the really heavy-duty white plastic ones will basically kill the mice immediately.

Downside: you'll forget a few of them are out and one day the tension will be too much and they'll break and the sound will freak you the fuck out.

I'd like to learn Japanese in a college environment.

Much of the hand wringing, imo, is over a critic explicitly saying they are judging the moral fabric of a piece of art because of the tools used to create it and it’s making some folks feel uncomfortable and shamed. The people who feel that way should sit with that feeling.