Friday night...

Friday night.., I just finished 30 minutes on the reclining stationary bike with P1 (to prepare for four days of Shangri-la with Max) and then another 30 minutes of floor work with P2 (looove P2). I had a good long bath and now I'm on the train heading home to do my laundry, cook dinner and have a good night's sleep... Tomorrow is Mayu's dad's memorial service and I will be attending in my black suit and black tie as is appropriate for sch an event...

Friday night...

The inebriated young sarariman has passed out on the platform chair while awaiting his ride home. His Pocari Sweat has fallen from his flaccid hands and lies useless between his legs. Drool runs from the side of his mouth and slimes his necktie which rests on his unbecoming paunch which has arrived seemingly 20 years too soon...

Friday night...

A pretty, young woman in sweats and white crocs with a massive girl-wallet stuffed in her back pocket, pulling her sweat pants down and making her short legs look even shorter walks past me while talking to someone on her keitai. She is exclaiming to her partner that the person is now able to read! It makes me think she might be talking to a gaijin. Suddenly my height catches her attention and as I walk by she does a double take, possibly wondering at the possibilities of talking to a gaijin while another passes her by...

Friday night...

The neck sweat stains have all been applied with sweat stain remover and my work shirts have been placed in the laundry machine with the other non-fuzzies of the week. The second load (fuzzies) will come in 50 minutes after this load has been completed and hung...

Friday night...

An email from Mayu arrives, discussing tomorrow. I'll call her back in a big; right now the hunger is too intense to have a meaningful convo with anyone important...

(pause)

The meat is in the frypan and some cheese to take the edge off the hunger has reached my stomach...

Friday night...

Happy Easter to those of you in Christian countries.

I love you.
Cam

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This breaks my heart

A photo of a beautiful shiba-ken walking in the deserted town of Futaba in Fukushima.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/all-gone-2#comments
This town is in the 20km illegal-to-enter zone.
It will eventually find water, but food will likely be a different matter. And dogs are domesticated; they do best with human interaction. This breaks my heart. And this is only the tip of the iceberg.

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'Divorce ceremony' gives couples chance to make clean break

Make no bones about it divorce is HARD. In fact it is quite likely the hardest thing one might ever undertake and for so many reasons. Here is a very interesting concept for those struggling with the anger and rage that often accompanies divorce...

'Divorce ceremony' gives couples chance to make clean break
TOKYO Some divorce-bound couples in Japan are smashing their wedding rings at ‘‘divorce ceremonies,’’ vowing to make a clean break and a fresh start in front of friends and family.
"Congratulations on your divorce.’’ Guests wish the former bride and groom well on their separate lives at the ceremony, which involves smashing wedding rings using a wooden hammer, held by the soon-to-be ex-spouses, a ritual antithesis to cutting the cake at weddings...
Read the rest here: http://tinyurl.com/SmashThatWeddingRing
You can read my comments on this as TheBigRiceBowl in the comments section. In a nutshell? Well, aside from being overpriced (most ceremonies in Japan are), I think this is a very good idea; it actually allows the divorced couple PHYSICAL CLOSURE which is often missing from divorce. It allows them a link to actually let go of the anger, rage, and ugliness that builds in 95% of all divorces. Since divorce rates in the US are 50% (1st marriage), 60% (2nd marriage), 75% (3rd marriage), if someone imports this to the USA and adapts it to American culture, it could actually be a good business. I'm serious; it isn't exploitation. It's hard to admit but most divorced people really do have a lot of pent up anger, frustration and rage inside them that is rotting them. Who wants to have a new relationship with a rotten person? If you can physically release this anger, you can renew yourself, move on, stop living in the past, and begin to rebuild your life. I personally know people who could have used some serious closure ...
I love you!
Cam

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TEPCO Really Deserves a Ginormous Spanking

TEPCO seeks 20% cut in employees' annual salaries
Friday 22nd April, 07:00 AM JST
Tokyo Electric Power Co is considering cutting annual salaries of its employees by around 20% as part of its restructuring effort to make compensation payments over the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex, company sources said Thursday.
The utility is now under negotiations with its labor union to reach an agreement by the end of this month, they said.
The proposal targets around 33,000 union members and does not include a workforce cut, the sources said, adding that TEPCO is also considering reducing remunerations for company executives.
The utility, meanwhile, is mulling selling off its assets to secure funds to pay compensation for people affected by the nuclear crisis, triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
TEPCO, for example, will try to acquire hundreds of billions of yen by selling securities it holds such as KDDI Corp stocks and real estate it owns, the sources said.
The link is here: http://tinyurl.com/TEPCOisUGLY
My thoughts are in the comments section as TheBigRiceBowl (that's me! - Until I leave Tokyo)
Have a great day.
I love you! (but I don't love TEPCO)
Cam

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I KNEW that one day my notebook computer would serve a legit purpose!

It makes the perfect music stand! I can angle it as I like and the music books aren't suddenly going to slip off the stand and fall to the ground!

Praise the gods for the invention of the notebook computer!!!

Love!
Cam

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Fukushima heros are treated like dogs by their employer TEPCO

This is a very sad, sad article, showing the seedy underbelly of the largest power company in Japan: TEPCO.
I am embarrassed to even show this to the world, but you need to see, that the big, money-hungry companies in Japan are not so different from their counterparts around the world. Rather than giving the Tepco employees risking their lives to solve the Fukushima Nuclear Radiation problem a hero's welcome, the company treats them like... well, like Japanese dogs.
"Nuclear plant workers at risk of depression, death from overwork: doctor"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/nuclear-plant-workers-at-ris...

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Ticker-Tape Update on Japan for Wed, Apr 20th, 2011

Here is a quick Ticker-Tape Update on Japan from NHK World News as of Wednesday morning, April 20th, 2011.
* Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun transferring highly radioactive water from the No.2 reactor to a waste processing facility at the damaged Fukushima plant.
* Tokyo Electric Power Company says radioactive debris and high humidity in reactor buildings are hampering the investigation by robots at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
* Delegates have discussed nuclear safety at an international conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on April 26.
* A senior official of Japan's Foreign Ministry says that although the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is ranked at the highest level of severity, it is less serious than the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
* SDF personnel sent to nuclear zone who flees in panic has been dismissed on disciplinary grounds.
* The IAEA will send a team of experts to investigate the cause of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
* French nuclear firm Areva says it has agreed with the Tokyo Electric Power Company to build a facility to decontaminate radioactive water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.
* Electronics maker Toshiba has developed a TV set with a rechargeable battery to help Japanese viewers cope with expected power outages this summer.
* The world's oldest man, who lives in the prefecture of Kyoto in western Japan, has turned 114.
* The vast majority of deaths (92%) in the March 11th disaster were caused by the tsunami and most of the victims were seniors.
* The northeastern Japanese city of Sendai has started removing wrecked vehicles from tsunami-hit residential areas.
* It's a nice spring day in Tokyo (and the election candidate's loudspeaker announcements are very annoying) **
To see more news and video visit: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/
** This was not a paid news brief from NHK World News (as if you couldn't guess).

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Meeting Strangers

As Tokyo is always too warm for me, on Kobuchizawa Mondays I carry my dress shirt in my pack and commute in the excellent UniQlo Silky Dry Under which looks like a good quality t-shirt. A tight good quality t-shirt.

Today at lunch another customer shared my table. He sneezed. That was my opening for talking about the sugi pollen to have a conversation roll in.

We had a good chat. He even commented on how good and muscular my upper body looks. I have to admit, the hard work really is paying off as my pecs, back, biceps, triceps and shoulders really are quite pronounced.

Especially in this UniQlo under that I wear during my Kobuchizawa Mondays...

Sometimes a body's gotta give himself a pat on the back for a job well done. After all if you can't love yourself then you certainly won't be able to love others.

I love me!
Cam

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My Mt. Everest

Today on my calendar from the Universe, it says, "Don't let the dazzling heights you aspire to scare you from getting started. After all, few could climb Mt. Everest tomorrow, though virtually all could begin preparing."

I like to think that when I finally die at a ripe old age of 202 I will be abe to say that I have no regrets.

Thirty years ago my mom told me that she regretted quitting the piano and she warned me I would regret my choice to stop playing the guitar. At that time, I was 15 and didn't enjoy the music I was playing on my guitar. I had been learning for about eight years but was never able to play by ear and none of the music I might have liked to play seemed available on sheet music. I had no interest in rock music (still don't) and all the traditional classic stuff one learns for the basics was no longer appealing to me. So I quit.

And I have regretted it ever since. Ten years ago I bought a DVD to relearn how to play the guitar but my heart wasn't in it and I never took the next step of getting a new guitar.

Tonight after spending about 40 minutes practicing on my skates I took a ride to the recycle shop just to see what was there. It is amazing what you can find in Japanese recycle shops.

I decided it was time to begin preparing.

I left with an old Yamaha acoustic guitar ($50) and carried it home on my bike with a big bag of skates and padding strapped to my back.

It's time to prepare for my Mt. Everest.

I love you.
Cam

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Check out the HTC Evo WiMax Android 3.0 smartphone if U see it & tell me what you think.

It looks like an excellent contender to all the other smartphones out there. Beautiful, large screen with very smooth, fluid movement. It is probably the closest to the ipso facto benchmark standard iPhone fluidity.

Also the Motorola XOOM looks cool but it competes with the iPad, not the narrower tablets which interest me more.

Both of these models are FINALLY being offered by my carrier who for some mysterious reason is extremely late in the smartphone/tablet market.

I still think the Galaxy is the best size for a tablet if you have to commute in a crowded train daily; the iPad and contenders are just too big to hold single handed and cart around in very cramped quarters. I'm sure they are grea when you have a bit more space or travel by your own vehicle, though.

I love you!
Cam

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This Tsunami Reporter has True Grit!

Holy Crap! Take a look at this series of four photos http://tinyurl.com/AmazingReporter and be sure to read the caption. This is amazing. The reporter has "true grit". He obviously has passion for his job. Some may call him a fool, but are you a fool if you have complete dedication to your calling? Methinks not. Wow...

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Imagining My Daily Breakfast Just Got Easier

I eat this kind of breakfast every day. The meat changes and the style off the eggs vary, but the variety and the volume is aleways like this.

I eat this much at lunch as well as dinner, too.

There are twelve different foods on my plate. I love variety!

And I love you!
Cam

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Follow Up to the Sheltie Photo Shoot in Fukushima: Many Rescued

Paula and several people were asking if we had any news about what had happened to the group of Sheltie dogs that showed up in the Japanese News. Well, here is some GOOD info for you: http://tinyurl.com/SheltiesRescued
Good news, eh?!
I love Japan!
Cam

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Unbelievable Japan: Sendai Airport Operational Again!

The reconstruction speed and efficiency of Japan in the tsunami/earthquake zone is amazing! As of today, Sendai Airport, the airport everyone in the world watched get wiped out by the tsunami is operational. Flights are both arriving and departing for regular commercial flights by JAL and ANA.

It puts a lump in the throat and brings tears to the eyes to see how hard everyone is working to bring a sense of normalcy back to the area.

It makes me very proud to call Japan my home.

I love you!
Cam

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Wow that was a good aftershock!

First time to be standing outside of my apartment waiting for the elevator.

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Now THAT was a good tremor out here in the mountains

I wonder if they felt it in Tokyo?

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Second Time on the Skates was Better than the First

Today I walked about 10 minutes to the park at a large intersection near home. And I practiced skating for about an hour. I even practiced falling. Many times. Forward. And once backward. On the same hip that still hurts three weeks later. Good thing I ordered some hip/bum/tailbone pad inner shorts!

It was fun and the sakura trees and the pet rabbit were great, too.

Third time lucky, ka na?

I love you!
Cam

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One Minute of Love Energy Output to Tohoku

My one minute break to send as much positive energy through love, gratitude and appreciation to everyone in the Tohoku region will begin in 25 minutes from sending this k-mail.

Will you amplify the positive energy by sending some of yours?

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A "Strange" Photo in the "Evacuation Zone" for Paula

This is really weird...

It must have been a breeder's kennel that opened wide.
I really feel sorry for all these gorgeous dogs because the location is deserted due to it being within the radioactive evacuation zone.

What will they eat? What will they drink? What will happen to them?
Who took the picture? Did they just leave them all like that or herd them together and get them out?

We want answers! We want actions!!

Dogs are people too!!!

 

Oh, sorry. The link:

http://tinyurl.com/RadioactiveCollies

Cam

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Worried about a radioactive ocean? A reality check

I recommend everyone around the world take a peek at this article.

 

http://tinyurl.com/FukushimaRealityCheck

It puts the Fukushima radiation dissemination in a little better perspective.

 

The bottom line?  DON'T WORRY!

 

You aren't going to suddenly have your member fall off.

Your breasts won't shrivel up.

You won't become incontinent, or infertile.

And you won't even grow an extra finger out of your armpit!

(though that would make an excellent conversation piece, especially if it were prehensile.)

 

Though, you might find yourself hungry.

If that happens... eat something before you pass out, fall down and hit your head.

 

The likelihood of that happening is far higher than any radiation poisoning you might get from our sharing of radiation with the world.

Come to think of it, you have a better chance at winning a lottery than getting radiation sickness.

 

Have a great day.

I love you!

Cam

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NHK's TickerTapeNews for April 6th, 2011

NHK's TickerTapeNews for April 6th, 2011

It's been a while but I needed to extract myself from all the negative energy flowing out of this very negative tragedy. It was wearing my positive spirit down.
. * Tokyo Electric Power Company says highly radioactive water stopped leaking into the sea from a concrete pit at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Wednesday morning. (Cam: Nobody here seems to be talking about this topic any longer... but it's still hard to buy staples in the supermarket, so they must be 'thinking' about it... (or the next "big one"))
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* Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will inject nitrogen into the containment vessel of one of its reactors at the Fukushima power plant as early as Wednesday evening to prevent a possible hydrogen explosion. (Cam: Ho hum....)
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* Most fishery cooperatives in Ibaraki Prefecture are suspending all activities after small fish caught in local waters were found to contain radioactive cesium above the legal limit. (Cam: There goes another industry... I wonder if Japan will become a country of ... meat eaters? Oh, wait! They already ARE eating tons more meat than they used to do.)
.
* Many members of the International Renewable Energy Agency say Japan's nuclear crisis will lead to increased promotion of alternative energy sources. (Cam: In Japanese we say "fukouchuu no saiwai", or "happiness comes from disaster". This is in harmony with The Universe's teachings. We humans often learn the most through the biggest hardships. This hardship is a doozy, so let' s hope what we learn from it is exponentially highly rewarding as well.)
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* The official death toll from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan has risen to 12,468, with 15,091 people still listed as missing. (Cam: Let's hope that the "listed as missing", is eventually reported as "zero".)
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* The environment ministry says the massive March 11th earthquake and tsunami has left 24.9 million tons of debris in its wake in the 3 hardest-hit prefectures. (Cam: Want to start a new garbage collection company?)
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* The minutes of a US Federal Reserve meeting show policymakers plan to keep a close watch on the effect of Japan's earthquake on the US economy. (Cam: As are all the other countries around the world.... Today there was some news that said a Japanese person was traveling in Europe, and was sitting beside a European. The European asked the Japanese if he was Japanese. When he responded, yes, the European got up and moved away from the Japanese person. Could there be some overly hysterical fear of "spreading nuclear radiation"? Methinks so.)
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* Anti-government forces in Libya have rejected Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi's proposal to hand over power to one of his sons. (Cam: It's time to close the books on this character. Where's the CIA assassination team when you need them?)
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* Cote d'Ivoire's President Laurent Gbagbo may soon be forced to give up power after opposition forces backed by the UN launched a major attack to close in on his stronghold in Abidjan. (Cam: More war crimes trials at the Hague coming soon, to a theatre near you...)
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* China's central bank says it will raise its key interest rates by 0.25% starting Wednesday. (Cam: What goes up, must come down. Eventually.)
. Have a great day!
I love you!!
Cam

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Thoughts on the Japanese High Voice Sales Pitch

I zipped into UniQlo at Shinjuku Stn to buy another Silky Dry undershirt. The store manager was a young American fellow who is apparently the only foreign manager in Japan at UniQlo. That was impressive.

Then I heard him do the Irrasshaimase thing and his voice went up quite a bit in pitch. I told him how friends have commented on my voice rising when I speak Japanese but that it isn't done on purpose (Stephanie, do you remember?). He said that the company policy states they have to say their sales spiel in a higher tone than they speak because they have found that it gives more favourable results. If UniQlo actively does it then I imagine other retailers train their staff similarly. That was an eye opener because it never occurred to me that the higher voice would actually be dictated in the training manuals!

He did say, "You gotta follow what the bosses say, though it does make me feel silly."

Time to catch my train. Have a great day!

I love you!
Cam

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Yamato Courier: Full-On Eco

I love how Kuroneko has embraced the Eco Drivewith respect to deliveries in Tokyo.They kill so many birds with one stone!

A couple of years ago the government started ticketing everyone who stopped illegally and that included couriers stopping briefly to deliver packages. They all had to find a new way to deal with the new regulations.

It took a while and included some tweaking but now they deliver using battery-assisted bicycles pulling trailers as you can see in this photo taken outside my office.

Good work!

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Asia-bound Teachers Face Grammar/IQ Tests on Arrival

Personally, I think this is a good idea... And the ASEAN authorities make a valid point, I think:
The measures, proposed by education department officials in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), are intended to prevent large numbers of unemployed foreigners from countries including the US, the UK and Australia from flooding the local job market in search of employment as “native English teachers”.
http://eslblogs.englishclub.com/blog/news/asia-bound-teachers-face-grammar-iq...
It may feel like a kick in the gut, but many of the Asian countries have a much tougher scholastic curriculum than those in North America.
I am not particularly in favour of the applicant footing the bill for the battery of tests, and wonder if the sponsor school might consider doing so as a responsibility. That way, the schools would also be more strict in their vetting of applicants for teaching positions in their programs, and eliminate those not up to the requirements from the beginning.
Charles, what do you think?
Any other TEFL language educators out there in the world have any thoughts on this?
Cam

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Here's why we have rolling blackouts in Tokyo when only 2.5% of the total energy source is compro

"Respectfully Yours John S." asked me a few weeks ago why on earth TEPCO had to start "rolling blackouts" in Tokyo and the outlying areas after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Reactors went into "disaster mode". This article explains very well why, when nuclear energy in Japan makes up 35% of Japan's total energy production, and four out of 55 nuclear reactors across the country are compromised (that works out to 2.5% of Energy production compromised) TEPCO decided to initiate power outages.
http://tinyurl.com/JapanEnergy
If you aren't interested in reading the article, here's a quick summary:
Japanese electric companies are extremely greedy, do everything possible to prevent competition, and should all get slammed for anti-competition infractions!
I recommend taking a look at the article; it's quite an eye-opener.
Cam

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TickerTapeNews from NHK for 2011/04/01 a.m.

Here is a summary of the NHK Online (English) News for today, April 1st, 2011.
Have a great day.
I love you!
Cam
***********************
* The IAEA says radiation levels twice as high as its criterion for evacuation were detected in a village 40 km from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. (Cam: I wonder if Japan will re-evaluate it's criterion after this?)
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* A Japanese researcher has explained how radioactive substances that leaked from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have spread and reached Tokyo and other parts of the Kanto region.
(Cam: Will that cause more panic, or will people look at it objectively? Or, will they simply ignore it and continue on with life?)
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* Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, has not provided every worker at the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant with radiation monitors, breaking government rules.
(Cam: More news that shows TEPCO deserves a really severe spanking after this mess is all cleared up.)
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* The death toll from the March 11th quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan rose to 11,532 as of Thursday night. The National Police Agency says 16,441 others are missing.
(Cam: The death toll will continue to rise, until the missing toll approaches zero.)
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* The US military is sending Marines specialized in responding to nuclear emergencies to Japan to help deal with the trouble at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
(Cam: Go Marines!)
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* Japan's Meteorological Agency advises continued caution due to powerful aftershocks 3 weeks after a magnitude 9.0 quake hit Japan.
(Cam: It's been pretty quiet in Tokyo, but this site shows that the world is anything BUT quiet: http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/ Did you realize that there are tons of earthquakes occurring daily over in the USA as well?)
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* Video footage of the March 11th tsunami, apparently taken by someone at a thermal power plant in Fukushima prefecture, has been posted on YouTube.
(Cam: Great! More death and destruction for the TV media to latch onto!!)
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* The Health Ministry says radiation exceeding safety standards has been detected in beef from Fukushima and vegetables from Ibaraki, Tochigi and Chiba prefectures.
(Cam: So, being a vegetarian is not healthy, and being a carnivore is not healthy... What's a poor sap to do?)
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* Britain has hailed the defection of Libyan Foreign Minister Mousa Kousa as a blow to leader Muammar al-Qadhafi.
(Cam: Why do these guys all have such catchy sing-song names?)
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* New York Stock Closing on Thursday: Dow Jones 12,319.73, down 30.88 from Wednesday. NASDAQ 2,781.07, up 4.28.
(Cam: Just thought I'd add something other than death and destruction for those of you not "into" it.) .
Read the details here: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/31_19.html .

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