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.)
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* 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
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* 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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