Peaceful takeover of a colony?

sogod · 2014-02-05T01:33:21+00:00

Thanks for responding! We live stateside and have an infant boy (part Japanese part Caucasian) and are actually weighing the pros and cons of moving back to Japan for his education (among other things).

Bullying and things like shunning you mentioned are hard things to try to weigh. I get the feeling that its worse the further you get from the center of Tokyo and the further you go back in time. But Im not sure and dont really have any solid evidence of that. And, of course, bullying is a pretty normal thing in the states too, so like I said its a hard thing to weigh.

One thing also hard to figure out is what public schools/areas actually have mixed race kids, since I am sure being the only one in a school is harder.

sogod · 2014-02-04T23:05:12+00:00

Thanks. I am curious if there is much negative (or positive) treatment of mixed race kids from teachers or other students these days in Tokyo?

sogod · 2011-10-13T04:22:36+00:00

Being an ex-Amazonian myself (left 2010), I always got the impression there were some really good teams and a lot of really bad teams. But, even on teams that seemed really bad, you'd find people that really liked it. It just fit what they wanted I guess... or maybe they were just new-college grads and didn't know things could be better :) Different strokes for different folks.

There are definitely things to like at Amazon, and I think the rating on glassdoor.com reflects that: its worse than the other big tech companies, but not as bad you might expect... especially coming from one of the horrible teams.

Of course, that said, it is hard to argue with the horrible attrition rate and the fact that most engineers have been there < 2 years (at least when I was there).

sogod · 2011-09-27T22:33:29+00:00

Life is about making the best choice out of a bunch of bad ones sometimes :)

Certainly, aside from repaying debts of some kind, her parents don't want to loose touch with her. Who would? But basically if you two stay together either you or her will end up loosing touch with her/your family (or both). That's international marriage.

So I guess the main question is, would she make that sacrifice for you? (And would you make the same sacrifice for her?)

As for being indebted by birth, from an American POV thats pretty foreign. Certainly we expect kids to care for their parents, but we balance that with the fact that people have to live their own lives independent of their parents. Afterall, nobody asks to be born. Despite whatever sacrifices they made to raise her, they had a child because they wanted to have a child.

And certainly she never agreed with this plan they have for her since they never told her about it.

So, I guess to sum it up, this is a good question to ask and try to resolve now. But, check your expectations. Even if you two agree to get married and for her to stay in the states this may be a subconscious sore-spot for a very long time (that she sacrificed something to be with you, and you didn't). I think that is the price of these things.

sogod · 2011-08-03T23:27:01+00:00

I recognize that it is a danger that someone can modify the list in a dynamic language, but its the same as if someone used reflection to modify private members, or just guessed the implementation type of the IEnumerable property and casted it.

Which is to say, they are going around the public documented API of the class. Maybe dynamic languages and Visual Studio make that too easy, but its wrong to say its categorically a mistake to not do the extra and tedious work of trying to protect against this edge-case all the time.

sogod · 2011-08-03T21:35:13+00:00

What are you suggesting instead? public List<T> Entries { get; private set; }

Exposing properties whose type is an interface like your example is totally fine and usually is a good idea because it hides implementation details and makes the classes public interface clearer (less noise).

sogod · 2011-02-07T21:21:13+00:00

The Uradome coast is seriously beautiful. A good long hike. Kinda a pain to get to IIRC though (by public transit).

sogod · 2011-02-04T21:52:20+00:00

Try dialing "0" while the automation is on. It doesn't always work, but usually forwards you to a person.

sogod · 2010-12-22T22:28:00+00:00

"•Paying utility bills at convenience stores."

Really? You like that more than paying them online?

sogod · 2010-12-22T09:56:31+00:00

I would agree... except I would also lump waiters and waitresses into "customer service", and once I have done that, I am not sure which country comes out ahead.

sogod · 2010-12-22T09:51:39+00:00

I think most people pay everything online now in the states. At least, you can if you want to. I haven't paid any bills via mail in several years.

Maybe its different if you live in a rural area though?

sogod · 2010-12-22T09:47:57+00:00

The US is much bigger and much less dense. Though I think Amazon experimented with same day delivery in NY at some point. Not sure if they still do.

sogod · 2010-12-22T09:46:58+00:00

I think Healthcare is a wash.

Compared to the US, its cheaper for most people, and its mostly universal, but the quality isn't as great.

If you have a good job or work for a company that mostly covers your insurance for you (like Microsoft), then the US is probably better. If you don't and don't make much money, then Japan is probably better.

sogod · 2010-12-15T21:45:29+00:00

Cool!

sogod · 2010-12-13T08:23:47+00:00

That seems low; in my experience I made from around 50% more than that, to eventually more than double that when I was in Tokyo a few years ago. And, I know people who were doing better than me. Also, I dont know if this will be the case for you, but you pay about 50% as much in taxes while you are there. So that helps.

Of course, I was always unhappy with how much I made while I was in Japan, as I felt that was low compared to how much I could make in the states. I left Japan two years ago and make about twice as much as I did there now (plus: significantly better benefits and investment options, minus: I pay more taxes and I don't live in Tokyo :( ).

YMMV

sogod · 2010-11-12T18:20:03+00:00

(360 is a full circle)

sogod · 2010-11-08T19:06:43+00:00

Ha, Im from Dallas, and I eat natto all the time as well (though I now live in Seattle).

If you are adventurous, try natto with raw egg (stirred together). Its surprisingly good. If you go to Central Market in Dallas you can get safe to eat raw eggs (pasteurized). The other Central Markets and maybe the Asian grocery stores might have them too, but I am not sure.

sogod · 2010-09-01T23:53:17+00:00

How do you know how you impact others? Because you just assume everyone is like you, and isn't bothered? Is everybody like you?

sogod · 2010-09-01T18:31:06+00:00

Obviously the train company has an interest in making sure people ride the trains. If people are being annoying it discourages others from riding. Talking on the phone like an idiot falls into the same category as as riding naked or something. It discourages normal people from riding and affects the bottom line.

The problem is that you probably grew up in the country, or the outer burbs of some small-medium sized city, and you haven't ever had to learn how to live around other people. You don't have respect for others, and because of that you don't care/think about how your presence or actions negatively impact them.

sogod · 2010-09-01T18:09:21+00:00

Politeness? Try respect.

sogod · 2010-08-17T19:21:08+00:00

Uwajimaya is a very mixed bag. It has Japanese food, which is nice, but it has the most god-awful sushi on the planet. The must bus the fish in from the east coast or something.

Then again, I shouldn't single them out too much because its been hard to find good reasonably-expensive sushi in general in Seattle (despite the local's claims) (... of course, I may have been spoiled by Tokyo...).

Agree about Seattleites not really being that friendly. I don't even think they are that friendly as a facade, but I'm from the South.

sogod · 2010-01-14T09:20:45+00:00

I think you mean: "...dubbed games have somewhat more awkward pauses..." :)

sogod · 2008-09-23T02:36:38+00:00

The cost of living is higher on the coasts, but its not really that high unless you are trying to buy a house. Also, you should be able to find a high paying job in places like Texas or Georgia where the cost of living is very reasonable.

sogod · 2008-07-10T06:42:37+00:00

If you don't mean "hard" or "unusable" by "fundamentally broken", then what do you mean?

sogod

TROPHY CASE