"Smart fan" communities internationally

[ohtani's jacket]

Interestingly, one of my six new students was really open with me about choosing to watch streaming videos online instead of buying DVD sets. She's in her early 20s, and just like the one other student who copped to occasionally downloading files, she's a huge anime nerd. It was during our fourth lesson that she admitted to watching a lot of anime streams. I often get to see some hidden side of my new students' personalities around the fourth or fifth lesson, once some trust has been established. She also gave me the name of a French streaming site, which I have subsequently forgotten...

Don't you think the existence of so many streaming sites suggests that filesharing is more prevelant in Japan than you assumed? I mean Nico Nico Douga is one of the biggest Japanese sites on the internet. There are a lot of Japanese people who simply don't know how to download. The other day a girl I know in her 30s asked me how you download music from the internet. She wasn't against it at all, she just didn't know how to do it. Another girl asked me whether you get a virus when you download things, but I've yet to encounter anyone who's been against it particularly when online streaming is so popular. Whenever I go CD hunting in Japan, I always rub shoulders with older guys. I don't really believe that younger Japanese people have any qualms about downloading stuff. You can burn Tsutaya CDs to your heart's content in Japan, but even they're complaining about loss of revenue from illegal downloading.

 

The rest of the stuff is a bit off topic, but Rob's problem was that the company that hired him is busiest on the weeknights and weekends and doesn't offer much work during the day, which kills your social life. In Kanto you need to make plans in advance as most people are busy seeing other people they know. If your friends are busy you have to go out and meet new people, which you can't do if you're at work all the time.