HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: yajima@nttcom.ntt.jp (YAJIMA Hiroshi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Foreigner in Japan.
Date: 9 Sep 92 01:17:48 GMT
Distribution: soc.culture.japan
Organization: NTT Network Information Systems Labs. Musashino, Tokyo

In article <PASCAL.92Sep8135345@ap22.apd.cpg.sony.co.jp> pascal@apd.cpg.sony.co.jp (Pascal Goguey) writes:

>	   However, every time I have something to ask to a Japanese person,
>   for example in the street, I get replied in English. Unfortunately, I'm not
>   English, neither American, and I was wondering why the Japanese think like :

>	   #define		white		American

    I think it's because, when World War II ended, the core of the Allied 
Forces which occupied Japan was the USA and Japan has come under the sway of
the USA.
    If the core of the Allied Forces which occupied Japan had been France,
the Japanese would think like:
          
           #define               white           French
	   
--- Hiroshi
--

    |  / __  __/ __  __/ Hiroshi Yajima, 
  / | /     /       /    NTT Network Information Syatems Laboratories,
_/  _/    _/      _/     9 - 11 Midori-Cho 3-Chome Musashino-Shi,
                         Tokyo, 180 Japan,  E-MAIL: yajima@nttcom.ntt.jp
                         TEL: +81 422-59-4256	 FAX: +81 422-59-4254
From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Mr. Baseball
Date: 11 Sep 92 19:00:34 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Organization: Horizon Research

In article <18olb7INNlrl@agate.berkeley.edu>,
lindaa@portent.Berkeley.EDU (Linda Absher) writes:

=> Re: Writing famous novel comment:
=> 
=> 
=> I'm trying, I'm trying!!  Know any good non-racist plots
=> that will wow them?

Hmmm.... how about "Japanese/American Femme Fatale fights
racist stereotypes and finds true love in the Bay area, while
writing a famous novel that wins her a Pulitzer, and solving
the murder of the famous Hollywood script writer who wrote
"Mr. Baseball".... by incriminating herself and a cadre of
like thinking Nisei feminists. At their trial, the 40 women
are acquitted on grounds of "temporary sanity".

Well.... it's a start, but I wonder if there's enough to flesh
out a novel without the obligatory bath tub scene.

That'll be $4561.57, based on my usual hourly consultant rates,
10% discount for cash.

- Bill
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Followup: Chinese communists & Japanese Imperial Army
From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 19:51:10 GMT
Organization: Cal State Long Beach

doesn't this thing between Dave and Yuson belong in email or alt.flame or some
where else???

smittie
--
___________________________________________________________________________
GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
smittie@beach.csulb.edu |  current world problems would be yesterday's news.
________________________|___________________________________________________
From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese immigration
Date: 11 Sep 92 18:15:50 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Organization: Horizon Research

=> In article <1650@frf.omron.co.jp> jfriedl@omron.co.jp
=> (Jeffrey Friedl) writes:
=>  =}(and what exactly the hell does "catch-22" mean, anyway? :-)

In article <HARKCOM.92Sep11100656@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp>,
harkcom@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp (Alton Harkcom) writes:
=>    An excellent book (which I haven't read since high school).  If my
=> memory isn't pickled yet, then the author is Kurt Vonnegut.  It is an
=> excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who likes mind games.

Al is wrong for the first since I've know him. "Catch-22" was written
by Joseph Heller. Al may have confused that with "Slaughter House 5"
written by Kurt Vonnegut. Both are anti-war novels based on the 
author's experiences in WWII in Europe, and each convey that anti-war
sentiment by way of a very black humor. And each is still well worth
the effort to read. The language and style of Heller is difficult to
follow at first.

In Catch-22, the hero - Yossarian - is a bomber pilot in the European
theatre who has been flying countless missions over enemy territory
while watching his friends die around him. The Bomber Command keeps
extending the number of missions before a pilot's tour of duty is
completed. Yossarian asks the Base Doctor - Doc Daneeka - if he can
be grounded. The Doc asks why, and Yossarian says, "Because I'm
crazy." The Doc says, "There's a catch.... Catch 22. Catch-22 says
that I have to ground you if your crazy, but if you ask to be grounded
because your crazy then you're not crazy, so I can't ground you."
Yossarian answers, "That's some catch, that Catch-22."

That bit of dialogue is a jibe at military thinking (as is the whole
book), and the expression "Catch-22" has come to symbolize self-
contradictory statements. The phrase comes up a few times in the
book, and later, an elderly Italian woman who runs Yossarian's
favorite whorehouse defines Catch-22 as, "Catch-22 says they can do
whatever you let them get away with."

The book contains a myriad of stereo-typical military characters,
including General Dreedle, who shouts, "Take him out and have him
shot!"  everytime someone asks a question; Major Major who's aide
would only let you in to see him when he was out; The Soldier in
White - a patient in the hospital who nobody knew his name, had
a feeding tube and a excretion tube, and every 4 hours the nurses
would switch them; and Chaplain Taplain who was confused as to
his religion.

Slaughter House 5, by Vonnegut, intersperses his real experiences
as a german prisoner of War in a slaughter house during the 
bombing of Dresden with images of his mental escapes to the
planet Tralafalmador as a human member of zoo run by an alien
race.

I thought were required reading in junior HS.... no?

- Bill Lambert
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: tony2@prefect.uucp (21131-gozdz)
Subject: Re: travelling
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 92 21:05:29 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.230659.5806@news2.cis.umn.edu> mbuntan@epx.cis.umn.edu writes:
>
>Could anybody help me answer these questions about
>travelling in Japan?
>I'm planning to spend a week or two there
>around late December or early January.
>How much money do I need if I plan to stay with friends but
>may travel around a lot?
>Is it better to buy a train ticket from here?
>(I mean the type you can used for one or two weeks?)
>How about the air fair during that time of the year?
>Any answer will be appreciated.
>Monthian Buntan
>EMail: mbuntan@epx.cis.umn.edu

It is my limited experience that you should buy a
ticket from the Japan Travel Bureau (there is at least
one in Manhattan), not from the AmEx, an
airline, or your garden-variety travel agent.  For
example, I just bought a return ticket from Newark to Narita
and paid $910 +$18 tax; on the same day, I was quoted
$1328 by teh AmEx and United Airlines for the same
flight. Somebody said in this group that the prices 
are even lower if you buy from
Yomiuri (sp?) Travel in Manhattan (haven't checked).

You can also buy (as I did) a 2-week rail pass for $369
which you can use on all JR and shinkansen trains
except for green and sleeping cars (you have to pay a
premium for those). You can activate the pass at any time
in Japan in a JR office (you get a voucher here). You
CANNOT buy such a pass in Japan.
One- and three-week passes are also available.
 
Hope it helps!

Tony
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Antoni S. Gozdz                tel  (908) 758-2931  |  Bellcore  NVC 3X-261
tony2@prefect.cc.bellcore.com  FAX  (908) 741-2891  |  Red Bank, NJ 07701, USA
                           no .sig, strictly business
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: pssres12@ucs.usl.edu (Vignes Gerard M)
Subject: Attractive, Wealthy Japanese Woman Sought
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern La., Lafayette
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 06:20:23 GMT

			     WANTED

	Attractive,  independently  wealthy  Japanese woman
	for financial support and romance.    I am 35 years
	old, male heterosexual,   seeking companionship and
	financial support.  If you are interested and would
	like  to  learn  more  about  me,  please write to:
	Gerard Vignes,   USL PO Box 42709,   Lafayette,  LA
	70504 USA.   Please send picture.

						Gerard

PS.	I tried sending this to Radio Japan,
	but they declined to air it.
	Does anyone know what Gajin means?

-- 

pssres12@ucs.usl.edu	Gerard Vignes, USL PO Box 42709, Lafayette LA 70504 USA
From: robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Attractive, Wealthy Japanese Woman Sought
Date: 9 Sep 1992 20:10:47 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandstorm.berkeley.edu

Cliche, cliche...please, not another flame war.....
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: RACISM BY JAPANESE--CURRENT
Date: 11 Sep 92 02:28:50 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

patric@iat.holonet.net (PATRICK) writes:

>I am taking a short class in Japanese Culture at a local City College and
>would like to do a paper on racism by japanese--as a current topic.  The
...

If you have access to fj.misc, you might subsribed to it. It's
currently being discussed there (in English).

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: fester@island.COM (Mike Fester)
Subject: Re: Mr. Baseball
Organization: /usr/local/rn/organization
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 16:11:34 GMT

In article <18nu65INNdi0@agate.berkeley.edu> lindaa@sooth.Berkeley.EDU (Linda Absher) writes:
>In article <18mp80INN9ec@agate.berkeley.edu> lindaa@omen.Berkeley.EDU (Linda Absher) writes:
>>-- 
>>   $  Linda Absher		$ "Jane! Get me off of this               $ 
>>   $  lindaa@info.Berkeley.EDU	$      crazy thing!!!"                    $
>>   $				$    -George Jetson, "The Jetsons"        $
>
>OOPS!!  Sorry 'bout that...
>
>I wanted to respond to Bill Lambert's comment on Hollywood's sterotypes of the 
>Japanese.  I think that after some thirty-odd years of Japan's tremendous
>technical and social progress, Hollywood could get beyond images of hunky
>white men being bathed by fragile Japanese women.  Aren't these the same
>images we saw in "Teahouse of the August Moon"?  

Uh, it should be pointed out that the original premise of the movie was changed
at the insistence of the parent company (Sony?). They didn't like the way the
Japanese "way" was portrayed. This was one of the first public displays of 
a Japanese parent company excercising editorial control over what is essentially
an "artistic" expression. Presumeably, they approved of all the things you
find objectionable.
 
>But then again, I know I expect *way* too much from mass media....

I don't know why. They're pretty commonly a "lowest common denominator" oper-
ation. Not much to be expected from that.

Mike
-- 
Disclaimer - I'm only doing what the little voices tell me to do.
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Japanese immigration
Date: 14 Sep 92 02:13:38 GMT
Organization: Aegis Society, Kyoto Japan

smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie) writes:

>My Dad is pretty poor at interpersonal communications skills and he knows it.
>To make for this deficiency he frequently tried being an asshole. 

Sure takes less investment in time and energy :-)

[* sorry about being an asshole to customs agenet omitted *]

>When all of my parents' belonging were
>arrayed on the table the agent said, "well, I don't see any problem, have a
>nice day." And he walked away.

And it was kinda true, wasn't it: *he* didn't have a problem. And since
he was polite, who could complain and be heard?

>Four years of shore patrol taught me that I'm going to exert far more positive
>influence on a given situation by being pleasant and accommodating than by
>being belligerent and rude. Kind, polite, and honest has gotten me a long way
>when dealing with "the system". 

Yep. It do make a difference :-)

Dave

--
Dave McLane 
JUNET: davidg@aegis.or.jp (ONLY within Japan: post otherwise)
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087
From: htakeda@Bonnie.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: video/tv
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Date: 15 Sep 92 04:26:32 GMT

Yeah I guess Star Trek and Twin Peaks was over there but
those are tv shows that were popular among the Japanese
population.  They were geared towards the native's weren't
they.  I want to know if there is a vie
video store that caters to foreigners.  I personally am
looking for sports(NHL, NFL: not the cut up 1-2 hour
versions on at 2 am in the morning) and some of the
new shows of this fall.  Do I have to join the military
to get that service in Japan????   I get to rent video's
such as "Ai to iuu na no moto ni" here.
===============================================================
htakeda@bonnie.ics.uci.edu

HIRO "The HAB" Takeda
GO Montreal Canadiens, Kokudo Keikaku Bunnies, Taiyo Whales,
Montreal Expos, and the Dallas Cowboys.
UC Irvine, Electrical and Comp. Engin., Info. and Comp. Science.
"What good is a used up world and how can it be worth having?"
ALL THIS TIME - STING
===============================================================
From: masuda@fcs280b.ncifcrf.gov (Michiaki Masuda)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: O mi ai
Date: 11 Sep 92 23:20:49 GMT
Distribution: soc.culture.japan
Organization: Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center

In article <PASCAL.92Sep10184833@ap22.apd.cpg.sony.co.jp> pascal@apd.cpg.sony.co.jp (Pascal Goguey) writes:

>        About the message of Mr Gerard Vignes, Mr Nobuyasu KANEKAWA
>wrote : "As you know, a man  should love woman as  a human being..."
>I don't understand why Mr KANEKAWA is surprised by a practice which
>is so common in Japan : O mi ai.
>        In that case, the only difference with o mi ai is that
>Mr Vignes arranges himself the o mi ai with a person fitting his
>description.
.....

   And this difference is large enough to make it no longer be called
"o mi ai."

Michiaki Masuda
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: cshi@cs.ulowell.edu (Chunde Shi)
Subject: Re: Followup: Chinese communists & Japanese Imperial Army
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Lowell Computer Science
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 19:37:03 GMT

In article <15295@umd5.umd.edu> yunson@lpf.umd.edu (Yunson Du) writes:
>In article <2551@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
>
>>The other person is now about 55 and was thus 10 at the time: he
>to believe all of that kind of cover-up. 
>
>Cannot say more.
I rather think this is one more wave to attemp to alianate  Japanese and
Chinese as they did centry ago: Build up Japan to Fight China.
Let see what are those Japanese "protectors" are:
  1. U.S. just had an treaty with Japan which mandates Japan to spend 10%
GNP on Sewage each year fore next Ten years. Because Japan's Sewer System is
"under standard". Those projects has to be open for U.S. constrution
companies,
because those companies are more "experienced" in sewage.
real purpose: drain capital from R&D, stop the trend of Japan's Tech fast
advance, prevent Japan's invest in new opertunities in Ex-Soviet;
  2. A couple of Month ago, Japan's Trade and Industy Ministry released a
report says that "U.S. has unfair trade pratice, and U.S. companies ase just
not competitive". Then something happened behind door, Japan's prime minister
had to rush to Washiton, had an humiliting working meeting with Vice President
of U.S.(according to international norm, host nation send same rank of higher
officials to meet Guest official). Time Margazine had this  story titled "
Put up or else". radiculed Miyazawa, took satifaction. 
  3. Currently, a meeting between U.S. and Japan on "Structure Impedement
Inititive Talk". We shall see what come out. My guess is that "meeting" is
for another "sewage treaty" to drain wealth from Japan, impoverish Japan.
  4. Old scores: 2000 cases of G.I. commited crimes against Japanese after
WWII, none of the G.I. were prosecuted; Right after WWII, if a G.I. beat up
a Japanese, the japanese dare to fight back, the Japanese would be executed
according to U.S. imposed law; Even with enormous wealth, Japan is still not
politically independant, still under occupation("protection"). 

>
>Yunson Du
>University of Maryland
>College Park, MD
>
>
>


Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: Mark Crispin <mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM>
Subject: 50 YEARS AGO: September 9, 1942 - Air Raid on the US Mainland
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Organization: University of Washington
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 21:36:37 GMT

On September 9, 1942 the only manned bombing attack on the continental
United States during World War II took place.  An aircraft was
launched from a Japanese submarine.  It dropped its bombs near
Brookings, Oregon and started a small forest fire.

Not much damage was caused, although it furthered the feeling that a
Japanese invasion of the US was imminent and that the right thing was
done by interning people of Japanese descent who lived in the US west
coast (curiously, Japanese in Hawaii were never interned, even though
Hawaii was far more affected by the war).

There would be no further manned air raids of the homelands of either
side until late 1944, when the B-29 air raids on Japan began.
From: An-Ly Yao <anlyyao@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Date: 05 Sep 92 08:17 PDT
Subject: Re: Any Japanese Pussy Available?
Nf-ID: #R:1992Aug31.031359.12423@ccu.umani:-1468160778:cdp:1473500056:000:914
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!anlyyao    Sep  5 08:17:00 1992


If the needy cat lover is of western origin, here something, which might
be interesting for him:

{{w3A friend of mine is a divorce lawyer in Hamburg (Germany). He is a specialist
for divorces between oriental women and German men. His first case was his
{own one :-), but he learned a lot about himself through that.

The main cause for trouble are contradicting expectations from both sides.
The oriental women quite often looks for an alternative to confucion machos,
the western guy tries to escape from the more liberated women in his environ-
ment to the soooo sweet and obedient Asian girls. The result: work for my
friend.

Quite probably the needy searcher still is not in the stage to think about
{marriage. I hope, he will find his pussy - who, as such, might show her claws
when thr time is right.

meow!

Goetz Kluge
Seoul 1992/09/05
t(anlyyao@igc.apc.org

PS: I've got some noise on the line, sorry.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: wa2ise@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (robert.f.casey)
Subject: Re: telephones again
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 20:31:02 GMT

Sounds line the "right to phone service" you have to buy was the phone company
making the phone subscriber pay for the costs of building the phone exchange,
telephone poles and wires, and other phone company stuff.  Guess they didn't
want to (or not allowed to) borrow money via loans from banks, stock sales,
(NTT is/was a government agency?) bond sales, etc.  In the USA, some govern-
ment stuff like highways, bridges, and such are fiananced by selling bonds.
and the people using the highway pay tolls to pay off the bonds.  And AT&T
borrows money in the usual corporate ways to fianance new phone wires and
such.  Is my above guess about the "right to phone service" somewhat correct?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: skipper@uni-paderborn.de (Martin Funke)
Subject: Learning Japanese 
Organization: Uni-GH Paderborn, Germany
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 21:51:03 GMT

I started on the subject some weeks ago and would like to simulate
a "natural learning environment". My aim is to create a part-time
visual and audial environment which will make me (or anyone else exposed
to it) learn the difficult Japanese Language without requiring too much
conscious effort ( q: did I fall for superlearning ? a: yes ).
Does anyone know any institutes/corporations/... which stock Japanese
- picture books
- video tapes ( films, documentations, sesame street, ... ) 
- audio tapes ?

Not only will any help will be appreciated but I will also email ( on request )
my opinion on various trick-josekis.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: bbs.lar@tsoft.sf-bay.org (Larry Greenfield)
Subject: Re: Foreigner in Japan.
Organization: The TSoft BBS and Public Access Unix, +1 415 969 8238
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 05:31:57 GMT

I alrady emailed my thoughts to the original poster on this, but thought 
I would put them here as well for your perusal.
  
  
This is a problem that not only yourself has encountered.  I myself am 
American but while I was in Japan, I met many non-Americans (read: 
non-Candian, non-American, non-Enlish or non-Australians), and the 
Japanese will always take them for Americans.  Here are my thoughts on 
the matter:
(1) don't pay it too much mind. :)  Think of yourself in their shoes. Say 
you see someone walking down the street and you're lost.  You go up to 
him and ask directions in Japanese naturally, but it turns out he's 
really a Chinese-American who speaks only English.  How would he feel?  
He'd probably post the same post you did, inquiring why everyone thinks 
him Japanese in Japan just because he LOOKS Japanese, and the odds are 
(being in Japan), that he might be.  Well, as you stated, if you're in 
Japan and you look white, there are good odds that you're American, and 
much better odds that even if you're not, you'll understand English.  
Right or wrong, I think nothing bad is meant by it; it's just one of 
those things that happens on the spur of the moment. 
(2) perhaps they want to practice their English as much as you want to 
practice their Japanese, and they see a golden opportunity.  Think long 
and hard about it, and ask yourself... if you were in America say, and a 
Japanese tourist came up to you to ask you a question, and perhaps could 
be understood in English, but was a bit shaky speaking the language, yet 
you knew he/she was Japanese (by conversations with other around him/her, 
tour book in hand, whatever), would you try to speak back in Japanese if 
you could, or always just answer in English?
 I think just don't try to analyze this too much.... it's just one of the 
quirky things that make this world interesting.
:::::Larry:::::

--
Larry Greenfield (bbs.lar@tsoft.sf-bay.org)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan