Nicktendo

Circumstances have led me to the point in my life where I have the ability to take a year out starting September this year. I would like to fulfill a dream I've had since I was about 6 years old and move to Japan. I have a Bachelor's degree and Master's degree and a high level CELTA qualification. I have 3 years experience teaching English as a foreign language in Russia in language schools, kindergartens and huge companies such as Oracle, Gazprombank and Rosneft... so I guess I'm pretty qualified when it comes to what Japan expects from a native speaking English teacher. Russia was an experience which I thoroughly enjoyed, but one, as a student of Russian language and history, I was thoroughly prepared for before I made the move over there. I spent a month in St. Petersburg prior to making the leap, checking out the schools in person and scoring face-to-face interviews with numerous school directors. That made my decision where to take a job fairly easy. Japan is obviously the opposite. There are so many different ads, schools and companies online that I don't even know where to start. I've heard good things and bad things about teaching English in Japan, ranging from outright scams to schools that will pay a good salary, help with the visa and flights as well as offer subsidised accommodation. My idea is to spend a year there, no more, and preferably work outside of the big cities, but still within reasonable reach of one or two of them. Obviously getting a decent salary and reasonable / subsidized accommodation (if this sort of thing is even attainable for a new teacher) is what I'd be aiming for. I know some forum members have lived and worked as teachers in Japan and if any of you would be happy to give a few pointers on what to look for, or more specifically what to avoid, I'd love to hear it. I figured four months was enough time to arrange everything if I'm looking to sort out a job prior to departure, though if I'm wrong and a September start is unattainable at this stage of the year, please do let me know. On the other hand I've also read (even though most stuff online seems to be 3-5 years old) that it's much easier to get a job once in Japan, and that with £2000 to survive on for a month or two you can enter the country on a tourist visa, frantically shop around for schools with a CV under your arm and then decide what you like the look of best. The school will then make all the necessary adjustments to your visa without you having to leave the country. Any comments on typical salary expectations / bonuses / insurance or pension schemes would also be welcome. One of the big ways I managed to earn money in Russia was teaching private students outside of school hours, how easy is this to do in Japan, what are the legal ramifications etc.? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated! Cheers.

Voted for Burnham as well, Greens second as the Lib Dems didn't really seem to offer much for me personally. I'm fairly confident he'll get it, he has some really good policies and I'd like to see if he's actually able to end homelessness by 2020 because it is far, far worse in Manchester than any other northern city.

I played through all of 100cc and won every race by a comfortable margin, even managed to lap a couple of people in some races. I never experienced this on the Wii U version. 150cc seems to be a lot easier as well, I remember having problems on the Wii U getting 3 stars, but on the Switch version it has been plain sailing, with the exception of a few close calls. I can still build up a healthy lead in most races. I don't know if it's because I know the tracks inside out after 3 years or whether the level of aggression has been toned down, but it definitely feels much easier compared to the Wii U version.

BOTTAS! So pleased for him. One of the good guys in formula one. Three different winners from the first four races, here's hoping this season will give us a good title fight.

I like Miis and always felt despite their simplicity they were good at capturing a person's look and personality. I will be very disappointed if they don't implement Miitomo customisations in some way once the paid service launches. Otherwise it seems like a complete waste. On another note, Tomodatchi Life was one of my most played 3DS games, it was unbelievably simple and a bit repetitive, but perfectly captured that Animal Crossing vibe where you really just wanted to drop 10-15 mins on it every day. Me and the missus had so much fun watching our friends fight and fall in love and have weird looking hybrid children which looked like their parents but managed to develop their own unique personalities. A sequel or more fully-featured Miitomo is definitely something I'd be interested in.

Pretty much given up on the 3DS with the launch of the Switch but this thing is just so damn nice, I can see myself picking one up with Miitopia as mine is a good 3 years old now. Wonder what the battery life is like on it minus the 3D.

I would have done the same had I not been on holiday until Tuesday. Kind of don't care as I won't be home to play it tomorrow anyway It is frustrating though. I thought that's what Prime was supposed to be for.. regular customers who want things asap, without the guessing or the bullshit. I wouldn't pay full whack for it, getting it half price is kind of worth it though, I must admit. The number of times I've wanted a book and it's been delivered the next day (including Sunday!) has proved to me the service can be excellent when it wants to be.

Since I placed the order back in March mine has said "arriving May 3rd". Using Prime as well. Don't understand why it's not day 1.

Have a meeting at the bank later in the week to discuss a mortgage. Pretty excited about it, mainly because I live in the North West and a 10% deposit on a decent 2 bed house is anywhere between 6 and 9 grand. I'm currently paying £650 a month in rent, but would be paying less than half that if I can get a decent deal. Gonna get some concrete offers then start looking. I'm tempted to get a fixer upper as ~£40,000 can get you a decent sized house here which needs a bit of TLC.

I'm in a very safe Labour seat and will be voting for them for the first time. Only voted twice, and both times was for the Lib Dems who broke tuition fee promises in 2010 and generally were a shambles in coalition with the Tories. I despised Blair and Brown though and didn't have a lot of love for Ed Milliband. My views are a lot closer aligned with Corbyn and McDonnell than any previous Labour leadership in my lifetime, but I think they really need to come out swinging and convince people to vote for them or 'traditional Labour' values are as good as dead in this country. I just wish they'd drop the £10 per hour minimum wage idea. It's will cripple small businesses and will increase prices for everyone. They have a tall order winning back lost Labour voters and need to demonstrate how Brexit can work for this demographic more than anyone. Interested in how Greater Manchester peeps will be voting on May 4th. I'm going for Burnham as I think he's a genuinely decent and hard working bloke. Something desperately needs to be done about traffic, transport prices and the housing market.

How long did it take for them to fix it?

I was thinking about this too, but it looks like a poor man's Hotline Miami. Have you played it, and if so how does it compare? NWR haven't been especially kind about it.

Amazing what a better diet and a little more consistent exercise can do. Down 9lbs in 6 weeks with not so much effort. Started drinking more water as well. Guess it's time to join a gym and really get working towards my target of a 4 stone loss. Thanks for suggesting the photo thing as well, really noticing the difference.

I might actually get this if i can find it cheap enough. Got the selects version for the Wii U and put about 10-15 hours in. The load times are a pain but i was enjoying what the game has to offer. I haven't even switched my Wii U on since 3rd March so I doubt I'll finish it...

It will come as a massive surprise to absolutely no one that the monthly summary in the parental control app sucks balls. One step forward, two steps back. Give me a goddamn 3DS style activity log, is it REALLY that complicated? /Rant.

I'm not at all envious of Sam having to give this game a review score. I don't think I could've done it. I think how you feel about Breath of the Wild comes down to what you've played in the last 5 years and your individual experience with previous Zelda games and the entire franchise in general for that matter. It's almost impossible, for me, to not have the previous games influence how I feel about Breath of the Wild. From that point alone, as I pointed out in the review, it is my favourite Zelda game and it is a wonderful marriage of the original game's scope and sense of adventure with the 3D possibilities of modern game design. As a Nintendo game, it is unquestionably ambitious, especially coming off the back of the past 10 years. And while there are most certainly technical niggles (which are uncommon when it comes to Nintendo), I feel they are allowed some leeway in this regard. Breath of the Wild, being Nintendo's first "open world", is still a technical marvel. I feel they pulled off the open world design and physics engine magnificently, and the flaws (such as the framerate dips) don't detract enough from the experience for me to view this in a negative enough light. I can say exactly the same when it comes to the story. I really enjoyed both Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword from a narrative point of view and was left disappointed with the story in BOTW, if I were to compare the three. The voice acting was horrible as well. However, the story seemed so insignificant and almost a sideshow to this entire world I got to explore, that I was happy to let it slide and kind of embark on my own quest. This whole idea of every gamer having a "unique tale" has kind of overtaken the narrative aspect for me and I've just enjoyed not only finding my own way through this world, but also hearing what others had to say about their experience. This is something I've never experienced in a video game before and I have thoroughly enjoyed every second of it, thanks to all of you who shared your gameplay experiences, they have all enriched mine. As a Nintendo only gamer, I haven't even played a PS4, and I've had about 4-5 hours of playtime on an Xbox One. I'm so out of the loop when it comes to non-tendo that I don't even know what constitutes truly great and groundbreaking open-world design in 2017. I've seen people mention Horizon and read some comments which make it sound amazing, but I have neither the time or desire to expand my game collection beyond one home console. I understand that Nintendo are still behind the curve, especially with multi-platform gamers. That's why I understand people like H-o-T or Drakhon or Jim F'n Sterling, Son who just aren't hugely impressed with Breath of the Wild. I know that Nintendo is limited from a technical, graphical and audio standpoint. That gaming is about more than JUST gameplay, that pushing boundaries in other areas, such as storytelling or online is becoming vitally important to gamers. To take all of these factors into consideration when it comes to scoring BOTW is something I just can't do. I understand the 10s completely, but I find myself agreeing with almost every criticism people have of this game. As A Nintendo game, it's as close to a 10 as they've come in years, maybe decades. As a video game, I don't know. For better or worse, every reviewer will have their own history with the medium, and Nintendo for that matter. Nostalgia will always be a factor, positive or negative. I'd just say that I think Nintendo deserve credit for their ambition and accomplishment with Breath of the Wild. It is the most fun I've had with a video game, despite the criticisms, but giving it a objective number seems to be an almost impossible exercise.

Ideally they would take the high road and tell them where to go... I agree that they are in a position of weakness after the Wii U, but if they can build up a solid library of first party and indie games and sales numbers continue to be good then they will be in a better place when it comes to dealing with this kind of stuff. Until then, yeah, they'll have to deal with it, but I won't be buying Lego City and I'll make sure WB Games know why.

Nintendo have no choice but to put a stop to this kind of greedy, underhanded, anti-consumer behaviour. The Switch concept is built around being portable, and having to download 13gb of data and potentially move it around when space is tight goes directly against that concept. Sure, it makes little difference for people who are prepared to spend money on a chunky SD card and buy digital releases of physical games, but for people who want to go all-physical this is an outrageous move. It's essentially a download code on a cart with a built in expiration date. If more developers go down this road, I won't be buying any of their games and I'd like to hope other gamers would follow suit. If Nintendo is going to allow this to happen, then there are going to be a lot of tears and low sales, again, where third parties are concerned. I hope one of the big YouTubers picks this story up and sticks it to WB to try and warn off other devs from doing the same. I doubt we'll hear a peep out of Nintendo until at least then, unfortunately.

I think they'll be hard pressed to make the Switch as stable as the 3DS with its SUPER stable 3D and 8000 updates which "improved stability". Easily the most stable handheld I've ever owned, I couldn't drop it if I tried.

I got the Orzly protector recently. Anyone else using it notice how hot the console runs in docked mode? Is this likely to be a problem? I only played for an hour or so this afternoon but it was noticeably hotter to the touch than usual.

And how should they pay for the work that goes into it then?

Maybe people, just maybe people prefer not to have 3 different consoles under their TV and find paying for the upgrade makes it more convenient for them.

Yeah, what's the point in paying anyone for the work they do? Even if it is £1 for an upgrade which has been worked on and reworked specifically for the Switch. We should just steal everything.

Joy-con issues are apparently solved, and anyone buying a new machine going forward shouldn't be affected.

So it looks like you and I have the same Blu Ray system. One thing I can suggest is going into the audio settings on your player and changing the surround setting from A.F.D. Standard to A.F.D. Multi. It's only a poor workaround, but the rear speakers will simulate surround similar to Dolby Pro Logic II did on the GameCube and Wii. Now I need to get to work on finding a AV receiver with a 5.1 linear PCM input through HDMI. THANKS Nintendo...