Stop The Kids
Today is my last day at my main school before summer holidays…. And also my last day at the kindergarten before September 8. I had to teach the 4 year olds today… And they ooh so love to ATTEMPT!!! to stick you in the butt with their fingers???? Why can’t the teachers tell them that this practise is W R O N G !!! Especially to foreigners !!! Please somebody please tell them….

The teachers had a grand idea today, and told me that next time, which is in September, I should take some reggae music and teach the kids how to dance…. hmmm O Lord… If its not one thing, I am happy that none of my Jamaican friend are near me to see this bit… Because every Japanese I show some dances, they think I am one of the greatest dancers in the world…. Woyyyyyy if they only knew the truth…. Well I can’t take it out of their minds that all Jamaicans are good dancers and hey its FUN!!! I am getting paid to teach kids how to do some dances that either I make up on the spot, or can’t do too well

He is a Girl
After work, I went briefly to the Tuesday English conversation at the College to see my friend Catherine’s presentation on England…. It was interesting while it lasted but I had to go, because I promised the Wednesday English conversation friends that I was going to eat out with them.
So I went to the restaurant and there were only 2 guys that were serving approximately 25 different people. So it took a while for us to get our food. My Japanese friend told me that one of the guys who were serving, is actually a girl…. I couldn’t believe it…. This guy/girl looks nothing like a girl whatsoever….My friend said he knew him/her growing up and he/she used to go to school with his/her skirt and girl uniform. But he/she decided to change his/her gender… Its the first time in all my life I KNOWINGLY interacted in any way with someone who had a sex change.. Maybe I had in the past but I don’t know… I heard that he/she even has a beautiful wife…

Korean Air Tail Scrapes Ground

I am supposed to be travelling on Korean air pretty soon God’s willing… and look what I saw in the news…

A Korean Air jetliner arriving from Incheon, South Korea scraped the runway with its tail while landing at Narita International airport around 12:30 p.m. Monday, the Airport authority said.

No one was injured, the Narita fire department said. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is investigating the cause of the incident.

The runway was closed for about an hour to clean up, Narita International Airport Corp. said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090714a9.html

Day 480 { Riverside Hotel /Japan and Russia Trying to Reach Agreement / Panasonic to Be Fined }

I again missed church because my translator was going to help with the administration of the STEP test. Which is some sort of English test thing that is done in Japan by a non-profit organisation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEP_Eiken

Today I went to a nearby town called maniwa, with 2 of my friends. We ate at a restaurant known as the Riverside Restaurant, and the food was lovely.

Japan and Russia Trying to Reach Agreement

Moscow intends to negotiate with Tokyo on the territorial dispute over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido on the basis of the 1956 Japanese-Soviet joint declaration, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev indicated Friday.

The declaration, signed in Moscow in the midst of the Cold War, stipulated that Shikotan Island and the Habomai islets would be returned to Japan after a peace treaty is concluded between Japan and the Soviet Union.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090712a4.html

Panasonic to Be Fined

The Fair Trade Commission plans to impose fines totaling several billion yen on a Panasonic Corp. unit and foreign firms also operating in Southeast Asia for allegedly forming an international cartel to fix prices for cathode-ray tubes for television sets, sources said Saturday.
The FTC has determined that MT Picture Display Co., a Panasonic subsidiary headquartered in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, Samsung SDI Co. of South Korea and others fixed prices of their CRTs from around 2005 to sell them to Japanese television makers operating in Southeast Asia in violation of the Antimonopoly Law
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20090712a3.html

I was tempted to go into the pool today, because the place was killer hot. And on top of that, I was playing football with the kids on the field, then later with them in the gym… the gym is like an oven. I avoided the pool at this school because of the politics they used on me last year by calling all and sundry. I also avoided it because I can’t deal with the teachers pausing and kids pausing and staring at me extensively.

After work, I went to karate, and they gave me a certificate for my supposedly third place in the competitions last Friday. On the Certificate they had Dave Colly in Katakana, but I made the necessary corrections. Here is a video of what I have been practising, for the past 5 weeks or more…… And try to keep your laughter to yourselves :)…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpY3CODOeVA

More Foreigner Control In Japan

The Heads of Parliament in Japan passed bills that tighten controls on foreign residents, paving the way for them to take effect within three years, despite opposition from foreigners and human rights activists.

The planned enforcement follows an agreement on the bills reached last month between the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition and the Democratic Party Of Japan the largest opposition party.

According to the bills, undocumented foreigners will either be granted special permits to stay or taken into custody for deportation. Many are expected to go into hiding to avoid such a fate.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090709a3.html

The kids at my school today, gave me this sweet syrup and crushed ice thing which is a summer favourite in Japan. Its called something like katigouri….
Later on I went to football and I realise that my team has been taking this thing wayyy more serious than the foreigners. Maybe thats why they put us on the B-Team. For the first time, one of my team mates started to direct me on the field as to when to attack and when to do what…. I was saying to myself ” What is wrong with this guy, we are only playing for fun“. I guess they are taking it to another level. They even invited this very very good soccer player guy to come on our team. I think he scored about 7 goals on the opposing team. I scored either 1 or 2. Maybe they didn’t count the second goal because apparently I fouled a guy on the other team that I was totally on aware of. After I scored that questionable goal, I saw the guy on the floor seemingly in pain, and about 5 other guys including some guys from my team, surrounding him and asking him if he is fine….

I was totally unaware of this, and the same guy who was directing me earlier, told me to cool down and play a little softer ???? All this has been getting on my nerves, but maybe I am too thin-skinned (easily angered) as one of my long time ex-girlfriends told me.

Wolverine X-Men Origins

After football, I ended up watching Wolverine-X-Men Origins, which I initially thought was going to be absolutely terrible, which is why I waited so long to watch it. But to my surprise it wasn’t as bad as I imagined…. It was bad, but not as bad as I expected. Some of the action scenes were pretty amazing…. However, some of the acting was terrible !!! The fight between wolverine, Sabre tooth and that strange mutant creation thing was pretty entertaining to me.

Ethnic Riot In China

Sobbing Muslim women scuffled with riot police, and Chinese men wielding steel pipes and meat cleavers rampaged through the streets as ethnic tensions worsened in China’s oil-rich Xinjiang territory, prompting President Hu Jintao to cut short a G8 summit trip Wednesday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31753771/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Boisterous crowds turned up at mosques in riot-hit parts of this western Chinese city, ignoring orders canceling Friday prayers due to the ethnic violence, and police quickly broke up a small protest nearby.Nearly a week after riots in Xinjiang unleashed clashes and drew a massive security response, the U.S. national security adviser told Chinese diplomats on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Italy that President Obama expects Beijing to act with “appropriate restraint.”

Xinhua News Agency reported Friday that the death toll in the ethnic rioting had risen from 156 to 184.

The dead included 137 people — 111 men and 26 women — from the dominant ethnic Han Chinese group. The agency said the other fatalities include 46 Uighurs and one man from the Hui ethnic group. Xinhua said the Muslim Uighur victims include 45 men and one woman.

It is the first time China’s government has given an ethnic breakdown in the riots.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/11/ethnic-rioting-deaths-jump-to-184/?feat=home_headlines

When I got to work this morning, the office lady greeted me and showed me that apart of my name was in the local news paper. It said Dave Colly … Instead of Dave Collymore… It was written in Katakana. The paper was saying that I got 3rd place in the Karate competition last Friday … I had no clue they were going to publish this thing.

Crazy Things Happen In Japan

A man has admitted torching an Osaka pachinko parlor, telling investigators he wanted to “kill many people at once,” sources close to police said Tuesday.The blaze Sunday left four people dead and 19 injured.

Sunao Takami, 41, who lives near the parlor and was arrested Monday, said he “didn’t care who might die.”Osaka police said Takami, a resident of Konohana Ward, told them he felt desperate about his life and he just wanted to kill someone.

“I was out of work, had no money and hated my life, and then I got the idea to kill anyone, like a random killer, and started a fire at a place where there were a lot of people,” Takami allegedly said. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090708a1.html

G8 Summit

It’s that time of year again when the richest nations in the world gather to discuss themes ranging from the slumping economy to global warming.
Issues facing the summit participants have been transformed since the Group of Eight leaders gathered in Japan last year, when climate change and rising food prices were the topics dominating the meeting.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090708b1.html

For brief information about each of the leaders at the G8 summit see http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20090708b6.html

Health survey
Some professor lady at the local college in my area, left a survey thing in my apartment. Unfortunately I couldn’t understand what it was saying so I asked my Japanese teacher to help me with it.

It was a very detailed survey about my life style, inclusive of my eating habits, how often I exercise, if I drink or smoke, my teeth health etc etc. This survey was delivered I think to everybody living in my immediate neighbourhood. It took about 1 hour to full out because my teacher had to translate it for me….I gave the English teacher from the college, the filled out survey today after work. I really don’t mind visiting this college everyday you know

Jamaica the 3rd Happiest country on Earth 2009

Jamaica has moved up 50 places in the last three years to be ranked the third “happiest country” in the world”, in the latest Happy Planet Index, published by Britain’s New Economics Foundation.

Jamaica was placed 53rd on the list, an index of human well-being and environmental impact, when it was first published in July 2006. It moved up to third behind regional countries, Costa Rica, number one, and the Dominican Republic, number two, in the second report made public on Saturday.

The performances of the top three countries were indicative of the Central and South American region which ended up with nine of the top 10 places with Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador and Honduras also included in the top 10. Cuba was ranked number seven.

The report said that Jamaica’s appearance in the top three on the list came “somewhat” as a surprise as, “it is fair to say that the country has been in some economic trouble for over 30 years, resulting in high levels of inequality and unemployment.

“And yet, despite these problems, the island is able to maintain some of the best levels of health in the developing world, as indicated by its high average life expectancy. Together with its very small ecological footprint, it is this which puts Jamaica towards the top of the HPI table,” the report stated.

http://www.jis.gov.jm/foreign_affairs/html/20090706t220000-0500_20302_jis_jamaica_is_third_happiest_nation_on_earth.asp