Spring on Jouhouji

Yesterday I went for a bike ride. I thought it might rain, but the clouds did not turn so the ride was a success.

I have not been on my bike since last November so I don't have the legs, arms, hands or back for it yet. Therefore I decided to take it easy and just road ride my bike up into the mountains.

Across the Kuzuryu River is a campground up at the 500-600m elevation (1m = roughly 1yard). The paved road that goes up is fairly steep and yes, it kicked my ass. Luckily the BCAAs I took gave me the energy to make it to the top because when I got there, I was once again able to enjoy the beautiful sakura still in full bloom at the higher altitude.

It was a 12km trip from door to campground. The trip took one hour and fifteen minutes to get up to the top, and thirty minutes to get back home. My max speed coming down the winding mountain road was 55kmh (about 30mph). The steepest part took about 50 minutes to climb, and only 10 minutes to descent so you can visualize the kind of trip it was.

Enough of the textural descriptions... Enjoy the scenery as did I.
(photos taken with my cell phone so the quality is not as good as it could be).

I love you!

Cam

Sick Around Japan

I was talking with Jen the other day about a variety of things and she had mentioned that her husband watched a TV program by Frontline, called “Sick around the World” on the “social” healthcare systems in five countries that “worked” compared with the USA system. He was interested to know what Jen’s “friends in Japan” thought about the discussion so he forwarded her a link to the program after it came online. She sent it to me asking if I had any thoughts on the topic. Rather than watching the actual interviews, and the program, I thought that the more important thing would be for me to read the transcript of the interview with the Japanese Healthcare Economics specialist. And so I did. It was a good read, and it reaffirmed pretty much what I experience in real life and have always thought about the healthcare system here in Japan. Of course it isn’t perfect, but it does work extremely well, and the most important thing is that nobody is “left to rot”.

I agree with everything the specialist Naoki Ikegami is saying in the transcript of the interview in Japan. There is nothing incorrect here in the interview that does not correspond with “in the street” or “real life experience” as so often happens when “global reviews” take place. A good example of this “gap” is what happens in Europe when countries switch to the Euro; the governments say that things become more expensive by only a few single digit percentage points, but in reality, (in Italy and other countries where I have real friends), they say that their cost of living expenses have gone up by 30- 50% since their currency has been dropped for the Euro. These are real-life results as opposed to “government statistics” and you always have to be careful when you look at things like this, to go to the street as well.

I will include the comments that I believe are, to me, of the most value in the interview, although I recommend reading the entire interview through to get a good overall picture of the differences between the Japanese and American systems. Before I do so, I would just like to give my own thoughts on this overall system with a few short examples of when I needed major care in the hospital (cut my fingertip off and had emergency appendectomy).

I love this system, and have never found my "copays" to be overly expensive.

When I cut my fingertip off it cost me about JPY 3,000 I think for the initial visit. Then I went back every day for two weeks and they changed the bandages. The cost per visit then was just a few hundred yen a time and the amount of time I was in front of a doctor was like he says in the interview, just a few minutes. I would say that I didn’t pay any more than JPY 15,000 in total when all was said and done, and that includes medication, antibiotics, and all the follow-up visits. The wait time was less than 30 minutes. It was no problem at all.

One of the reasons why we have “3X then number of visits to hospitals compared with Americans” that the interviewer mentions is that the doctors have us come back regularly to continually inspect, change bandages, and watch the healing process. I don’t think it is like this in the USA, as far as I know, and once the initial procedure is done (unless of course it is a major procedure), you are on your to take care of it properly.

When I had my emergency appendectomy, the entire thing, including 10 days in the hospital didn't cost me any more than $300 to the hospital. That was it. Of course there was the national healthcare I pay which varies every year depending on how much money I make in the year. If I make very little money, I pay very little. When I made a fair deal two years ago, I ended up paying about $2,000 for the entire year. That's about $166 per month. It’s peanuts, really.

There are two kinds of coverage; one is funded over 50% by employer. Mayu was in that when she was working. The other one is national health care and I have opted for that. It revolves around your salary, and the copay used to be more than the employer based, but now it's the same: 30%. I did my calculations years ago to decide which one to go for and chose National because I don't get sick much at all.

Also the company-related one includes deductions for pension, etc. and since I don't pay pension here I chose not to, even though it is mandatory and instead invest overseas my monthly pension contribution for my future. The reason I chose not to is that in order to get pension I have to be working in Japan for minimum of 20 years. At the time I did not know if I would be here in Japan that long and chose not to invest in something with "iffy" returns. Now, 20 years later I look back and am still glad I invested on my own because the pension plan system in Japan is collapsing and the government has made a mess of it (they "lost" the pension payments of 500,000 people. It's a debacle).

Also the number of elderly and retiring baby boomers is skyrocketing, and we are at critical mass plus the numbers of young not working, and not paying pension is at an all time high, a very bad situation. This is a separate problem, and not really directly related to healthcare, but related to the amount of money the elderly who get sick more often have to use on healthcare, so it indirectly affects the situation.

It works very smoothly indeed, and because the government is involved, it can be considered "social medicine" but it is in no way anything like it is portrayed as in the USA "socialized (communistic) medicine".

Please be sure to read the interview and then you will understand my next comments: I can see doctors in the USA screaming "government control!!" over this system because the Japanese government does control the amount of money they can make and how much can be billed; it is highly regulated.

I believe that "the business of healthcare" should NOT be treated in the same way as “the business of products and services”. In the latter you provide basic commodities, luxuries and services to people at a price, and try to make as much money from it as possible. That’s business. The people who can afford the product at the highest profit margin, will pay it, and those who cannot will go elsewhere to find a lower level, lower quality basic product that suites their needs. If they can afford it, they will purchase, but if they can't they learn to do without.

In healthcare, if you can't afford the product you have a good chance of becoming extremely ill, or even of dying. It isn’t a matter of “doing without” if you’ve cut your fingertip off, or just finding some “discount 100 yen shop” to run in for an appendectomy. It doesn’t work that way. And it shouldn’t, in my opinion. I feel there is a fundamental difference in these “businesses” and only those who understand this difference should be in "the business of saving lives". Healthcare should not be about making the highest profit margin that the market will support. It is not the same.

I think this pretty much covers my experience here in the Japanese system that runs very smoothly. It will be interesting to see how it works over the next 10 years as the baby boomers, retirees all age and our aging silvers are more than the paying and working population. There will likely be a big stress on the system. It may get more expensive and they may find way to shift taxes around, and the working population may have to pay more in taxes to cover the retired, but it won't break us; we won’t be put out on the street wandering around confused, and drugged because we don’t have the funds to pay grossly over-inflated prices. The country will most likely continue to provide medical care to everyone who needs it, without making them go broke. - Cam

Here are the key points that I believe hit home in this interview:

So here we are in a country with the longest life expectancy, good health results, low costs -- sounds like paradise. Are there problems in paradise?

I think it's a mirror image of the United States in that we [underspend] on health care. For example, in the year 2006, health expenditures only increased by 0.1 percent, whereas the nominal GDP increased by ... 1.5 percent.

Health care went up 1/10 of 1 percent?

Right, and the reason why the government has this tight control over all prices is because the national government funds one-quarter of health expenditures, ... and the Japanese government now has a huge deficit amounting to 1.5 percent [of] GDP, and the debt is still increasing as a result of having to make tax cuts and investing in public works during the 10 years of deficit.

So in order to [start] paying back, they are making every effort to cut expenditures. This is across-the-board cost containment, and health expenditures are under that umbrella.

And remember that this is happening at the time when Japan is having a very rapid growth for the elderly. According to my calculations, just aging within the population should contribute a 2 percent increase, so the fact that there has been only a 0.1 percent [increase] means that real ... expenditures did decrease. ...

I think what you're getting at here is that they've got a system that makes sure people don't go broke paying medical bills.

Right. I think the main goal of a public health insurance system is to prevent people [from] going broke.

How many people in Japan go bankrupt because of medical bills?

None, or at least there should be none, because first of all, they should be covered, and if they're not covered, then they can get covered by paying back one year's premiums. And if they can't pay back the one year's premium, then they will be on public assistance.

If somebody in Japan loses [her] job, does she lose her health insurance, too?

She loses the employment-based insurance, but then there's the community-based insurance, which is mandated for her to enroll and for the local government to enroll that person.

Can they turn her down if she has heart disease or something?

That is forbidden. ... Neither can the employer deny in hiring someone because of health conditions.

So if lose my job I don't lose my health insurance; in fact, I'm required to buy it, but from the city instead of an employer?

Yeah. ... It's more like taxes rather than having something that you want to pay or must pay. ...

These health care plans covering basic health care for a worker and his family, do they make a profit?

No, because they are not allowed to make a profit. And anything left over is carried over to the next year, and if there's a lot carried over, then the premium rate would go down.

Do you think the Japanese people feel that everyone in this country should all have a basic package of medical coverage?

According to opinion polls, I would not only say basic but egalitarian coverage [for] all. Over 70 percent of the Japanese, when they're asked that question, say they're not only in favor of basic coverage; they are in favor of egalitarian coverage.

Notes:

Link to Interview Transcript:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/interviews/ikegami.html

Current Exchange: JPY 100 = USD $ 1.00

I.A.M. Kyoto Part 2: The Kyoto One Day Tour, April 16th

Hugging Pandasu on the bus tour.

I awoke at 3.45 in the morning to someone out in the street opening and closing the big metal shutters in front of their business. I dozed again, to be awoken another 15 - 20 minutes later to the same effect. If you have ever heard these shutters that they open and close in front of their entire store front, you will know the sound; it ... grates... garagaragaragaragaragggggrrrraagggggg. Sort of like that. And early early in the morning, it is not a pleasant noise to be awakened by.

Right next to my head was an air duct vent in the wall that stuck out. I could hear the five Axe Murderers above me snoring all night long. I awoke and dozed to their orchestrated symphony of varying decibels as it echoed up and down the pipes.

The pillow filled with rocks made my neck and face sore, but I survived that as well as the fact that even sleeping diagonally was not quite long enough for me and my shoulders and feet stuck out at both ends of the futon. But I survived that, too.

Then at about 5 in the morning I heard some women through the paper thin walls and that got my attention, but not enough to really understand what language they were speaking. Likely it was a foreign language as I couldn't pick out any words I really understood.

At 6am I heard through the pipes again from the floor above me the Axe Murderers above all up and moving around, laughing, joking, and teasing.

At 6.45 I got "the call" saying they were all downstairs and ready to go.

We walked 30 minutes to Kyoto station and some of the other women were kind of worried that NOW maybe I was really going to do them in because I was taking them through "questionable" parts of town. But they made it all in five pieces to our Tour Pickup point, The New Miyako Hotel. We dropped off our luggage, and walked 10 minutes to a Skylark restaurant for a great JPY 800 breakfast buffet that filled us up with good protein for the day.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and loaded onto the bus for the Kyoto One Day Tour by JTB Sunrise Tours. Here is how JTB markets it:

Experience Kyoto, Japan’s capital from 794-1868. Visit Nijo Castle, the residence of the Tokugawa era shoguns, and the gold-leaf covered Golden Pavilion, which houses sacred relics of Buddha and is surrounded by exquisite gardens renowned for their beauty. Walk through the Kyoto Imperial Palace and watch traditional Japanese artisans work their craft at the Kyoto Handicraft Center. Visit Heian Jingu Shrine, a partial replica of the Imperial Palace. Walk through Sanjusangendo Temple, Japan’s longest wooden structure, famous for its 1,001 human-sized Kannon statues, and browse through the specialty shops leading up to Kiyomizudera Temple for a sweeping view of the city.

Here is their itinerary with some photos that I took, stuck in between:

Nijo Castle

The Kyoto Residence of the Tokugawa Shogun built in 1603, Nijo Castle is noted for the contrast of its solemn appearance and gorgeous interiors.

Visiting the Shogun's castle in Kyoto was fascinating. The nightingale flooring, a security system designed centuries ago is unique, and utterly brilliant!

Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion)

The most authentic and exquisite Japanese style garden in the world, plus the celebrated Golden Pavilion.

The Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto, Japan is one of my favourites

Kyoto Imperial Palace

The ancient Imperial Palace clearly shows the Japanese taste for purity, simplicity and calmness.

The sakura in Kyoto were still in bloom so we were very fortunate.

This is one of the most beautiful publicly-owned gardens in Japan.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace is owned by us, the taxpayers, so it's "ours"!

Kyoto Handicraft Center

Enjoy buffet lunch (free soft drinks included except alcoholic drink) and shopping at Kyoto Handicraft Center.

Heian Jingu Shrine

Graceful old court life is reflected in the brightly colored shrine with its vermilion pillars and green roof, and in its enchanting inner gardens and ponds.

There are many kinds of Sakura. This is one of the bigger ones. But just as lovely. Wouldn't you love to have something like this on your lapel for an April Sakura Wedding?

It started to pour as we walked through the gardens at Heian shrine in Kyoto.

Sanju-Sangendo Hall

A renowned long wooden hall housing all of 1,001 statues of Kannon that date back to the 13th century.

Kiyomizudera Temple

A quaint old lane lined with pottery shops leads to the temple. Enjoy a sweeping view of the entire city from its lofty terrace.

It was crowded going up to Kiyomizu-dera, as usual.

This temple is one of the busiest and most popular in all of Japan.

When all was said and done, we made it back to the hotel, where we picked up our stuff, and wandered into the Kyoto Station. We found a good restaurant up in the department store, enjoyed dinner together, and then headed back down to the Shinkansen Gates where we hugged our goodbyes and they walked off into the sunset, happy, tired, but alive and in five pieces to ride the 19:29 Shinkansen back to Tokyo where they planned to meet yet another Internet Axe Murderer, Jaime, the very next day!

Pandasu and her "adepts", learning the Axe Murderer ropes.

I loved meeting all five of them, and I hope they have great memories and stories to take back with them to their homeland. I loved it!

If four "normal people" can hug an unknown MALE Internet Axe Murderer, I have to conclude that it was yet another mission accomplished successfully!

More photos can be found on Flickr.

I.A.M. Kyoto Part 1: Sharpening the Axe, April 15th can be found here!

IAM Kyoto Part 1: Sharpening the Axe, April 15th

The trip to Kyoto went flawlessly, except for the fact that I left the house five minutes before my first train arrived, and had to drive instead of walk like I usually do. I made it with 30 seconds to spare, and no sweat, so all went well. The trip into Fukui was eventless (i.e. nobody threw themselves in front of the train, thus delaying our trip). I specifically went in about 90 minutes early so that I could go and see if there were any bags like the one we sent my brother for Christmas.

I'm needing a bag of like a thick, rough take-anywhere shoulder slinger thing with lots of pockets outside for stuff like pens, notepads, cell phone, airborne, and more. And then inside with a couple of slots big enough to say hold my computer sideways, as well as an A4 notebook and stuff. and a 500ml bottle of water on the outside, too. Of course outside pockets need flaps to tie, or button or buckle down. "Pocket-like" shape would be cool, too; kinda "neo-military-ish" if you know what I mean.

I want to be able to toss it around and roughhouse with it without stitching coming undone. I figured brass buckles and closures would be cool in canvas... or ... denim. I am hoping to find something like this unless the Fabric Goddess has any other awesome ideas (which in all honesty just came to me now as I was typing... I'd get a bag like that from her gladly if she could do one up.

I kind of thought it would be cool to take on exactly the kind of trip I went on to Kyoto so would want to put in it a change of clothes, toiletries, and the such. Having buckles and straps on the side, I could cinch it thinner when I was only needing it to go into town, or let it all the way out when I wanted to overnight. Very cool idea....

Well, I didn't find it in Fukui so went with my cycling bag which is cool for cycling, and feels great on the back, but not so hip when you want to look cool and impressive to meet five women, if you know what I mean? I caught the train and took an easy 90 minutes into Kyoto, reading "A New Earth" by Chart Tulle, and listening to an hour of my relaxation MP3's. It was a great trip.

When I arrived, I got a call saying the women would be a bit late because they had to go past Kyoto up to Osaka, and then get on a different train and come back. They did, and after figuring out that they were waiting at the Kyoto Shinkansen Central entrance while I was waiting at the "real" Central entrance, we met up. Pandasu gave me a great bit Axe Murderer hug, and her four wary-weary travel companions eyed me with caution, and politely shook my hand, keeping a good distance from this monster tall "Internet Axe Murderer"...

The Internet Axe Murderer (IAM) Conference in Kyoto had begun!

I decided to break the ice by taking them out for tonkatsu dinner. And so I did! We went up the nine stories of escalators in the Kyoto Station atrium and they enjoyed the beauty of the station. It's a wonderful work of art, that station, and I think it was designed by the same person who designed the Paris CDG airport which is also a wonderful work of industrial art. We ate, and they loved it all!

(You can catch all of this on the video once I process it).

After that we took a cab back to the Kyoto Guest Inn which was about a 30 minute walk from the station in the old shopping section of Kyoto. The innmaster was... weird. And that's all I'm going to say other than he showed us a bunch of magic tricks, insisted that we all listen to everything he had to educate us with, and bragged on about the "famous people" who had stayed there in the past.

The rooms were pretty darn small. I got a teeny one for myself with a rock hard futon on the floor and a cornhusk? rice husk pillow that felt like it had rocks in it. The five ladies enjoyed snoring all night long in another room that held five futon, and three pairs of underwear. And that's about it!

Well, five of the six of us went out for a drink and I introduced them to the taste of shochu as well as a couple local tasty dishes of mochi and yomogi grass. They enjoyed it. We had all gotten tired, but Teeza and Maria wanted to do the sento thing (Teeza is half Japanese and grew up here) so we found a local sento and enjoyed it! It was hot! And it had an "electrocution bath that had a current running through it. I THINK you are supposed to just dip body parts in. I jumped in up to my chest and was surprised to watch my hands turn into unopenable claws from the electricity coursing through my entire body. It felt like I was being pummeled by a boxer. I got out, washed, soaked... and then did it again. Twice. I think the ladies next door heard me saying, "I'm dying here!" but I don't really remember it! It was an interesting experiment for sure!

After the bath, we headed back to the inn, and everyone promptly fell asleep and snored until morning.

to be continued...

Keep your eyes open for IAM Kyoto Part 2: The Kyoto One Day Tour, April 16th, coming up next!

Mammanomics: How to get screwed in the global kitchen

This morning I saw a very interesting topic on the news: Japan has a butter shortage!
.
My first thought was to write a post about this. Before I could get to it, Rob sent me an equally interesting link on the first recession ever that Starbucks is facing. You can read the article Rob sent me a link to, "The First Starbucks Recession" by the wonderfully propagandized news reporter TIME/CNN .
.
In all honesty I don't like Starbucks coffee. It IS too bitter, exactly as the author of the article said at the end of his commentary. And in all honesty, even though The Starbucks CEO Schultz claims McD's coffee is "less than satisfactory" (he was quoted using the word "swill"), I have found that here in Japan, McDonald's Premium Roast is FAR BETTER than Starbucks' brewed coffee which is, in my opinion, "burned toast". They burn the shit out of their beans which leaves a horridly strong acidic aftertaste in the mouth. Sure, it works for latte's but not all of us want to dope ourselves up on cow hormones and get massive carb-induced sleepies (yes, milk is a BIG carb) from it.
.
And soy latte's? HAHAHAHA. I've talked about how bad for us soy is, so you won't find me drinking that stuff! I have tried all cream latte's, but although I love the taste of cream, a grande cream sat like a huge lump of curds in my tummy and just rolled around there, making me feel ill. So I try the variety of brewed coffees and other "watered down shots" and stuff, but still, they are all too burned in flavour for my "Italian roast spoiled tastebuds". (Yes, it is true, the espresso in Italy is infinitely tastier than that at Starbucks).
.
What I DO like about Starbucks is the atmosphere, a LOT. McDonalds sucks for "atmosphere" and the other coffee shops here are all smoke filled dingy dens, even if they do try to compete with Starbucks. Ugh. But the problem is as the Fox explained, the USA is soooo hard hit by deficit and "middle class cleansing" that the masses (the poor and the rich are at the opposite ends of the economic bell curve) simply cannot afford five bucks a cup!
.
If you read that article, I think you will see that Schultz is not entirely on the mark with his assessment, because he is not taking into account that North Americans (Americans specifically) simply DO NOT HAVE THE CASH to go in for the "five bucks" on a regular basis anymore, and it is only getting worse.
.
"We Japanese" learned through our 15 year repression all about becoming "recessioned". Now it's time for America and their big companies to feel the pinch along with all the consumers who may want to buy a "five bucks" but simply cannot...
.
Back to my main topic of the day: butter and the amazing shortage in Japan!
.
This is an easy lesson on global economics and even a "house mom" who gets sleepy at simply hearing the word "economics" should perk up her ears at this topic because it really DOES affect the household, the family and a whole lot more.
.
It seems that Japan has basically "run out of butter" Yep. It was on the news this morning. It is a massive deficit of that creamy goodness stuff that goes in everything from the croissants and delicious breads the Japanese are maniacs for, to the buttery smoothness of tonkotsu raamen! The patisserie's are getting a fraction of what they need, or none at all. Schools have been forced to change school lunches because they can't get the breads they were using. Prices are rising, demand is strong... but there is NO SUPPLY.
.
What happened?
.
Economics.
.
Global Economics to be more specific.
.
FRIKKIN GLOBALIZATION if you want to know the truth! Globalization in all its glory that the economists and governments and businesses completely ignore when they make their decisions to cut costs by "going global" and importing products and services from overseas based solely on "price competition".
.
Yep. Big business really screwed up this time, and it looks like it's going to take a long time to fix this mess.
.
It is a serious problem.
.
In the past, prices for milk in Japan started to go up. So butter manufacturers decided to buy from India and China. Well, guess what happened out there? Their GDP (income) has increased dramatically, and they are demanding more milk-related products, more grain-related products, more "obesity-related carbohydrates" just like we in the west. They are following on our heels quickly. But because their population is so vastly ginormous compared to ours in the west and here in Japan, the demand for these "new foods" like dairy, cheese in China which was until recently shunned as "not fit for human consumption" has created a giant vortex in the production so that prices have skyrocketed out there, as supply gets all sucked up.
.
I can't blame this entirely on "out there" of course, because the consumption of "designer breads and pastries" as well as cheese products is skyrocketing here as well, eating up huge amounts of milk products before it ever gets turned into butter (the last thing on the milk-product food chain to be made).
.
In the past Japan was buying a ton of milk from China and India to meet the demand, and throwing out the more expensive Japanese milk because nobody here would buy it at the high prices. Then prices out there went up as it does when more people want something (that was the economics lesson by the way, right there), and they stopped using the foreign milk.
.
So the companies that produce butter have tried to return to using the now "cheaper" Japanese milk, but because they stopped using the J-Milk processors and dairy farms here a lot of dairies went teats up. So guess what that means? It means that now there is not enough supply here in Japan to be shunted off for butter production and for the first time ever, there is a SERIOUS shortage of butter. This is causing major problems across the land here, and not just in the home kitchen, but in retail as well.
.
So, thanks to "globalization", we are not only screwing our blue and white collared middle class "bread winners", we are screwing all of the mamma's working hard to feed their children, keep within the budget and try to stay alive amid dwindling salaries, skyrocketing healthcare, and basic loss of position in the social bell curve.
.
You can read this good article from the Japan Times Online, "Butter supplies running short at supermarkets" , written April 6th. Today, three days later, we are actually at a more dire situation than they let on here, as seen on TV news this morning.
.
On a final note, I just want to say that I sure hope the Margarine manufacturers don't capitalize on this and "marketize" (brain wash through marketing) the kitchenplace to convince them (again) that margarine is "good for you". It isn't. It's one of the worst things you could EVER put in your mouth. A plastic food that won't ever rot is scary enough, but when you understand how it works on a biochemical level and takes over the receptors that require healthy Essential Fatty Acids that are found in butter, cheeses, proteins, eggs and stuff, and basically prevents the cells from GETTING what they really need... and you begin to see the true health nightmare that "no cholesterol!" margarine has done to our health. It is a true "fake food" not fit for even our worst nightmare enemies and ghouls!
.
It's lunchtime, and I'm hungry so I'm heading over to the kitchen, going to open up the fridge and enjoy a nice cold slice of delicious (and expensive) designer butter.....
.
I... *tummy rumbling*... love you!
.
Cam

Changes, Part 3/3: From the mouths of elephants

In Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God, of my three part series on making changes, I introduced Ganesha and Boku, and explained how Boku had inadvertently called upon the Hindu god Ganesha to help him turn his life around. Ganesha gave him philosophy, chores, chiding and more in order to help Boku grow and expand his world.

Here is the list of the things that Ganesha has Boku do, in order to rework his life so that he develops a totally new outlook, and improves his potential to become exactly what he has always envisioned he wanted to become (in his mind). My interpretation of the acts follows.

You may say to yourself, "what the heck is THIS good for?", but let me tell you that these concepts are all very much entrenched in the minds of successful Japanese businessmen and have been employed for a very long time.

In parentheses are some names that Ganesha dropped when he was telling his stories about how he helped these people achieve greatness. There were several other names, but when I asked Mayu she couldn't remember the specific stories to which the famous people were connected. So I share with you those that we could work out.

• Polish your shoes regularly - Always keep all of your "tools for the job" that you rely upon regularly daily for survival in excellent condition. (Ichiro of Seattle Mariners fame)
  
• Donate your change at convenient store - When Rockefeller was a young man, even before he was rich and famous he continued to donate 10% of his income for worthy causes. By supporting other causes you support yourself. (Rockefeller)
  
• Don’t fill up yourself when you eat - When you fill yourself totally full, your brain shuts down from overeating so if you go to 80%, your mind will stay sharp.
  
• See through other’s wants to find their needs - People hardly ever tell you exactly what they mean, even if they tell you "I always say what I mean". I reality, they don't. There is always an underlying meaning to their words. If you ask a customer what they would like in a new product, they can usually never tell you. But if you make a habit of "listening", and looking, you can learn to read between the lines and discover their true thoughts. (Henry Ford)
  
• Make people you met laugh - Have a life with a sense of humour to soften the air, and improve communication. (Southwest Airlines)
  
• Clean your toilet daily - This is an activity that people always try to avoid. By learning to do the things that people don't want to do, you open yourself up to new possibilities. (Soichiro Honda)
  
• Go home straight from work – Avoid dallying or wasting time then you have more time to do your own planned things.
  
• Praise yourself for some achievement - Even if you've had a bad day there must have been something in your life that you can praise to give yourself a boost. And as the day progresses you can build up your confidence with little victories.
  
• Quit something you always do for a day - This will open up more time to do something new [and the one I talked about in the previous installment].
  
• Create the environment to stick to what you decided to do - Actively create the environment which forces you to think about your actions, rather than just involuntarily "reacting". Actively work towards your goals with your mind "in the moment".
  
• Check and settle yourself in the mirror from head to toe every morning - Your inner spirit takes a great deal to change, but your outer appearance can degenerate very easily so always make sure that you look your best to yourself every day.
  
• Ask around to find out what you are the best at - You can learn a lot from other people about yourself. You may find that others have a much different opinion of abilities you never knew you had which may open up new fields to venture into.
  
• Ask around to find out what you are the worst at - We often turn a blind eye to our faults and weaknesses, so it is essential to act upon them by first finding out what they are.
  
• Imagine your dream pleasantly - Enjoy the dreams and goals you have without forcing yourself to stress too much over it.
  
• Speak out that you are lucky - Physically say the words "I am lucky" and you will transmit that positive feeling to the Universe, which will come back to you magnified, in kind.
  
• Try to get something for free - In order to do this, you will need to explain WHY you want something for free. This will help you to develop better negotiation skills, and learn how to express yourself better.
  
• Prepare for tomorrow - Make plans precisely in order to maximize your time, and efforts so that you are not caught off-guard by any unexpected events. And stick to the plan.
  
• Make someone closest to you happy - We often think about pleasing the customer, and customer is #1, but it is important not to forget all of the sacrifices that those people very close to you do, and to actively appreciate them as well, as they are your support network, more so than the customers. Usually the day has a schedule, and everyone does their thing, so in order to really make someone happy you need to look at the events and the people around you in order to determine what is really important and needed by those people.
  
• Find one good thing about someone and praise it - Sometimes you have to really think hard to praise people, especially when you are in a difficult situation. But it is important to watch people carefully and always look for something positive about the people, to let them know that you appreciate their strength.
  
• Steal someone’s good points - Very few people invent the wheel, but everyone tries to reinvent it by improving upon it. If something works for someone, it may work for you.
  
• Keep your eyes on classified ads - It is important to see what kind of work is out there and be ready to make yourself available for positions that you may have never known existed before.
  
• Pay a visit to a shrine, temple, church - Many people think that visiting a holy place is "meaningless", but even those who don't believe in God, or Gods, will find that by visiting holy places to show your respect, they will care more for you. If you care less for them, they will care less for you. And nobody can prove or disprove the actual existence of the gods, so why reduce your potential for Supernatural assistance?
  
• Visit popular shops and watch for the reasons - Popular businesses are popular for a reason. It can help you tremendously to find out exactly what these businesses are doing right. And then steal the concept.
  
• Give a surprise gift - Surprise people with something small and make them happy for no reason at all.
  
• Start something you regret that you haven’t done today - Whenever we regret not doing something we should have (like a load of laundry), that is actually a sign to you to tell you to do it right now. So don't just waste your time regretting, and not doing; get off your but and start it right then and there!
  
• Talk about your dream as service - If you talk about your dreams and plans based on you as the center of attention, people will get tired of listening. But if you find a way to think of your plan, dream and goal as somehow serving others and including good things for others (not just for self), people will pay much more attention and strive to help make your goals a reality. (Konousuke Matsushita - Panasonic).
  
• Support other people’s success - When you support people and give them positive energy through being supportive, even when they become extremely successful (i.e. don't feel jealous), that support will come back to you in the future.
  
• Apply, Enter - The more times you apply for things, or enter things, the better the chance you have of winning something. If you don't apply, you can't win.
  
• Appreciate every day - Whether you are successful or not, happy or unhappy,, take the time to appreciate all the little things in life that we take for granted (like water coming out of a tap when you turn a knob to fill a tea kettle with water) because all of these things, at one time, did not exist without much creation and suffering by someone in the past. We may think that we can live our life alone, but without all of the conveniences around us created by others who came before us, life would be very difficult therefore it is important to appreciate it all.

And that, my friends, is it! Why don't you see if you can apply one, a few, some, several, many or all of these very good ways to improve your life today?! Don't have time to improve yourself? Really? Well, how about you stop reading my blogs, and instead do something else? That's a possibility... (I wouldn't recommend stop going to the bathroom, though *wink*)

Would you like to review parts one and two? Here you go!

• Changes, Part 1/3: Mind, Intention and Outcomes
• Changes, Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God

Have a lovely day.


Cam

Changes, Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God

In Part One of my three part series on Change I was telling you how I have learned through real life experiences that trying to fit more into an already full day is practically impossible. I am a very disciplined person who is able to multi-task to some extent (breathe and answer the phone at the same time without too much effort) and I must admit that it doesn't make sense to follow the belief that you can always add more just by "working harder or smarter". Those who do jam more stuff in usually end up burning out and dropping even more of the stuff they can't afford to give up due to brain (and body) drain. So this "smarter, harder" belief is not sustainable for ordinary mortals such as me.

But I figured out how to do it. the answer is brilliant and yet sooo obvious at the same time that I still slap myself in my forehead and say, "How could I have bee so stooopid?!?"

I'm glad I figured out how to make time for adding meditation and reading in my day; I need this time at this point in my life because changes are in order. I do not have the tools to easily make these changes, but I want to acquire them. And in order to do this, I need more time to learn how to find, and then use these "tools of change".

Considering how I haven't been able to add this stuff into my life for the past couple of years I never thought I really could, but thanks to a book that Mayu just finished reading, something she explained to me one day gave me an "Aha!" moment that makes perfect sense. Let me tell you a bit about this book ...

A Japanese businessman wants change in his life; he desperately craves change, but he doesn't really know what to do, or how to do it. So he takes a trip to India to try and shake up his boring life. It doesn't work. Or so he thinks.

One night some time after his return and his life has returned to the same old doldrums he goes out to a party and gets really drunk. He comes home and passes out, only to wake up to a dream/nightmare vision of a fat elephant-headed chain-smoking, bitching Indian god that floats around his apartment, and constantly drives him nuts.

The businessman realizes that this god Ganesha is there to help him change his life. If the man promises to do exactly as Ganesha says, he will have the chance to improve himself and thus his life dramatically, but if he ignores any of the steps, or fails to do as he is told, he will be doomed to live his life in boring mediocrity, and exactly the way he does not want to live!

From that point on, Ganesha, a very human-like God who is completely addicted to cigarettes, loves bacon and a specific Japanese sweet gives the businessman ("Boku", or "me") lots of tips about life in a very realistic, and extremely funny way. The strangest thing is that this elephant-headed stubborn, bitching, grumbling and very picky god speaks for some strange reason to Boku entirely in Osaka dialect, which according to the Tokyoites, a very funny way for a god to talk.

Boku agrees to write up a contract with Ganesha to follow his advice and do as told. He then learns every day the most bizarre things that to him, seem to have absolutely no relevancy to becoming a better, enlightened person! In fact, these seemingly incongruous lessons sound more like an excuse for Ganesha to hang around, chain smoke, be fed bacon every day, and have a place to sleep.

But as the days pass, Boku starts to understand more and more how these simple principles in life can have a huge change on the way we perceive our world, and thus the way we act within it. And this is where the change comes in.

In the end, as time draws near, Ganesha finally fades away, leaving Boku on his own, having learned all of the lessons taught, and ready to head back into the world, a changed man. The epilogue shows Ganesha appearing to some other person in need of life lessons and talks about Boku as "that famous architect". So it obviously worked!

The funny thing about this is that Ganesha uses all of the famous people in the world for examples that he personally visited and helped become famous: Bill Gates, Soichiro Honda, Ichiro, Richard Branson, The Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and more, all the way back to the ancients (as gods live forever). Mayu was laughing the entire time she was reading this book. She likes to read at night to fall asleep, but during this book instead of falling asleep, she would wake me up at 2am with her laughing! I am glad it was a wonderful book for her because I only had to deal with night laughter two or three nights in a row.

Here is one of the things that Ganesha taught Boku, and one that makes a lot of sense to me, and gave me that "Aha!" moment I was talking about earlier:

We all have ONLY 24 hours a day and in our busy life, those 24 hours are often all booked up. It is important to add new things, try new things in order to grow but how do we fit them in? This is the biggest issue most people have. Ganesha explains that in order to fit in more than what we can do, sometimes we have to take away some things. This means in order to do something new, we need to stop doing something old (Boku sells his chesterfield so he doesn't come home from work, plop down on it, turn the TV on and waste time vegging out). And then that space will open up. Just adding another thing onto an already full schedule won't work, even though people say "squeeze it in". It never lasts. The trick is to STOP doing something else, to give up something else, and then you can get the time for something new.

In Part 3/3: From the mouths of elephants, I shall share the 20+ activities that Ganesha uses to train the people who want to move onto greatness. I will also try to explain the philosophy behind them, just in case you are wondering HOW some of these things could possibly be of help. But when you read these, please keep in mind all of the activities that the Karate Kid had to go through in his training...

I love you!

Cam

Changes, Part 1/3: Mind, Intention and Outcomes

When I visited NC and went to the Mindspring seminar, I purchased a 8CD set that is all about "Mind, Intention, and Outcomes". There are "seven processes" that the CEO of the company takes us through that helps us to become the observers of our universe. And as the observers of our universe, we consciously create the outcomes we deeply desire. I started listening daily, and have recently started process two. I try to do them back to back which takes an hour but I could do one at a time if I wished. When I am ready, comfortable with the process and able to do it with ease, that is the time I open a new CD and start another process. These CDs are not designed to listen completely through from start to end; they are intended to be integrated into our lives. this may take weeks, months or years, but that's OK because the results and the change is what is important.

Here are some very powerful words:

"Do you often wonder why things turn out the way they do? Do you believe you can live the life of your choice? 'Mind, Intention and Outcomes' is a powerful and lasting resource that serves as a catalyst for growth, guidance and mastery of the answers within your Self. It assumes that you are the architect of your life and work, capable of directing the energy, flow and intention of your mind, body and emotions, regardless of the circumstances.

If you believe you will never be happy, you won't be. If you believe you are less than, you are and you will function that way. If you see yourself as powerless, then you will function as a powerless person and will use enormous opportunities in your life as circumstances in which to feel more powerlessness. As odd as it may seem, just when you think you have no choice in a difficult event, chances are you have been fooled. It is your mind at work. For you see, your function is not up to your mind, but to you, your Self, the one who is aware of your mind.

But consider another scenario. Consider changing your function. Do you believe that the mind is capable of bringing this new, powerful thought to reality? By increasing your attention and intention, you not only transform your Self, but also your workplace and your family. You are the agent of change and growth in your life and work. Stop procrastinating and stop postponing your goals and dreams. Begin creating your tomorrow today."

I have also started reading again. After my MBA I became so burned out with research and reading that honestly I haven't wanted to open a book in over a year! Instead I have been focusing intently on communicating with all of YOU through these blogs, because at this point in my life, communication with real live people who can interact back with me is more important than "book knowledge". But it is time to start reading again. I need to whittle down my huge pile of books.

But I have so many other things to do in the day that I really didn't know how I could add these hours in. I know that squeezing in more to a busy schedule rarely works in a sustainable way. I also know that "work harder, work smarter" is bullshit. It doesn't work; it's an ideal that can never really be achieved. It sounds great, makes us all look good, but it isn't a realistic way to achieve sustainable long-term change of habits.

But I figured out how to do this, thanks to a book Mayu just recently finished. And I'll tell you about this book in Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God ...

Cam

P.S. You can visit Mindspring Consulting's website at http://www.helpingyougrow.com/. If you can afford the time and investment in your future to take any of their seminars, I highly recommend it. Located in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, Haydn and Terry have been bringing "enlightenment" to businesses and individuals alike for almost two decades. Their products are not cheap by any means, but they are excellent!

Biz Talk: Meandering Through Carbon Offset Fantasies

My friend Dunnster just wrote today (on our day off - first day of spring officially, Happy Shumbun no Hi!) a very good blog about the recent Prius Bashing that seems to constantly go around. Apparently (I didn't know this, but that's not surprising since he seems to know billions and billions of bits of information more than I do) there is a "Dust to Dust" report that compares the "total running costs" to the environment of a Toyota Prius to a Hummer and concludes that the Hummer is more efficient and better on the environment.

You can read the entire blog, entitled Cars here, and I recommend it. It's interesting, to say the least, especially because Dunnster always finds the most interesting controversies to share with us and he never ceases to amaze me.

As often happens to me when I have a bit of time to ponder, I started writing a comment. And then I edited it, and wrote some more, and some more and the next thing I knew it was a blog-in-a-blog. So, I extracted it from there, and decided to write it here instead so as not to take up too much space on his site. I'll go back and link this blog to my comment so those reading his excellent blog can pop over here if they wish to see my thoughts.

I know there are pros and cons to the system of businesses, industries, countries buying "carbon offset coupons", but if that money collected is actually USED for the improvement of CO2 reduction in some way, and not just considered a profit that goes back into the pockets of the investors, I think it could work.

If such were the case then it would be interesting I think, if individuals could do their part by purchasing environmentally-friendlier vehicles and at the same time a portion of their purchase price would be allotted to their receipt of carbon-offset coupons. This doesn't necessarily mean that the profits of the company have to decrease. If we were conscientious buyers, and wanted to buy into this system (after understanding it), then adding to the sticker price the option of purchasing carbon offset coupons when buying the vehicle would be a nice extra option, I feel.

The company could issue specific coupons in paper form, just as if we bought securities, that could be saved, traded, bought or sold openly on the market at market values, and it could become a new commodity that would be born every time we decided to invest in the improvement of the environment. Why not? If countries can print money and make it appear out of thin air, why not print "enviros" that can be used with other businesses as "points" for reducing future prices of other environmentally-friendly purchases? I like the concept. I'd buy into it.

It's just like when you purchase books from Amazon you get points that you can use to reduce your costs for future purchases. Why not be able to purchase carbon-offset enviros that would act in the same function and could be redeemed for discounts when purchasing certain products or services that were recognized to be produced by organizations who were doing their part in developing more environmentally-friendly goods?

Yes, we can change our light bulbs, drive less, turn off the lights, use less bottled water, turn our dishwater temperature down, stop using weed killer, reduce our plastic consumption, buy recycled tires, and more. No doubt there is a huge amount we as individuals can already do (and should be). I was shocked when I visited Bob in Asheville (where everyone buys "organic") to find out that ALL of their trash (glass, bottles, plastic, food, paper, everything) all goes out in one bag to the dump - shocked I tell you!

As I learned when my former company was applying for ISO14001 and we were studying about it, there is only so much reduction you can do before you can't do any more. It doesn't make sense to "suffer" to save the world, because that is not our lot in life. We should be able to prosper while working to improve the environment, and profit from it at the same time.

To actually be able to purchase more carbon offset (on a voluntary basis), would be an excellent way for those really interested in serving the environment further, those who have done all they can to reduce but still want to do more and not suffer from it (i.e. never use electricity), to do so.How about this radical idea: Instead of paying a tithe to the church, don't you think "God" might prefer to see us keep our globe operating at a healthier level by buying carbon offset coupons? I'd like to think so.

When I was in Asheville, NC, I was looking into renting a car. One company (Alamo, I think, but maybe Hertz) allowed us to choose a "carbon offset plan" which billed an extra $1.25/day for carbon offset. On the surface it looked like a good idea, but there was nowhere I could find in the site that told me where that extra money was going. Did Alamo plan to make us feel good by letting us "buy carbon offset", and in reality it was just going to go into their coffers? Or did they have a plan where they were using it to purchase offset coupons as a means to decrease their exhaust output on a "carbon-based basis"? I couldn't find so I didn't purchase. But I seriously considered choosing that over the other vehicles, even if it meant paying a little more per day. IF that money was going to true carbon offset in some way, and had it been explained, I would have paid extra to do my part on that scale.

So I think there is potential here for such a system for the individuals, and I hope that it eventually gets implemented in creative ways (not "creative accounting ways") that we, the boys and girls in the street can do just a little bit more to do our part. It's time to stop complaining about the destruction of our planet and start acting. All complaining does is bring back more destruction upon us; it serves no positive constructive purpose. If you believe that the energy you transmit out to the Universe comes back multiplied, what is the use of sending out negative energy? We need to act, to show our positive intent in order for that positive ripple to turn into a tsunami of change, rather than a tsunami of destructive force.

I think that the automakers could really lobby for a movement in this direction if they aren't already doing so and it would, in turn, be a good marketing tool for the environmentally conscious, as well as assist them to design and develop more models that have the energy-saving, or energy-replenishing concepts. After all, the faster they can get these new tech vehicles down in price to the mass-market price point, the faster we will all be able to switch over and make petroleum a "resource of the passed".

Couldn't Amazon.world find some creative way to introduce this into their point system? They have a monstrously successful business model with phenomenal logistics. I think that they probably could. Then for those of us who want to buy books online, Amazon.world could be our environmentally friendly choice which might give them a competitive advantage over other online bookstores (not for long, of course). I think they could do it, if they sat down with creative minds and worked it out. I would most definitely buy into that since I like this company already! (two books just arrived today, Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth" and a Japanese novel for Mayu.)

But having said so, I don't think it would be good to be passed as a "carbon offset tax" where everyone was forced to do their part. Sure, it would force people to change their habits (one of the outcomes on economics as we know is to change habits by levying taxes and tolls, not just to make more money), having it as OPTIONAL would allow those who can to do so with a conscious mind, and those who were not at a point in their lives to do so, would not need to feel angry that their "hard-earned dollar" was being taxed even further for something they may not believe in. And it wouldn't be forcing people to do something they weren't ready for, so they would not need to feel resentment toward it.

Not everyone would go for this, and that's fine. Those that want to, should be able to do so, and those that don't, really shouldn't be forced. Not yet anyway. Maybe in the future when it needs to be forced if we are at such a point of global environmental crisis, but I would prefer to think that as people become more aware, they realize the merits of this system and come on board on their own accord, and with their own understanding and desire to do so. So much more can be accomplished when you WANT to do it, rather than when you are FORCED to do it against your will. "How much can I give for a dollar" as opposed to "How much can I take for a dollar", is a similar analogy.

This is just a thought that started rumbling through my mind as I read Dunnster's blog today. And I would like to thank him for helping my mind get going on a new, and to me interesting, thought.

Cam