I had to write a journal for my English teaching job in Tokyo. A different instructor writes one every two weeks for the clients to look at. The clients like to read them while they are waiting for their lessons. Sometimes teachers use the journals for their lessons or go over the phrases or vocabulary, so I tried to throw in some colloquial language. Anyways, I had to write one recently, so I wrote one about my first concert experience in Japan. I have pasted it below...
Around mid-April, I was surfing the internet, looking at upcoming concerts in Tokyo and I came across a listing for a band that I really like, The Midnight Juggernauts, who hail from Melbourne, Australia. I was first introduced to them close to a year ago through a remix track they had released on a Kitsune Records compilation album. Not long after I heard that track, they released the album, Dystopia, which I didn't really care for on first listen. After shelving it for a while, I gave it another chance, and since then it has steadily and increasingly grown on me. The Midnight Juggernauts received a lot of attention for being on tour with Justice, last year's "it" band, but Dystopia also generated a lot of buzz on music blogs and music magazines on its own accord. Their music has been described as being New Rave and likened to a cross between David Bowie and Daft Punk. I was also excited about the concert in Tokyo because The Midnight Juggernauts were set to play with The Foals, from Oxford, England, who I also quite enjoy. Several of my friends told me they wanted to go as well and I waited eagerly in anticipation for the first concert I would attend in Japan. I had trouble purchasing the tickets in advance, so I decided to just buy them at the door. By the time the date of the concert rolled around, all but one of my friends had jammed on me. This one friend was running behind schedule, so we arrived about an hour later than the listed 7:00pm start time. Normally, bands that I see start at least an hour after the listed start time, because there is usually an opening band. Since both The Midnight Juggernauts and The Foals were listed for the concert, I assumed that they were both headlining bands. Also, in my concert-going experience, these kinds of shows don't usually start until about 9:00pm at the earliest, so I thought we would be okay. The one thing I didn't consider is that I was in Japan, and things generally run right on schedule here. Luckily, there were still tickets available, but unfortunately, I had completely missed The Midnight Juggernauts' performance by the time my friend and I arrived. The Foals put on an amazing show, and I really enjoyed myself. My friend felt really bad about making me miss The Midnight Juggernauts, so he bought me several beers. After the concert was over, most people left immediately, but several people lingered. My friend and I didn't have anywhere to go, so we decided to stay and continue drinking. I found it a bit curious that most of the remaining people were girls, but I certainly wasn't opposed to it. Suddenly, everyone moved to the exit and I soon found the answer to my curiosity. The members of The Foals had come out to sign autographs! The situation was a bit ironic because I was primarily interested in seeing the other band, but I found myself standing among The Foals super-fans, seemingly waiting to get an autograph. Some of the highly excited girls asked me to take photos of them with the band members and I obliged. After the barrage of photos and the screams died down, I met the band members and I ended up having a conversation with the lead singer. They were very nice and I had a great time. It was an unexpected end to my first concert experience in Japan.
(May. 5, 2008)
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Chinese President Hu Jintao are likely to agree during their talks scheduled for Wednesday on building a framework for alternating annual visits by leaders of the two countries, Japanese and Chinese government sources said.
The Japanese and Chinese governments hope the planned regular visits will become a symbol of the strategic and mutually beneficial relations that they have vowed to strengthen. The agreement is expected to be incorporated in political documents that Fukuda and Hu are scheduled to announce after the talks Wednesday, the sources said.
Hu will visit Japan from Tuesday to Saturday. It is the first time in a decade that a Chinese leader has visited Japan, the last being former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in November 1998.
During the summit talks Wednesday, Fukuda and Hu are expected to agree on enhancing the mutually beneficial political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries.
The two leaders likely will incorporate building a mechanism for regular reciprocal visits by leaders as one of the main pillars of their agreement, the sources said.
The Japanese and Chinese governments are in the final stages of coordinating plans for the leaders of the two nations to alternately visit each other at least once a year, excluding visits for occasions such as international conferences including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Although visits by Japanese and Chinese leaders continued at a pace of once every two to three years after the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972, they were not previously placed on a regular political schedule because of various diplomatic issues stemming from such incidents as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and a row over the content of Japanese history textbooks.
Visits by Japanese and Chinese leaders to each others' countries were suspended for five years after then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited China in October 2001 mainly due to China's objections to Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Beijing in October 2006 soon after taking office in September in a bid to patch up strained bilateral relations. Subsequently, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Japan in April the following year, the first visit by a Chinese leader in 6-1/2 years.
Fukuda, who considers promoting good relations with other Asian countries a high priority, and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak agreed on regular reciprocal visits between the two countries during Lee's two-day visit to Japan last month.
On historical issues, the documents are likely to eschew such terms as "apology" or "remorse" in favor of such expressions as "squarely looking at history and moving toward the future," according to the sources.
The document also will likely use language in which China praises Japan's postwar history as a peaceful country while Japan praises China's reform and policy of openness and the two countries' mutual respect for each others' efforts.
NAJU, South Korea--The municipal government of Naju, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, has set about preserving and reproducing a quarter comprising Japanese-style houses that were built during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
It is the first attempt of its kind in South Korea, where anti-Japanese sentiment is still deep-rooted among many people.
Though the project could trigger controversy over historical issues, the city government was upbeat, saying the plan could deepen ties with Japan.
The quarter comprises about five square kilometers in the city's Yeongsanpo district along the Yeongsangang river, which runs through Naju. There are about 100 Japanese-style buildings, including a two-story wooden house used as a store and many buildings with Japanese-style roofing tiles.
Most of the buildings are occupied by local residents or used as stores. Others have been abandoned and are dilapidated.
Yun Sang Gun, 73, who lives nearby, recalled the time when the buildings went up, saying, "Japanese brought roof tiles and other materials from Japan and built the houses." Back then, the average Korean house was a thatched bungalow.
Another nearby resident, Lee Hwan Bae, 71, also recalled those times, saying: "It was a lively place. Japanese gave me onigiri [rice balls] and persimmons."
According to the Naju municipal government, the Yeongsanpo district prospered during those years as a center of water transportation. Japanese built a river port along the Yeongsangang river, from which rice from nearby villages was sent to Japan.
About 4,000 Japanese, mainly merchants, came to settle in Naju during the period, but since World War II, with the growth of railways, the city has gradually lost its luster.
The city government came up with the project in a bid to attract Japanese tourists and revitalize the local economy and has designated this year as the start of the preservation project. It plans to purchase one of the houses where a Japanese landowner lived at the time.
The project, which is set to last from three to five years, aims to repair the damaged walls and roofs of the houses, and photographs of scenes during the period will be displayed inside them.
Kim Jong Sun, an official at the city government's cultural and tourism division, said, "In no other place in South Korea, are there this many [Japanese-style] buildings remaining in such a tight concentration."
The city government also plans to apply to the central government to have the quarter designated as a South Korean cultural asset.
However, opposition is predicted because of the quarter is a reminder to many South Koreans of Japanese colonial rule. A local newspaper reporter pointed out that local residents' feelings are complicated. "Though there have been no organized movements against the plan, some elderly people would like to see the buildings torn down as they are a reminder of the hardship of those days."
But Kim said, "The project can be an opportunity for South Koreans to change their feelings toward Japanese, and for Japanese to understand South Koreans' anguish."
Lee Chol Ung, the head of a local residents association for promoting the preservation of modern culture, said, "We want to encourage both a public and private mood for preservation."
The association plans to hold a gathering with descendants of Japanese who once lived in Yeongsanpo District.
Apr. 7, 2008 (Investor's Business Daily delivered by Newstex) --
Employers shed 80,000 jobs in March, the worst decline in five years, the Labor Department said Friday, the strongest sign the U.S. is in a recession.
The jobless rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8% in February, the highest since September 2005.
Along with big downward revisions to January and February employment, payrolls fell by 232,000 jobs in the first quarter, a sharp reversal from the 241,000 gained in the fourth quarter in 2007.
"After three consecutive months of losses, it's hard to argue we're not in a recession," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. "The question is how deep will it be and how long it will last."
Gains in government jobs staved off a deeper drop in payrolls last month as private employers cut 98,000 workers, the fourth straight monthly decline.
Broad-Based Job Losses
Builders and factories suffered the biggest losses. But weakness was widespread, with real estate firms, temp agencies and housing-related retailers all shedding staff.
"This is not isolated to just housing anymore, and it starting to spread across all sectors, which is a sign of a recession," said Robert Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services.
Construction firms cut 51,000 jobs as housing woes deepened and commercial activity tailed off.
Factory payrolls fell by 48,000 in March, matching the biggest loss since mid-2003. It was the 21st straight monthly decline as auto and housing woes slam the sector.
The strike at American Axel cost manufacturers about 24,000 jobs and has idled almost half of GM's North American work force.
After correcting for the strike, private employment declined at an average monthly rate of 87,333 in the first quarter, said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at Global Insight.
"That is not a particularly shocking number," he said. "Declines of this order of magnitude are consistent with our view of a shallow recession in the first half of 2008."
Service industries added just 13,000 workers in March vs. the 2007 monthly average of 130,000.
Naroff saw a few positive nuggets of data in the report.
The workweek lengthened to 33.8 hours from 33.7. Average hourly wages rose 0.3%.
They climbed a solid 3.6% vs. a year earlier, though that's the smallest gain in two years.
The share of industries adding jobs increased, but still remained below 50%, Naroff said.
Stocks actually rallied strongly for much of Friday before fading. The Nasdaq ended up 0.3% and the S&P 500 0.1%. The Dow slid 0.1%.
The gloomy jobs report didn't change market views over Federal Reserve moves.
Futures traders still expect policymakers to cut their benchmark rate by a quarter-point 15 2% at their April 29-30 meeting.
Odds for a half-point 13ove edged up Friday.
The Fed has cut rates by 3 full percentage points since September.
"One shoe has dropped, but I don't think the economy has slid off a cliff," Dye said. "The Fed will want to keep some powder dry in case the downward spiral ramps up."
My karate buddy Tony shared this link with me... I'm left speechless. Synchronization at its BEST... not even a bunch of Asimos could do this!
The next post is the reverse of this same song.
