Aaaarg!! another WTF question

[umeboshidame]

Greetings....Hi all, new to this board, living in Japan, teaching English, etc...you know the story. Basically registered in order to vent my frustration onto sympathetic eyes:

So today I was quite nearly stranded, having to plunge the depths of my pockets for juu-en coins (forget ichi-ens, I can't think of anything more worthless) in order to pay for the train to get home....aside from my lack of foresite, and the fact that I probably shouldn't have ordered that last beer, this situation could have been avoided IF THE JAPANESE ATM SYSTEM WASN'T SO RETARDED!!! Why, oh why, must the ATM's always be closed when the bank is. Even worse, why the hell do they make it impossible to get cash ANYWHERE after your bank has closed?? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Nobody is manning an atm....it's just absurd. I've asked Japanese people, and the only reason they give me is 'safety'...further proving such retardation given that Japan is such a safe country to begin with. I'd like to believe that my bank is crap and that this situation doesn't happen with many people, but it just seems like the most inane thing ever that you can't withdraw cash from an automatic machine after everybody's gone home.

[Godon]

Haha I guess there is nobody to watch it. It seems rather pointless though.

[B MacD]

Greetings....Hi all, new to this board, living in Japan, teaching English, etc...you know the story. Basically registered in order to vent my frustration onto sympathetic eyes:

So today I was quite nearly stranded, having to plunge the depths of my pockets for juu-en coins (forget ichi-ens, I can't think of anything more worthless) in order to pay for the train to get home....aside from my lack of foresite, and the fact that I probably shouldn't have ordered that last beer, this situation could have been avoided IF THE JAPANESE ATM SYSTEM WASN'T SO RETARDED!!! Why, oh why, must the ATM's always be closed when the bank is. Even worse, why the hell do they make it impossible to get cash ANYWHERE after your bank has closed?? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Nobody is manning an atm....it's just absurd. I've asked Japanese people, and the only reason they give me is 'safety'...further proving such retardation given that Japan is such a safe country to begin with. I'd like to believe that my bank is crap and that this situation doesn't happen with many people, but it just seems like the most inane thing ever that you can't withdraw cash from an automatic machine after everybody's gone home.

Haha I used to wonder that too. Here's just 2 of the brillant explanations given to me (seriously) by my students..

1. If the ATM is working, then repair people must constantly be at work in case it breaks..on stand-by, if you will. It wouldn't be fair to keep people working 24 hours a day, so the ATM's close..Ummm..ok.

2. If you can take out money late at night, then drunk salarymen will withdraw all their money and waste it, and the economy will collapse.

It's kind of hard to know how to react when an (apparently) otherwise intelligent adult is telling you these things. I'd be curious to hear what others have been told.

B

[Godon]

Wow. I wouldn't have ever thought of that xD

[Mechs]

Haha I used to wonder that too. Here's just 2 of the brillant explanations given to me (seriously) by my students..

1. If the ATM is working, then repair people must constantly be at work in case it breaks..on stand-by, if you will. It wouldn't be fair to keep people working 24 hours a day, so the ATM's close..Ummm..ok.

2. If you can take out money late at night, then drunk salarymen will withdraw all their money and waste it, and the economy will collapse.

It's kind of hard to know how to react when an (apparently) otherwise intelligent adult is telling you these things. I'd be curious to hear what others have been told.

B

I really cant comprend these two statements at all.....not from a logical point of view anyway. You sure a adult told you this?

[PopCulturePooka]

I really cant comprend these two statements at all.....not from a logical point of view anyway. You sure a adult told you this?
You'd be surprised at the bold face idiocy some Japanese adults come up with.


This gem:
A student came to Nova a few days after her house had been broken into. Whoever it was apparantly knew exactly where she had hidden all her money. So she is telling me the story. She mentions she walked into her house, notice it was broken into. She ten said she could smell strong perfume, so obviously it was a foreigner who had broken in.

[B MacD]

I really cant comprend these two statements at all.....not from a logical point of view anyway. You sure a adult told you this?

Yes. One was by a university student during a lesson, the other by a middle-aged woman in Voice. (BTW I'm not saying I believe them, or they make sense!). The logic was completely lost on me too, but that's Japan for you..

B

[PopCulturePooka]

Oh.
I also had a student who didn't know what Paris was or where it is.

[B MacD]

You'd be surprised at the bold face idiocy some Japanese adults come up with.


This gem:
A student came to Nova a few days after her house had been broken into. Whoever it was apparantly knew exactly where she had hidden all her money. So she is telling me the story. She mentions she walked into her house, notice it was broken into. She ten said she could smell strong perfume, so obviously it was a foreigner who had broken in.

Hahaha obviously. What else would a logical person think? "Strong perfume=foreigner". Yup that one's airtight. :rolleyes:

BTW a few other words of wisdom I heard..

One student wanted her arms to get bigger, so she decided to start eating a bowl of ice cream every night before bed. I tried to explain that this will most likely only make her face and stomach fatter, since you can't "choose" where extra calories will distributed. I suggested arm exercises, plus some cardio to try and enhance muscle definition. Her reply? "No that's too tiring. I'll just eat ice cream."

On a related topic, another girl (why does it always seem to be women?) told me that because ice cream is cold, when we eat it our body has to work hard to keep warm. Therefore we use more energy and can lose weight..by eating ice cream.

Yet another woman told me that to be healthy, I should cook my vegetables as long as possible. This will "bring out the nutrients". Where were they before, hiding?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg..

B

[Kamakiri]

Haha - i really, really wish i could eat ice cream to lose weight! that'd be awesome! these ideas sound like the things american girls say to rationlize their eating habbits (ex, if i eat a piece of your food it has no calories because the calories were originally yours, not mine). only difference is, we all know it's a lie...it just makes us feel better. unfortunately, i wouldn't be too sure that japanese girls really know better.

i have to throw in my favorite words of wisdom (we should start a thread)..

i was telling my friend about Halloween last year, and since it isn't really practiced i could understand her not knowing much about it, but she said "oh yeah - Halloween is Jesus's birthday, right?!?" she thought she had it right, and i wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused, hehe. i feel bad because i love telling this story because she was a great friend, but hey - i'm just laughing with her...

[kyaa the catlord]

Zombie Jesus was born on Halloween.

Trust me.

[stsparky]

... I probably shouldn't have ordered that last beer, this situation could have been avoided IF THE JAPANESE ATM SYSTEM WASN'T SO RETARDED!!! ... I'd like to believe that my bank is crap and that this situation doesn't happen with many people, but it just seems like the most inane thing ever that you can't withdraw cash from an automatic machine after everybody's gone home.

I use the Post Office ATMs and take the $3 USD hit. You just got to plan.

[Life25Karma]

..Words Can Not Express My Sympathy. :(

[kitsunepixie]

Yet another woman told me that to be healthy, I should cook my vegetables as long as possible. This will "bring out the nutrients". Where were they before, hiding?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg..

B

Cooking vegetables may make them easier to digest and thus the nutrients easier for the body to absorb, but overcooking them can destroy the vitamins and minerals.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, raw potatoes are poisonous. ;) Try eating a slice of raw potato in front of a Japanese person to see what they do. :eek:

I had a very intelligent Japanese friend who asked me quite seriously once, "So, are unicorns real? They're extinct, right?" At no point in her life had anyone thought to tell her otherwise, and she was always too embarrassed to ask.

[Mechs]

Is it just me or is Common sense not a international concept? Or is it like different from place to place?

Oh and I was cracking up from that Ice cream one. I wish I could eat Ice cream all day and lose weight. I would never have to hit the gym again :D.

[B MacD]

Is it just me or is Common sense not a international concept? Or is it like different from place to place?

Oh and I was cracking up from that Ice cream one. I wish I could eat Ice cream all day and lose weight. I would never have to hit the gym again :D.

Seriously, how do you respond when someone tells you this stuff with a straight face? Especially when you're their "teacher"? I wanted to leap out of my seat and scream, "Are you out of your goddamn mind??!". They often tried to justify this nonsense by "Everyone knows it's true." Well, not me! Everyone "knew" the word was flat a few hundred years ago too.

Also, apparently if a person is choking, do they perform the Hemlich Manouver? Don't be daft. They get a vaccum, stick the hose down the person's throat, and turn it on. I had SEVERAL people in Voice tell me this one night, and I just about shit myself laughing. I pictured a doctor in the ER.."Nurse, he's crashing! Prep the Hoover!"

B

[Godon]

Haha, nice. I hope their vaccum's are not very powerful or that would cause more injury then the choking.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Hoo boy, yeah, the Japanese 'common' sense is anything but.

There are CONSTANTLY those medical programs on TV, that show these fat people, who pick the fad food of the week, get a nutritionist, and lose weight! Because of the fad food!

Of course, they did have the nutritionist and changed the rest of their diet. But the fad food was the cause of the weight loss! Honest!

Drives me crazy.

Or the thing where you can tell the health of a person by MEASURING THEIR ACHILLES TENDON! Who gives a shit? If you're going to the doctor to have the tendon measured, why not just get a checkup for crissakes? Healthcare in this country is socialized!

The amount of idiot comments like this on TV drive me nuts. My girlfriend's mother is CONVINCED that all dog owners in NYC put boots on their dogs during the winter so their feet don't get cold. That one drives me crazy. And their entire family thinks it's normal to wash the ass of your dog after he/she has gone out for a walk and relieved its insides of waste.

THEY'RE DOGS!

Okay. I feel better.

[Antinomia]

http://www.harmful.org/homedespot/newtdr/NEWtdrARCHIVE/6diary/sexbook2/index.html :rolleyes:

[Antinomia]

oh wait, there's more
http://www.harmful.org/homedespot/newtdr/NEWtdrARCHIVE/6diary/SEXBOOK/index.html

[CNagy]

The icecream thing is based partly on the truth. Having to bring the temperature of cold food or beverage up to your body temperature expends calories (a calorie is, after all, just the measure of energy required to raise the temperature of a small volume of water 1 degree celcius.) If icecream didn't have all that... fat, and calories, their approach would be golden. Golden marketing, that is, because the amounts expended are very small and they'd need to eat several gallons of magic icecream a day just to see an effect at the end of a couple of weeks or so.

[Antinomia]

ice cubes?

[Ziellos.ein]

The icecream thing is based partly on the truth. Having to bring the temperature of cold food or beverage up to your body temperature expends calories (a calorie is, after all, just the measure of energy required to raise the temperature of a small volume of water 1 degree celcius.) If icecream didn't have all that... fat, and calories, their approach would be golden. Golden marketing, that is, because the amounts expended are very small and they'd need to eat several gallons of magic icecream a day just to see an effect at the end of a couple of weeks or so.

but a food calorie is actualy a killo calorie(i think). you cant use that as a literal means of comparisom since one calorie in chemistry does not equal one in nutrition.

[B MacD]

The icecream thing is based partly on the truth. Having to bring the temperature of cold food or beverage up to your body temperature expends calories (a calorie is, after all, just the measure of energy required to raise the temperature of a small volume of water 1 degree celcius.) If icecream didn't have all that... fat, and calories, their approach would be golden. Golden marketing, that is, because the amounts expended are very small and they'd need to eat several gallons of magic icecream a day just to see an effect at the end of a couple of weeks or so.

Perhaps. But there are simply too many calories for this to be possible. For example, say a serving of ice cream has 250 calories. As you mentioned, the amounts expended are very small. Say you spend 4 calories to warm up your body, but are still left with the other 246! Your body will never spend more energy digesting the ice cream than is actually in the ice cream. If a person thinks they can lose more than 250 calories through simply digesting one meal/snack, they're insane. See how long you have to run on a treadmill to burn 250 calories.

You'd eat several gallons to raise the amount of energy your body spends warming up the food, and lose a handful of calories. Too bad you're stockpiling hundreds of additional calories in the process, which far outweighs the benefits of what you're trying to do.

Clever marketing, perhaps. But you really have to be lacking common sense to buy into this notion.

On the dog topic, my girlfriend and her family do the same thing, and it drives me nuts! They also insist on wiping it's feet everytime it comes inside, even if it's only been out for 2 seconds on the deck. Once I let the dog in without doing this, and my girlfriend freaked! "It's dirty!" ..yes, obviously. Completely filthy. What do you think happened for the 2 seconds it was outside? Its feet suddenly became covered with disease and bacteria? I once casually remarked that I had a dog for 12 years, and we never bothered wiping his ass or feet before he came in (unless he was covered in mud, or something). The look of horror on their faces was priceless.

B

[CNagy]

but a food calorie is actualy a killo calorie(i think). you cant use that as a literal means of comparisom since one calorie in chemistry does not equal one in nutrition.
Actually, yeah you can. 1000 calories equals a kilocalorie.

Snip
That's... the point I made. "Magic Icecream" would be the product engineered such that you have the icecream equivalent of celery; i.e. a food that takes more calories to process and digest than it actually supplies the body.

[Antinomia]

ice cubes.... i dont think frozen water can harm your weight.

[stillbornsinger]

(this has been brought up before but...)

Try talking to a Japanese girl about birth control =/

Also, the notion that Japanese bodies are so different from American bodies that they cannot take the same medications as us is simply crazy.

[Mechs]

:eek: They actually believe that?!?! They might not be able to take the same dosage maybe but not at all....but then again i'm no doctor, but I know all human beings work in almost the same ways.

[Samwise]

Greetings....Hi all, new to this board, living in Japan, teaching English, etc...you know the story. Basically registered in order to vent my frustration onto sympathetic eyes:

So today I was quite nearly stranded, having to plunge the depths of my pockets for juu-en coins (forget ichi-ens, I can't think of anything more worthless) in order to pay for the train to get home....aside from my lack of foresite, and the fact that I probably shouldn't have ordered that last beer, this situation could have been avoided IF THE JAPANESE ATM SYSTEM WASN'T SO RETARDED!!! Why, oh why, must the ATM's always be closed when the bank is. Even worse, why the hell do they make it impossible to get cash ANYWHERE after your bank has closed?? This makes absolutely no sense to me. Nobody is manning an atm....it's just absurd. I've asked Japanese people, and the only reason they give me is 'safety'...further proving such retardation given that Japan is such a safe country to begin with. I'd like to believe that my bank is crap and that this situation doesn't happen with many people, but it just seems like the most inane thing ever that you can't withdraw cash from an automatic machine after everybody's gone home.



To prevent Godzilla from stealing Grandmother's ATM card and spending it on used panties and Pocky.


Motherfucker LOVES Pocky.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Talking about men who won't wear condoms

Why won't men wear condoms? Schoolgirls have been coming into my clinic one after another seeking prescriptions for the morning-after pill.

When I ask them why they didn't use protection, I get answers like 'Well, my boyfriend usually uses it, but this time he forgot.' I always tell them this: 'Whether your partner chooses to use birth control is an indication of their sincerity. If a man refuses to use contraception, you can regard them as being insincere and lacking in affection. Guys don't get pregnant, so they don't worry about it. When the crunch comes, they run away.'

They reply by saying that they love their boyfriends and they don't want to annoy them by making them wear condoms. They really love these guys.

There are girls whose boyfriends won't pay for their abortions, so they use their own money to terminate unwanted pregnancies, but then stay with the same guy after that. Other girls won't dump a guy even if they know he's cheating on them. Some girls sell their bodies because their boyfriends have asked them to. And yet these girls still like these guys. They tell me, 'he's really kind. He takes me to work and picks me up when I've finished every day.' Is that really kind?

I go around schools carrying out sex education courses. At each place I visit, I tell the students my e-mail address and let them know they are welcome to contact me, anonymously if they like, and I will help them, free-of-charge.

It's a shock to see how many sad letters I get from these lonely girls. They don't feel happy at home, they're out of place at school and, though they may put on a happy face in front of their friends, below the surface they're hurting.

Typical among the girls contacting me are types who've always excelled at school, take part in a lot of extracurricular activities and taken on leadership roles amongst their friends.

They've been subjected to the heavy burden of expectation from a young age, have given life their all but then, when they take a close look at themselves, at times they feel that there is nobody else who really understands them.

When a guy comes along who says that he likes them, the lonely and susceptible girls are all too willing to believe him, as well as feel that they've finally found somebody who understands them. So, when one of these guys starts looking for sex, the girls are only too happy to please him. Of course, the guy is presented with a girl who will literally do anything for him, so as well as seeking sex, he'll also be overcome with desires physically, mentally (or perhaps just sexually) and have few qualms about doing it unprotected if they don't have a condom handy.

The Pill is probably the only form of contraception women can take care of entirely by themselves, particularly as far as teenage girls are concerned. I prescribe the Pill to many girls who visit my clinic.

I always instruct them not to tell their boyfriends that they are using the oral contraceptive. The reason I do so is that unless the boyfriend has done a lot of study or thought a lot about what he is doing, he will regard the girl taking the Pill as giving him free reign to have sex without using a cumbersome condom.

While the Pill may be close to 100 percent effective as a birth control device, it offers no protection against sexually transmitted diseases. With one in four Japanese currently affected by some sort of STD, condom use is absolutely vital. It's hard for many girls to tell their boyfriends to wear condoms. They're absolutely delighted to have sex without a sheath anywhere, anytime.

Guys come up with plenty of excuses not to wear condoms -- they're too big for regular sizes, they're allergic to condoms, whatever. Take a visit to a drug store and check out the condoms they have in stock. They have a wide range of sizes from SS for the most modestly endowed to LL sizes for foreign men (the dimensions of which probably comes as a surprise for many Japanese).

Condoms are not all made of latex, either, so it should be possible for any man to pick and choose a prophylactic to his liking. (By Dr. Shigehito Kamimura on behalf of Dr. Kunio Kitamura, special to the Mainichi)
Mainichi Shinbun (http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20050924p2a00m0na022000c.html)

It's sad that an article as spot-on and level-headed as this had to come from a newspaper that tends to shy away from such things usually, and talk about 'orgy roulette' and other nonsense. And I know several Japanese women on the pill, but the opposition to it is pretty-staunch because of misgivings, public disinformation, and lack of publicity about the benefits and risks of the pill...

[mediocre]

[indent]
It's sad that an article as spot-on and level-headed as this had to come from a newspaper that tends to shy away from such things usually, and talk about 'orgy roulette' and other nonsense. And I know several Japanese women on the pill, but the opposition to it is pretty-staunch because of misgivings, public disinformation, and lack of publicity about the benefits and risks of the pill...



As I mentioned on that other forum, but that column on MDN is usually quite sensible and apt in regards to dispensing sexual education.

And the sad fact, as has been pointed out, is that this type of information isn't disseminated that much. This type of information is pratically standard issue here in America, but not so in Japan.

The withdrawal method is still the most prevelant method of contraception.

[megaversal]

Contrary to (what I guess is) popular belief, while people "know" more about this stuff in the US, I rarely meet people who actually use condoms. Guys, girls, doesn't matter.. and this is Los Angeles, supposedly a place where people aren't so "backwater." Pulling out and birth control pills are assumed to save everyone from everything.

Oh and I never knew about Japanese condom sizes. I still have a couple of boxes here and they don't have sizes listed anywhere (I had to initially go through a few brands to find ones that fit and Japanese girls were no help with their "all condoms in Japan are the same size" replies).

[stsparky]

... The withdrawal method is still the most prevelant method of contraception.Contrary to (what I guess is) popular belief, while people "know" more about this stuff in the US, I rarely meet people who actually use condoms. Guys, girls, doesn't matter.. and this is Los Angeles, supposedly a place where people aren't so "backwater." Pulling out and birth control pills are assumed to save everyone from everything.

Oh and I never knew about Japanese condom sizes. I still have a couple of boxes here and they don't have sizes listed anywhere (I had to initially go through a few brands to find ones that fit and Japanese girls were no help with their "all condoms in Japan are the same size" replies).
Dayum! Kids! Do we need to start Sex Ed classes? The condom is ALSO for your protection. Do you really want Peruvian Swamp Clap to ruin your day? For 72 days? Common knowledge will earn you crabs or worse Megaversal - the Benneton Colors ones are the tiniest. The ones that come in the plastic coin cases are the biggest of the lot. Shop around.

The wife and I want kids - but we're married and "clean" -- Do you want to work out some sort of PayPal™ system that gets Trojan™ Ribbed Warm Sensations out there to you youngsters? Trust old Sparky on this. You can even generate a harem for your kindliness. - Sparky

[mediocre]

Dayum! Kids! Do we need to start Sex Ed classes? The condom is ALSO for your protection.


My comment was in regards to japan and/or the japanese.
Chlamydia is rather rampant in japan, and the notion that only "gaijins" have STDs doesn't help in any case.

I'm rather staunch in my use of condoms.

[Ziellos.ein]

"Warm Sensations"

ouch no

[stsparky]

My comment was in regards to Japan and/or the Japanese. Chlamydia is rather rampant in japan, and the notion that only "gaijins" have STDs doesn't help in any case. I'm rather staunch in my use of condoms.
I'm not shooting the messenger. I 'm sure you're a safe person. Where "boys" boast about sexual conquests; Girls fib. I remember listening in on a "party girl's" phone call - in which she responded to the claim of having crabs - with a sigh of "not again!" Know who you're having sex with. And watch out for scabies as well ... :\ - Doc Sparky

[hapacheese]

Back in high school, my cousin actually believed that there was no AIDS in Japan, which is why he didn't use a condom. I beat the crap out of him until he promised to use one. He still uses one now :D

/hope it's not the same one