Some Irish soccer fans are hoping that spending 65 euros (US$59) at home will help them save much more when they travel to Japan to watch Ireland play in the World Cup.
For that price, Dublin-based company World Cup Wanderers is offering a four-hour course covering basic Japanese phrases, cultural faux pas and dining tips. Fans, probably paying double the cost of a normal holiday, will learn how to enjoy themselves without overspending, said Luke Carson. He had the idea after returning from working in Japan last year.
Fans run the risk of "coming back with the memory of Japan as where they got into serious debt," Carson said in an interview. "It is an expensive country but if you know what to do and what not to do you can cut your costs dramatically."
The Economist Intelligence Unit's cost of living survey rates Osaka and Tokyo as the world's most expensive cities. They measure 140 on the index, while New York gets 100, London 102 and Paris 95. Those figures reflect the cost of rent and groceries and are based on what it takes for an expatriate family to maintain its lifestyle.
Most supporters will spend at least two weeks in Japan to see Ireland's matches with Cameroon, Germany and Saudi Arabia, giving them plenty of free time, Carson said. He's telling fans to look beyond Irish pubs while avoiding bars which charge for seats.
That amount "includes the cost of a young woman sitting down, talking to you and pouring drinks," he said. "If you walk into one of these places you're going to get hammered on the price."
Food is the other main concern for people that sign up for the course, he said.
"If you're after Japanese food it's not all raw fish, and there are a lot of alternatives more palatable to someone without an adventurous palate," Carson said. "There are also plenty of Western restaurants."
Instead of trying to teach fans Japanese, Carson, with the help of a fellow Irishman and a native Japanese adviser, is highlighting a series of simple sentences and Japanese words derived from English. They're holding the courses at a football club in Dublin for the rest of this month.
The World Cup starts May 31 in co-host South Korea, where defending champion France takes on Senegal in Seoul.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique