Following the previous post about Downtown, I thought now would be a good time to introduce the most famous Downtown batsu games. Before getting down to the nitty-gritty, what exactly is a batsu game? Batsu, or 罰, is a punishment. Usually a challenge or a bet is made, and the loser(s) are punished in the form of a game.

There have been many types of batsu games over the years, the most popular of which are the annual 笑ってはいけない waratte wa ikenai no laughing specials, but all are great for a good laugh. It is possible to find subtitled versions of these on various places around the web, one of which is this website. You may also find some at this great website.

Participants: Hamada, Endou, Yamazaki
Rating: ★★★☆☆

This was the first of the modern batsu games. The rules of the game were simple. The participants must stay on guard, and run away from those who chase them. If caught, they receive a certain punishment, whether it be a slap, being hit with a stick, being the target of a ball throwing machine, kisses. There is a nice surprise at the end too!

Participants: Matsumoto
Rating: ★★★★★

Matsumoto came last in a swimming battle, leading to this. A night and two days in a haunted hotel. There is no real punishment, except Matsumoto's constant fright and state of paranoia. This is one of those batsu games that can be enjoyed without too much Japanese ability.

Participants: Matsumoto
Rating: ★★★★★

For whatever reason, Matsumoto is back in hot water. He has to go about his daily routine while taking no notice of the people around him... or the cream pies they are throwing in his face. A voice announces what he will do, and he must obey.

Participants: Matsumoto, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★☆☆

The first of the two onsen batsu games, and here we are starting to see the evolution of the punishment received. In this batsu game, the paticipants need only stay in a traditional Japanese hotel for 24 hours, making sure not to laugh. Those who laugh are rewarded with a blowdart to the ass. Yes, a blowdart.

Participants: Hamada, Yamazaki, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★☆☆

This time Matsumoto is in charge of the batsu game. The rules are basically the same as the former batsu game, but this time laughing results in a flyswatter over the ass. It really looks quite painful. There are a few funny scenes scattered throughout, but watch out when they get into the hot pool.

Participants: Matsumoto, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★☆

Here we are! From this batsu game, laughing amounted to a rubber baton around the ass. This one takes place in a school, and the participants are students in said school. Get prepared to laugh your head off when they are having the English lesson.

Participants: Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★☆

In this iteration, our participants are to join the しゃくれ Shakure police department. In their 24 hours of training they are witnesses to explosions, celebrity officers, and the infamous desk! Watch out for the bomb squad, too!

Participants: Matsumoto, Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Following much the same schedule and patterns of the previous batsu game, this new game introduces the hospital as the setting. This is the first major batsu game including all members. Bits to remember are the sudden pitfalls and the torturing of the recently deceased.　Also watch out for the other comedians doing an obstacle course to give hope to a sick child.

Participants: Matsumoto, Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★☆

The quality of the show is getting better and also adapting the same, tried and tested methods established in the previous two batsu games, plus a few new editions that will show up in later games; namely the initial bus ride skits and the part which resembles Matsumoto's すべらない話 Suberanai Hanashi - segments of humorous stories told by other comedians.

Participants: Matsumoto, Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★☆

The general pattern has been set and polished to a high standard. We see the same routines return, done before, but still funny and introduced in a fresh, funny way. A lot of famous Japanese celebrities make appearances. We see a lot of other comedians performing pranks of pain on each other as a new gimmick.

Participants: Matsumoto, Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★☆

There are a lot of the old things here, but the group spend a lot of time in their spy room. It looks like a lot of money went into the set designs and special guest appearances. Newly added is a game of tag around some buildings much similar to the first batsu game. To be honest there's not much spy stuff.

Participants: Matsumoto, Hamada, Yamazaki, Endou, Tanaka
Rating: ★★★★★

I don't want to say that this one is just like the others, but it is. That said, it was the same general pattern as the last three, but still damned funny. I would like to see some change up in routines, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it, as they say.

Japan is, on the whole, a country of unbelievable safety. An unfortunate byproduct of that safety is the naivety of others who take that safety for granted. For a country where you can leave your wallet on the train and (more often than not) get it back untouched, there are a lot of swindlers ready to take advantage of your trust!

Scams, especially targeting the elderly, are so common that you can barely walk into a bank without seeing a warning (with colorful, cute pictures to boot) against being scammed.

Some of the more common or well-known scams:

オレオレ詐欺 ore ore sagi

This scam requires only a mark and their phone number. The scam artist calls and says little else other than "It's me, it's me! There's been an accident! Quick, I need a money transfer!"

One reason that these kinds of scams work is that they put the mark in a state of mind where they cannot think freely. Suddenly spooking the mark into this state of emergency help to sell the scam.

着信あり詐欺 chakushin ari sagi

This one is annoying, and many of you in Japan will be aware of it. It's really quite ingenious. You will check your phone and notice that you have a missed call. That's strange, you don't remember it ringing... Guess you better call them back.

Wrong, you just got scammed. This scam has gone international. The company will call you for just enough to allow for one ring (this being free). This will show up on the receiver's phone. What they don't know, is that they are being charged when they call back, usually for a negligible fee, but money nonetheless. Recently they have began doing this through Facetime calls.

架空請求 kakuu seikyuu

This is basically a fake invoice scam where the scam artist will send you an invoice claiming that you owe them money (and are usually already overdue), where failure to pay will affect your credit rating. This is often targeted at companies rather than people.

They are usually for small amounts, ones that you would rather just pay than spend too long looking into.

Though I was lucky enough to have some man-to-man English teaching experience back home, teaching at an Eikaiwa school was a whole different affair, and I would like to think that I have learnt a lot, but definitely still have a lot more to learn yet.

First of all, why choose an Eikaiwa school? Well, there is decent money in the Eikaiwa business. You could make twice as much as you do working your 40 hour-a-week job back home. That said, if your purpose for coming to Japan is to speak Japanese, it might not be your best bet. Your students will speak English, and most likely your coworkers will too.

I am sure that each Eikaiwa school, especially the big names, have their own teaching style, and will most likely give you training in it. That said, whether or not you follow this teaching method like a bible or not is up to you, and more likely, up to your student.

It is a misconception to think that any native speaker can teach English; it's not for everyone. That said, if you work at it, I am sure that most people could become an okay English teacher, and given enough time some will become great.

Of course you will need some knowledge of the English language and preferably how it works. I wouldn't recommend that you go in their without sorting your adverbs from your condtionals. Depending on your students' needs, you may not be teaching grammar so much. Generally speaking, Japanese students excel at grammar. This is probably part of having a society based around written examinations. What the average student needs is speaking and listening practice.

One piece of advice that I can give is simple and to the point - don't talk too much. Listen and observe. It's nice to have a pen handy, so you can write down any obvious flaws.

Don't be too quick to give corrections, either. A good strategy is to let the student correct themselves. Let them know they have made a mistake by using a recurring gesture or line (for example holding you hand to your ear with a confused face, or simply asking "what was that?"). This self correction will encourage self-monitoring in the student, meaning they will rely on you less. Hopefully, anyway.

You may or may not be interested in teaching children. There's a lot of money to be had in children's English classes. Children are usually great or horrible, in my experience, though mostly great. Kids' classes are usually so relaxed and a little more focused on fun.

But no matter what advice you get, no matter how well you know the material, there's nothing quite like just getting in there and experiencing it for yourself. You will probably be nervous the first few times. But hey, go in there, put on a smile, and hope that the student walks out with more English than they walked in with!

Basically speaking, drugs in Japan are just a big fat NO. While other countries are experimenting with decriminilization and legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, Japan has a stubbornly negative opinion of marijuana that is deeply ingrained into the social psyche.

Marijuana, because of its legality and the hive-mind culture of Japan, is largely associated with crime, delinquency and the Yakuza. Oddly enough, it was after the American occupancy of Japan that marijuana was made illegal. Before that, cannabis, in particular, hemp, was very abundant in Japan.

It is such a taboo subject that the media itself will not cover it in any other light than negative; broadly speaking, the only times that marijuana gets any mention in the mainstream media is when celebrities are caught using the stuff - which of course will almost surely end their career.

A quick browse through YouTube did reveal a few gems, though. The following is a debate, subtitled, which took place in 2009 after president Obama decided to let individual states police their own marijuana laws.



Concerning the punishments, being caught with any marujuana in Japan will land you in jail, no two ways about it. It is punishable up to a maximum of 5 years and a fine of up to 2,000,000 yen (about $50,000). If you are a foreigner, you will be shipped back to your home country, basically never allowed to enter again. If you are a native, you will be stuck in prison fora long time.

That said, I do know people who smoke, though not regularly. The severe punishments make for very high prices. Depending on the area, a single joint could cost 4,000 yen. Apparently in some cities it is easier to acquire than others. If rumor shows any truth, Hokkaido is apparently a hot spot.

Other rumors will point you to areas like Tokyo's Roppongi or Osaka's American Village (アメ村) in Namba.

Legal highs are available, and they may resemble marijuana in some ways. One such alternative is the euphemistically named 'herb' (ハーブ). It can be purchased legally, and carried, but it is illegal to smoke, on the premise that it is intended as incense. One such vendor operates in an upstairs store in the aforementioned American Village, with prices being about 1,000 yen per incense joint. There are many options to choose from, and even a sofa and a Nintendo 64 available for those interested.

Historically cannabis has been present in Japan since the Jomon period (10,000 - 300BC). At this point, it was used probably not as a relaxant or for recreation, rather for its use in clothing and basket making. While some say that it was already abundant in Japan before contact with the neighbouring Asian countries, it is likely that is came from China, like much of the other things in early Japanese history.

It arrived in more abundance from Korea, as can be seen in an early cave-paintings of the Korean traders. The image to the right apparently depicts the bushes traveling by boat, the water visible below. This is one of the oldest art images in Japan.

It gained more use in later periods , such as for fishing, though it lost a lot of its uses to the thick growing cotton plants. Cannabis does also have a special symbolism in the native Shinto religion.

For those interested in the topic, please check this website for more opinions, from Japanese, about the issue (translations provided)

I bought an iPhone before moving to Japan in hopes of using it here, but was surprised when nowhere would sell me a SIM card. The iPhone that I bought was originally a Japanese iPhone to begin with, so I thought it would be a piece of cake.

Well I underestimated the amount of screwing around I would be doing thanks to SoftBank. In the end I had to buy a whole prepaid phone in order to get a prepaid SIM (technically USIM) card, for which I would have needed a 外国人登録証明書 gaikokujin touroku shoumeisho, a Gaijin card, had my girlfriend not filled out the paperwork.

If you need to get your hands on a prepaid SIM, this is probably the best way, though there are a few success stories of people buying just the SIMs themselves. But it is rare and will take a lot of searching around different SoftBank branches. Hell, even finding a store with a prepaid card and phone will take a little searching.

Anyway, I got the USIM, and as my iPhone is Jailbroken and unlocked, I tried throwing it in there. But unfortunately, no love. After a little internet searching and a lot of conflicting information, I decided to give it up and just use the damned SoftBank prepaid phone.

Fast-forward about three months, to my prepaid phone completely dying. I took it into SoftBank and they confirmed that it was screwed. Thankfully the SIM was still fine. Thus started my 6 hour journey to getting the iPhone to work here. My results were largely produced by trial and error, but it eventually worked out.

So, in order to hopefully save someone else a lot of wasted time, I'm gonna recount what worked for me. Your situation may be different, but I imagine this should work for most iPhones. For reference, I am using an old iPhone 3G running firmware 4.1, Jailbroken and unlocked. As far as I know, you can't do this for iPhone 4s, because the size of the SIM card is different, though I have heard of people manually cutting SIMs to make them work.

The setup

First you need the prepaid USIM. This is white in color, with the silver and white SoftBank logo and the word Prepaid in black.

As I mentioned, you will probably have to purchase this along with a SoftBank prepaid phone, which will set you back about １万円, 10,000 Yen, which should include a ３千円 3,000 Yen prepaid top-up card. This is different to real iPhone SIMs, which are black, and some other SIMs which are grey.

When comparing it side-by-side with an older SIM card, or one from your own country, you may notice some design and size differences. I thought that my initial problems may have been caused by this, but no. The iPhone (3G and 3GS at least) is compatible with the SoftBank prepaid USIM, no matter what people tell you.

Next, you need to Jailbreak and Unlock your iPhone. I won't get into how to jailbreak here, but I would recommend GreenPois0n. A guide can be found here

Apparently it is possible to use this regular sized SIM in an iPhone 4, which takes a micro-SIM. You can find videos on YouTube telling you how. It involves cutting and you only get one chance at it, though. Search for "Mini SIM to Micro SIM."

The Unlock

Once you are jailbroken, you need to Unlock your iPhone so that you can use the SIM of a different carrier. There are a few ways. You may have bought a factory-unlocked iPhone that can be used anywhere, or you might have to use an unlocking SIM or software. Personally I used the unlocking software ultrasn0w. This can be found on Cydia on a jailbroken phone.

Whether or not your iPhone is unlockable depends on your "Baseband" version. Here is a simple guide. If you have trouble, leave a comment.

Once you have unlocked successfully, you should be able to insert your USIM and get the phone services working. If not, try enabling 3G and Cellular Data in Settings > General > Network. I was just about to give up before I tried this. To test your phone capabilities, give 1400 a call. This is the SoftBank prepaid service number. At this point you should also be able to send SMSs.

MMS

If we want to use SoftBank's MMS service (that is, email on the phone), we have to first set the email account up using a regular Japanese phone. Pop your SIM in another phone and go through the options. Once you have acquired your email address, write it down and return your SIM to your iPhone.

In order to use MMS we have two options. One is to use a third-party software called SwirlyMMS 2. A guide for this can be found at this website, and a copy of the important file here is below. Open this file in your iPhone browser (using wireless).

Softbank MMS.mobileconfig

The option that I chose, however, is to use the iPhone's native messaging application. In order to do this, we need access to the "Cellular Data Network" menu under Settings > General > Network (depending on your language preferences, this may be called "Mobile Data Network"). If we can get here, we are almost done.

If, for some reason, this menu is not visible to you, you are having the same problem that I did. And there are a few ways around this. One, the most simple (but it didn't work for me), is to remove your SIM card while the phone is on, wait 10 seconds, and put it back in. Then the menu may magically appear.

The other way, however is to download another Cydia program called Supreme Preferences 3.0. This is a paid program, but let's just say there are ways to get what you want for free. Here is a guide to enabling the Cellular Data Network menu. You will need to get the Cydia app WinterBoard as well. You may need to exit the settings menu and go back in for the changes to be visible.

Once you have access to the Cellular Data Network menu, we will need to change the settings inside. My Settings are as follows:

Cellular Data:

APN: mailwebservice.softbank.ne.jp
Username: softbank
Password: qceffknarlurqgbl

MMS:

APN: mailwebservice.softbank.ne.jp
Username: softbank
Password: qceffknarlurqgbl
MMSC: http://mms/
MMS Proxy: smilemms.softbank.ne.jp
MMS Max Message Size: 307200
MMS UA Prof URL: -BLANK-

Just copy everything there into your settings. Now go to Settings > Messages and hopefully at the bottom you will see "MMS Email Account." In here put your phones email address that you wrote down earlier (probably in the format xxx@softbank.ne.jp).

And that should be it. If you have trouble with the second method, perhaps first try downloading the APN settings on your phone (From KAZUYA's blog, or the copy I have) and then later changing them through the "Cellular Data Network" menu.

If you have any questions, drop in a comment!

Here are the other sites that helped me in some way understand how to do this:

iPhone Hacking Guide
Gaijin Pot Forums

UPDATE 21/06/11 Apparently there is a problem with Supreme Preferences. It will lose its MMS settings if the iPhone is powered off. This means you will have to spend a minute and type them back in. Annoying, I know. I'll keep you posted if there's a better way.

UPDATE 04/07/11 Another way to get you Cellular Data options to show up is to add:

<key>APNEditabilityTypemask</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>AllowEDGEEditing</key>
<true/>

to the carrier plist file, on the 5th line. You will probably also want to install the Commcenter patch from Cydia first to make it so that your settings don't get reset every time you reboot (well, hopefully anyway). I'll note that this method didn't work for me, however.

UPDATE 14/02/12 Just noting that I now use a contract iPhone 4, but am still happy to help out those struggling with this. I hope the comments will shine as a beacon of light for those who are frustrated by this!