Natures Alarm Clock

Click on the title of this blog entry to see what woke me up. It is a CNN report about the earthquake that hit northern Japan. I have felt a few minor quakes here before. Those feel odd themself. It seems like your head is shaking a bit, then you have a short headache. But this one was different. I was actually worried during this quake. (and yes, DURING). This lasted a long time (in my opinion). I was sleeping when the apartment started shaking. I work up and being tired I was in bed thinking what was going on. Then a few seconds later I figured it out and jumped out of bed and put on warmer clothes. I thought if I had to evacuate in a hurry, i better have some clothes on. I put on clothes and hurried to the living room to see if I could see things shaking. I also turned on the TV to see what the warnings were. The warnings are in Japanese but they have a map of Japan showing where the quake started. By that time, the quake ended, but it was freaky. This was my first quake that I felt a bit worried about. Oddly enough, I was just thinking last week that i have been here for 2 years and never felt a "powerful" quake. And then there is a good sized quake! Maybe if I think about the fact that I have been here for 2 years and never found a million US dollars!

"Blonds are Dumb"!

Japanese politics are crazy. I have complained before about the racsim in this country. Japanese think they are the best and that everyone else is dumb. Well, now they have the Foreign Minister saying it on record.

"Japanese are trusted. If (you have) blue eyes and blond hair, it's probably no good," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said.
Click on the link to read the CNN article.

Shark Energy Drink

I just negotiated my first sponsor my Comedy Troupe. We got a company that is a rival to Red Bull called Shark Energy Drink. They are the biggest energy drink in Southeast Asia. They teamed up with us last week. Our job is to have their logo everywhere our logo is. We will have their poster on the stage next to ours. What we GET from them is.....$500 a month cash to use for promos, fliers and posters. Plus they pay for our custom shirts with our logo on the chest and their logo on the sleeve. It is a huge deal and it is really fun to think of a comedy group to have a sponsor!

Post Office

I went to the Post Office to mail a letter today. I was blown away by what I learned today about Japanese Post Offices. I tried to mail a letter today. I needed an envelope. Well, I was told by the Japanese Post Office worker that "we dont sell envelopes here." WHAT?! How in the world does a post office NOT sell envelopes. Dont they go hand in hand. That is like a (insert funny analogy here). I cant believe it. Can you? If you have any fun analagys to the fact that a Post Office doesnt offer envelopes...post them here.

For the record, I had to go 10 minutes away to a grocery store to get envelopes. A GROCERY STORE with envelopes?! AHH Japan, sometimes I just cant figure you out!

Right Mindset?

I read a story about the different attitudes towards giving birth between Japanese and Chinese. The Chinese believe the expecting mother should eat as much as she wants and gain as much weight as she can, that way the baby will be big and healthy. Seems to make sense to me.

Then there is the Japanese mindset. They believe the woman should diet. She should try to lose weight. That way the baby is born small and thus causes less pain for the mother. What do you think about these two ideas?

It seems the Japanese are not thinking of the health of the baby, just the comfort of the mother. I feel that maybe if it is "more comfortable" for that moment of child birth, the comfort would dissapear as the mom tries to get the baby to gain weight and be healthy.

There is a Chinese teacher at work and she was telling me the two different views on childbirth. What do you think?