That was very good. I love it!
November 2008 Archives
McDonald's Japan announced that it would begin to sell Quarter Pounder hamburgers in stores of the Metropolitan area this Friday. You've had access to them only within US or on US Military bases so far, but you can eat those juicy delicious hamburgers even in Tokyo from now on. Can't wait!
Today I went for a walk to Kiyosumi Garden, within a 15-minute walk from my house, because it was a sunny Japanese Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to get out of my house.
These are photos. They make me feel at ease.
The rest are uploaded on Flickr.
I've changed my mind. In the beginning of this year I said I'd give up keeping my Japanese history website HIMEMIKO*WEB to move my content to Wikipedia, but I find it's better to keep them here than in Wikipedia or other websites.
Anyway visit http://www.himemiko.info/ for details.
From CNN:
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.
This afternoon media announced that Barack Obama had made history. He's going to be the first Black US President in American history, as well as the President from the Democratic Party which has not sent the President for eight years.
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.
Now people are lining up to vote for America's next presidential candidate in every state. If Barack Obama wins, he will be the first African-American US President. If John McCain wins, Sarah Palin will be the first female US Vice President.
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.
It's fun to see successful people going to the dogs, all the more for people who have been haughty in wealth. This morning, one of the most charismatic musical producers in the 1990s music scene, Tetsuya Komuro, was arrested by Osaka local prosecution office, accused of being involved in fraud copyright business. The swindler deceived a company owner in Ashiya, Hyogo out of 500 million Yen of his money.
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."
