"Why is this Japanese engineer writing vague, false but polite instructions.
vague, false but polite
Japanese cell phone manual I've working on reads as follows:
"When you has ended with your video-phone, an image does appear depending."That's it!
The above sentence is just floating alone in the the middle of the page like a turd in a Baptismal Font.
No explaination. No reference. Nothing.
Not unusual. Most Japanese written documents are the same: Instructions as Haiku without direct meaning. Sheesh.
The standard rationalization/apologia goes this this (which in itself is false and vague).
Aimai - ambiguity and the Japanese
Chinmoku - silence in Japanese communication
Haragei - an implicit way of communicating in Japan
Honne to tatemae - private vs. public stance in Japan
Uchi to soto - dual meanings in Japanese human relations
----"The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture" (Tuttle Publishing 2002, ed. by Roger J. Davies and Osamu Ikeno) essays about Japanese culture and communication.
Via Basic Hip Digital Oddio I give you a grrrrreat MP3 by Sondi Sodsai, 2.4MB the Japanese Farewell Song musi
How could anyone pass up the guiles of this robot honey? 
Question: Using an antiquated laptop with a serial modem port is there a free or inexepnsive dial up service in Tokyo area?
Sex and the city, Tokyo style
Japan's lapdog yaps at Billgatus of Borg...
Yet another strange non sequitur in a Japanese news story....
This TV commerial really summarizes Japan's strangest English school, "GABA".
iPods provide museum audio-guide
This is not in the least bit true, at least for the past 60 years. If anything, Japanese women take more time off after birth than any developed county on earth. 
Japan?s Internet dating services: The weird and the dangerous
