you are correct. that’s why i was trying to hurry and get done talking. however most of the guys there are apssed out drunk so it won’t matter to much as long as you try to be quiet…..

Since there is very little privacy in each indivdual capsule, I assume that it is not allowed to talk or receive calls on your cell phone?

Scott is on a mailing list for all things Japanese related, and he forwarded me this via email…..

“For some reason, living in Japan robs a person of the ability to open the hood

of their car. When I lived in the U.S., I was quite comfortable giving my car a

tune-up, changing spark plugs and so on, but since coming to Japan I find I

haven’t touched my car’s engine in over a decade. My wife is indicative of most

Japanese on the subject of auto maintenance — she recently said to me, “I

opened my hood once, but I didn’t know which one was the engine.” This is

partially due to excellent Japanese service — a helpful uniformed employee will

cheerfully check your oil and air when you buy a tank of gas — but another

reason is “sha-ken,” a government-mandated automobile maintenance check-up you

have to get every two years. Since sha-ken is expensive, costing $800 or more,

which includes various road taxes, foreigners generally hate it, but the upside

is that cars are safer and you get your regular maintenance done for you as part

of the deal. The sha-ken check-ups have a somewhat cynical purpose too: since

new cars get three years without having to get the check-up, it provides a

useful excuse for Japanese to buy a new car sooner than they otherwise would,

and no doubt contributes millions to car manufacturers’ bottom lines.

Motorcycles also have sha-ken, although those with 250 cc and smaller engines

don’t, which creates more demand for small-engine motorcycles than would exist

in other countries. ”

Thanks for the Email Scott!!!!

I can get a military discount…. but the student discount is a bit better. I take various online courses with normal colleges, so I’m always eligible for the student discount. That, and I have a couple apple employees that have offered me their employee discounts if I need them……

I need cash fist damnit! :p

Rob

And dave, thank you for the links. I’m glad you had the time to listen enough to my show to WIKI for corrections. I heard that he was the first by another person and noone by any means official. you have now corrected me. thanks for the links.

And as for your request. NO, I will not be providing you with any information of the sort. There is no reason for me to help anyone investigate those type of matters. You found the WIKI for Japanese Apologies, so I assume you should do just fine researching this on your own.

Sorry folks, but any more requests that stray away like this one will just be deleted before I get to approve them.

You say in the podcast that Koizumi recently made the first apology since the war about Japans wartime actions. This page shows there have been a few more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

On a related note, this article is interesting:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article313782.ece

I would like to know about far right anti-foriegner groups in Japan.

I just wanted to make a comment regarding what you said about the state of Christmas in Japan. If I had walked past a radio playing your show and didn’t hear that you were talking about Japan as you made that criticism, I would have assumed you were talking about the US. I would say that the state of Christmas in the States is very similar, where it has become about giving presents, seeing family, holiday decorating, and food. Everything else is secondary. It seems to me that there might be more widespread knowledge of the origin of Christmas because the US is 90% Christian, and so there might be more people who therefore pay *lip service* to the idea of it being about Jesus. But in all honesty, when Christmas season is coming around, you hear people talking about when they can make it to the store, or the house down the street with light-up reindeer on the roof, or which family members are getting together where this year, and very little about a deepening religious experience (if at all).

Not to say there aren’t exceptions… but I just don’t see the Japanese treatment of Christmas (from your description) to be particularly Japan-specific. It is just even *less* directly connected to the religious aspect than the US because they aren’t 90% (or whatever high percentage) Christian, they are 1% Christian.

Just giving them a bit of defense, hope you don’t mind. I enjoy your show, I feel like I’m learning a lot about Japan that you don’t really get from a texbook.

thanks for listening, but unfortunately, i will have to say i disagree. the taxes do not go up for each year that you own a car.

vehicle tax here in japan is dependant on the size of your engine. say for instance, i own a #300 license plate (some will understand what i mean), I will have to pay 17,500 yen each year in taxes. however, if i own a #500 plate, my tax is roughly 8,000 yen a year.

the disposability of vehicles here is strictly a cultural difference, and has nothing to do with an increase in taxes or vehicle insurance. and, well, it’s also dependant on whether the family can buy a new car as well

Am listening to your Apple Store/Capsule Hotel Podcast now. I lived in Japan from 1999 to 2001.

One note about used cars. My understanding of the situation is each year you own a car in Japan, the taxes actually increase. The reason Japanese don’t keep cars for a long time is they cannot afford to. I’ve been told that by the time a car is (3) years old, the taxes are more than if you bought a new car.

Just started listening to your show - sounds great! I look forward to listening to your earlier podcasts as well as new stuff in the future.

Keep up the good work!

and erikson, there is no place that is any better than the next. just make sure you’re staying with family and friends who you enjoy being around. i know that’s not the answer you wanted, but i can’t think of anything off the top of my head. let me try to get back to you on that one. sorry….

thanks a lot and keep up the great work!

-erikson-

ganbatte!

simon, i think you’re my second apple employee listener! w00t! in exchange for a plug on the show every week for apple (or for you if you go off commission), how about a 20inch iMac? huh? maybe? no?

and yes LVS, i would love to have a sponsorship with asahi, but paid with product not yen….. well, that is alot of beer, maybe yen would be a little easier to use. i can’t go to the store and pay in beer…..

and brian, thank you for mentioning that! i emailed the itms people last night about that. as soon as i posted i checked to see if it pinged my feed on the directory and i wasn’t there. it happens for about 2 hours every day. i have no clue why but it’s every day for a couple hours. hopefully they will get back to me with a reason instead of a generated repsponse telling me to check my feed…..

In Osaka I had the experience of someone returning 600 yean that fell out of my pocket–but also saw the club’s maitre do was missing a finger and at one point got seriously beat up by his bosses. So, I did see the not so lovely underside of the Japanese society.