Is there really a hotel that serves tofu at a lake on top of Mt. Haruna?
Yes, there is at least one hotel up there, and pretty much every restaurant serves tofu so I would be more surprised if there weren't
Chicken or Sea Bass?
What gave you the idea to start buying things for anyone here that wants something from Japan or whatever?
Chicken, since I don't think I've had sea bass.
When I was first working out my finances for the trip over here, I realized I would need to find some way to send money back home to pay off student loans, credit cards, things like that. I figured bank remittances would be the most efficient way, but turning the training session for my job, I was talking to one of the supervisors and the subject came up. He told me that he would get money into his US bank accounts by buying Japanese stuff for his friends, them sending money to his Paypal account, and then sending the money from Paypal to the bank. I wasn't sure if I had the connections at first though, so I ended up using remittances for the first couple of months. That was a hassle though, since banks over here close before 4, and I don't get off work until then, so I figured I'd give it a shot and put up a notice on a forum I help moderate. I made my "quota" without too much trouble and decided to keep going.
You want this to be an arousing success? That's cool I guess.
From what I know, You live in japan. How do you like it there?
Do you have any goals you want to accomplish, no matter how small they are?
What makes you more awesome then me huh ;_;
And finally (for now), How much do you get around on the interwebs?
Learn to read.
I like it well enough. Maybe it's just because it's still "new and unusual" to me, but there's something about it that I really enjoy. I like the close proximity of everything and the general aesthetic, and the negatives are bearable.
My current goal is to become a professional Japanese-to-English translator, ideally in the video game or maybe comic fields. Whether I live in Japan or America for that isn't too important, just wherever the work happens to be.
I am only awesome because I put my mind into what I want to do. Fortunately, this coincides with my career goals just enough for me to get ahead.
Well, I post on a few different forums, but mostly here, Bemanistyle, and Something Awful. They take up pretty much all of my "internet time," so I'm wary of joining anywhere else.
あなたは注文書について何％くらいが「なぜこれを注文するの」と言いたいですか
ほとんどゼロです。商売人だからそんなものはいらない。
What are you doing now-abouts in Japan? Any amusing anecdotes?
Does hiking Mt. Fuji interest you?
Nothing much outside of my job, doujinshi stuff and arcade visits. I'd like to interact more with other people in the Touhou doujinshi field, but most of them are in Tokyo, and it's hard to make schedules coincide with each other. Festival season is coming up though, so I'm kind of looking forward to that, especially because the one in my city is literally called "The Belly-button Festival." Because Shibukawa is the geographic center of Japan, of course.
Not particularly. If I lived closer to it, I would consider doing that, but I don't really have much time nor money to do something like that.
What's the best thing about Japan?
Ever seen ZUN in a bar?
If you were given the chance to move to any place in the world, would you take it? Where would you go?
Like I mentioned before, it's probably the close proximity of everything, even in the countryside. I can get to pretty much everywhere I need to within 30 minutes by bike, train or bus, and even Tokyo is close enough for day trips.
No, but I met him at the last Reitaisai.
Assuming I would have a job or some way to sustain myself, I would probably like to move to Tokyo itself, or at least the surrounding cities in Saitama or Chiba. Somewhere in Italy or Spain might be nice, too, but I would rather go there on a vacation or something.
What made you decide to start buying and shipping goods to all of us outside Japan? It must take an awful amount of time to do so...
Already answered that, but I'll go a little more in-depth. After a few months of buying stuff and easily reaching my quota, I decided it would be kind of weird to suddenly stop buying stuff for people temporarily just because I sent home all the money I needed to for the month. It does take a while, but it does help keep me occupied without being too much in the way of what else I might want to do. It also helps me go places I wouldn't normally go. I also disagree with the practices of import stores who sell things at a ridiculous mark-up. I know they're a business and have to make money, and I know there are people who are crazy enough to buy at 200% mark-up, but that doesn't excuse anything.
Hows life.
Simple questions work, right?
I can't complain too much. I'm getting a little tired of my current job and I occasionally miss America (the food more than anything, though), but I'm getting by which is a lot better than what some people can say, so I consider myself fortunate.
History claims Dutch and Japanese people have a positive relationship. Do you see this in your everyday life or is there written/spoken 'truth'?
What is your opinion on people who think they can move to Japan and live a "new life". You know, because they think Japan is a 'better place'
What was your profession again? Afaik you were mentioning someone about being art-teacher?
Something you noticed the JP people envy from the Western?
Non-serious question: You seem to be a Iku fanboy. Explain this fever.
I really haven't seen too much of that, past their affinity for tulips, but that might be because Japan loves flowers in general.
I can kind of agree with the "new life" part, but "better place" is entirely objective. It has its faults just like any other place in the world, it's just these faults tend to be less obvious or people are less willing to confront them because GLORIOUS NIPPON.
I am an assistant English teacher at a middle and elementary school. This mostly means I am a living tape recorder, but even that much is incredibly valuable here, seeing as how even a lot of the Japanese English teachers aren't all that good with the language. However, I also plan activites, check assignments and be a general "cultural ambassador." Most of my dissatisfaction with my job comes from the fact that it can be hard for me to teach how I feel is better, because I have to follow the governmental guidelines, if not the teacher's own curriculum. For example, I technically have "free reign" over the elementary school lessons, but because of regulations, I can't really "teach" them anything that involves writing more than a few words, and grammar is practically impossible just because I don't get enough lessons with them. It's pretty much the alphabet, numbers, some vocabulary and super-simple conversations.
I don't think Japan really envies anything, because they seem to pride themselves on being unique in nearly every respect. The only things they might envy are less societal and more material, and those can just be imported. Those who truly envy other countries tend to emmigrate.
I like her character design, and I have a soft spot for "that" pose, although I'm not sure if that was before or after I played SWR. I like Mr. Big from the SNK fighting games for similiar reasons.
From your position as an ALT (and unofficial textbook writer) what would you say about the Japanese education system? What you think should change/improve/remain the same?
Speaking of which, have you ever gaijin smashed your way through something?
Kind of talked about it before, but my biggest issue is that they don't start teaching things seriously enough in elementary school but they are too serious past that. Not just English, but pretty much every subject. Also I don't agree that the burden of moral education should be on the school system. That's the parents' job, but it seems a lot of parents are relatively detached from their kids past making sure they study hard and giving them a place to live. Then there's the entire collegiate system. Students spend 6 or more years studying to pass tests to get into colleges where they learn squat and get hired solely based on their alma mater. And of course, not all that many students are able to get that far, because a lot of these tests require going to cram schools which just add to the already high academic fees, and financial aid is far less common here. There needs to be more flexibility in general, because right now, the vast majority of students come out of the system only knowing how to pass tests, which will not get Japanese society anywhere on a global scale.
And I haven't as far as I know. I try not to be the obnoxious foreigner stereotype that's moderately common here, and since I know a fair amount of Japanese, I don't even have ignorance as an honest excuse.
How did you end up in Japan
Any plans for the future?
How do you make it so that your shipments always arrive flawlessly?
I found a guy posting on a forum I go to about how his company hires people will 4-year college degrees to work in Japan as teachers. I've been thinking about doing that during my last two years in college, so I took him up on the offer.
Nothing for the moment, beyond becoming a translator. I might continue to dabble in education, at least though my doujinshi.
The postal service does all the hard work; I just have to make sure they're packaged correctly.
how do you deal with air raid with a method that doesn't simply involve "push butan"?
The only Air Raids I deal with are From Tha Undaground but those are dealt exclusively by pushing butans so I don't know how else to answer that.
Do you collect any merchandise yourself? Anything non-Touhou?
I do, but in moderation, partly due to a lack of space and partly because I can't justify owning tons of figures and stuff. I have the Toranoana Aya figure, the bkub Chen figure, a black-and-hot-pink (bonus) Sakuya from one of the lucky draw figure sets and the Reisen and Tewi figures that came with the Inaba comics, but that's about it as far as Touhou goes. I also have a Kyon figma which I bought way back when I first moved here, a Yotsuba and the Amazon.co.jp version of Cardbo Revoltechs, some other small figures from comic series I've bought and the special Lucky Star Nendroid Petits they gave out at New Year's at the Washinomiya Shrine in 2009. Oh yeah, and a big Shiroro from Pop'n Music plush. Nothing more than 3000 yen. I'm kind of tempted to buy the Daioki Cirno every time I see it though...
I suppose my question would be how tricky is it to get a job over there? I heard conflicting things about preference towards Japanese, and I've seen a few places before that were posted as Japanese-only. Trying to get an idea more from someone who lives there vs being there in the Navy. Two different things those are.
It depends on what kind of job you want. If you're going to be an English teacher like me, there are almost always spots open, but especially after that earthquake/nuclear scare. You might not necessarily be placed in Kanto, but you'll be in Japan. For pretty much everything else though, you need either a really special skill set like programming or engineering or fluent Japanese. For the first case, your best bet would be to start out with a domestic company and then get transferred to Japan. If you want to work for a Japanese company in Japan, fluent Japanese is a must, because a lot of companies have the mindset that they would rather deal with someone with no communication problems, even if they aren't as good at the actual task they were hired for. Being in Japan is also a must, in many cases.
How did you get into Touhou?
How did you find MotK?
What is your favorite beverage?
I saw a Marisa Stole The Precious Thing parody using Taniguchi from the Haruhi series and loved it. Looking around for the original led me to Cirno's Perfect Math Class and that was kind of it. I was already in Japan at the time, so while walking around Akiba with a friend, I asked him which game with Cirno in it should I buy. He told me PCB, despite her mid-boss status. It was probably for the best though.
I don't remember exactly, It might have been though the Touhou imageboard, the old wiki or Walfas.
Root beer, which is unfortuately rare here.
