I mean, I joined these forums 13 years ago, and I was one of the younger ones *then*, and I still recognize a good many people now who were also posting back then, so I know there's a good number of forumers who are older than me.
Yeah, I think the overall age skew of the forums has gone up over the years
Maybe I've just been more prone to noticing people here around my age or something
But I felt like when I started (ten years ago), the age around here was maybe college to mid twenties, with a fair contingent of children who were still in high school (myself included)
And now the age around here feels mid twenties to early thirties maybe?
@spool32 has college-aged kids, yeah? So he's probably in his fifties? And I strongly doubt he's the only one or that there aren't also folks in their 60s here.
~spool32 has college-aged kids, yeah? So he's probably in his fifties? And I strongly doubt he's the only one or that there aren't also folks in their 60s here.
The last time I was in Japan was 20 years ago... It's interesting to see what has changed. There are a few things that have changed since then that are really interesting... One is super-weird and kind of NSFW so I'll spoiler that bit.
First thing is there are Barriers on the train platforms on the Yamanote line (and several others). This made me kind of sad, and I've gotten different answers on why they are up now. Some say it's because of the Olympics, and others are because they were getting tired of fishing drunks out of the track wells and other say too many suicides.
The pill is no longer banned here. Also divorces seem to be much more open and common now. That's not to say shotgun weddings are still a thing. (The guise of impromptu arranged marriages) but still.
This is the semi NSFW bit that is wildly interesting... (as a litmus test and according to the rules of the forum, this contains content that, while adult, is something that I wouldn't mind bringing up infront of Mom, so Your mileage may very)
When I lived here in 1996 Japan didn't have a national age of consent. It was up to the individual prefectures to make their own rules. Tokyo was the *worst* having an age of consent of SEVEN YEARS OLD! The excuse back then was that arranged marriages were a thing and it was a cultural hold-out from that. (See this gross thing happens because this other gross thing happens). This caught me quite unawares and learned about this whole age of consent thing from perusing a magazine rack in 7-11 in my 20s. Saw a cute little girl on the cover of "Paw" magazine with a puppy, grabbed it thinking it was going to see pictures of adorable whatnots and stood in horror as I saw my military career flash before my eyes. After that point I stayed clear of the magazine isle in convenience stores unless it was a manga. This was further amended later to only manga I recognized....
Anyways, fear not, Japan finally got it's act together and raised the age of consent to 18 (16+2/-2 Romeo and Juliet). However while I was in the states later I learned a major publishing company (Kadakawa Publishing) tried to skirt the law by publishing U-15 (under 15) magazines with barely dressed girls in very skeezy positions. The CEO was taken in. (The is the new one - the old one was busted on Cocaine charges in the 90s) And they had to explain that these kind pictures are not going to legally fly anymore. The CEOs response was... and I shit you not... it was "How am I supped to sell pictures of 13 year old girls then?" U-15 was pretty much killed after that.
Present day:
For those wondering why I seem to have this encyclopedic knowledge of the Japanese adult industry, I did my senior thesis on the Japanese idol system in college. It pretty much ran the gamut of the AKB48/Morning Musume teen idols all the way to Soft on Demand and "Adult" Idols managed by the same handful of conglomerate subsidiaries.
The adult industry kind of gotten turned upside down in the late 90s for lots of reasons that I wrote a 200 page paper on that I won't get into here. The other day I decided pop into a store to see how the retail market was going. I discovered the more things change, the more they stay the same. The DVD places I saw seem often split between the downstairs "Non-adult" which is where you find your Gravure idol pinup girl stuff, but reaches into that skeezy 16-17 age range. It's pretty bad that I had to go into the "adult" section upstairs to feel better about the product I was looking at. The adult content was all organized by company. So you had S1 over here, SOD over here, Muteki over here, and so on. Idols were arranged alphabetically under that company and then genre in it's own sections. It was like seeing a map of how each company was structured. SOD for example has about 10 subsidiaries under it (each which kind of specializes a a particular genre group) The specialization and organization was somehow surprising, and yet, not really all that surprising at all.
and before you all "ITT: Halkun goes into a Japanese Porn Store" I didn't buy anything... Not that *really* matters. Like I said, I'm 42 and I'd probably be more embarrassed buying the "High School Fleet" anime then whatever Yua Mikami has literally pumped out recently.
No teachers desperately trying to squeeze the last bit of life of a dying chalk pen and no it is dead you can't just keep going over the same spot with the pen it doesn't build up like that the dead tip is acting partially like an eraser and it is making your letters illegible c'mon now
Dear Tank,
I checked a bunch of 7-11s and FamilyMarts on my way back and forth from Kawasaki and did not come across any Ghost Busters branded things. I have a day left here so I'll look around tomorrow in Shinjuku just for you.
Dear Tank,
I checked a bunch of 7-11s and FamilyMarts on my way back and forth from Kawasaki and did not come across any Ghost Busters branded things. I have a day left here so I'll look around tomorrow in Shinjuku just for you.
You're a champ halkun! I'm gonna take back some of the things I've said about you. You... you've earned it.
@spool32 has college-aged kids, yeah? So he's probably in his fifties? And I strongly doubt he's the only one or that there aren't also folks in their 60s here.
What was it like writing on chalkboards in school?
I ...
When did they stop? Did they stop?
Sometime around the turn of the century.
Chalk can aggravate respiratory issues and generally creates dust in the room. Whiteboards are easier to see from the back of the room as well.
Heck, in 2002 my high school was just installing SmartBoard technology so I imagine that's been spreading as well.
@spool32 has college-aged kids, yeah? So he's probably in his fifties? And I strongly doubt he's the only one or that there aren't also folks in their 60s here.
I teach in Denmark, and we have smartboards and whatnot, but have retained our blackboards/chalkboards, and 9 out of 10 times, a chalkboard is faster and more flexible. But for specific tasks, obviously a smartboard is the way to go.
This is mainly because I need to illustrate my brilliant literary analyses with pretty hand-drawn pictures, of course.
Chalkboards were a think throughout my whole school career, which was just great because handling chalk or touching a chalkboard are two of the most horrifyingly unpleasant tactile sensations for me. Chalky stuff and cotton balls, I can't touch 'em without my skin crawling.
'I really don't want to touch the chalk' never flew as an excuse to not write on the blackboard, either.
What was it like writing on chalkboards in school?
I ...
When did they stop? Did they stop?
Sometime around the turn of the century.
Chalk can aggravate respiratory issues and generally creates dust in the room. Whiteboards are easier to see from the back of the room as well.
Heck, in 2002 my high school was just installing SmartBoard technology so I imagine that's been spreading as well.
Black/green chalkboards are an anachronism now.
Every smartboard I've ever come across in academia gets used exclusively as a whiteboard.
Posts
Yeah, I think the overall age skew of the forums has gone up over the years
Maybe I've just been more prone to noticing people here around my age or something
But I felt like when I started (ten years ago), the age around here was maybe college to mid twenties, with a fair contingent of children who were still in high school (myself included)
And now the age around here feels mid twenties to early thirties maybe?
I grew up a lot since then!
I'm 41!
So I guess I have two more years to enjoy my youth aw yeeeaaahh
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
Yeah but, Jesus was all ages between 1 and like, 28. So you were as old as Jesus was at many, many points in your life.
It's been here since I arrived in 2011 at least
Jesus made it all the way to 33 if I remember Man of Steel correctly
Of course, Akihabara as a whole does nothing for me, either.
Not that bad when I did it a couple years ago.
The last time I was in Japan was 20 years ago... It's interesting to see what has changed. There are a few things that have changed since then that are really interesting... One is super-weird and kind of NSFW so I'll spoiler that bit.
First thing is there are Barriers on the train platforms on the Yamanote line (and several others). This made me kind of sad, and I've gotten different answers on why they are up now. Some say it's because of the Olympics, and others are because they were getting tired of fishing drunks out of the track wells and other say too many suicides.
The pill is no longer banned here. Also divorces seem to be much more open and common now. That's not to say shotgun weddings are still a thing. (The guise of impromptu arranged marriages) but still.
This is the semi NSFW bit that is wildly interesting... (as a litmus test and according to the rules of the forum, this contains content that, while adult, is something that I wouldn't mind bringing up infront of Mom, so Your mileage may very)
Anyways, fear not, Japan finally got it's act together and raised the age of consent to 18 (16+2/-2 Romeo and Juliet). However while I was in the states later I learned a major publishing company (Kadakawa Publishing) tried to skirt the law by publishing U-15 (under 15) magazines with barely dressed girls in very skeezy positions. The CEO was taken in. (The is the new one - the old one was busted on Cocaine charges in the 90s) And they had to explain that these kind pictures are not going to legally fly anymore. The CEOs response was... and I shit you not... it was "How am I supped to sell pictures of 13 year old girls then?" U-15 was pretty much killed after that.
Present day:
For those wondering why I seem to have this encyclopedic knowledge of the Japanese adult industry, I did my senior thesis on the Japanese idol system in college. It pretty much ran the gamut of the AKB48/Morning Musume teen idols all the way to Soft on Demand and "Adult" Idols managed by the same handful of conglomerate subsidiaries.
The adult industry kind of gotten turned upside down in the late 90s for lots of reasons that I wrote a 200 page paper on that I won't get into here. The other day I decided pop into a store to see how the retail market was going. I discovered the more things change, the more they stay the same. The DVD places I saw seem often split between the downstairs "Non-adult" which is where you find your Gravure idol pinup girl stuff, but reaches into that skeezy 16-17 age range. It's pretty bad that I had to go into the "adult" section upstairs to feel better about the product I was looking at. The adult content was all organized by company. So you had S1 over here, SOD over here, Muteki over here, and so on. Idols were arranged alphabetically under that company and then genre in it's own sections. It was like seeing a map of how each company was structured. SOD for example has about 10 subsidiaries under it (each which kind of specializes a a particular genre group) The specialization and organization was somehow surprising, and yet, not really all that surprising at all.
and before you all "ITT: Halkun goes into a Japanese Porn Store" I didn't buy anything... Not that *really* matters. Like I said, I'm 42 and I'd probably be more embarrassed buying the "High School Fleet" anime then whatever Yua Mikami has literally pumped out recently.
It was a interesting adventure
No teachers desperately trying to squeeze the last bit of life of a dying chalk pen and no it is dead you can't just keep going over the same spot with the pen it doesn't build up like that the dead tip is acting partially like an eraser and it is making your letters illegible c'mon now
Love,
Tank
I will look for you today while I'm travelling to Kawasaki.
Hugs and kisses,
halkun
Whoooa, I haven't seen any of this! Gonna be on the lookout...
Also if you find Japanese Ghostbusters posters with the katakana logo I would adore that as well, classic or new.
I checked a bunch of 7-11s and FamilyMarts on my way back and forth from Kawasaki and did not come across any Ghost Busters branded things. I have a day left here so I'll look around tomorrow in Shinjuku just for you.
You're a champ halkun! I'm gonna take back some of the things I've said about you. You... you've earned it.
ew
I ...
When did they stop? Did they stop?
Some if they can afford them, some if the teacher actually knows how to use them and doesn't just keep them in a closet.
Some use whiteboards.
Some places (like most of Japan) use chalkboards.
Sometime around the turn of the century.
Chalk can aggravate respiratory issues and generally creates dust in the room. Whiteboards are easier to see from the back of the room as well.
Heck, in 2002 my high school was just installing SmartBoard technology so I imagine that's been spreading as well.
Black/green chalkboards are an anachronism now.
Omg *sob*
This is mainly because I need to illustrate my brilliant literary analyses with pretty hand-drawn pictures, of course.
'I really don't want to touch the chalk' never flew as an excuse to not write on the blackboard, either.
Every smartboard I've ever come across in academia gets used exclusively as a whiteboard.
I remember they used to use overheard projectors primarily, and then whiteboards starting in the late 90s.