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New Years in Chiang Mai

Now I can imagine that if we were in downtown Chiang Mai last night that this would have been the view, and that does look like the back of my heard. Anyway the view last night was something that I had never seen before. All around the city people were launching these paper lanterns, it was not from just one location, everywhere you looked in the night sky were the lanterns interspersed with fireworks of all variety. We had 11 of them that we set off in the Armstrong's neighborhood earlier in the evening, and so when it hit midnight we were free to to just enjoy the amazing sight.

This has been a great trip and even though I decided to not take the jaunt into Myanmar. And as I look back I'm glad that I didn't go to Myanmar for at least one reason had i gone I would have missed this great light show last night.

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.