Another medal for Japan?

Japanese Olympic 「ハンマー投げ」 (Hammer Throw) athlete, 室伏広治 (Kouji Murofushi) came in fifth place at the 2008 北京オリンピック (Beijing Olympics)…but the silver and bronze medalists, both from Belarus, have tested positive for doping violations and may be stripped of their Olympic medals.

If that happens, 室伏広治 (Kouji Murofushi) will get the bronze medal.

This will be the second time that this has happened to him. In the 2004 Olympics, 室伏広治 (Kouji Murofushi) won the silver Hammer Throw medal…but the Hungarian who won the gold was stripped of his medal for a doping violation, and the gold went to 室伏広治 (Kouji Murofushi).

2008 Olympics

Today is August 8. The opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics in 北京 (Beijing, China) will commence today at 8:08PM (China Standard Time).

Maybe you’ve heard why it’s set to begin at such an unusual time. It’s because the number eight is lucky in China (and Japan, too). So the Chinese decided to start the ceremony at ’08年8月8日午後8時8分 (’08/8/8 8:08PM).

(By the way, in China the numbers four and seven are unlucky because they have the same pronunciation as the word for “death” in Chinese. In Japan, the numbers four and nine are unlucky because they sound like “death” and “pain” in Japanese, respectively.)

The Official Website of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing is here.

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The Food & Wine website just voted Tokyo as the number one restaurant city in the world.

Paris, New York, and London were numbers 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

Click here to see their entire top-ten list.

This is after the Michelin Guide gave more stars to restaurants in Tokyo than any other city in their 2008 edition.

Click here to read the Yahoo news report about it. (from Nov 2007)

Tokyo is a shining star in the world of cuisine…

Michelin Guides Director Jean-Luc Naret