HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: andy@nff.ncl.Omron.Co.Jp (Andy Krantz)
Subject: Re: Curry (Was: Scary in Japan)
Reply-To: andy@nff.ncl.omron.co.jp
Organization: Omron Computer Systems R&D Labs 
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 06:27:34 GMT

In article <1992Oct12.044813.8434@u.washington.edu>, tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu writes:
> 
> Actually I think there is a law in Japan requiring that curry rice be
> served in a deep plate that is nearly a bowl, but not quite, with a
> large curry-yo^ spoon. I don't know what the penalty for
> non-compliance is though.
> 
> (BTW, the part about this being a law is a joke. But this is the way
> *I* always saw it served. I'd've stared too, if I saw someone eating
> curry rice with chopsticks.)

In my company cafeteria, when I first got here, some of the people would
occassional say that they were taught to use a spoon when eating curry-rice.
I didn't get many stares when I first tried to eat it with chopsticks. 

But then again, I don't get many stares either when I pour my plate of 
"thick stew" over my beautiful white rice. There have been the occassional
comments but my explanation that the rice is too dry and the stew too  runny
for chopsticks seems to work.

-- 
 Andy Krantz   andy@nff.ncl.omron.co.jp   \ Everyone stares at me 'cause I is
 Phone: +81-75-951-5111 x3691 FAX: 956-7403\ gaijin. I understand nobody and 
 OMRON Corp., Computer Systems R&D Labs    / nobody understand me. How could
 Shimokaiinji, Nagaokakyo Kyoto, 617 Japan/   I possibly speak for company?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: hiraga@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Yuzuru Hiraga)
Subject: Toto (Was: Re: Would someone like to respond to this gal?)
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 07:48:19 GMT

In article <1bb5h7INNfb0@gap.caltech.edu> kurkoski@cco.caltech.edu (Brian M. Kurkoski) writes:
>Toto (bathroom fixture monopolist) has a plant there;

Ah! I just can't resist this one!

Nope, Toto isn't a monopoly, there's also Ina (Ina-Seitou).
But they are related -- they're in family partnership.
How can you tell?
Just read their names backwards! (in Roma-ji, that is.)

# A graceful intermission between all seriousness of life.
# And sorry, Brian, for clobbering your nice message.

-YH
From: ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rikiya Asano)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: You are right.Whomever you are.
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:20:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.cerqdo_00iUyM6vnx0
	<1992Oct16.102947.749@rkna50.riken.go.jp>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Dear Whomever you are,

 
                          You are wrong! I am Japanese. While I'm in
America receiving an education that I can't have gotten in Nihon,
Struggling, fighting,
and going through racism and culture shock for five years, you sit on
the Island. I don't have time to guess which is right and which is
wrong. I trusted you for an honest person. You on the otherhand, cannot
believe that "a native Japanese wouldn't type in uppercase letters".
Althought you destoryed my confidence in you. I still think that you are
generally a nice person. What a Japanese might do on an Island could be
different from what a Japanese would don't in America. For insistance,
"a Native Japanese would never go to bed with
a Black woman in Nihon", "a Native Japanese would never respect a Korean
over a Caucasian in Nihon", "a Native Japanese would never would walk
though Buraku section, most "Native Japanese would oppose giving
Chinese, Korerans, Vietnams,
Indians and ect.,ect. citizenship even though they were born there". I
could go on and on but like I said earlier I am not only interested in
descriptions of problems but their solutions also. You know you are
extremely lucky. Your a young Japanese with a pretty good life(I
assume). Why can't a young Japanese
in Buraku Section not have the same chance as you did? Why do you worry about
"Native Japanese do with uppercase type". You give the impression that all I've
tried to say and do depends on the use of uppercase type. One thing that
I have learn while here in America. Creativity is individaulize here. In
Nihon, and maybe this only applies to me, people have always convinced
me to think that my creativity was not important. That "Being Japanese
was more". Sure I love to be
Japanese becuase that's the way it is. When I developed the courage to express
me creativity I began to see that being human is more important than
being nationalistic. Sure I like my nation. That's I want to help. Do I
like humanity
sure that why I'm the way that I am. Am I serious, I'd like to think so
that's why I do the things that I do. Do I have time to play games ? NO! 


                          
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: hiraga@Csli.Stanford.EDU (Yuzuru Hiraga)
Subject: Re: Where are the Japanese?
Organization: Stanford University CSLI
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 23:34:36 GMT

In article <Oct.8.13.34.13.1992.1644@soliton.rutgers.edu> zzhang@soliton.rutgers.edu (ZhiZhong Zhang) writes:
>Looking at the names of the posters in this group, I am suprised to see
>very few of them are Japanese. Why is this? Where are the Japanese? How
>can people talk about issues related to Japan with so few Japanese 
>involved.

Err..... why do you ask?  What's bothering you?  What should be done?
(and the readers of soc.culture.china would have been surprised
when your message appeared there -- I suppose it was your mistake :-)

Well, the standard "stereotyped" answer would be that Japanese people
are not that verbose, are not (or feel not to be) eloquent in English,
are happy with their own "fj" news hierarchy and wouldn't be reading
soc.culture.japan anyway, etc....

To improve the Japanese:non-Japanese ratio, why not ask the non-J's
to shut-up or use Japanese pen-names?  (hundreds of smilies follow)

And now that I find that Bill Lambert has given you a far better answer,
I simply recede.

>By the way, I am not a Japanese myself. 
I'm a Japanese myself.

-YH
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)
Subject: Re: My Grandfather...
Keywords: food
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:42:24 GMT

tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu(Tad Perry) writes:
 >I personally think that coke tastes quite good with most fried,
 >sauce-based Asian food. (Teriyaki, stir-fry, tonkatasu, etc.) But I
 >wouldn't drink it with sushi that's for sure.

robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson) writes:
 > True, sushi does go better with 7-up or ginger ale.

I guess we're all in agreement here. The point is that sushi doesn't
have much taste, or to put it in a better language, it has "delicate
flavor".  Less sweet drinks such as ginger ale, I think, allow one
to enjoy the flavor of sushi better than a heavy tasting beverage such
as Coke. One can go further and have green tea (w/o sugar!), dry beer,
mineral water, etc.  I've never tried dry wine, but it might work.
From: ricko@ee.uts.edu.au (Rick Jelliffe)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Foreigner's bank accounts in Japan
Date: 16 Oct 92 09:43:33 GMT
Organization: University of Technology, Sydney
NNTP-Posting-Host: schutz.ee.uts.edu.au

robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu (Henry Robertson) writes:

>Hi!  I'm a college student thinking of working in Japan next year.  Are
>foreigners allowed to start credit card accounts over there, and if so,
>is VISA or Mastercard among them?  Also, will they be issued cash cards
>so they can withdraw savings from cash machines?

They have places called banks in Japan. You can go there and get 
what you need. It'd be simpler to get a credit card in the US first though,
probably, at least to start. And I think Mastercard is not popular: VISA
is ubiquitous though.

Banks have automatic teller machines. Some have cartoons, or even make
twittering bird noises. 

-ricko
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: dfp10@thor.albany.edu (D Parsons)
Subject: Smoking by Japanese adolescents
Originator: dfp10@thor.albany.edu
Organization: State University of New York at Albany
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 12:49:15 GMT

I am interested in recent work suggest that there is a statistical relation
between smoking DURING ADOLESCENCE and incidence of breast cancer. The 
incidence of breast cancer in Japan is still much lower than in US (but it is
rising). Can anyone compare the history of teen ager girls smoking in Japan
and USA? I suppose more than 10% of adolescent girls were smoking in US	
starting about 20-25 y. ago (??). How about in Japan? Thanks, Don
-- 

Donald F. Parsons MD, Wadsworth Ctr. Rm C273, NY State Dept of Health, ESP,
PO Box 509, Albany, NY 12201-0509. (518)474-7047 Fax: (518)474-7992
dfp10@uacsc2.albany.edu dfp10@albnydh2.bitnet Cis 71777,212
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: Mr. Asano
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 05:50:01 GMT

In article <1blj2qINNmnh@agate.berkeley.edu> robohen@ocf.berkeley.edu
(Henry Robertson) writes:
>Mr. Asano is a typical example of undereducated Japanese who encountered
>the reality after he went abroad for "studying something."
>...
>At least Mr. Asano keeps a connection with his past, instead of the more
>beaten path of deserting it altogether.

I have never met Mr. Asano, so I won't comment on his character.

However, I've known a number of Japanese who didn't know what the Japanese
did in WWII to North Eastern Asians.  They learned the truth, with
great surprise, after they left the Japanese education system.  True.
Many Japanese do know that the war occurred and can identify the participants,
but many do not know the specific details--like specific acts of atrocity
in Nanjing.

Mr. Asano might perhaps have learned the truth after he came to the USA.
It can be most unsettling to know what really happened in Korea and China:
the picture (from the Economist) of the decapitated head of a Chinese,
inserted on top of a fence post, is, well, rather shocking.

But, to Mr. Asano's credit, he has discovered the truth.  By contrast,
there are literally thousands of Chinese "scholars" who have come to 
this country, have been exposed to relative accurate sources of historical
information in the West, yet persist not only in advocating the continued
subjugation of Tibet but also in calling for the immediate brutal invasion
of Taiwan if it should ever declare it's independence.  Apparently,
Western compassion for the Kurds in Iraq, the victims in Yugoslavia, and
other victims of brutal military aggression seems not to have phased
them (the Chinese) in the very least.  A casual perusal of s.c.c. should
corroborate my comments.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seikatsu no imi wa nan desu ka.            \|  |`      | Don't buy from Toyota;
Shitte itara oshiete kuremasen ka.          | -+-      | especially, don't buy
                                           /| / \      | from Capitol Toyota in
Copyright 1992.                 Disclaimer:  1 + 1 = 3 | San Jose, California.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: kanekawa@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Nobuyasu Kanekawa)
Subject: Re: Help needed for two Japanese names
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 03:53:30 GMT

kanekawa@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Nobuyasu Kanekawa) writes:
:   Maybe, "Kiuchi" or "Kinouchi" is a family name and "Manabu" is first name.
: 
: : 2.      /
: :        /|----------|     |-------------|     \  /----------
: :         |  |----|  |     |    |   |    |         |------|
: :         |  |    |  |     |    |   |    |     \   |  \   |
: :         |  |----|  |     |    /   |--  |        -|------|-
: :         |         \|     |-------------|     /   |---\--|---
: :                                                        \|
:              (facing)        (four)                (sea)
: 						 => facing four seas

     I think "four seas" means northern, southern, western, and eastern
sea.  So "facing four seas" means surrounded by the ocean, viz. living
in an island.
-- 
Nobuyasu KANEKAWA  (E-mail address in Japan : kanekawa@hrl.hitachi.co.jp)
From: yoichi@carson.u.washington.edu (Yoichi Ii)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Curry (Was: Scary in Japan)
Date: 13 Oct 92 21:02:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct13.210254.23777
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu) writes:
> ...
>The bowl is lifted in one hand and scooped out with the
>chopsticks into the mouth.  Japanese or California Rose rice is a bit
>stickier than Long grain Chinese or Texas rice and can be
>handled in the first few mouthfuls with chopsticks alone.  But to get
>the dregs at the bottom requires the above-mentioned "scoop" technique.

I don't know about other countries, but at least in Japan it is bad
manners to "scoop" rice from a bowl (chawan).  You're supposed to lift
a chunk of rice from the bowl to your mouth. Since Japanese rice is 
sticky, you can employ this technique to get at the last grain of rice 
if you are reasonably adept at handling hashi (chopsticks).

The only situation in which your mouth is allowed to touch the "container" 
is when the item is very watery (soup, noodle with soup, etc).  Some 
containers, such as plates, should not be lifted while others (like bowls)
you must pick up before eating. There's other rules regarding usage of
hashi, etc, etc.

> ... I admit I'm a karaoke addict. ...

Yet another victim ... I'm sorry to hear that :-)

-- Yoichi "Miss Manners of the Net" Ii --
From: blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Humor (was:Foreign Ogres
Date: 8 Oct 92 18:12:21 GMT
Organization: Horizon Research, Inc.

In article <6380@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>, ross-c@scs.leeds.ac.uk
(R Clement) writes:

> What about the hoary old chestnut "The Japanese people don't have a sense of
> humour"? I've heard that one from even educated people.
> 
> For those who want *proof* of the contrary, may I suggest listening to:
> 
> Super Eccentric Theatre: The Art of Nipponomics.

J-Man: I hear in America people make many jokes about (ethnics).
A-Man: Yeah.... I suppose.
J-Man: How come?
A-Man: There's some stereotype that (ethnics) are stupid.
J-Man: Can you give some example of that kind of joke?
A-Man: Ok... Typical kind. How many (ethnics) does it
	take to change a light bulb?
J-Man: (ponders) I don't know... how many?
A-Man: Five. One to hold the light bulb and four to turn the ladder.
J-Man: What's a radder?
A-Man: L-A-D-D-E-R. You know... err... a kind of portable
	steps.
J-Man: Oh... Why four of them to turn it? Could one or two
	do it? Is that the point?
A-Man: Arrrrgh... forget it.
J-Man: Sorry... we don't have such jokes in Japan. Even if
	someone is stupid, we don't usually like to say it.

Humor is one area where culture usually clouds any reasonable
attempt at commonality. (above joke not being reasonable, I'll
admit)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: vwright@world.std.com (Vedder A Wright)
Subject: Companies in Japan?
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 11:43:19 GMT

I am trying to track down a piece of info and wondered if anyone
here might be able to suggest something.

I am trying to find out what databases are there available on the
Internet in English about Japanese businesses and corporations. This
includes databases that charge money and any other kinds.

Could you suggest some clues as to how I would start researching this?

Any ideas will be sincerely appreciated.
Please respond via e-mail.
 

Vedder Wright
-- 
Vedder Wright  vwright@world.std.com
Member of Boston Computer Society
Somerville, MA
From: zzhang@soliton.rutgers.edu (ZhiZhong Zhang)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Where are the Japanese?
Date: 8 Oct 92 17:34:14 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Looking at the names of the posters in this group, I am suprised to see
very few of them are Japanese. Why is this? Where are the Japanese? How
can people talk about issues related to Japan with so few Japanese 
involved. By the way, I am not a Japanese myself.
From: davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Where are the Japanese?
Date: 16 Oct 92 22:39:43 GMT

RNM192@paccvm.corp.mot.com (Irene Pan) writes:
....
>I wasn't a Japanese either, but I have been lived in Japan for 3.5 years.
>Japanese is not good at expressing what they think to others, therefore
>it is hard for them to response those mail.  Beside, I wondered how many
>Japanese know about this communication line.

Another consideration is how many Japanese are reading USENET.
According to information (which I posted here recently) there are
relatively few machines here compared to the population. In the
kansai there are only 63 machines who could carry USENET but only
31. Also, these 63 are oriented towards academic research as that's
the purpose of JUNET over which the news is carried. 

Besides local BBS, and some Fido nodes (mostly in Tokyo as far as I
know) the main telcommunication systems for Japan are NiftyServe and
PC-VAN which have a hundreds of thousands of members. But none of
these (--BBS, FIDO, Nifty, PC-VAN--) carry USENET.

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: "steven baldassarra" <steven.baldassarra@canrem.com>
Subject: actually!
Reply-To: "steven baldassarra" <steven.baldassarra@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: soc
Date: 15 Oct 92 04:45:12 EST

  Hullo, Rikiya.

YH>  Newsgroup: soc.culture.japan
YH> Message-ID: <1992Oct8.234046.27453@Csli.Stanford.EDU>
YH>    Subject: Actually!

YH>In article <Mep50fG00WBNI1fYhN@andrew.cmu.edu> Rikiya Asano <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>Actually,
>
>             Since I've come to America I've learned some pretty deep concepts
>of the America Culture.

  You should have come to Canada, which is proud of her multiculturalism.
---
  DeLuxe 1.21 #6922  Konnichiwa!  Anata wa yoku kokoe kimasuka?
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: tanaka@til.til.com (Yokichi Tanaka)
Subject: Re: Where are the Japanese?
Organization: Togai InfraLogic, Inc.
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 00:35:01 GMT

In article <Oct.8.13.34.13.1992.1644@soliton.rutgers.edu>, zzhang@soliton.rutgers.edu (ZhiZhong Zhang) writes:
|> Looking at the names of the posters in this group, I am suprised to see
|> very few of them are Japanese. Why is this? Where are the Japanese? How
|> can people talk about issues related to Japan with so few Japanese 
|> involved. By the way, I am not a Japanese myself. 

I think the biggest reason is that Japan still lags US and
Europe in terms of "networking".  Many of my friends in technical
fields can not be reached via e-mail never mind read news.
The percentage of people reading news is even less.  I bet the ratio
of J/non-J posters is nearly equal to the ratio of J/non-J readers
of s.c.j.
-- 
Yoke (Yokichi) Tanaka      Togai InfraLogic, Inc.    "fuzzy"
tanaka@til.com             Irvine, California, USA
uunet!til!tanaka           714-975-8522
In case you're wondering ... I am male.
"A plate of shrimp."
From: dave@blackbox.cc.columbia.edu (David Milner)
Subject: GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE
Keywords: Godzilla Japan Monster Biollante
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 04:48:06 GMT

GOJIRA TAI BIORANTE, released in Japan in December, 1989, is finally
coming out here in the United States.

The film is going to be distributed on home video by HBO/Canon Home
Video in December. It is not going to be released to theatres.

More infromation will be available in about one month.




David Milner  Columbia University
inet:   dave@blackbox.cc.columbia.edu
usenet: ...rutgers!columbia!blackbox!dave
        ...rutgers!columbia!blackbox.cc.columbia.edu!dave
From: rehir@gauss.med.harvard.edu (Hirokatsu Watanabe 432-2275)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Smoking by Japanese adolescents
Date: 14 Oct 92 17:43:25 GMT
Organization: Harvard Medical School


 dfp10@thor.albany.edu (D Parsons) writes:

>I am interested in recent work suggest that there is a statistical relation
>between smoking DURING ADOLESCENCE and incidence of breast cancer. The 
>incidence of breast cancer in Japan is still much lower than in US (but it is
>rising). Can anyone compare the history of teen ager girls smoking in Japan
>and USA? I suppose more than 10% of adolescent girls were smoking in US	
>starting about 20-25 y. ago (??). How about in Japan? Thanks, Don

    It's very interesting issue.
    But, I guess, it may be difficult to compare the history of teen ager
girls smoking in USA and Japan now. WHO researched the smoking of teen ager 
in 1989, but the statistics in Japan wasn't included in the research. And
as far as I know, Japanese government has not research it yet. Furthermore,
I don't know the research of the relation between the breast cancer and
smoking in Japan. (There may be some researchs. But I'm sorry. I don't
study about that very well. (^_^;)  )

    In the research by the Prime Ministre's Office in 1989, about 44% men
and about 20% women who have ever smoked began to smoke before 20 year-old.
In the research by Japan Tabako company in 1989, the smoking rate were 61.1%
in male, and 12.7% in female.
    If simply calculating, about 26% men and about 2.5% women began to smoke
before 20 year-old. 
    
    The association of protecting the health from smoking in Tama asked 
the fresh adults about their smoking habit at the coming-of-age ceremony
of Hachio^ji in 1991. 66% men and 23% women have smoked. But the sample
size of this research was only 95 (65 men and 30 women). Maybe it isn't
reliable.

    If anyone have another data, would you show it?

********************************
*     Hirokatsu Watanabe       *
*------------------------------*
* Mo^karimakka?  Sapparidesuwa *
*         Maido Ookini         *
********************************
From: ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rikiya Asano)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: ARE YOU INSANE, MARK  CRISPINE?
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:57:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.oerCkte00WBNM907wV
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

YOU ARE RAELLY FUNNY. WHY ARE YOU BRING UP VIETNAM. WHAT THE FUCK! I WAS
IN RESPECT OF YOUR "LET GO BACK FIFTY YEARS AGAIN" SHOW. BUT AFTER THIS
YOU ARE ALL WRONG. DO YOU THINK THAT YOUTR LAME INTERUPTATION IS BEYOUD
CORRECTNESS. YOUR ARE A FOUL EXISTANCE ON THE EARTH.  IF ARE IN NIHON, I
HOPE THAT.....WELL NO I WON'T SAY THAT. AND , I TAKE BACK THE NAME
CALLING. SORRY, SIR. I KNOW PLENTLY OF BOTH VIETNAMESE AND KOREANS THAT
YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO COMPARE TO.(IN MY OPINION) SO, KEEP DOING WHAT
YOU ARE DOING. I'M SURE IT WILL CATCH  UP WITH YOU, SOON. 


                  ARE YOU BRITISH? NO,  CAUCASIAN AMERICAN CAN'T BE THAT
RUTHLESSLY  DECEIEVING, ARE YOU OF DUCTH DECENT 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
From: Mark Crispin <mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM>
Subject: Re: the Rikiya Asano rants 
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Organization: University of Washington
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 01:29:32 GMT

Is Rikiya Asano capable of writing anything that is not laced with obscenity?

Is Rikiya Asano capable of considering people as human beings instead of
grading them according to their skin pigmentation?  If his anti-white rants
had been directed against blacks, he would have been labelled as being KKK or
worse.

Does anyone know this Rikiya Asano?  Is Rikiya Asano actually a Japanese?  Or,
are the postings which purportedly come from Rikiya Asano actually from Rikiya
Asano?  The linguistic patterns of the Rikiya Asano postings do not match
those commonly used by native Japanese; in fact, the linguistic patterns match
those of people from a different national origin.

Before people waste too much time on Rikiya Asano, consider the strong
likelihood that we are seeing a hoax, and a nasty racist one at that.