Angry Whopper

So on my way home I stopped in at Burger King and was lured to this new menu item, the Angry Whopper. It comes in mild, spicy, and extra hot. I got the spicy version, it had 3 jalapeno marks by it. And it really was spicy, with a sauce that seemed to be basically just tabasco sauce, very good. There was also a sign for a Crazy Whopper which according to the picture had at least an inch of jalapeno peppers on it.

Boggy Creek

The teachers took and airboat ride at Boggy Creek yesterday and it was really fun. This was the second one that I have taken, but this one was a private tour with just the three of us on board. We saw this alligator and a couple of its babies, a raccoon, many birds and a bald eagle.

rainbow cloud

And today it is in the Japanese Yomiuri.

Healthy Chicken

Kentucy Fried Chicken in Japan is going healthy. Putting on the menu oven grilled chicken. Now why can't America follow suit and give us some healthier options rather than the heart attack waiting to happen, double down sandwich.

No wonder so many people in the states are overweight. I'm going to have to be really careful this summer, because it is so easy to fall for these so unhealthy food options.

Sumo Appology?

"Following an announcement saying, 'We express our apology to our ancestors and the ring,' some 200 wrestlers, stablemasters and Japan Sumo Association (JSA) officials simultaneously performed deep bows toward the ring as some 1,000 fans looked on."



How typically Japanese. After deciding not to cancel the Nagoya Sumo tournament after the baseball gambling scandle, this is how the Sumo Association desides to show its remorse. Bowing to the ring and their ancestors. Not sure where this comes from but I know it is an attitude that prevails most sports in Japan. When our tennis team is finished practicing the girls always turn to the court and say thank you. I've sen girls bow to the court before the step on it to play a game. But appologizing to the sumo ring, I don't get it.

School Cleaning

If you are at all familiar with the Japanese school system, you will know that the above illustration is a daily sight at every school in Japan. The students do all the cleaning, at least for the most part. It works for them, but I have always thought that the inside of most schools are not kept up. I guess you might say that it goes to show.

Well recently at my school there has been a big push from the recruitment commitee to really make sure that the school is clean before they have special school explanation meetings to parents or cram school teachers. Something that seems like it is happening everyweek recently. This means that after the kids have left school they are wanting us to stick around and make sure the school is clean. So the teachers go out in the areas that have already supposedly been cleaned my the students, and clean again.

Now the other day the head of that comittee anounced that most parents now find that the schoos are pretty well clean. This cleanliness is a reflection supposedly on how well you are disciplining your students. So you must be doing a good job if your school is clean. But now that it is a norm they are wanting us to make sure that the school is pristine. So we have well behaved students because are school is clean. But the problem it is the teachers that are making it really clean. Isn't this really saying that we aren't doing our job because even though we work with the students and teach them to clean, we still have to do it all over to make the school presentable. In a sense aren't we really lying to the parents?

I really think that they just need to hire a janitorial staff to do the work, this way the students could have more study time, and there wouldn't be extra work piled on to the already busy teachers schedules.

Rakuten to make English official in-house language by end of 2012 › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

This was in the news yesterday and I thought it was very interesting. Just think if more companies started to do this in Japan peoples English might actually improve.

Rakuten to make English official in-house language by end of 2012 › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion

Rakuten, which operates the largest Internet mall in Japan, intends to conduct all executive meetings in English and eventually have all internal documents written in the language, it said, adding that the menus in its staff canteen are already available in English.

Check out this great MSN Video: Top 10 Bizarre Phobias

Check out this great MSN Video: Top 10 Bizarre Phobias

Although this least mentions the fear of dance and the fear of flutes as the same thing, it is interesting. My favorite, Consecotalephobia, the fear of chopsticks. Yikes could't live in Japan with that.

how a Japanese man should dress

I was surprised when this guy got on the train, it is very rare when you will see a man dressed in full Kimono and he wasn't with anyone. It looked to be made of linen very dapper to say the least he was very put together. I think I could pull the look off it would be nice to wear at weddings, but don't get invited to lots of those.

scarry

This is the current add campaign for Winston cigarettes in Japan. I'm still looking for the poster with 3 of these guys lined up holding the same pose. I'm trying to figure out who their target audience is.

do it again

Latest in the Tokyo Metro poster series. Reminding people to be polite, reminding a fellow passenger that they have forgotten their umbrella.

I think I have 2 ideas for the series.

One would be along this line, waking the sleeping passenger that is still fast asleep as everyone gets off at the last station. I know that I have seen some people that have not gotten off and ended up riding back, who knows how many times.

The second would be entitled, "Do it in Bed" and it would show someone falling asleep on the shoulder of the perfect stranger sitting next to them, in this case the guy with no pupils.

In Perspective: Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster

Not much news here about the big oil spill in the gulf, but this is what it would look like over Tokyo.

Go here to see what it would look like over your city.

creative uses

Today the iPad was released here in Japan today, and you know with creative uses like this I think it could catch on quick.

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Corn chocolate?

Now I think I have seen everything. I know that Japanese love corn on everything, but this takes the cake. Now I know there is not actually corn inside, but I think it must be something to do with the look or the crunch of the product. Go figure.

Festivals and Involvement

The festival in Japan has always been of intrest to me. People come out in droves to see and participate in these events. I thought it would be a good picture chance so I headed out to fight the crowds, they say over a million people attend this every year. This one started in 1872. And of course the people that are most involved in festivals like this one are men. And I am always amazed that men will come out in droves for these. In doing a little research I found an article by Sarah Elizabeth Freeborn where she said, "They (matsuri or festival) allow community members, both past and present, a time of celebration and fun, and an opportunity to share experiences with one another, maintaining and strengthening bonds of friendship." I have had a friend tell me sort of the same thing that these festivals are really more about the bonding of community more than any religous meaning.
I also ran across something from Michael K. Roemer, in talking about the Gion Festival in Kyoto he states, "participants in this month of rites and festivities gain a sense of belonging and emotional support based on their roles in this historically and culturally significant shrine-related festival. Specifically, highly involved male participants form intimate and exclusive relationships and develop enduring networks that offer feelings of unity and spiritual guidance. With a combination of well-accepted "Western" theories and methods, and an understanding of distinct cultural differences." I guess you could say that these festivals are the ultimate male bonding experience for Japanese men.

Which leads me back to the Japanese church, what our the cultural events that will draw people in make them feel involved and give them a sense of beloning, foster deep relationships, and give them a feeling of unity and spiritual guidance? It is a very open ended question, but one that has plagued me for a long time.

Nature in heart of Tokyo

Had a drum preformance at Meijijingu kaikan yesterday and on the way back spotted this nice little river flowing through the shrine grounds. Should have pulled out my real camera to get a better shot, but hey.

funniest way to ride train

So I get on the train and am patiently waiting for the train to leave and this young guy gets on and tries to go through to the next car. He grabs the bar to open the sliding door between cars but doesn't realize that he is pulling on the hand rail. The old lady sitting in front of him motions to show him the handle is on the other side. He stops and angrily tries again at the same hand rail. He angrily gives up then walks over to the door right beside me and gets in this position on the floor in front of the door. The old ladies next to me and the guy standing on the other side of the car giggle and shake their heads, I say, "I think he is drunk." Another strange sighting on the train.

Sky Tree

View of Sky Tree from Asakusa, the red bull car in the foreground is just an unexpected surprise.

you see all kinds

Went into Asakusa today, and just happened upon a festival. Now this guy wasn't part of the festival but he was surely dressed for the occasion. Don't know if you can tell but he had little fish bowls hanging from his hat with gold fish and little crabs in them.

Random sightings

The front of this shirt said, "How's your boss?"

Oh for a simpler way.

So today I went to get my license renewed, which I thought would be an easy process. On the card they sent me they said I had two options; go to the test center, or go to the ward police station. I decided to go to the police station because it is much closer and I thought would be a much simpler process. I should have know things were not going to go well when I arrived to find that from the first of April they had moved locations. The map to the new station was behind a fence and not very legible. Luckily there was a man nearby that I asked and got directions. One problem down. Got to the new place and went in and asked what I had to do. The lady said that I could apply today but I would have to take an hour lecture also, ok I knew I would have to do that. The only problem was that she said the next lectured would be June 11th. I was like, "What?", and asked wasn't there a different day that I could go on. Well she couldn't answer that question and had to ask another lady. That later eventually came over to another counter, not directly to me and proceeded to say that if I applied today the license wouldn't be done till May 26th. I asked if there was a lecture in May, but she said that since the license wouldn't be processed and back to them I couldn't take the lecture. She also told me they only offer it once a month. So I asked about June. Her answer to that was, well that date is not decided, it will probably be on July 15th but she couldn't say for sure, so I didn't even have the option to ask for that day. No the problem with both the days and the times is that for either one I would have to take off work to do it. Then she said I can go directly to the testing center and get it all done in one day. So now I have to go to the test center and get it done. Well at least she said they are open on Sunday. Still that doesn't make me to thrilled because since they are only open during business hours during the week and closed on Sat. I'm sure the lines will be horrendous.

All this to say, why can't they make the process easier? In this land where everyone is tied up with their work, why not open the test center on Saturdays or in the evenings. Same for the lecture at the police station. Given the amount of people that have to go through this process you think they would offer the lectures more than once a month and not just during the weekdays during the middle of the day. Wish someone would think these things through.

So any way this is what I have to look forward to, but actually this picture looks fairly uncrowded.

Divorce Ceremony?

As I was watching the news this morning I was surprised to hear that divorce ceremonies are becoming popular in Japan. So when I got to school and tried to find something on it in the the Japanese newspaper I didn't really find anything but I ran across an article from 2008 on CNN.

If just discussing divorce in public seemed taboo a few years ago, the growing trend of divorce celebrations is helping lessen the stigma surrounding the end of marriage.

"Yes, it's sad and it's painful, but it's not failure," says Christine Gallagher, the owner of Los Angeles event company The Divorce Party Planner and the author of a book by the same name. "It's part of life, and yet it's the only major event for which we have no ritual.

Full article here.
Yes it may be the only major event for which we have no ritual, but do we need one? One of the commentators on the news today said basically, if they can get along well enough to throw a party, is there need for a divorce. I think the major difference with the celebrations here was that they may involve both parties. They mentioned a part of the ceremony where they take imitation wedding rings and the couple destroys them with a hammer. I think it might be something that is actually helpful but the most disturbing fact from the article was this, "A celebration communicates that divorce is OK -- life-affirming, even.". I so don't agree with that statement.

Proof read?

Thanks to Sayaka for alerting me of McDonalds failure to do some checking before they print out their advertising.

Dissapointment in a California Burger

This is the advertised product.

And this is reality.

My motto at McDonalds has always been, "Never try the new stuff." Today with the 4th in this new series my thinking has been further reinforced. Dry, bland, the only thing that differentiated it from the New York Burger was the sauce, which you couldn't even taste. They are billing the sauce as a California wine sauce, but like I said you barely knew that anything was on it. I thought that they might throw on maybe some avocado, I mean it is popular, it wouldn't be hard to come by or anything. But I assume that it would be a bit of a job for them to cut up fresh avocado, so why not guacamole, then in place of the tomato salsa. Everyone knows this is the new condiment of choice. And if they really wanted to give it some zing, throw on some jalapenos. Anyway to the exec's at McDonalds in Japan, any new ideas run them by me first.

Shocking News in Japan

This has been in the news the last couple of days, and the details were rather shocking as I listened to it on the news this morning.

Nara couple held after son starves to death
The Yomiuri Shimbun

NARA--A husband and wife were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of starving their 5-year-old son to death.

Hiroshi Yoshida, 35, a company employee of Sakurai, Nara Prefecture, and his wife, Mami, 26, a part-time worker, reportedly admitted the allegations to the Nara prefectural police. They also were quoted by the police as saying they had no affection for the boy.

The mother said she abused the boy because he looked like her husband, whom she did not get along with, the police said. Meanwhile, Yoshida was quoted by police as saying that he knew the boy was not being fed, but did not do anything about it.

According to the police, Tomoki Yoshida weighed only 6.2 kilograms, about one-third of the average weight of a 5-year-old child, and less than the average 1-year-old. He was 85 centimeters tall, which is the average height of a 2-year-old and 25 centimeters shorter than an average 5-year-old.
full story here

I know that this is terrible news and I wonder what could have been done. One of the things that stood out in this news was that this family of 4 were living in a one room apartment. For those of you who are not familiar with what that works out to a room measuring roughly 8'x11'. Now they probably had a small kitchen to go with that, but I'm sure it wasn't even half the size the main room. Not a very big space to do all of your living in. And I started to wonder why in Japan do people live in such conditions. I'm sure that cost was one big reason. Cost of housing is outrageous in Japan. I know that Japan is limited when it comes to space but I think there needs to be some serious reform in housing. I remember when I moved into Tokyo and was shocked when I had to pay the equivalent of 5 months of rent just to get into my apartment. Then add the first months rent and I was staring at about $8,000. Luckily I had the funds to do this, but if by chance you are just starting out or have a family to take care of, it probably is not that easy. There are public housing projects in Japan that are very nice, and you can get escape paying some of the start up fees by getting into one of these developments, but at the same time the new ones that I have seen have not been cheap at all. One of the reasons for this is that there is this thing called "Amakudari" where gov't officials retire and get put in charge of such projets and these projects pay out huge salaries to these officials. They are taken care of for life, but it drives the housing costs out of this world. I think it is about time for some change. Who know maybe if this family of 4 had had a decent living condition this tradegy possibly could have been avoided. I know there are som many more details, but for Japan one of the richest nations in the world this is pretty sad.

Just love The Tunnels

Festival Entrance.

Saidaiji Hadaka Matsuri climax

I got better video that I did pictures, hopefully you can see how wild this whole event is.

Saidaiji Hadaka Matsuri

On the spur of the moment I decided to go to the Saidaiji Naked Festival on Saturday. This year marked the 500th anniversary of this event. I arrived at 8:00 in the evening and I thought that would be plenty of time, but I wish I would have gone a little earlier. People were up on the platform of the shrine and just as I got into the grounds they announced that they were clearing the area except for the participants. Shortly after I arrived they started slowly heading to the platform waiting for the drop of the sacred sticks, "shingi".

It wasn't too long before the stage was full.

And they still kept coming!

And coming!

Just a bit crowded and pretty dangerous.

As you can see from the picture there were people on the outside and I think their main job was to do their best to make sure everyone stayed on the stage. There are very step steps all around the stage that are put up for just this event. As the crowd got larger there were numerous times when you would hear a rumble from the crowd and the stage and a group of the men would fall like a giant wave of bodies down the steps. I have some great video where you should be able to see it and I hope to get it up shortly.

If you are interested in the festival here is a little blurb that I found.

One of the three most eccentric festivals of Japan. Nine thousand men wearing only loincloths struggle fiercely with one another over a pair of lucky sacred sticks measuring 4 cm in diameter and 20 cm in length, thrown into the crowd by the priest from a window 4 m up. Anyone who luckily gets hold of the shingi and thrusts them upright in a wooden measuring box known as a masu which is heaped with rice is called the lucky man, and is blessed with a year of happiness. The other lucky items are bundles of willow strips, and although 100 of these are thrown into the crowd, it is not an easy task to catch them.

Read the rest of the story here.

Hadaka Maturi

With lack of anything better to do I decided to jump on a train and head to Okayama to see check out the Hadaka Matsuri. At least this year they have moved up the time when they drop the lucky charm (for lack of better words).

Olympic Fashion Faux Pax

Not surprised at all that something like this happened. Now I don't think this guy looks too bad, but his, not wearing his suit correctly, got him banned from attending the opening ceremony. Now given all the dress code rules that we have at school I understand this but at the same time wonder if it really matters. Well it must to some, it seems the actions were taken after people complained to the Japan Olympic Committee.

Shoichi Yamashita / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

VANCOUVER--Japanese Olympic snowboarder Kazuhiro Kokubo was barred from attending the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics by the head of Japan's Olympic delegation after he flouted the dress code by wearing the Japanese Olympic uniform in a manner deemed inappropriate.

Kokubo, 21, who will compete in the halfpipe event, departed for Vancouver on Tuesday from Narita Airport with the Japanese delegation, but had his official team trousers hitched below his waist, shirt untucked and tie loosened.

Due to numerous complaints to the Japanese Olympic Committee and other entities, Kokubo voluntary refrained from attending Wednesday's ceremony for athletes entering the Olympic Village. At a press conference shortly after the ceremony, Kokubo said he was very sorry for his attire, but prolonged his syllables in a manner that was perceived to be flippant, which fueled even more protests.

I think this sort of reinforces the idea that I have always had about Tamasei and their rules. It seems that they have all these rules, but there really is no penalty for breaking them. I have always thought that the school has always been too soft on the kids. I say this in knowing that sometimes the consequences in doing something as small as not wearing you uniform right, can be rather stiff in Japanese society.

Jeanne Moos talks about "Pant's on the Ground"

Chocolate Soda

Just about when you thought you have seen it all you get another surprise. Stopped at the convenience store on the way home thinking I might pick up something to drink and this drink jumped out at me. What will they think of next? Well I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, I mean it was just a couple of weeks ago I saw that there was chocolate beer in the stores so why not. When I looked it up I saw someone had actually blogged about it and said that it tasted like a cross between cream soda and a totsie roll. Well I wasn't up for it today but maybe I will try one before Valentines day.

New York Burger

So McDonalds is running a promotional hamburger series. It started off with Texas and is moving its way through the 4 burgers pictured above. Yesterday New York debuted so I decided to go out and try it today for lunch. Here it is pictured below.

I have made it a point to not eat these creative products but I thought hey I should at least try, I mean they look good. Texas, too much bread, bbq sauce that tasted more like teriyaki sauce. A disappointment. The New York; bacon, lettuce, tomato, and cheese. No it wouldn't have been bad if it wasn't for the horseradish mustard that was slathered on the bottom. Another disappointment. If it had been juicy it may have worked; add mayo, relish, ketchup, and mustard, and I would be back for more.

Funky Phone

So on the way home from the immigration office I changed trains at Oimachi and I realized there was a new electronics store where Marui used to be. I wanted to look for a digital picture frame and ran across this. Seeing as I also need to replace my phone I'm thinking this may just be the thing I need. Check it out at Sharp.

Train Mail

On my way to the immigration office yesterday I ran across this very unusual mail box inside of Shinagawa station.

Actually over the years Shinagawa station has been transformed into a really nice area. In the station building there is a nice Starbucks shere you can sit on a terrace overlooking the justle and bustle of the station and also enjoy free wifi.

iPad parody

This is too funny! And to think that it was done 5 years ago.

Spheres of Influence

Went to a wedding party last night and I was fascinated by the different circles of friends my friend had made. During the party representatives from each group of friends was asked to give a short speech. It was a very interesting mix of people and I was somewhat surprised at the number of friends that my friend had built around him. Actually I was impressed by how many people this guy really had made a lasting impression on. I was also struck by the diversity of his circles of influence. There were work friends, college friends, manga friends, baseball friends, chorus friends, drinking friends, and us his church friends. Lots of circles, lots of friends, and a network of people rivaling facebook.

Also just a few weeks my good friend Susan left on her final journey. Over and over the thing that was said about her was how many lives she touched. She had an amazing network of friends, from all around the world. From what I hear the funeral was a celebration of over 400 people in attendance, and spoke of the influence that she had on so many people.

So where am I going with this, well it started me thinking, "How big is my circle of friends, and how expansive are my spheres of influence?" Let's see, what is a good measure, my facebook friends perhaps? Well I don't think I have a great number of these, 266, but compared to the average which is 130, maybe I don't fair too bad. If I had a wedding party (this is just imaginary of course) how many people could I get to come. I probably would be pleasantly surprised by the numbers but I think most people would come more out of utter surprise. And what about a funeral, how many people would show up for that? As I get older I find that building friendships and relationships is very different from 30 years ago. But just because it is different from years ago, I still feel that developing friendships and nurturing relationships is one of the most important things I can be doing. As people reflected on my friend Susan's life, the overwhelming response was that she was a friend to almost any and all. She was interested in peoples lives remembered things about people, shared in their interests and was genuine with them.

I do have a good circle of friends but what am I doing to expand that? How many people are going to be influenced by mine? How broad and far reaching are my circles of influence going to be? What should I be doing to make more of a difference, or is what I'm doing enough? I think I have a lot of questions and maybe not a lot of answers, but I hope that I can be a genuine friend to as many people as God puts in my path. When I boil it all down I think that this should probably be one of our main goals. We are called to share God's love, what better way than to be a genuine friend.

iPad, It's Here! Well almost.

Been waiting to see if the rumors would come true and it was verified last night when I got to e-mails from Apple verifying the release of the iPad. An old from college Nick Gerlich had this to say about it on his blog.

The iPad is basically an iPhone on steroids. It is combination e-reader, netbook and iPod, all with the touchscreen usability we have all come to love (or loathe) as iPhone users. It will be available in 3 storage configurations, as well as with or without AT&T 3G wireless connectivity. With an entry level price of $499, it is decidedly a lot pricier than simple netbooks on the PC platform (starting at $300), but its coolness quotient is up in the stars.

Go ahead and read the rest of what he says at GNU/Medialab. He has a better way of putting it down in words than me.

Tai Yaki

On the way home from church today I made a stop in Shibuya. On the way back to the station I saw this interesting store selling taiyaki, which is a traditional Japanese bean paste filled pastry. Well this store has gone "international" you might say. Instead of the traditional bean paste they have substituted:

• Cheese Curry dog (India)
• German Potato
• Italian (have no idea of the contents but it looked pretty good)
• Sweet Potato (America not sure what the connection is)
• Caramel & Almond (France)
• Chocolate & Custard (Belgium)

Had I not just eaten and there hadn't been a huge line I would have loved to try one of them.

If your interested check out their web site, Tai Yaki.

Pant's on the Ground ballad

Like Simon said I think someone is going to make a hit out of this song. I don't think this is it but it is pretty funny. Love the ending.


And now I see that "'Pants on the Ground' Singer Larry Platt Offered Record Deal"

And if your looking for a t-shirt, try this on for size.

Pant's on the Ground

I hope someone makes this song into a hit.