The Divine Wind Vault

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Japanese Street Fashion

Japanese Street Fashion- Courtesy of Youtube.com

Here's a site that you may find interesting. http://www.japanesestreets.com/

Traded to Japan- Courtesy of youtube.com

Major League pitcher is traded to Japan for the hot dog eating champion. This could never happen, not because of the hot dog champion but trades are only done within the MLB system. If Major League player goes to Japan, it's because the Japanese team wanted them but would not send a Japanese player in their place.

Many people do not know this, but in the 1964, the first Japanese player played in the Major Leagues. Masanori Murakami pitched in nine games for the San Francisco Giants.

Source- "The Samurai Way of Baseball", by Robert Whiting

Great Journeys of Japan and Asia- Ambiance of Aichi

I am still dabbling as a freelance writer with emphasis on "free" as I have yet to get paid for my work. I'm still happy to answer the call when asked. Nevertheless, here's the latest installment of my travels to Central Japan for the World Expo in 2005. Enjoy!! Ambiance of Aichi

Please enjoy this "How to" video courtesy of Mizkan of Aichi.

Japanese Food in America

Yesterday, we made a last-minute trip to the state's largest city and capital, Columbia for a check on Japanese food in the area. Since Tanpopo (Dandelion in English), the one Japanese grocery store in our city, is slow to non-existant these days with not much to offer other than the basics. The store is next to the sushi bar, Sushi Masa who runs the sushi bar and his wife runs Tanpopo. Ten years ago, Greenville was the home to Hitachi and Fuji Film in nearby Greenwood but nowadays they still exist but are nothing more than a glorified American branch office that has their home office elsewhere. I'll go into that more later.

Anyway, the trip to Columbia was a waste since there were no Japanese markets there. This was surprising since Columbia is bigger than Greenville but a true reading on the international business scene in my home state.

Today, my wife made it over to Tanpopo after work and came home with $40 of Japanese goods. One of the items was Lotte's "Koala's March" Chocolate Creme Filled Cookies. This was bought on purpose by my wife who later told me the story of how as a 4th grader in elementary school her class was asked to sample this product and provide feedback to Lotte. The small cookie has the image of a koala. Back in 1983, Lotte has several images and asked my wife and her classmates which one they found to be cuter. There were also different kinds of chocolate filling and they were asked to provide feedback on this.

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-10

Japanese Cuisine

Japanese Cuisine
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-07-10-tokyo-cuisine_N.htm

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-10

"Mottainai"

In English, this Japanese word means "not letting things that have value go to waste." With gas prices nearly double the price of a year ago, the US dollar at 107 yen (last year the Japanese yen was around 125 and the Japanese economy is not all that hot to start with), coupled by jobs evaporating thanks to companies who would rather give jobs to China and India allowing them to have the income to own a car which is driving up the gas prices. On America's Independence Day we should reflect on why we are in this position and how we can correct the problem.

For starters, we must conserve gas. This means no more trips to the beach and lake dragging a boat or camper or making useless trips out of town. Are there any incentives to carpool with your fellow co-workers? Some employers provide pay increases for those employees who can prove that they are a bachelors degree holder, why isn't their a pay increase for those employees who can prove that they are carpooling?

I've said this once before when I stood by my convictions when a former co-worker broke their contract to pursue other opportunities, but us Americans love to have our cake and eat it too. It is not your God given right to be a home owner or a parent if you simply can not afford it they walk away from your responsibilities why you get in over your head. Such indulgent and selfish behavior is the reason the US Dollar is a distant shadow of its former self.

Here's a link that I received from an alumni letter from the university that I graduated from, Cal State Dominguez Hills. I'll be the first to admit that I'm miles away from doing most of what this article calls for but I'm doing all I can which is more than most who have the resources to have more. I can only imagine the hard luck life they are living having walked a mile in their shoes.

In closing, let's not let things go to waste. While, its OK to have our cake, lets not continue to make the same mistakes.

Make this Independence Day a day of being independent from selfishness and indulgence.

Today's clip comes from Youtube and while it's a parody, it not too far from the truth.

Written on Independence Day 2008

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-10

Watermelon Card

While watching the Olympics in China, I was reminded of how mobile Asians are. In the US, I think of the elderly woman who still brings her checkbook to the grocery store and spending five minutes writing the check out, filling out the ledger, then balancing their account while the world screeches to a halt.

In various countries in Asia, they have debit cards which are in no relation to their financial institution and are used at train stations and other stores near train stations.

The Watermelon suica card is used as a train pass and in the later part of my stay in Japan was also used for purchases at the nearby convenience stores. Since 2004, a user of suica loads money onto their card via a machine at any train station and when entering the stalls at the station the lead to the platform, they swipe their card and then do the same when they arrive at their final destination. If I'm on the way to the station or just leaving the station and I want to buy a drink or snack at one of the vending machines or stores in the station, I can use the card for that as well.

The Divine Wind Vault http://divinewindvault.blogspot.com (C)2006-10