It appears birthdays are a bit like London buses,

Happy Birthday Dad!
I know you will have a good time.

Happy Birthday Cindi!!
Hope you have a great 50th birthday!
All the best!

Craig

Miscellaneous post; Japanese TV, soccer and mold. I feel like a whimsical post. A few weeks ago I had dinner with a neighbor of mine and (husband and wife) and during dinner we watched TV. Every so often out of boredom I flip on the TV and try and make sense of what is going on. The programs we watched that evening were fairly typical; a nature documentary, a period drama (samurai and the like) and a program about health. They are very obsessed with health here in Japan. It is no wonder they live so long, most Japanese employees have a yearly health check which if they fail for three time in a row (I think) they have to go to a hospital for more checks and probably dietary advice and such. This is quite incredible I think, I don’t know what the penalties (if any) are for serial offenders but it seems something of an intrusion. I will eat and live as a darn well please thank you very much! As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by my own rant, we were watching TV. I have found the period dramas mildly entertaining but mostly boring but my hosts were riveted and reacted to everything very strongly, when the Shogun was ranting away at a poor subject they were quite cowed and I heard murmured ‘Kowai’ (scary!). Next up was the health program, I am not sure what it was exactly about, there were examples of unhealthy (looked fine to me) people and their terrible diets (a lot better than most western diets) which drew much tut tutting and distain from my hosts. There was some doctor type talking about an obscure health indicator, this it was all getting a bit too much for my house wife host, perhaps feeling guilty for having fried the chicken (all that fat!) she suddenly got up rummaged in the freezer and produced some soybeans. So we all munched on those and felt much better for it (even though we were stuffed from the dinner). I have never seen the influence of TV working for quickly. Next topic is soccer. It’s the world cup don’t you know! If you don’t I would be mighty impressed. So although I am rooting for England, watching the games while I can and reading about them on the BBC website when I can’t, I still have my misgivings about this sport. Why are soccer players so unsporting and when it comes down to it, so un-manly? And why then has such a sport roused the passions of the worlds people like no other?! My major gripe is with diving. This is when a football player will throw himself at the grown at the slightest touch (or something excessive proximity only) and writhe there in agony until something is done about it. At which point he will pop up, hop for a few yard and then energetically enter back into play seemingly no worse for wear despite his recent agonizing injury. Sometimes the team better at faking fouls (diving) will win a game. This varies from place to place and English football for instance tends to allow much harder tackles but that doesn’t help them when they face teams of a much more tender constitution (in fact it is almost a disadvantage). When this is coupled with the rather more sporting habit of kicking the ball out of play when a player is injured to allow recovery/treatment time it is even worse. For example during the Australia Japan game a Japanese player went down to a fair tackle by an Aussie (the ref. didn’t blow his whistle) as the Aussies started to break back the Japanese team stood still virtually boycotting play. The Australians then kicked the ball out of bounds. The ‘injured’ player then received treatment went off the pitch but came straight back on! Thus the Australian counter attack was reduced to nothing. Case number two (the evidence mounts up). While watching the Portugal Iran game I was even more disgusted, Iran were one nil down, Portugal were slightly running amuck. Cristiano Ronaldo was making a run down the left wing; he slips the ball past the Iranian captain Golmohammadi who without looking at the ball (even less turning and chasing it) he runs shoulder first straight into Ronaldo’s chest. Ronaldo of course is knocked down however Golmohammadi also falls, suddenly clutching his shoulder, apparently in real pain (Ronaldo merely suffers a bemused expression). Golmohammadi was in so much pain he had to hobble off the field, Portugal got a free kick. It was also Golmohammadi whose needless foul on Figo gave Portugal their second goal (penalty kick). I should say that in both these cases Iran did not benefit due to good refereeing. Perhaps because I am more of a Rugby fan where players have finished games with broken bones (cut and bruises are run of the mill) this seems rather undignified. I wish they would have a video referee (as in rugby and cricket) so that more dives would be caught and punished but this doesn’t seem like happening soon. I think part of the allure of soccer is dodgy refereeing. If you win, all good, if you loose it was the ref’s fault and your team are innocent victims. That and the fact football can be played on any patch of open space with anything even resembling a ball. Despite all this complaining I will be keeping my fingers and toes crossed for England and eagerly following their progress. The post is too long so I will only briefly mention mold, it is everywhere! Well not quite but as a result of the rainy season a number of ALTs have been discovering mold in their houses! I myself found some on my leather belts so I have been running the aircon 24/7 to dry out my house. Also my running shirt has mould spots that are still their after numerous washings, a little unpleasant, I will try beach next.
PS. Had a good Taiko (Japanese drumming) practice yesterday, I have numerous blisters on my hands, as Yoshiaki-san said, NICE!