carp_boya comments

a driver in her 90s

This “acceleration pedal misapplication prevention system” might work - I stress “might” - but why are people in their 90s driving cars? It’s absolutely terrifying that my kids and their friends walk to and from school every day on streets where any elderly person might accidentally slam the accelerator and plow into people.

Official 'schools' are nothing more than strictly controlled indoctrination centers. YouTube, AI, and anime will teach you to speak just as good without all the other BS ... like 'garbage' rules. FFS

After 20 years in Japan with only self-study the only way I learned, I finally signed up for my first ever Japanese lessons last year at an official “school”, and it’s been nothing short for brilliant. The teachers at the school are all really good at what they do, very professional, and I’m seeing results.

If anyone is not satisfied with their free volunteer lessons, they can either pay for lessons, or go the self-study route.

2- Surround yourself with non alcoholics.

I’ve gradually cut back on alcohol consumption the to point where I never drink at home. But all of my friends and coworkers drink, so it’s hard to avoid it. Even when I go to events for my kids, their friends’ parents all drink so I feel I need to as well.

PM said during a meeting that rice prices should be in the 3,000’s yen range per 5kg! That’s simply unbelievable that the LDP lawmakers think that the price range in the 3,000’s range is making things better! Simply shameful! 5kg rice should be priced less than 2,000¥!

A few years ago, I was buying 10kg for ¥3,300 at Gyomu. Now 5kg costs a lot more than that, and you can’t even buy 10kg of rice.

@Roger Gusain

Movies were so much better in the 80s.

They really were, along with 90s films, better than movies today.

Back to the Future is my all-time favourite movie. I’ve seen it more than any other movie.

I really liked Val Kilmer back in my teenage years in the 90s. I really liked him as Jim Morrison in The Doors. But my favourite was The Saint. It didn’t have the best reviews, but I really liked that movie. I even had it on VHS.

May he rest in peace.

SoD Hegseth is Ivy League educated

Doesn’t say much about Ivy League universities.

It was such an unseasonably warm day for the marathon. It must’ve been tough for all the Japan-based runners who were training through the winter to suddenly have to run the big one on such a warm day.

I’m going to miss Skype. It didn’t exist when I first arrived in Japan. I can remember my roommate setting up a webcam on his PC to use the app back in 2004. I’ve been using it for video calls with my parents for years. I like that free tier had no time restrictions, unlike Google Meets or Zoom. Time to look for an alternative…

Correct decision. It will be a good day - and at least a tiny bit of justice served - when this mass-murdering animal has a rope put around his neck. I hope he is terrified, every minute, until that day, and constantly haunted by those six innocent souls he despicably snuffed out. 

Rest in Peace to the innocent woman and her five little kids.

@Fighto I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

Wake up at 5:30, get ready for work, get your kids ready for school, the go to work. Finish work at 6pm, pick up the kids, get them home a little before 7. Prepare dinner, get the kids ready for bed, put the kids to bed around 9:00, fall asleep with them. Wake up at 10pm, clean up the kitchen, fold laundry, get the kids’ school bags packed for the next day. It’s now 11pm. Only 6.5 hours for sleep.

As a parent of just two kids, it’s hard to find the time or energy for sex. And after doing this for so many years, couples probably just grow apart physically even if they remain committed emotionally.

No suspended sentences, please!!!

@DanteKH

It's not only cabbage, but the rest of vegetables and fruits too. The prices are 3x, 4x times compared to 3,4 years ago, it's ridiculous.

Fruit has become a luxury. Three years ago you could get a bag of six fairly large apples for around ¥500 at some green grocers and cheap supermarkets. Nowadays the cheapest ones I see are little ones for ¥200 each.

Brand new spade with no dirt on it. Brand new boots all round. Only he has dirt on his gloves.

Here, have a spade and hold the takenoko we dug up earlier for the photo.

@InspectorGadget you beat me to that comment. Apart from the emperor’s left index finger, there’s not a speck of dirt on either of them, or the shovel.

Baseball is a team sport,

Exactly! And even though the Dodgers were loaded with stars last season, they’re becoming more well-rounded this season by adding so much pitching depth. It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out this season in the NL West.

With the incomparable Ohtani, Yamamoto and now Sasaki, the Dodgers will be very, very hard to stop 

Add to that trio two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, who will be back from injury, and you’re potentially looking at one of the best rotations in recent history.

Whenever we go out for ramen, we usually only pay around ¥3,500 to ¥4,000 for a family of four, including an order of gyoza. And we all leave feeling full.

By contrast, we went out for sushi today and paid ¥5,300 and I left the place still feeling hungry.

Ramen is still good value for money even if it’s no longer ¥600 for a bowl. I think the reason places are going out of business is most likely the fact that there is so much competition. Also if the cost of ingredients increases but people don’t want to pay ¥900, it’s going to be hard to make a profit.

Insulation is not only effective for trapping in heat in the winter, but also the cool air-conditioning in summer. It’s so much more energy efficient.

I really can’t get over the lack of insulation in homes in Japan. I thought it was only an issue in older apartments. But I bought a newly-built home in 2020 and it’s the same. I work from home. My work space is a 6-jo sized room. I have the heat pump on and the door shut, I wear a heat tech base layer, a sweatshirt, a vest, and wrap myself in a blanket. That keeps me warm, but it shouldn’t be required.

Last time I visited Canada, I was comfortable wearing a t-shirt indoors.

Why is he coming home at 11pm on a Sunday?

It’s winter holidays. Maybe he was watching up with friends. Or maybe he works on weekends and/or evenings. For a father to come home late is not unusual on any day of the week.

@Jay

it’s a universal gesture of respect.

But it’s not universal. There are cultures, like Japan, where shaking hands isn’t customary. Perhaps you feel that your culture does things correctly and other cultures are wrong?

A firm handshake and direct eye contact are symbols of mutual respect and confidence. 

Bowing, on the other hand, feels like a competitive yoga class.

I prefer bowing, or even a slight nod of the head. It’s better than shaking hands with someone when you don’t know what they’ve been doing with that hand.

So Sato ‘s deal pays 51 million per year yet Ohtani’s pays 70 million per ( yes I know most of its deferred) the math still doesn’t say it’s better

The math is a little more complicated than that. There’s this thing called the “time value of money”. That means that money now is more valuable than money received in the future. For example, if you have $100 today that’s worth more than $100 one year from now because you can invest that $100 today and earn interest and it might be worth $103 one year from now.

Ohtani will receive $2 million per year for 10 years, then $68 million per year for 10 years starting in 2034. Using a 3% discount rate, the value of that deal at the time he signed it was $448 million.

Soto’s initial deal of $765 million over 15 years, plus the $75 million dollar signing bonus he received, is worth $683 million today. 

This doesn’t take into account the extra $4 million per year the Mets will have to pay Soto for the final 10 years if they choose to void his opt-out clause after the 2029 season.

I think Ohtani would get $800 million over 10 years if he were a free agent today.

Do the math and Ohtani’s deal is far superior per year

Most of Ohtani’s salary is deferred, so when you actually do the math and discount that back to today, Soto deal is worth more.

In addition to the $75 million signing bonus Soto received, he’s going to be paid roughly $5,900 per hour, every hour, for the next 15 years. It’s an extraordinary amount of money.

> Jayszee Today  09:22 pm JST

I don’t understand why Singapore or Neatherland ranked higher than the Philippines. Strange…

I’ve never met a Dutch person who wasn’t fluent in English. In fact, most of the Dutch I’ve met could pass for native English speakers.

The only countries in East or Southeast Asia that scored lower than Japan were Myanmar at 93, Thailand at 106, and Cambodia at 111 (all Very low proficiency).

I’m very surprised to hear about Thailand’s ranking. I’ve been there a few times and also found people communicated so well in English. Maybe they just don’t know some of more precise grammatical rules and advanced vocabulary.

piskianToday  05:39 pm JST

Kocho just paying lip service,par for the course.

Why bother at all? Totally disrespectful.

How sad.

It was the 20th anniversary of her murder and there was a memorial service held at the school she attended at the time of her death. Who else from the school is going to speak? He was a teacher at that time, and is the current principal.

A story about people grieving the death of a child, and this is the comment you choose to leave?

I regularly go to Yokohama FC games and saw Kazu play several times when he was still with the club. It was hard to watch at times. He was so slow, couldn’t jump, turned like a yacht. Yet the fans were always so excited to see him come off the bench. I always wondered what the players ahead of whom Kazu was picked felt about him being wheeled out for these little cameos.

@JeffLee

Imagine walking on perfectly safe sidewalk and then suddenly getting runover and killed by an errant car? Can happen to anyone.

This is so true and something I think about when I’m out with my kids.

@Mocheake

If you watch the live broadcast but listen to the English on the sub channel, the NHK camera is focused on one person. You'll see Ohtani sitting in the dugout, running on the field, etc - all over the telecast while the MLB broadcasters are analyzing plays.

It was the same 20 years ago when Ichiro was with Mariners and Hideki Matsui was with the Yankees. The NHK video feed would be locked on the Japanese player while the English commentary was doing analysis of something completely unrelated.

Nowadays I watch games on the MLB TV app, so it’s not a issue.

RIP to another iconic musician. The past few years we’ve had to say goodbye to many rock legends of the 60s and 70s, and it’s only going to continue in the next few years as they get deeper into their 80s.

Gonna listen to some live Dead today.