The Vent and Rant Thread

[kindlekitten]

I don't know that I'd exactly call Japan developing....

[amward]

Is this all for you to leave Japan? Are you really really sure you want to?

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I don't know that I'd exactly call Japan developing....

He is going to Thailand which is developing and the one with the 9,000 forms and kickbacks.

[Stitchawl]

I have a feeling that a lot of this is Thailand's revenge on Japan's policy of forcing Thai women to have a bank account balance of $250,000 USD before they will issue a tourist visa to unmarried Thai women.

Spoiler:

(Their reasoning is that all young Thai women want to come to Japan to become prostitutes because in Japan they can charge $300-$500 per customer while in Thailand they can only get $20--$30. If they have a quarter mil in the bank, then obviously they aren't coming to Japan to turn tricks. Of course, as the Yakuza control all the prostitution in Japan, they simply put the money into a girls account, get her visa, then move the money to the next girl's bank.)

15 years ago, several of us pooled our money to help out a colleague who wanted to bring his Thai fiancee to Japan. We loaned her the money, she got the bank statement proving she had it, had her visa issued, then returned the money to us. Once here, they married and she was able to obtain a Spouse visa without needing the big bucks.

Stitchawl

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I have a feeling that a lot of this is Thailand's revenge on Japan's policy of forcing Thai women to have a bank account balance of $250,000 USD before they will issue a tourist visa to unmarried Thai women.

Speak of double standards!
I got a three-year visa (work) in five ridiculous days. It happened so fast, everyone was surprised. I was asked if I did something special (like having everything translated in Japanese). Nope, my diploma was in French, my resume and everything which wasn't provided by my employer in English. Only the company documents were in Japanese, obviously.
I'm clearly not a Thai woman (and Japan loves diploma)

It was the same at the airport with my brother unable to remember my address, and yet the customs guy let him in, and one of my housemate from a less developed country who has trouble each time he crosses the boarder, even though he has a proper visa.
Re

[Stitchawl]

Getting Japanese long-stay visas is an easy process. When I came here as a single guy, all I needed was my diploma, letter from a Japanese employer stating how much I'd be paid, and a simple health check, and I was given a three-year visa. After marrying a Japanese woman, all I needed was a copy of the marriage license and the application form, for another three-year visa.

Tourist visas tend to be little more than just signing your name agreeing not to work while inside a country. Even Thailand offers 'visa on arrival' or 'tourist visas' quickly and easily. It's their 'long-stay' visas that are an offense to normality.

When I had my business in Thailand, as a foreign owner, I had 20+ forms that all had to be in Thai, just for 'me.' Then, as a business owner, I was required to have 5 Thai partners, and all the paperwork for each of them too, each time I re-newed my visa (valid for one year.) And that was just for the visa. I had another sheaf of paper required (and money paid) to get a work permit each year.

However, even though the visa was valid for one year, I still had to leave the country every 90 days, and re-enter (an hour later) to get another stamp in my passport. And, of course, pay more money each time. This time I'll be entering on a long-stay 'Retirement' visa, which requires completely different forms, in both Thai AND English, for both me AND my wife. This visa will also be good for just one year, and then will need to repeat the process. And with this visa, I will still have to report to Immigration every 90 days to say "Hi fellas! I'm still here. And here's some more money."

But life in Thailand is sooo relaxed, so laid-back, the people so friendly, and cost of living so incredibly cheap, that's it's all worth the one week out of the year dealing with the Consulate to get the proper permissions. Where else on earth can you have a big house with live-in cook, gardener, and housekeeper (if you want that sort of life) for $200 a month, and yet still have ultra modern health care, shopping, and lifestyle (if you want THAT sort of lifestyle?) We tried the "Tara Gone With the Wind" living for 6 months, and moved into a smaller 3-bedroom luxury residential hotel for the next 9 years, and that was even cheaper.

Yeah... it's worth putting up with the hassle, especially when we have the 'Vent and Rant' forum to let off the steam!

Stitchawl

[Roger Parkinson]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

But life in Thailand is sooo relaxed, so laid-back, the people so friendly, and cost of living so incredibly cheap, that's it's all worth the one week out of the year dealing with the Consulate to get the proper permissions. Where else on earth can you have a big house with live-in cook, gardener, and housekeeper (if you want that sort of life) for $200 a month, and yet still have ultra modern health care, shopping, and lifestyle (if you want THAT sort of lifestyle?) We tried the "Tara Gone With the Wind" living for 6 months, and moved into a smaller 3-bedroom luxury residential hotel for the next 9 years, and that was even cheaper.
Stitchawl

It does sound nice (and cheap!) but the climate is too warm for me. Well, Bangkok is, I didn't get any further afield. so maybe that's a poor evaluation. But I do prefer the cold.
When I was there a couple of years ago we'd been in sales mode for several visits and then we got the deal and moved into 'working there' mode. The morning we arrived 'working there' our business partners announced that we'd better get work visas or we risk getting arrested. To do that we had to fly to Singapore, fill in forms and pay money, stay there two nights, fly back etc. I didn't mind the visa requirement, but I did mind that our partners could have told us this before we arrived. As it was the others with me did the Singapore jaunt and I flew home and didn't go back.

[kindlekitten]

arrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! since when did real estate take on combat type time management!? hours of boredom surrounded by bouts of frenetic activity!? (in this case it's days though!) I all of a sudden find myself needing to renew my license by Friday, thinking I had until July, do my taxes, have a listing appointment in the morning, have a showing in the afternoon with not just casual lookee loos, but a local important politician that WILL buy (and I have helped her on campaigns), another listing appointment the next day, AND I am putting on a major dog event for the city April 6th!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Roger Parkinson

It does sound nice (and cheap!) but the climate is too warm for me. Well, Bangkok is, I didn't get any further afield. so maybe that's a poor evaluation.

Bangkok is a horrible place. I'm amazed that life was able to flourish there. When forced to go down there, I find that after three days my brains turn to mashed potatoes and start flowing out my ears.

But I do prefer the cold.

As do we. Northern Thailand, especially in the mountain regions where we prefer to live, the climate is much more comfortable. Still hot in summer, but in fact, this area of Japan is usually hotter, so moving has its plus side. And in winter, the temps get down into the middle teens. Very comfortable. In fact, one year the overnight mountain temperatures got low enough to create frost on the fields, and the local folks were all excited thinking it was snow!

When I was there a couple of years ago we'd been in sales mode for several visits and then we got the deal and moved into 'working there' mode. The morning we arrived 'working there' our business partners announced that we'd better get work visas or we risk getting arrested.

In Thailand, one needs a work visa to do even volunteer work! One year they arrested several members of 'Doctors without Borders' for working the refugee camps without work permits. Of course, they just bribed the police and were left alone. That is one advantage of a Third World Country. Paying 'tea money' to a cop avoids just about any problem... The going rate to avoid a speeding ticket is about $3 USD.

To do that we had to fly to Singapore, fill in forms and pay money, stay there two nights, fly back etc.

We usually go to Kuala Lumpur to renew ours as it's much cheaper. S'pore is NOT an inexpensive city any more. Another popular destination is Penang in Malaysia, so you can enjoy the beach for a couple of days while waiting for the Embassy to get your papers together.

[Rumpelteazer]

You have trigger-happy but my mother is click-happy. Last night, I just learned, the startpage in Firefox on her notebook had changed. It took my sister and father a long time to change this back.

Half an hour ago, after switching her notebook back on she exclaimed that she got this program, RegClean, which does a system scan and tell her there are many fault with her computer. Not trusting this I googled the program and indeed it's a fake, just wanting to take your money. She insists she hasn't installed it, but I know she goes to shady websites and doesn't always read and think before she clicks something.

I've uninstalled it via the configuration screen but I'm 99% sure it will be back. Again, googling how to uninstall it you have to go into the registry to get rid of it. I don't like messing with the registry. I might do it if I thought my mother would have learned anything from it, but she doesn't. I could reinstall Windows but that would take me half a day to set everything up again and chances are I need to do the same thing again soon. So I told her that if it comes back she just has to bring it to the Staples computer help service to let them deal with it. It will cost her money, but maybe that way she'll learn from it. She's now angry with me that I can't/refuse to clean up her notebook, still insisting that she didn't install it.

[Rumpelteazer]

So, my mother now admits clicking on something yesterday just before RegClean made it's presence known. On the YouTube website was an annoying flickering ad telling her she'd won and iPad and she click the X to close it but was redirected to a website, she did this several times. Of course it wasn't a real pop-up and the X was part of the ad/image. I'm now running a malware removal program (which I checked out thoroughly before downloading it) and it already has found several bad programs.

I told her this is as far as I'm prepared to go. The non-rogue scanner might not find and remove everything and if the problems return she has to go to Staples to get it solved.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

You have trigger-happy but my mother is click-happy. Last night, I just learned, the startpage in Firefox on her notebook had changed. It took my sister and father a long time to change this back.

Half an hour ago, after switching her notebook back on she exclaimed that she got this program, RegClean, which does a system scan and tell her there are many fault with her computer. Not trusting this I googled the program and indeed it's a fake, just wanting to take your money. She insists she hasn't installed it, but I know she goes to shady websites and doesn't always read and think before she clicks something.

I've uninstalled it via the configuration screen but I'm 99% sure it will be back. Again, googling how to uninstall it you have to go into the registry to get rid of it. I don't like messing with the registry. I might do it if I thought my mother would have learned anything from it, but she doesn't. I could reinstall Windows but that would take me half a day to set everything up again and chances are I need to do the same thing again soon. So I told her that if it comes back she just has to bring it to the Staples computer help service to let them deal with it. It will cost her money, but maybe that way she'll learn from it. She's now angry with me that I can't/refuse to clean up her notebook, still insisting that she didn't install it.

Somebody at work here mentioned kids like that -- so he created an imaged copy on a USB disk, and set it up to auto install. You just plug in the USB stick and reboot -- and the whole system is wiped out, with a new fresh one installed. You would want your Mom's account auto-created, I suppose. This would wipe out any files she had saved (which wasn't a concern for the person with kids) but would re-enable web browsing with a clean machine. It might be worthwhile!

[red_phoenix]

Pedestrian 1 - Vehicle - 0

Why do people have to be in such a hurry that they run red lights? If I had not been cautious (this almost happened to me once before) I would have been hit by a van speeding to get through a red light.

Fortunately there was no one crossing the van's path or it would have been one violent collision.

I am really thankful that a) I was not hit by the van, b) that there was no collision between the van and another vehicle that could have had some nasty consequences for the occupants and c) that I did not have to be a witness to such an event.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Somebody at work here mentioned kids like that -- so he created an imaged copy on a USB disk, and set it up to auto install. You just plug in the USB stick and reboot -- and the whole system is wiped out, with a new fresh one installed. You would want your Mom's account auto-created, I suppose. This would wipe out any files she had saved (which wasn't a concern for the person with kids) but would re-enable web browsing with a clean machine. It might be worthwhile!

I just not going to do it anymore. I spend two hours on her computer (the anti-malware program found 5 suspected files). Not only, hopefully, getting rid of the mal/scareware but also uninstalling the two virusscanners she had installed with updates for other programs (such as Flash) and updating the virusscan I had originally installed. All without a "thank you" afterwards.

It just pisses me off that everyone thinks it doesn't matter when they mess up their computer because Bianca's there to make everything all right. I regularly have to reinstall the computer in the livingroom or the one in the store because my father switched off the virusscan because it blocked a dodgy website he wanted to view. And I recently spend half a day rescuing files from my sister's crashed notebook because she didn't think it was serious when it told her the HDD had problems and could crash at any moment and she never made any back-ups.

So I've decided from now on I won't help them unless I'm paid, including for the research time and the time waiting for any scans I have to do.

/end of rant

[orlok]

Originally Posted by red_phoenix

Pedestrian 1 - Vehicle - 0

Why do people have to be in such a hurry that they run red lights? If I had not been cautious (this almost happened to me once before) I would have been hit by a van speeding to get through a red light.

Fortunately there was no one crossing the van's path or it would have been one violent collision.

I am really thankful that a) I was not hit by the van, b) that there was no collision between the van and another vehicle that could have had some nasty consequences for the occupants and c) that I did not have to be a witness to such an event.

Glad that you are still with us red. I could rant for hours about poor driving (I have just been on a 360 mile round trip today), but my main gripe are tailgaiters - I could cheerfully employ car-to-car missiles and despatch the lot of them!