.

Fuck you, your favorit color and your favorit vegetable...

[Samurai_Jerk]

No. I'm saying that who you associate with has nothing to do with whether or not you're racist. I know a French dude married to a Japanese lady who despises the Japanese and anyone who isn't white(*) (white Muslims don't count). I agree with you about what his intent probably was. He didn't pull it off very well though.

Hubby... despising a society is not exactly racism...

Racism is declaring there are several 'races' in mankind and that some so called 'races' have superior or inferior biological characteristics creating a natural hierarchy among them.

Saying that the japanese is one of the most disfunctionnal and delusionnal nation on this planet is not racism... And I think that just looking at Fukushima provide a really strong backing to my statement.

In fact, most of the time I see that Japanese, working together are clueless/weird/inneffective to the point of being really dangerous. While for the french it's the opposite...
You got one French... you got troubles... reach a critical mass of 25-30 of as various political and cultural background as possible and you got a working team.

(*) not sure if kidding...

I love the fact that you assumed I was talking about you.

I wasn't, by the way.

[Coligny]

Wait, you're not always thinking aboot me ? keeping my pichsure in your wallet and stuff ?

Whut kind of husband are youze ?

Longterm-relationship-Barbie.jpg

[BigInJapan]

I have heard that it's almost impossible to repurpose rice fields, and almost impossible for someone who doesn't already own farm land to buy farm land.

It does take several years from initial application to get permission to rezone. I knew someone that rezoned a family rice field to build his own house.
IIRC, the main problem is that houses built next to rice fields have to be built far enough away from the edge of the land so that they cast minimal shadows on the adjacent land (so the rice/crops get sufficient sunlight).

[Cyka UchuuJin]

LA shitty?

Yes.

Yep, shipping within Japan for stuff like that can get crazy. Cyka probably knows better than any of us with the size of what she's bringing in.

Air to Japan is pretty crazy too though I can't say that's unique to Japan. I just brought in 4 30kg crankshafts in my checked luggage for $168...regular shipping of those from the US would have been a bit over $1000

The shipping from Europe to Japan is not any worse than to any other asian country, but as SJ says, port to town is another story. We are using a bonded warehouse, and the transfer of a 20 ft container from port Yokohama to the warehouse (also in Yokohama) is about 150.000 yen. Then whenever something needs to be cleared, even if it's just one chair, it's 19.000 in 'processing charges' and then another 5-10.000 to ship within the Tokyo area. And that's if it doesn't get pulled for inspection by customs, which we are currently getting raped on because we are a new registrated company. That's another 25000 on top of everything else.

Overall though, I think Japan is pretty damn cheap now for the most part. The St Regis Osaka is 28.000 a night (compared to 40.000 at Westi Tokyo, which I totally don't get), beauty stuff such as manicures and botox are way cheaper than the west, lunch for 4 people today was under 4000 yen (and it pretty decent lunch as well!). The metros and JR hasn't gotten more expensive. I think that if you want to go expensive, you certainly can! You can't really complain about Japan prices on things, at least I won't, since I live in a country that has 25% VAT on everything, including food!!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Wait, you're not always thinking aboot me ? keeping my pichsure in your wallet and stuff ?

Whut kind of husband are youze ?

He's MY husband. Back off, Froggie.

[Coligny]

Oh... So he didun't tell you yet...

You'z'll have to learn to share tovarich...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Oh... So he didun't tell you yet...

You'z'll have to learn to share tovarich...

Quit stalking me, fag. A one night stand does not a marriage make.

[Coligny]

Bu bu but... You promiseded meee you'd luv me furever and eber..

[Mock Cockpit]

I have heard that it's almost impossible to repurpose rice fields, and almost impossible for someone who doesn't already own farm land to buy farm land.

It does take several years from initial application to get permission to rezone. I knew someone that rezoned a family rice field to build his own house.
IIRC, the main problem is that houses built next to rice fields have to be built far enough away from the edge of the land so that they cast minimal shadows on the adjacent land (so the rice/crops get sufficient sunlight).

Maybe different agricultural land is zoned differently but the land my house is on was used for growing oranges. When we bought the land the farmer ripped up all his orange trees and pretty much straight away the builder started preparing the block. Seemed to me to be no red tape at all. Of course with rice fields you have to bring in hundreds of tons of dirt to build the block up to road level so maybe that makes a difference. The land on the west side of my block is a rice field and I can literally spit out my dining room window and land a big greenie on the rice.

[Coligny]

And you need this to control the mosquitoes population i suppose:

image.jpg

[Russell]

I personally thought it was a pretty informative article...

I have heard that it's almost impossible to repurpose rice fields, and almost impossible for someone who doesn't already own farm land to buy farm land.

In the official government-regulated foreclosure auctions for real estate and land, there is a separate section for agricultural use. If you do not have the proper agriculture license, you cannot buy estate from that section. And to have such a license, you should be in agriculture. So yeah, pretty closed system.

I once talked with the owner of a Minshuku in Nagano-ken, and he told me that repurposing agricultural land requires permission from the agricultural ministry. And for that you better have some connections in the ministry, otherwise it will take a long long time...

[Samurai_Jerk]

Looks like some people think Japan (or at least Tokyo) is a bargain.

When Julia Chang, a 48-year-old Taiwanese who divides her time between Taiwan and Tokyo, decided to diversify her family’s overseas investments, she settled on real estate in the Japanese capital where prices have slumped for two decades

[matsuki]

Looks like some people think Japan (or at least Tokyo) is a bargain.

When Julia Chang, a 48-year-old Taiwanese who divides her time between Taiwan and Tokyo, decided to diversify her family’s overseas investments, she settled on real estate in the Japanese capital where prices have slumped for two decades

I think their figures are kinda questionable but yeah, Tokyo is one of the few places I think you could still make a decent amount of money renting for the foreseeable future. (while the inaka continues to empty...despite the trend in other countries to spread out)