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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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 Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:05 am Post subject: Interesting artilce on Japan! |
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This was very interesting I thought ans I wondered what people think of it? 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192777/Welcome-rock-Hitchens-San-.html
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In the park across the road, one of Japan's new industries is flourishing. Homeless men, some young and unlined, some old and bowed, are collecting and then stomping on empty beer cans collected from the prosperous Shibuya suburb, with its fashionable shops and cafes.
A young woman, who says she is 29 but looks older, hurries forward with a cart loaded with hundreds of fresh cans for crushing. As soon as they are unloaded, she is off again for more.
She is willing to talk, but not to stop. The price of metal has fallen, and she must work harder than before to make ends meet. If she does not reach her quota, she will not be paid and will not eat. Somewhere in the background there are bosses and gangmasters controlling what is, in fact, a bustling scrap metal trade.
Look carefully in any Tokyo park and you will see signs of this almost Victorian fringe economy, and its proud, genteel misery.
In Ueno Park, next to several grand art galleries and a concert hall, there are little tent villages of tiny homes, screened from sight by twee fences rather nauseatingly adorned with pretty pictures of cottages, clouds and trees.
These are not the squalid hovels you might see in London, but tragically respectable homes, clean and intensely tidy, sometimes with carpets, where visitors must remove their shoes before entering. Their inhabitants are embarrassed at their plight, reluctant to talk, jealous of their privacy.
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It's quite long  but he writes about many things in Japan.
Maybe it would be good for class discussions....
Dicuss.... |
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David W
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 457
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:22 am Post subject: |
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Bog standard noob-reporter-discovers-Japan piece. The only thing he didn't mention was square watermelons and heated toilet seats.
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| Beyond lie the peaceful, crime-free suburbs stretching for dozens of well-mannered and harmonious miles |
GAG! |
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ripslyme
Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 481
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:08 am Post subject: |
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| Interesting? More like yawn. David W hit the nail on the head. I guess the value of an article like this is that if anyone back home asks you "So, what's it like in Japan?" you can show this article to them. It should give most of those clueless about Japan the answers they want to hear. |
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BobbyBan
Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 201
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| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:22 am Post subject: |
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I think that Western reporters can't resist the fact that there is a word for death from overwork and it makes an obligatory appearance in articles like this:
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| Karoshi, or death from overwork, is still common - often happening on crammed commuter trains after an over-long day of stress and smoking. |
I can't say I have ever seen someone keel over on a train in the nine years I have been here so I wonder what this guy's definition of "often happening" is.
It's a bit of a simplistic look at Japan with plenty of cliches thrown in. If you were to use it in class you may want to chop it down a bit or hand it to the students and say, "This is the stereotype that many in the West have about Japan. Could you point out the errors?" |
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RollingStone
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:31 am Post subject: |
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| Terribly written. |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:39 am Post subject: |
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Now I'm embarassed...  !!!! |
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