They may well get excited, because they can earn a great deal of money from visitors to Obama City for at least four years from now. This might be one of Japan's national benefits Obama Administration will bring to us.

Whichever will become the next US President, Obama or McCain, as a Japanese citizen our big concern is whether the new President will treat us well or not. We are afraid that Japan's national benefit might be somewhat impaired by the Democratic administration. Unlike Republicans, governors and congresspersons from the Democratic Party have treated Japan coldly in the past. We are anxious about the so-called "Japan passing" attitude coming up again. We'll never forget that, when the former President Bill Clinton visited China in 1996, he "ignored" to see Japan and returned home without dropping in.

Our national security is also an important issue. There are several countries of which we need to be cautious, including China and North Korea. The current President Bush, apart from his other policies, has been playing an important role together with Japan's Prime Ministers to keep the Asia-Pacific area still safe and secured, with great influence over those countries. On the other hand, seeing that the Democrats will be dominant in American government and congress, we wonder how much the United States will help us to protect our country from those "dangerous" countries. How much will Obama Administration be cooperative to save abducted people out of North Korea?

Nevertheless, however much we feel uneasy about Obama's policies, Japan can't live without the United States. We have no other options but to keep up with America's way. All Japan has to do is to keep good relationships with the US, and, more than that, to make its best efforts not to be "ignored" by America and the other countries in the rest of the world.

I can't poll because I don't have US citizenships, but it's my big concern which will win the race, because Japan's future depends a great deal on how the new President will handle the United States.

The first polls will close in less than an hour. Hope no troubles will occur in the vote.

Komuro has been one of Japan's leading musicians and one of Japan's renowned song producers since the end of 1980s. He was a leader of the musical band "TM Network," and played key roles in various projects like "globe." In 1990s, he sold more than 4 million copies of CDs for only 50 days. He became Japan's fourth richest man in 1996 and 1997.

In addition to producing songs, he played an important role to find and train young (female) singers including Tomomi Kahala, Ami Suzuki, Namie Amuro and TRF. He produced his songs to these singers and let them sing on stage. He sold millions of there CDs every time they released songs.

However, not all these singers had enough musical talent. Some of them were just young and good-looking, not adequately trained for vocal music, and received his songs in exchange for sex. He sometimes became intimate with those girls. He married one of them, divorced her, married another, divorced her, repeatedly.

His daily life got extraordinarily luxurious. He purchased a number of residences in Hawaii and LA. When he traveled abroad by airplane, he reserved all of first-class seats. When he stayed in a hotel, he reserved all rooms in a floor including suite rooms.

I usually listen to American pop music instead of J-POPs, because Komuro's songs are so dominant in Japanese music scene that most J-POP songs are sung by Komuro-related singers. All those songs sound similarly to me, and are boring.

Komuro's luxurious life didn't last long. He divorced a woman who gave birth to a daughter from him and he had to pay 2 million Yen for them every month. At the same time, he failed his business in Hong Kong. He lost as much money as he had earned, and was deeply in debt. Eventually, the superstar ended in being a criminal.

The lesson we must learn from him would be "Pride will have a fall."

Softbank has announced today that 16 types of its "2008 winter model" cell phones will be released this winter. Among them, Nokia N82 will be on sale in the middle of this November and Nokia E71 in this December.

Nokia N82 is a tiny, light cell phone with a 5 Megapixels of digital camera where an auto-focused Carl-Zeiss Tessar lens and a Xenon flashlight are equipped. HSDPA data receptions, Bluetooth v2.0 (A2DP, HFP, HSP, DUN, BPP and more profiles), wireless LAN connections (IEEE802.11 b/g) are available. You can play YouTube motion videos with it. An internal GPS antenna is equipped and navigation is available using NAVITIME for Smartphone or Nokia Maps.

Nokia E71 is a business-use smartphone with a QWERTY-style full keyboard, covered with stainless steel. It's a bit smaller than Nokia E61, the previous model, and unlike E61, this has a 3.2-Megapixel camera. HSDPA connections and wireless LAN access are also available like N82.

These phones will be released from Softbank Mobile, but unlike other Japanese typical cell phones, they has no "Softbank" logos printed on their body.nor are they named any carrier-oriented model numbers like "X03NK". They are called just "Nokia N82" or "Nokia E71", like those sold in the rest of the world.

They attract me very much. I want to get at least one of them!

Two weeks ago there was Oedo mikoshi matsuri (mikoshi festival) with tens of mikoshis.

And, Koto Kumin Matsuri (Koto Ward citizens' festival) was hold last weekend. There were many booths where staff members sold foods and items from all over the nation as well as foreign countries life Philippines, Bangladesh, Peru and more.

The Kiba-no-kakunori (riding-on-a-square-timber) show is Kiba neighborhood's traditional acrobatics.

This is Fukagawa no chikaramochi (Fukagawa strong man show). It's one of Fukagawa area's traditional entertainments.

In addition to the musical SHOW BOAT by the Musical Club, one of the Cultural Festival's attractive displays I wanted to visit was the reports of "Kelso Heartland Homestay Program" by some students who visited the United States. Devin Kelso, born in Mount Vernon, Iowa, working for Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School as a communicative English teacher, hosted the home stay program with his family.They arranged the host families in Mount Vernon to encourage them to accept each of the participants.

About a dozen of high school and junior high students took part in this program. They spent about two weeks with the host families, learning English, and taken to cities around Mount Vernon for shopping, camping, barbecuing, and sightseeing. Every picture displayed on the boards showed that the students had been very excited to experience unknown new culture.

They brought back plenty of American items as well as American mind. They are really nice.

According to an article of a local newspaper, Devin Kelso began this program to encourage Japanese youths to have such experiences that he did when he was 15. He visited Mexico with his father and learned many things there. He found out that his Spanish he had learned at school worked well, and that the people were getting along well without English.

I thought the students were very happy to see the world of different culture when they were very young. I hope I could participate in this program some day ;-)

Extra: the pictures of trains from Tochigi to Tokyo.

I used to drive to Tochigi by car but this year I have no longer my own car so I got there by trains (Subway and Tobu Isesaki and Nikko lines). I arrived at Tochigi station at 8:30 am.

It took about ten minutes from Tochigi station to the high school.

This was the musical SHOW BOAT, the story by a troupe on a boat sailing the Mississippi river.

For those of you who don't know what the story is, here's the synopsis.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The show boat Cotton Blossom is a pleasure boat sailing the Mississippi river. There is a troupe who gives performances on the boat. Magnolia Hawks, a daughter of the owner of the boat, dreaming to be a superstar, is now just a staff member occupied with trivial routine duties. When the show boat is anchoring at Natchez, Mississippi, she happens to meet a gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, and falls in love with him. Her mother, Parthy Ann Hawks, is against for her to meet him, but her father, Cap'n Andy, allows him to get on the boat.

One day the leading actress of the troupe, Julie La Verne, who is a daughter with a black parent and white one, is arrested for being married with a white man, because it is illegal in this state that a non-white person marries a white one. Losing the leading lady of the company, Cap'n Andy makes Magnolia the leading actress instead of Julie and at the same time hires Gaylord, who is experienced of playing on stage. The show business results in a big success with them.

Magnolia and Gaylord love each other more and more deeply, and eventually they marry. They retire from actors and get off the boat to live their new life.

However, the new life by a steady-minded woman and a gambler doesn't last long. Gaylord does nothing but gambling instead of working, and they manage to live in a cheap apartment. Depressed and shamed by his inability to support his family, Gaylord leaves her. Magnolia has a baby, and gives birth to a daughter Kim. She gets back to the show boat and begins an actress job again.

The troupe of the show boat is doing a show with another troupe at Trocadero Theatre, where Julie is a leading lady of this company. Julie meets Magnolia again, and suddenly leaves Trocadero so that Magnolia can fill her position. Magnolia passes the audition and is hired. She becomes a great musical star on the Trocadero stage.

Julie, disappearing from Trocadero, joins a different musical troupe and happens to meet Gaylord, who is a member of the company. She tells him how Magnolia is doing, and encourages him to see her again. He is uncertain whether he has the right to ask Magnolia to take him back, but she does. They becomes happy again with their daughter.

Cultural Festival 2006 at Kokugakuin Tochigh University High School 1 (Oliver!)
Cultural Festival 2006 at Kokugakuin Tochigh University High School 2 (Write what you hear)

A set-top-box for NTT's optical TV service was delivered to my house, so I have it installed. Now I can watch CNN and BBC World News you can't watch without it.

I can finish setting up my house if I have a washing machine and a writing table today.

The nearest DoCoMo Shop had informed me that a new Blackberry device (Blackberry 8707h) had arrived, so I got there this Monday and bought it. The handset costed 28,000 Yen. Very reasonable.

Setup is very easy. I keep three of my email addresses (including Blackberry-specific one) in this handset. I can catch incoming mails and reply to them, wherever I am. The key strokes are very confortable. Even if you type long emails your thumbs won't get tired.

I'm not saying that I got completely accustomed to this gadget right now, but soon I will. This must soon become the item that I can't do without, as many Americans may think.

The new apartment where I started to live is at the Fukagawa area, Koto-ku. It's been a renowned neighborhood for almost 400 years located only within 5km east from Tokyo station. Plus, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's web site, these areas have relatively lower crime rates than other major areas of Tokyo. It's 22 sq. meters wide with 1 bedroom+kitchen+bathroom. Its monthly cost is 90,000 yen. It's more expensive than that of the apartment where I'd lived before, but totally I have to pay monthly as much money for the new house as for my former one, because now I don't have to pay for parking lot anymore!

I got a key of the new apartment on August 1 and had all of my luggage and furtiture moved into it on August 3. For the first few days I felt uneasy as if I had stayed in a hotel room, but living for one week I feel to be accostomed day by day. The next thing I want to do would be to buy curtains, a brand new mattress, a tall bookshelf, a chest with drawers, and more, to make my rooms more comfortable.

It is my first time that I lose a classmate with whom I shared the same memories at school. It is surprising and regrettable.

I can't attend his funeral and say good-bye to him because the funeral hall is too far from where I live, but instead I sent a telegram of condolence with the other classmates and I'll keep his memory in mind for life.

Although Blackberry is today an essential communications tool for those from businesspersons to general people in the world, Japan has been the only first-place country where no Blackberry services for individuals are currently available. The only exception is Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES) provided by NTT DoCoMo to corporations only, but BES is closed to private persons because NTT DoCoMo fears that Blackberry may affect the sales of I-mode, one of NTT DoCoMo's core competences. There are no other mobile carriers that can offer Blackberry services, so Japanese people, except some lucky persons whose employer has BES for them, have no chance to enjoy communicating with the device.

This announce means that NTT DoCoMo is opening the door to the world. The mobile services Japanese people are currently using have been closed within Japan. Most of them are cutting-edge, but are useless if you get outside this country. This opening of Blackberry will help Japanese people to get in touch with what people in the world are usually doing in their daily life.

CNN.com: At least 7 dead in Tokyo stabbing spree
Japan Probe: Stabbing rampage in Akihabara: 7 people killed

Similar attacks have happened increasingly for years. On the same day of 2001, Mamoru Takuma broke into elementary school classrooms and stabbed eight students to death in Osaka. Two months ago a young man suddenly attacked the people walking around the railroad station, killing one and injuring many. Wherever you are, you can be a victim of such kind of crimes here, because this country has plenty of such kind of "sick-of-life" young people with no hope for the future, and such people may cause such kind of stabbing sprees to strangers or kill themselves with hydrogen sulfide.

I wonder if it is the best choice or not for me to keep living in this sick country. If I were more skilled in English and business skills and I had more money, I could move to the U.S. or another better country and settle there, rather than being scared of crimes happening every day.