This kid is going to go far in life if he's that good at 9 years old. And unlike most child stars, it's nice to see that he still acts like a kid. :)
I am a sweaty person. I always feel too hot and sweat very easily, even in the winter and it sucks. I never really noticed it so much until I came to Japan. You wear lots of layers and bundle up in the winter and you're fine outside but then this retarded country still thinks there is a need to have the heaters turned on high on trains full of people and in buildings. I don't get it. In anycase, I sweat a lot and it sucks.
I've stopped buying white clothes a long time ago because they never say white for very long. I wear dark colours or sweaters at work all the time because I know that kids are cruel and it's embarrassing to have sweaty armpits all the time. I would rather wear flip-flops or sandals because my feet are always hot and it's gross when I take off my shoes and socks (at least at first). Everyone in Japan knows that their "deoderant" doesn't really work. And it's not odor I have a problem with, it's sweating. And deoderant and antipersperant are not the same thing, despite us taking one for the other.
I've used this stuff called Drysol in the past and I got Yvonne to pick me up a stick of Secret Clinical Strength when she was in LA the last time but those products are supposed to be used at night and I always forget about it. And you have to use them regularly to see any results. But the couple times I remembered to put the Secret on, I was still a bit sweaty the next day.
I listened to the Sex Is Fun Podcast episodes about herbs
again recently and it got me thinking. If there are herbs to help you
with low libido and skin conditions and heart/liver/whatever problems,
why not sweating? So I did some googling. I found this page about
sweating and some herbal remedies.
I would like to see an herbalist but I'll have to wait until I get back
to Canada. I don't think Japan is down with alternative medicine (they do love their drugs) and if I were to find one, the fees would be insane for the herbs, not to mention the consultations. I could try contacting this lady that they interviewed and
see if she can give me any advice over email (she says she can/has) but
it's best to go in person. In the meantime, I'm trying sage tea
(sage leaves boiled for 5 minutes). It doesn't sound very delicious and
really, it isn't, but it's not as bad as I thought
I hope to see some results.
Edit: No, it's totally bad. It tastes stronger each sip. It feels like I'm drinking a cup of grass tea. >_> But at least it's only 1 cup.
SAHASHI GETS 3 1/2-YEAR TERM FOR EMBEZZLEMENT
OSAKA — Former Nova President Nozomu Sahashi was sentenced Wednesday to 3 1/2 years in prison by the Osaka District Court for his role in skimming off employee funds in 2007, just before the foreign language school giant's bankruptcy that October.
Presiding Judge Hiroaki Higuchi's severe sentence took some in the courtroom by surprise. Prosecutors had sought five years for the former president of what was once the country's largest foreign language school chain and employer of foreign nationals. Sahashi is expected to appeal the sentence.
"While it's undeniable that if Nova couldn't refund canceled student contracts, this would have invited doubts about the firm's trustworthiness. The defendant, as founder of the company, played a central role in this incident . . . ¥320 million is a large amount and, at the moment, it has not been returned," Higuchi said in handing down the sentence.
Sahashi was charged with funneling nearly ¥320 million from employee benefit funds to a bank account belonging to a Nova affiliate in July 2007. He denied embezzling the funds, telling the court he used the money on behalf of his employees.
He tried to portray himself as only one of a group of senior Nova executives responsible for the decision. But the judge said that given the amount of money and his authority, Sahashi bore a heavy responsibility for the crime.
By July 2007, Nova was facing huge losses after being forced to pay refunds to students who had canceled their contracts out of anger over the school's fee payment system. In April 2007, the Supreme Court ruled Nova's cancellation policies were illegal, and that June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, responding to a flood of complaints, ordered the company to partially suspend its business due to false advertising.
Sahashi said he ordered the money to be diverted to a separate account because Nova was facing a financial crisis as there was not enough cash on hand to pay refunds to students who had canceled their contracts.
In October 2007, Nova filed for bankruptcy with debts of roughly ¥43.9 billion, failing to pay about 2,000 Japanese and 4,000 non-Japanese employees.
Katsuji Yamahara, chairman of the Osaka-based General Union, welcomed the decision, but said the case itself was not the main problem with what happened at Nova.
"Many ex-Nova employees have yet to receive their unpaid wages. We've been working through the Osaka Central Labor Standards Supervision Office to try to get those wages, but it's been slow-going," Yamahara said.
When it shut down, Nova had nearly 42,000 students nationwide and was extremely popular with Japanese students seeking to learn foreign languages. It was also well-known among foreign English-language teachers seeking employment and among its competitors, who feared, hated or respected Nova's scale of operations.
Sahashi himself enjoyed a luxurious office suite, complete with sauna, tea room, widescreen TV and a room with a double-bed.
I had a nice solo day today: bought some manga, had some coffee, and watched a movie. I went to Movix at Lalaport Kashiwa no Ha (the one of two theatres I found playing the movie with subtitles, not dubbed in Japanese, wtf). No one I asked to come with me could come, and I didn't want to go all the way to the theatre in Roppongi cuz it's expensive and a pain or pay full price (every Wednesday is Ladies Day, all movies ¥1000!). So I went by myself and had a good time doing it.
I saw the press conference and previews for Hachi on TV on Sunday and the preview got me tearing up so I knew I would cry buckets. And I did. The only think I knew about Hachi was he waited for his master at Shibuya Station even after he died and there's a statue of the dog there and an exit named after him. Hachiko was Hidesaburo Ueno's Akita dog, that he brought with him from Akita prefecture to Tokyo when he became a professor there in 1924. Hachiko would escort the professor to Shibuya Station every day and meet him there when he came home. One day, the professor died and never returned but Hachiko waited at the station every day from then on for nine years until he died in 1935.
This movie is actually a remake of a Japanese film called Hachiko Monogatari [The Tale of Hachiko] from 1987. Richard Gere stars as the professor and produces, and Joan Allen plays his wife. It's a fairly small cast, but the lead role is definitely goes to the Akita. It really made me want to get a dog! Maybe when I settle down somewhere in the future... I cried tons which is usually the mark of a good movie for me, but it could have been better.
I didn't really get Joan Allen's character and the music didn't really fit sometimes. There were some quite humourous scenes but the music kept making me think something dramatic was about to happen. They also took some liberties with the translation of the 5 lines of Japanese dialogue (which was totally dubbed) but I guess that's always a problem. However Richard Gere was great and you could really see the relationship he had with his co-star, Hachi.
Maybe someone who speaks better Japanese than I can explain this to me: I have always wondered why the dog's name is written half in katakana and half in kanji in Japanese (ハチ公) -- why is that? They kept switching between calling the dog "Hachi" and "Hachiko" in the movie which I didn't get because the professor never called the dog Hachiko. Just one of those little discrepancies I guess.
Even though I haven't seen the original movie, I think it's a fair representation of the Hachiko story for a Western audience. And the puppies are just freaking adorable!
I got back from Singapore on Saturday morning and I've uploaded pictures... I just have to write it up. Coming soon, along with Big Life Update emails.
I gathered up my friends and got them to come out to Kashiwa to go to the bon odori taikai at Asahi Higashi Elementary school, put on by the Asahi-cho Association. It's the same one I went to last year with Destini. I was so worried it was going to be canceled because there was torrential rain storms in Tokyo but we only got a little bit of drizzle and then the skies cleared.
Blake, Anna, Andrew and Justin came out and we got dressed and made our way out at about 7:30. We got there close to 8 and enjoyed the atmosphere and dancing. It didn't seem as busy as last years, which was probably due to the weather. We didn't bring any money (I forgot about the food and games) so we just danced. I saw a couple boys from 3rd year at Toyoshiki JH who were trying to ignore me at first but I waved at them and talked to them a bit. They just kept circling the ground and watching me dance with Andrew. We were so bad but the ladies around us kept saying we were doing well. What a lie! But it was good fun. We even felt an earthquake in the middle that was quite strong. The dance was over at 830 which was quite early, I thought. They had fireworks last year but I guess they didn't do them because of the rain. In any case, we were all hungry anyway so we went home to get our money and headed out for dinner all dressed up.
I got pictures from Anna but too bad they are shitty resized Facebook pictures but you can still see how we look so fabulous. There weren't many pictures of Blake but his half-asianness made him look the hottest out of all of us. Just before we were leaving, one of the organizers rounded us up for a token foreigners indulging in Japanese culture picture so I think we'll be in the newsletter or something. Well, it wasn't the first time.
Andrew and Blake were wearing their jinbei while Justin, Anna and I were wearing yukata. I lent one of mine to Anna and she was so excited. This was the first time for Anna and Justin to go to a bon odori and maybe Andrew's?
Tying Justin's obi/teaching Andrew how to tie it and Blake's surly face.
Me posing "ethnicly". I'm so happy I found this yukata! Green is really rare and I love the pink and purple hydrangeas. I feel girly.
At the matsuri!
