Recent news

A few things:

• The world’s oldest man, Henry Allington from England, died today at the age of 113 years and 42 days.
  He had been the world’s oldest man for only 29 days before he died. Before Mr. Allington, the world’s oldest man had been Japanese Tomoji Tanabe (died at age 113 years 274 days). I wrote a post about Tomoji Tanabe when he died…click here to read it.  Now the world’s oldest man is Walter Breuning from America. He’ll turn 113 years old on (2009) September 21. (The world’s oldest person is Gertrude Baines, also from America. She’s 115 years old.)

• As with most kids all over Japan, my daughters began their school’s 夏休み (summer vacation) today. They will return to school on August 25…so they’re off from school for about five weeks.In Japan, the new school year begins in April, not after summer holidays…so they’ll return to the same class.
  Also, in Japan, kids get alot of 宿題 (homework) to do over the summer.

• My oldest daughter also started her first day of work at her first part-time job today. She began working at Domino’s Pizza.

• To attract families with kids to travel by 新幹線 (bullet train) to go somewhere during their 夏休み (summer vacation)…新幹線 (bullet trains) in Japan have been painted with pictures of characters from the 「ポケモン」 (“Pokemon“) cartoon.

  

  

• The fast-food chain, Lotteria, in Japan has started a “money-back guarantee” for it gourmet 「絶妙ハンバーガー (“Zetsumyou (Exquisite) Hamburger“).  If you buy one and don’t like and return more than half of the burger, they will give you a new one (in case the first one simply wasn’t prepared properly)…if you’re still not satisfied (and return more than half of the second one), your money will be refunded.

夏休み

Today is the first day of my kids’ 夏休み (Summer vacation). They don’t have school again til September 1st!

(But unlike in America, in Japan—the new school doesn’t start after summer holidays. So my kids will be in the same grades until April (which is the start of the school year in Japan)).

Today we’re gonna go watch the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」の映画 (“Ge-Ge-Ge No Kitarou” movie).

(I mentioned this movie is this previous post here. )

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In the news, I heard that an Australian rent-a-car business painted “Save a whale…harpoon a Jap!” on one of their vehicles.

That’s out of line, in my opinion. Even if they’re opposed to Japan’s whaling practices.

I found a picture of the vehicle online. This is it:

Why would someone…especially a company, think that it’s alright to write derogatory remarks about other people?

I considered writing my opinion on whaling on this post…but decided against it. I’m not trying to start a controversial website.